We impose certain rules upon children that we do not expect them to follow as adults. These rules may protect them from harm or teach them valuable life skills. Some personal examples include restricting how far my daughter can travel alone on her scooter and a family requirement to practice piano before accessing technology. These rules are not forever but intentionally temporary for a specific season.
The Old Testament laws are similar. There are 613 commands throughout the Old Testament, 365 prohibitive commands (“Do not do”), and 248 positive commands (“Do this”). These commands range from prohibitions against murder to instructions on what types of clothing to wear. With such specificity, it is understandable to suggest that these commands were intended to be exhaustive.
Ancient Jewish rabbis took this position, and they still influence Judaism today. Even more verbal and written instructions were added to help Jews avoid grey areas. With these extra-biblical commands, it quickly becomes a maze of regulations. This distracts the heart from the humility before God and steers it toward our natural competitive inclinations to see who can adhere to the rules “the best.” This is the root of “legalism.”
The growing sum of these additional rules made up the context during which Jesus is asked by a scholar which Commandment is the greatest in Matthew 22:36. Jesus’ famous response boils all of them down to two: Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. (v 37-40)
So, why did God offer all 613 commandments if He planned to save everyone through Christ anyway? Galatians 3 may help us better understand. Paul writes to his earliest church plants in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia, who are being instructed to accompany their faith in Christ with Jewish requirements, such as circumcision, observing the Sabbath, and eating only kosher foods. Paul rebukes their attempts to “earn” their salvation through works. He writes, “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Galatians 3:3, NIV) He presses the point, “Does God give you his Spirit to work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (3:5)
By replacing faith–where all are equally unrighteous–with a pursuit of expired religious rites–where some can adhere better than others–the believer’s disposition changes from God to the self, even if that self is in extreme sacrifice and service to God. Elsewhere, God reminds His people through Hosea, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6, NIV) Remember, burnt offerings were specifically prescribed by God for various levels of offense. Is this an example of God changing His mind?
This gets to the heart of the matter: the Law was instituted so that we could learn the scale of our own unrighteousness. The more the ancient Israelites sinned, the more they had to give away from their flocks and harvest. This punishment sets the scale and reveals the frequency of our faults. Like a bank account that we continue to over-withdraw, the balance approaches 0 quickly. This is the precursor to our understanding of salvation through Christ. As Paul writes to the Galatians, “the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24) The Law shows us why we must have faith in Jesus more than righteousness. We simply cannot afford to atone for all of our sins. It is a debt we cannot pay.
Why do I restrict my daughter’s travels or my children’s screen time? Because I want them to learn the benefits of safety and responsibilities in our structured lives. I demand homework be done early to instill a positive work ethic in my children so that when they grow up, they will not depart from it. The Old Testament Law is the spiritual equivalent. Through the Law, we better understand what our image is supposed to be, not just what the world decides it wants from us. We learn about modesty, humility, respect, and the dangers of anger and lust. There are even directions for slaves and slaveowners, revealing that our personal position before God is not subject to or conditioned by an unfair world. Our inability to live up to the Law reveals to us our necessity for a Savior, Jesus.
Paul’s warnings of the Galatians’ legalism are meant to prevent spiritual competitive comparison. If we focus on what we can do rather than what we can’t live up to, then we marginalize Christ’s role in our lives. Jesus declared, “the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.” (Luke 22:26, NIV) This, similarly, reframes our hearts from competitive legal observance to humility and care.
So, if the Law is simply a measuring stick to reveal our depravity but not to declare our righteousness, can we continually choose to engage in blatant sin under God’s grace through faith in Christ? That has been a pernicious suggestion for thousands of years. Paul addresses this in his letter to the Romans, “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:2-3, NIV) The disciple John also addresses it, “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8, NIV) While we cannot achieve perfection by our own will, any persistence in habitual sin denigrates Jesus’ sacrifice for us. If we take the Gospel claims seriously, our hearts will change so that we want to love God and others more than we want to sin in selfishness. We may not always overcome our temptations, but we should pick up our daily cross in the fight against our sinful natures.
We can take heart that we are no longer bound to the Law, yet it still proves helpful for us to understand what it means to love God more than ourselves. God is looking for our humble hearts to lower ourselves before Him and others, even if we occasionally fail.
Our confession to Christ grants us more freedoms, but have we outgrown our immaturity to live in them? If you’re stuck in sin, perhaps it’s time to revisit the basics (the Law) to understand better how to outgrow it. In this way, you will experience the freedom of a mature believer rather than the amputated life that sin and its regulations impose. If you want to outgrow the rules, then it is time to follow Jesus’ advice: “But seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33, NIV)
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