Troublesome Topic: Why Did God Give the Law?
As believers in the New Covenant, we know that God never intended the commands and regulations of the Law (properly covenant conditions) to be a source of salvation in and of themselves. Paul’s letters and the epistle to the Hebrews make that clear. This was a major roadblock for many Jews, some of whom came to see fulfillment of the Law as salvation.
If the Law was not intended to save, what was its purpose?
A better way to say it would be this. We know from many parts of Scripture that God’s purpose was to reconcile man to Himself. What then was the role of the Law in fulfilling that purpose? This lesson is intended to answer that very question.
The Purpose of the Law Was to Instruct
By that I mean that the Law did more than just prepare the way for the coming of the Savior; it taught spiritual lessons that are applicable to people of any time and any place.
There are two major reasons why I believe that each regulation in the Law was intended to teach some spiritual principle.
1. The Israelites called it the “Torah.” It is unfortunate that the word “Torah” has so often been translated “law” because that is not its primary meaning. “Torah” has as its foundational concept the idea of “direction.” It is used of the direction water will flow, or an arrow will fly. In matters of life and decision-making “Torah” denotes guidance or instruction. Therefore, each time that an Israelite thought of this body of writing, or each time he heard or used the word “Torah,” he thought of guidance or instruction.
Go to footnote number2. God’s description of the role these teachings would play indicates the purpose for which He gave them. A few examples are these:
Deuteronomy 31:12
Translation
Assemble the people, the men, those who are opposite of men,
Go to footnote numberthose who walk with tripping gait,
Go to footnote numberand the foreigners within your gates, so they will continue to hear, and continue to learn,
Go to footnote numberand as a result, to completely fear
Go to footnote numberYHVH your ELOHIM (read Adonai your Elohim),
Go to footnote numberand in order to completely guard all the words of this Torah
Go to footnote numberin order to do them.
Paraphrase
Assemble all the people, men, women, children and foreigners in your midst, so that they may continually hear, and continue to learn how to honor THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD, who is YOUR OWNER AND RULER, in order to maintain the validity and honor of the covenantal stipulations of these instructions, in order to put them to practice.
Romans 7:7
Translation
What, then, shall we say?
Is the Law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known
Go to footnote numbersin
if not by the law.
Also I would not have understood
Go to footnote numbercovetousness if the law had not said “Do not covet.”
Paraphrase
What is our response to this? Do we dare ask the question that is on our minds – Is the Law of Moses sinful? Never in a billion years! I would not have come to a full and experiential understanding of what sin is if it weren’t for the law. Likewise I would not have seen and
understood that coveting is sinful if the Law had not said “Do not covet.”
Romans 7:8
Translation
But sin, having taken occasion by the commandment, produced in me all covetousness.
Apart from the Law
dead.
Paraphrase
But sin,
taking advantage of the commandment about not coveting, produced in me all kinds of coveting.
So you see, without the Law’s clear identification of something as sin, we would be unclear about what sin is, and it would be hard to punish sin if things were unclear, and without punishment people would do whatever they wished.
Romans 7:13
Translation
Then that which is good has become death? May it never be! But sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, is bringing about death through that which is good for me so that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful.
Paraphrase
Does that mean that something good has become a source of death for me? Absolutely not! But in order to prove that sin is sin, it is resulting in death through something that is good for me so that through the commands of God, sin might be fully understood for the terrible thing that it is.
Galatians 3:24
Translation
Therefore, the Law has become our guide
Go to footnote numberunto Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.
Paraphrase
Therefore, the Law was put in charge of us to tutor us and train us toward Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.
These passages, and others, show that the purpose of the Torah was not to save, but to instruct, to guide, or to teach.
What Did the Law Teach?
1. According to Dt 31:12, which we saw above, the purpose of the Law was to teach God’s people to “fear the Lord.” The very same concept is expressed in other passages such as Ex. 20:20,
Go to footnote numberDeut. 4:10;
Go to footnote numberand Deut. 14:23.
Go to footnote number2. Just like headaches, back aches or stomach aches tell you something is wrong in our bodies, spiritual types of pain (such of guilt) tell us that something is wrong in our relationship with God.
According to Romans chapter 7, the role of the Torah was to show man his sinful condition. If it were not for the Torah, the many ways man offends God would not have been clear. Through the Torah, sin comes to be known as sin, and the perpetrator of sinful acts is known as a sinner.
Romans 7:7
Translation
What, then, shall we say?
Is the Law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known
Go to footnote numbersin
if not by the law.
Also I would not have understood
Go to footnote numbercovetousness if the law had not said “Do not covet.”
Paraphrase
What is our response to this? Do we dare ask the question that is on our minds – Is the Law of Moses sinful? Never in a billion years! I would not have come to a full and experiential understanding of what sin is if it weren’t for the law. Likewise I would not have seen and
understood that coveting is sinful if the Law had not said “Do not covet.”
Romans 7:8
Translation
But sin, having taken occasion by the commandment, produced in me all covetousness.
Apart from the Law
dead.
Paraphrase
But sin,
taking advantage of the commandment about not coveting, produced in me all kinds of coveting.
So you see, without the Law’s clear identification of something as sin, we would be unclear about what sin is, and it would be hard to punish sin if things were unclear, and without punishment people would do whatever they wished.
Romans 7:13
Translation
Then that which is good has become death? May it never be! But sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, is bringing about death through that which is good for me so that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful.
Paraphrase
Does that mean that something good has become a source of death for me? Absolutely not! But in order to prove that sin is sin, it is resulting in death through something that is good for me so that through the commands of God, sin might be fully understood for the terrible thing that it is.
Galatians 3:24 calls the Torah our “nanny, or personal tutor and disciplinarian.”
Galatians 3:24
Translation
Therefore, the Law has become our guide
Go to footnote numberunto Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.
Paraphrase
Therefore, the Law was put in charge of us to tutor us and train us toward Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.
This person had the role of caring for, guiding, chastising and protecting a boy as he grew up (if the family had enough means to have a slave that could be assigned solely to that child). Thus the role of the Torah was shown to be that of a guide, a protector, and one who instructs about daily life issues.
The next lesson in all three series on Covenants is: What Does it Mean to “Fear the Lord”?
The next lesson in Why Is That in the Bible is The Law Teaches Three Key Principles
Footnotes
1
In the New Testament, the Greek word used to describe what the Jews would have called the “Torah,” means “law.” I believe this reflects the common understanding of that day based on how the “Torah” had come to be viewed, but it was not a true linguistic or lexical equivalent for the Hebrew. The N. T. writers followed what was the common terminology in use during their time. However, Paul in particular, makes clear by his teaching that he understood the purpose of the “law” as being much more than just “laws.”
2
Usually translated “women,” this word is a variation of the word for man, and basically means “the one who is opposite a man,” either because she is not a man, or because she is attached to a man through marriage and compliments him, giving him two dimensions, not just one.
3
This word means “to walk with tripping gait;” we would call them “toddlers” because they “toddle.” However, the word seems to be broader than our use of toddlers, therefore it is usually translated “children.”
4
The verbs “hear” and “learn” are in the Imperfect tense, which is different from our common understanding of an Imperfect verb. In Hebrew there are two major types of action, either completed action regardless of the timing, or incomplete action regardless of past, present, or future timing. Imperfect verbs like the ones used here, indicate incomplete action in Hebrew. For that reason I have conveyed the action of hearing and learning as ongoing. Their listening and learning are not complete yet, so they need to keep doing more of it. The reason I bring up the tense of these verbs is that the verb tense changes for the next two verbs which are both Perfects.
5
This verb “fear” and the next one, “guard or keep,” are both Perfect verbs, indicating complete action, regardless of past, present, or future timing. For that reason I have rendered these verbs as indicating a complete level of fear and keeping, with the use of an adverb in English. Often translators will render these verb tenses in ways that make the most sense in English, which is not altogether wrong because Hebrew verbs are very similar to Jell-O, they don’t stay the same, they are very flexible, and they are hard to nail down (have you ever tried nailing Jell-O to a wall?). Some would say I am making too big an issue of these verb tenses, however, I believe there was a reason for the change from Imperfect verbs to Perfect verbs, and I tried to communicate that difference in my translation and paraphrase.
6
The Hebrew uses a different form of the name Elohim, the name for God you are probably familiar with. This one means “Your God.” I have written it as Elohim so everyone would recognize it.
7
“The Torah” is the word used here, and it means “instruction or direction,” as well as “law.” The way you interpret this word depends on whether your focus is on the intent of the instruction, or the communication method used to convey that intent (laws).
8
This word for “to know,” carries the meaning of getting to know something personally through experience. It is much more than just knowing about something.
9
Here Paul used a different word for “knowing,” one which means “to see,” because seeing brings knowledge and understanding.
10
The word which I have rendered as “guide” has no English equivalent. It referred to a carefully chosen slave who was put in charge of the care and some of the instruction of boys. He was a strict disciplinarian, a tutor, a trainer, and a guide for a boy’s development. However, he was not a teacher in the way we usually think of teachers. All of our English words point to only one aspect of this process, but this word encompassed several aspects of a boy’s development. We get our English words Pedagogy and Pedagogical from this Greek word.
11: Ex 20:20
Then Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, it is for the purpose of testing you that God has come, so that His fear may be before you, so that you will not sin.”
12: Dt 4:10
YHVH ((read Adonai) said to me, “Gather the people to me, and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live in the land, and that they may teach their children.”
13: Dt 14:23
And you shall eat before YHVH your ELOHIM (read Adonai your Elohim), in the place where He chooses to make his name dwell, the tithe of your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear YHVH your ELOHIM (read Adonai your Elohim)all your days.
14
This word for “to know,” carries the meaning of getting to know something personally through experience. It is much more than just knowing about something.
15
Here Paul used a different word for “knowing,” one which means “to see,” because seeing brings knowledge and understanding.
16
The word which I have rendered as “guide” has no English equivalent. It referred to a carefully chosen slave who was put in charge of the care and some of the instruction of boys. He was a strict disciplinarian, a tutor, a trainer, and a guide for a boy’s development. However, he was not a teacher in the way we usually think of teachers. All of our English words point to only one aspect of this process, but this word encompassed several aspects of a boy’s development. We get our English words Pedagogy and Pedagogical from this Greek word.