Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 87:2 (Fall 2025)
Article: Interpreting Old Testament Law Through The Ethics Of Romans 12:1–15:13
Author: Daniel J. Baker

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Interpreting Old Testament Law Through The Ethics Of Romans 12:1–15:13

Daniel J. Baker

Daniel J. Baker is senior pastor of Cornerstone Fellowship Church in Apex, NC, and is a PhD student in systematic theology at the University of South Africa.

One of the foremost challenges in articulating biblical ethics (what the Bible is commanding Christians to do) is how to interpret the OT: Is a Christian to obey all of its laws? None? Some? Two recent works deal with this issue: Philip Ross’s From the Finger of God (Mentor, 2010) and Brian Rosner’s Paul and the Law (InterVarsity, 2013). Ross argues for a traditional Reformed tripartite understanding of OT laws, dividing OT laws into moral, civil, and ceremonial categories. Rosner focuses on Paul’s writings and sees him doing three things with OT laws: “(1) polemical repudiation, (2) radical replacement, and (3) whole-hearted reappropriation,” at times “as legal code” and at other times as “expounding the gospel for doing ethics” (p. 39). The question is whether these two approaches reflect the NT’s own pattern. Romans 12:1–15:13 fits here, an extensive ethical section that follows the lengthy gospel reflection of Romans with numerous references to God’s nomos (“law”). Whatever conclusions we draw, the NT’s handling of OT law/laws must be evident in Rom 12:1–15:13. This study surveys Ross and Rosner, examines Paul’s use of nomos in Romans, and exegetes Rom 12:1–15:13. The results of these efforts are then summarized. What is found is that Paul’s approach resembles Ross more than Rosner but not without some nuance. One nuance concerns whether “the moral law” of the OT can be equated with the Decalogue. Such an equivalence is not found in Rom 12:1–15:13.

I. Introduction

In his classic work on ethics, John Murray wrote, “If ethics is concerned with manner of life and behavior, biblical ethics is concerned with the manner of life and behavior which the Bible requires and which the faith of the

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Bible produces.”1 But trying to articulate “the manner of life and behavior which the Bible requires” is not always easy. John Frame says it is “fairly obvious” in some cases whether a commandment is binding, and in some places even “ludicrous” to see a command as normative for a Christian.2 He says no one claims Jesus’ command to get the colt and bring it to h...