A Change in the Law – The Kingdom Curriculum II (3)

A Change in the Law

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. Hebrews 7:12

The argument of the writer of Hebrews is to insist that Jesus has become the new High Priest of the chosen people of God, the One Who both made and was the final sacrifice for sins, and Who has now ascended to the very right hand of God to make priestly intercession of the people of God (Heb. 7:25). With a change in the priesthood, the laws that pertained to the work of priests were also changed. Gone are the sacrifices and offerings, the feast days, the temple and the altar, and all the trappings, rituals, and routines associated with the old order of priests. The new High Priest has His own ordinances which He calls His people to obey – gather for worship, be taught and equipped for ministry, make all the nations disciples, submit to baptism, participate in the Supper – and no follower of Jesus Christ will deny that these new statutes of our great High Priest must be obeyed.

Jesus also indicated that His priesthood would mean a change in all the Law of God. The Jews of Jesus’ day were pursuing righteousness according to the letter of the Law (Rom. 3:19, 20), an effort doomed to failure, as we have seen, since they did not have the new heart that engenders such obedience. Jesus did not condemn the Law, only those who sought to find in their “obedience” thereunto all that was required to be received into good standing with God.

The change that Jesus indicated in the Law amounted to a deepening and enlarging of the Law, beyond what the mere letter of the Law requires, into its real spirit of justice and mercy and faithfulness (Matt. 12:7; 23:23). What God expects of those He is gathering into Jesus for Himself is that they, by the indwelling power of the Spirit, should be guided into all truth, not just the superficial outline and shadow of it, so as to live to the fullest a life liberated from the power of sin and brimming with love for God and neighbors (Jn. 8:31, 32; Jn. 16:13; Matt. 22:34-40).

Keeping the Law goes far beyond mere attention to the letter of what Moses wrote. It gets to the heart of mercy and love that only the Spirit can give us. Jesus illustrated the far-reaching, liberating and love-engendering change in the letter of the Law in the parable of the good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37). Here it seems clear Jesus has in the backdrop of His mind Exodus 21:18, 19, a statute associated with the eighth commandment. In this statute one who injures another must pay for his healing and reimburse him any opportunity costs incurred during his period of recuperation. This is what neighbors must do in order to show the love of God for one another. But the Samaritan who actually performed these acts of kindness performed them to one he did not injure, but whom he regarded as his neighbor, in spite of racial and religious differences, simply because he was a man in need of love. Jesus’ “You go and do likewise” (v. 37) affirms a change in the Law of God deeper, brighter, and more hopeful than anyone in His audience could have imagined. Only in the Spirit of God can the redeemed of the Lord understand such statutes in a way that liberates the love of God to flow far and wide, as in this parable.

Order your copy of The Law of God today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, Waxed Tablet, to place your order and take up the Kingdom curriculum of our Lord.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.