The Law and the Rest of Scripture – Interpreting the Law of God (20)

The Law and the Rest of Scripture

Interpreting the Law of God (20)

The Law of God is the acorn to the oak of Scripture.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27

Jesus was eager to teach those two disciples how to interpret the events of the preceding few days. So He began, not with words He had spoken while He was sojourning among them, but with Moses—with the Law of God.

The beginning of the revelation of God and His will is in the Law of God. The prophets received the Law and based their ministries and messages on it, and the New Testament did the same. Jesus even appealed to the Law as a powerful witness for His ministry (John 5:45, 46). Both the prophets and the New Testament writers understood that the Law of God was the way to realize the promises of God, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ (cf. Deut. 6:17-19).

At the same time, the Law, though perfect, is only brought to completion in the brighter light of subsequent revelation from God. So when we want to understand the Law, having begun with the teaching of the New Testament and the Lord Jesus, we need to go back to the rest of the Old Testament for example and instruction in fleshing out our understanding. When we do we will gain clearer insight concerning how the Law is to be understood and applied, and we will be directed back to Jesus, so that we can know our interpretation to be valid in the light of His example, teaching, and mission.

The Lord Himself shows us an example of this. He claimed the stature of authoritative interpreter of the will of God and appealed to the Law to justify His claim (John 10:34; cf. Exod. 22:28). Jesus says Moses called the judges or rulers of the people “gods” (the KJV has it right here, not the ESV, since the definite article, which signals that this Hebrew word should be translated “God” rather than “gods,” is missing in the text, which in the MT is v. 27). In doing this Jesus accomplished two things. First, He reminded those who challenged Him of their duty to interpret God’s Word correctly, a duty explicitly outlined in the Law of God. And second, while He glanced on the Exodus statute in the Law—“Is it not written in your Law”—He actually quoted this statute as it was restated in Psalm 82, thus bringing the light of the Psalter to bear on His understanding of the original statute. In this psalm God is judging the “gods”—the rulers—of His people for their failure of duty, and Jesus let those Old Testament texts both identify (Exod. 22) and condemn (Ps. 82) those who sought to condemn Him.

At the same time, He dramatically claimed that valid title of elohim for Himself (see on, John 10:37, 38) and positioned Himself as the God of Psalm 82 calling to judgment those who were remiss in their duties.

We’ll do better handling the Law of God, once we’ve considered the teaching of Christ and the New Testament, by looking to the rest of Scripture to fill in any gaps in our understanding and to further illuminate our thinking.

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