The Spirit versus the Letter of the Law, Part I

To what extent are we free? As Jesus proclaimed, we know that Christians are free from the enslavement of sin, and as Paul indicated, we are also free from the enslavement of the Law. What does such freedom mean and what is the purpose of the Law (and of all rules and requirements in the scriptures, both OT and NT)? Here is the result of my biblical research to date.

The scriptural passages quoted below help us to answer the question, “Do Christians have to obey all the biblical laws and rules?” This is a more complex question than it appears to be and it therefore requires a complex and scripture-based answer.

In place of the Old Testament law, we Christians are under “the law of Christ”(Galatians 6:2), which is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all that Christ requires of us:“All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40).

Now, this does not mean that all the detailed Old Testament laws are irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the categories of “loving God” and “loving our neighbor.” The Old Testament law can provide good guidelines for knowing how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbor. At the same time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Gentile Christians today is incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (James 2:10). When it comes to salvation, either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, then He fulfilled all of it.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day — which was replaced by The Lord’s Day, the Sunday in which He was resurrected). Obviously, if we are loving God, we will not be worshipping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we are loving our neighbors, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them. But neither will we be obsessive-compulsive about every detail of every rule. It is the spirit and not the letter of the law that counts with God (2 Cor 3:6). We must look to the underlying principles and intentions of God as revealed throughout the whole Bible and not just at the particular codified requirements.

Those people without the Holy Spirit within are sometimes able to obey the letter of the law, but are totally unable to obey the spirit of the law, because their sin-nature still remains in control. Born-again believers, however, will truly want to obey… which means from the heart, even if they are not mature enough to always do so.

Being born-again means (among other things) that our inner being has been changed and that we have the Holy Spirit… so that we will desire to do what is right according to our Christ-influenced consciences. Thus, we are free from the detailed constraints of the rules, which cannot cover all contingencies or take into consideration other God-given principles.

It is vital for us remember the purpose of the Law. The laws (all rules) exist not only to point out what is good and what is bad, but to prove (and convict us of) our utter inability to keep God’s requirements perfectly. Because we come to discover that we cannot fully keep the laws (or that we break ourselves on them), they point us to our absolute need for a Savior– who of course is Jesus Christ, the final fulfillment of the Law (Romans 7:7-9; Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament system of laws (or even the rules enacted by Paul like head coverings) was never intended by God to be universal for all people or to be required of believers for eternity. We are to love God and love our neighbors, and we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ as Jesus loves us. If we obey these commands faithfully, we will be upholding all that God requires of us. Both Paul and the Apostles (see Acts 15, 1 Cor 6:9) also emphasized the importance of avoiding sexual immorality.

Even Paul’s rules (Holy Spirit-inspired no doubt, just as were all the commands of Moses) come under the Holy Spirit-inspired gospel principle that applies to ALL ecclesiastic rules. Remember that Moses and the other prophets were under Holy Spirit guidance, and yet Jesus was clear that He had fulfilled the Law as well as the prophets. Faith in Him superseded all of the laws and requirements. No personal sacrifice (works – obedience) would yield salvation or sanctification; however, our faith and our heart changes would yield what was necessary. Our one required sacrifice is to give ourselves fully to Christ… to transform us into His image. The Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, is the One who will transform us… and then we must remember that “He is faithful and will do it.” (1 Thess. 5:24, cf. Proverbs 3:5-6). If we think that we have the power within to obey all God’s requirements, we are in big trouble.

Some New Testament historical background Before Paul ever wrote his letters, the presence of Jesus in Israel led to some changes in the disciples’ understanding of the Law. Jesus fulfilled the Law and the prophecies according to His own proclamation to His Jewish disciples (Matthew 5:17-19), and thus, as “The Word of God Made Flesh” (John 1) He had the authority to edit and to correctly interpret all of the scriptures. Read the rest of Matthew 5 where Jesus interprets the Law to indicate some definite changes in interpretation; both sin and obedience now became more a matter of internal motivation (what we think and desire) than a matter of external behavior.

Even the Mosaic commandment about the Sabbath was changed by the Church… to where the Lord’s Day (the Sunday of His Resurrection) came to overshadow and ultimately replace the original Saturday Sabbath (7th Day Adventists, who are definitely into the “letter of the law,” will argue about whether this change was of God or not).

Note that Jesus’ treatment of women revealed a change from ancient Jewish traditions; for spiritual reasons He dignified women with His interest and attention. There was the woman at the well, Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42, John 11), and His teaching about “who would be greatest in the Kingdom would be servant to all” and about “some of the first being last and the last first” (Matt 19:30ff). And of course, there was His revealing Himself after the Resurrection first to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18)–not a small thing.

Galatians 3:23-29
And then Paul gave us the following passage, which some want to ignore or ‘spiritualize’ to the extent that it loses its plain and obvious meaning:

“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Here is the bottom-line point about our obedience to all the biblical rules, including those of Paul: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4, 8-10; cf. Romans 10:4-10).

Because of our new spirit and our heart changes due to God’s grace in providing us conviction of sin, repentance, and faith in Christ, we who are ‘born again’ now truly want to please God and do the right thing. This is why Jesus proclaimed that believers are now free … because we are free from both the demands of original sin and from the demands of the Law. Therefore, what we want now (most of the time and certainly when ‘walking in the spirit’) is in line with the Holy Spirit of God. The Laws and all rules are just general guidelines for those who are ‘in Christ.’ They certainly do not save; it is the grace of God and our faith which accomplishes that goal. The ordinances are meant primarily for unbelievers and nominals… to convict them of their sin and bring them to the cross of Christ in repentance.

See Part 2, the next installment of this teaching essay which will be posted soon. It is entitled
The Spirit versus the Letter of the Law, Part 2: Some examples from the teachings of the Apostle to the Gentiles

Dr. Bruce Atkinson is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with an M.A. in theology and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He also has an M.S. in research psychology from Illinois State U. and a B.A. from Beloit College. He is a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America and is Moderator and frequent contributor at VirtueOnline

The Spirit versus the Letter of the Law, Part I
The purpose of the laws and requirements in the Bible

By Bruce Atkinson PhD
www.virtueonline.org
July 18, 2024

Note: All scripture quotes are from the ESV. The emphases (bold and italics) are mine.

“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
(2 Corinthians 3:5-6)