Moses and Law

Objectives

• Students will determine to trust on Christ for their righteousness instead of a legal code.

Opening

Bring some copies of a regulatory book to class. If you have a library nearby you might pick up a copy of the FAR/AIM, the FAA list of regulations. The idea here is that the book should be thick and include lots of rules.

• What are some examples of rules?

• Take a look at this book, what do you notice?

• Why do we have so many rules?

Main Body

The Mosaic Covenant

The Creation of the Covenant

The Mosaic covenant is often associated with Exodus 19-24.

• What conditions are set forth in Exodus 19:5?
  • Obedience

• What promises are given in Exodus 19:5-6?
  • God would make Israel his treasured possession and a kingdom of priests.

• According to Exodus 19:7-9, who agrees to the covenant?
  • Both God and the people agree to the covenant.

• In Exodus 19:10-11 what actions are taken to ratify the covenant?
  • The people wash themselves and set themselves apart.

Obedience

• The condition placed on the covenant was that of obedience. What was it that the people were supposed to obey?
  • The Old Testament Law was the standard God set forth. Exodus 20 has the 10 commandments but throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we find details on the laws that God expected Israel to obey.

• What are some examples of laws set forth in the Old Testament Law?
  • Ten Commandments
  • Laws on purity
  • Laws regulating interactions with other people
  • In fact, some Jews apparently codify the laws into 613 distinct commandments, 365 negative commandments, and 248 Positive commandments.

• According to Galatians 3:11, what was the Law unable to do?
  • Justify someone

The Dispensation of Law

In the unfolding of history through dispensations we have seen that in innocence man fell, despite having a conscience man sinned, even human government could not stop the evil, God called Abraham but he and his descendants failed to remain in the promised land. In very possible way so far we have sen that man is totally depraved. Now, we address another question, "perhaps if man was told explicitly what God wanted, man would be able to be holy." This is the dispensation of law, we will see that despite being told explicitly what God wanted, the heart of man is deceitful above all (Jeremiah 17:9).

• According to Matthew 5:17, what is the relationship between the coming of Christ and the law?
  • Jesus would fulfill the law down to the smallest stroke of the Hebrew alphabet. The word fulfill (plerosai) carries the idea of bringing something to an end or full degree. It is the case that theologians have provided four possible meanings to the word fulfill here.

1. Fulfill means that Jesus obeyed the law
2. Fulfill means that Jesus validated the law
3. Fulfill means that Jesus completed the law by summing it up in His own teaching
4. Fulfill means that Jesus completed the covenant aspect of the law and brought the covenant to completion.

• • From a dispensational viewpoint I would probably argue that the law demonstrated that man could not follow enough rules to be holy, Jesus demonstrated that only God could be holy and in so doing fulfilled the requirements of the law. Scofield, in his study notes summarizes it well

    Christ's relation to the law of Moses may be thus summarized: (1) He was made under the law Gal 4:4. (2) He lived in perfect obedience to the law Jn 8:46 Mt 17:5 1Pet 2:21-23. (3) he was a minister of the law to the Jews, clearing it from rabbinical sophistries, enforcing it in all its pitiless severity upon those who professed to obey it (e.g.) Lk 10:25-37 but confirming the promises made to the fathers under the Mosaic Covenant Rom 15:8. (4) He fulfilled the types of the law by His holy life and sacrificial death Heb 9:11-26. (5) He bore, vicariously, the curse of the law that the Abrahamic Covenant might avail all who believe Gal 3:13,14. (6) He brought out by His redemption all who believe from the place of servants under the law into the place of sons Gal 4:1-7. (7) He mediated by His blood the New Covenant of assurance and grace in which all believers stand Rom 5:2 Heb 8:6-13 Song establishing the "law of Christ" Gal 6:2 with its precepts of higher exaltation made possible by the indwelling Spirit.<reference>https://biblehub.com/commentaries/sco/matthew/5.htm</reference>