{"id":1199,"date":"2020-03-05T17:06:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T23:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2020-03-05T17:06:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T23:06:47","slug":"why-the-law-was-given-and-by-whom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/03\/05\/why-the-law-was-given-and-by-whom\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Law was Given, and by Whom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"At the beginning of the story of salvation, God made promises<\/a> to Abraham.\u00a0 These promises were really a reaffirmation of the purpose for which humanity had been created in the first place before the coming of rebellion, sin, and death.\u00a0 The story of Abraham begins in Genesis 12, following on the three rebellions, the three “falls” of Genesis 1-11.\u00a0 Once mortal life ending in death had achieved its purpose, Christ would defeat it and release humanity from its hold.\u00a0 In the same event, his rising<\/a>, he would also defeat the evil powers and principalities who had dominated the nations since Babel.\u00a0 Death and the hostile powers stand as opposed to humanity’s destiny in Christ as spoken to Abraham.\u00a0 Those promises, therefore, included the promise that his seed, Christ, would be victorious over them so that Abraham’s descendants would become glorified sons of God.\u00a0 Both of these enemies, however, stood external to and opposed to humanity.\u00a0 They ruled over and enslaved him.\u00a0 A third enemy, however, posed an ongoing enmity and threat, namely sin.\u00a0 Sin, as exemplified by Cain<\/a>, is both the means by which death and the hostile powers enslave humanity and a continuous, ongoing rebellion by man against God.\u00a0 Sin materially corrupts and destroys the human person and the creation around him.\u00a0 Sin is a sort of anti-theosis.\u00a0 Sin makes human persons less human, less like God, and brings shame and the curse rather than glory and blessing.<\/p>\n

St. Paul directly answers the question as to how the ongoing corruption of sin was dealt with.\u00a0 It was dealt with through the giving of the Torah.\u00a0 This answer may be surprising to many contemporary people who have been taught, falsely, that St. Paul somehow opposed, set aside, or abolished the Torah and its commandments.\u00a0 The truth, however, is quite the opposite.\u00a0 St. Paul does not abolish the Torah but rather establishes it (Rom 3:31).\u00a0 In the third chapter of his epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul explains the function of the Torah, why it was given and by whom, and how it continues to function in the life of the Church.<\/p>\n

St. Paul identifies the promises made to Abraham with the gospel of Jesus of Christ (Gal 3:8).\u00a0 Salvation is the glorification of the saints as partakers of the divine nature.\u00a0 But the promises to Abraham also include that Christ would accomplish this through his incarnation and the defeat of the hostile powers whom the saints in glory, the descendants of Abraham, would displace.\u00a0 Everyone who hears the gospel of Jesus Christ, the report of his identity and the victory of his glorious resurrection and enthronement and responds with faithfulness and loyalty is the descendant of Abraham and heir of these promises (v. 7-9).\u00a0 Key to St. Paul’s understanding, however, is that it is Christ as the unique seed of Abraham who achieves these things for all of Abraham’s faithful descendants (v. 16).<\/p>\n

Because the apostle consistently sees a direct continuity between the promises made to Abraham and his response in faithfulness and loyalty (cf. Rom 4:1-16), the Torah then has the appearance of a sort of interruption or interjection.\u00a0 This has led to a modern line of interpretation that sees St. Paul’s project as removing this interruption and restoring a more original state of relationship with God.\u00a0 This corresponds to the interpretation that the covenant with Moses was in some way a bad thing.\u00a0 St. Paul says repeatedly and avowedly, however, that the Torah is a good and pure thing (eg. Rom 7:12; 1 Tim 1:8).<\/p>\n

Why, then, the law?\u00a0 St. Paul himself asks this question rhetorically and then proceeds to answer it (Gal 3:19).\u00a0 The law was added because of transgressions.\u00a0 The commandments given to Moses were given as a direct response to human sinfulness and the domination of sin and corruption in the creation.\u00a0 The patriarchal narratives of Genesis 12-50, in addition to displaying the faithfulness of Yahweh to his people as he drew near to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, also display their consistent lapses into sin with horrible consequences in corruption and death within their own families.\u00a0 In much the same way that the book of Judges reveals the need for the Davidic king, the patriarchal narratives reveal the need for the rest of the Torah.\u00a0 The sinfulness of Cain’s line and its corruption of the earth would culminate in the cleansing of creation by the flood.\u00a0 But immediately afterward, Ham would commit an act of utmost immorality and rebellion.\u00a0 The sinfulness of man culminated again at Babel.\u00a0 Though Yahweh is creating a new people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they are not free from the corrupting influence of sin and its effects.<\/p>\n

The Torah, then, was given as a response to human sinfulness.\u00a0 St. Paul also identifies the one who gave it.\u00a0 He preserves the tradition that the Torah was given through angels (Gal 3:19; cf. Heb 2:2).\u00a0 He also, however, refers to it being given by a mediator or intermediary.\u00a0 While one might be tempted to conclude that this is a reference to Moses, v. 20 makes it clear that it is not.\u00a0 St. Paul’s need to reassert the oneness of God demonstrates that St. Paul is here, rather, thinking of Christ.\u00a0 This is in keeping with the presentation of St. Stephen in Acts 7:38.\u00a0 Moses stood in the assembly, the divine council, in the wilderness and spoke to the Angel of Yahweh who delivered to him the Torah.\u00a0 This understanding of the mode of reception of the Torah is consistently found in Jewish literature of the time as well as in the fathers.\u00a0 St. Irenaeus, for example, states, “But one and the same householder produced both covenants, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with both Abraham and Moses” (Adv. Haeresies<\/em>, 4.9.1).\u00a0 The Torah is, therefore, for St. Paul additional to the promises to Abraham and related to a different purpose, but proceeds from the same Christ and therefore one cannot be opposed to the other.<\/p>\n

Likewise, St. Paul is clear that the Torah is not a sort of amendment to the existing promises to Abraham nor an alteration of that covenant (Gal 3:15).\u00a0 Nor does it replace those promises with something new.\u00a0 The Torah does not add new terms for the fulfillment of the promises, nor change the content of those promises (v. 17-18).\u00a0 As has already been established, St. Paul does not see the law as directed toward overcoming the power of death or the defeat of the principalities and powers (v. 21).\u00a0 These will happen through Christ, the unique seed of Abraham.\u00a0 The law functions in reference to human sinfulness and the corruption which it produces.<\/p>\n

Exactly how the law functions over against sin and corruption is seen through St. Paul’s understanding of the time period of the Mosaic covenant.\u00a0 The law, says the apostle, served as a guardian of the people of God until Christ came (v. 23-24).\u00a0 The written code of the Torah imprisoned everything under sin (v. 22).\u00a0 This included us (v. 23).\u00a0 The entire law is aimed at identifying, preventing, and containing sin.\u00a0 The commandments delineate what sin is.\u00a0 The penalties of the law are aimed at undoing the damage and corruption which it causes.\u00a0 The ritual life of Israel and later Judah was aimed entirely at maintaining the purity of sacred space so that Yahweh, the holy God could dwell there and of the people so that they could draw near to him.\u00a0 It served, from Moses to Christ, as a sin management system for the people of God to allow for repentance and restoration.\u00a0 It did this until Christ, through his incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement made us sons of God just as Abraham had been promised (v. 26).<\/p>\n

St. Paul understands Christ to have fulfilled the Torah by having fulfilled its purpose, dealing with sin and corruption once and for all.\u00a0 He describes this in Galatians 3 in terms of an eschatological Day of Atonement.\u00a0 The Torah was concerned with controlling the curse, the consequence of man’s sin in creation (Gen 3:17; 4:11).\u00a0 In the annual Day of Atonement of Leviticus 16, both sin itself and the corruption which it produced were dealt with on a repeated basis.\u00a0 They were managed.\u00a0 But the way in which the Torah also identified sin meant that all were constantly struggling against sin and falling under this curse (Gal 3:10).<\/p>\n

In the Day of Atonement ritual, two goats were selected.\u00a0 One was given by lot to Azazel.\u00a0 This demonic spirit was seen to dwell in the wilderness, the realm of death, and to also be the leader of the rebellious angels<\/a> who had corrupted Cain’s line.\u00a0 The sins of the people were placed upon this goat by the high priest.\u00a0 This goat was now seen to be accursed.\u00a0 The one who led it out into the wilderness was considered unclean because of his contact with it.\u00a0 It was sent out into the wilderness to return sin to its source.\u00a0 St. Paul sees Christ fulfilling this function once and for all.\u00a0 In this way, through the mode of his death, the cross, Christ became a curse for us (v. 13).\u00a0 It is in this sense, bearing our sins in his body (1 Pet 2:24) that Christ condemned sin in his flesh (Rom 8:3).\u00a0 This is why Christ dies outside the city (Heb 13:12).\u00a0 Christ is not punished for these sins as if they were crimes.\u00a0 Rather, rejected by his own people he bears their sins to the realm of death and returns them to their source, the devil and his angels.<\/p>\n

St. Paul also here sees Christ fulfilling the function of the second goat.\u00a0 This second goat, the goat for Yahweh, was sacrificed and its blood was taken to purify the physical sanctuary, the tabernacle, and later the temple.\u00a0 Christ’s blood, however, purifies the entirety of creation again, once and for all.\u00a0 As St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians, the temple in Jerusalem still stood.\u00a0 It was divided into concentric courts, for women, for the Gentiles, for the priests based on distinctions between clean and unclean.\u00a0 Christ’s sacrifice, however, has cleansed the creation such that now all who are in Christ, who have been purified by baptism, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, are able to come to the holy place together (Gal 3:27-28).<\/p>\n

St. Paul’s understanding, then, frames the ongoing function of the Torah within the Church.\u00a0 Christ has fulfilled the purpose of the Torah in that a system for managing sin is no longer necessary and all who are in Christ are recipients of the promises to Abraham (v. 29).\u00a0 We are already sons of God and therefore heirs and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom 8:14-17).\u00a0 This brings to us the downpayment of these promises, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:14).\u00a0 The Spirit does not replace the law but rather writes it upon our hearts (Ezek 11:19; 36:26; Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10). \u00a0 The atonement of Christ purifies us to allow the Spirit to dwell within us and perform this function (Gal 3:14).<\/p>\n

The Torah, then, in its entirety, continues to operate within the Church as fulfilled in Christ.\u00a0 It continues to identify sin and wickedness.\u00a0 The commandments continue to teach us the way which leads to life.\u00a0 The keeping of the commandments continues to be the means by which we demonstrate faithfulness and loyalty to Christ (John 14:15).\u00a0 Though Christ has accomplished his victory once and for all, we as human persons come to participate in this victory in time and space.\u00a0 We struggle with sin and repentance and healing in real-time.\u00a0 We continue to draw near to the Triune God in worship, though now with knowledge rather than ignorance (John 4:23-24).<\/p>\n

This application to human persons, namely justification, will be the subject of next week’s post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the story of salvation, God made promises to Abraham.\u00a0 These promises were really a reaffirmation of the purpose for which humanity had been created in the first place before the coming of rebellion, sin, and death.\u00a0 The story of Abraham begins in Genesis 12, following on the three rebellions, the three “falls” of Genesis 1-11.\u00a0 Once mortal life ending in death had achieved its purpose, Christ would defeat it and release humanity from its hold.\u00a0 In the same event, his rising, he would also defeat the evil powers and principalities who had dominated the nations since Babel.\u00a0 Death and the hostile powers stand as opposed to humanity’s destiny in Christ as spoken to Abraham.\u00a0 Those promises,\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"Why the Law was Given, and by Whom - The Whole Counsel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/03\/05\/why-the-law-was-given-and-by-whom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Law was Given, and by Whom - The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the beginning of the story of salvation, God made promises to Abraham.\u00a0 These promises were really a reaffirmation of the purpose for which humanity had been created in the first place before the coming of rebellion, sin, and death.\u00a0 The story of Abraham begins in Genesis 12, following on the three rebellions, the three “falls” of Genesis 1-11.\u00a0 Once mortal life ending in death had achieved its purpose, Christ would defeat it and release humanity from its hold.\u00a0 In the same event, his rising, he would also defeat the evil powers and principalities who had dominated the nations since Babel.\u00a0 Death and the hostile powers stand as opposed to humanity’s destiny in Christ as spoken to Abraham.\u00a0 Those promises,\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/03\/05\/why-the-law-was-given-and-by-whom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-05T23:06:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/02\/ce75c5fb4b7edc906a0f6297bdf5aadc.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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