I am making this presentation for a fundamental reason:
That reason is there is much concern and confusion about the relationship between salvation and law in the religious or faith world.
Now I ask that if you speak about what I say then please ensure you do not misrepresent what I set forth. It is your responsibility before God to speak with honesty about what I say I hold to be truth. God will judge me. And God will judge you as to the witness you bear on your neighbors like me.
With respect to God’s law. It is about the thou shalt do and that thou shalt not do. Associated with the thou shall do and thou shall not do are blessings and curses.
Blessings occur when one complies with the thou shall do and thou shall not do. Curses occur where there is an absence of compliance. Curses include penalties and punishments, constraints and restrictions. Now even in the absence of God himself cursing us, the consequences of non-compliance sometimes effectively amounts to a curse of some form.
In scripture the law is presented using a variety of words. This includes words such as commandments, statutes, ordinances., judgements, and testimonies.
These different words are used to indicate various aspects of God’s laws at various levels of details.
These different words deal with such things as the what, the why, the when, the where, and the how in various degrees of details.
The Law of God runs from Genesis to Revelation in that there are certain scriptures that specify various aspects of the law of God.
The law is divided into two covenants. The Old Covenant is the old way. The New Covenant is the new way.
Hebrews 9:14-18 says the New Covenant did not go into effect until Christ death on the cross. For it says:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.
Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
The New Covenant is a better covenant, a better way says Hebrews 7:12, 19, 22; 8:13. That is why one is called old and the other is called new. For these scriptures say:
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
And then we have:
(Hebrews 8:13) In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The Holy Bible is divided into two Testaments: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament presents the law under the Old Covenant.
The New Testament presents the law under the New Covenant.
The exception is that in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) Jesus lived under the Old Covenant. In the Gospels, Jesus described both how people were to live under the Old Covenant and the New Covenant to come. Jesus showed that life under the New Covenant was and is to be different than life under the Old Covenant.
For example, Jesus encounter with the accusers and woman caught in the act of adultery as recorded in John 8:1-11 describe how things would operate under the New Covenant. This includes but is not limited to God doing away with commanding the death penalty for committing adultery.
Under the Old Covenant we had what is known as the law of Moses. Under the New Covenant we have what is sometimes called the law of Christ.
Of course, Hebrew is said to be the language in which the Old Testament was written. Greek is the language believed to be the language in which the New Testament was written.
The Hebrew word for law of the type we are speaking about is Torah.
When folks use the word Torah, with a few exceptions, they are usually referring to the law of Moses. This is because the law of Moses describes the law or Torah in a vast manner.
However, the word Torah actually appears in scripture before Moses at Genesis 26:5 where Abraham is said to have kept the Lord’s charge, commandments, statutes, and laws. Therefore, God had laws, commandments, and statutes before the law of Moses. Of course, the first law and commandment including penalty was when God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden tree in the garden.
There are a number of Greek words for law depending on context.
In the New Testament there are times when the context of the scriptures indicates the word law is referring specifically to the Torah.
At other times scripture refer to a more general sense of law consisting of the law under Christ which include aspects of the Torah as well as some additional provisions for law.
Therefore, in this series on salvation and law except when otherwise noted, I will use the word law when speaking of both the law as given under the Old Covenant, and as given under the New Covenant.
