Paul’s “Positive” Statements about the Mosaic Law -- By: Femi Adeyemi
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 164:653 (Jan 2007)
Article: Paul’s “Positive” Statements about the Mosaic Law
Author: Femi Adeyemi
BSac 164:653 (January-March 2007) p. 49
Paul’s “Positive” Statements about the Mosaic Law
Feimi Adeyeimi is a Visiting Lecturer, ECWA (Evangelical Church of West Africa) Theological Seminary, Igbaja, Nigeria.
This is the final article in a three-part series “The Identity of the New Covenant ‘Law.’”
In a number of verses Paul made statements that suggest that the Mosaic Law, including its code of conduct, was abolished at the Cross for believers. He wrote, “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20). “A man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (v. 28). “You are not under law but under grace” (6:14). “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ” (7:4). “But now we have been released from the Law” (v. 6). “A man is not justified by the works of the Law” (Gal. 2:16). “That no one is justified by the Law before God is evident” (3:11). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law” (v. 13). He abolished “in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments” (Eph. 2:15).
On the other hand Paul made some statements about the Law that seem to conflict with these negative statements. “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Rom. 3:31). “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!” (7:7). “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (v. 12). “We know that the Law is good” (1 Tim. 1:8).
How, then, are these positive statements to be understood? A number of scholars argue that these verses show that the Mosaic Law (or at least the Decalogue) is operative for the church today and that that Law is the law of Christ mentioned in 1 Corinthians 9:21 and Galatians 6:2.1
BSac 164:653 (January-March 2007) p. 50
For example Kaiser writes that to say that the Mosaic Law “is no longer obligatory...
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