Are we to believe that while laws regarding incest (Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:30; 27:20) apply in the New Testament (1 Cor. 5:1-2), but laws against sex with animals (Ex. 22:29), abortion (21:22-25), kidnapping (Deut. 24:7), arson (Ex. 22:6), or cursing the deaf or tripping blind people (Lev. 19:14) do not apply? Some might say that most of these are common-sense prohibitions. If this is the argument, then they were common-sense regulations in Moses’ day, so why include them then?
How about “just weights and measures” (Lev. 19:35-36; Deut. 25:13-16)? This law is repeated in Proverbs (11:1; 20:10) but not in the NT. I suppose this law would come under the commandment not to steal, the Eighth Commandment. But why mention these specific laws from the OT if they are reasonably covered by the Eighth Commandment? The Apostle Paul writes:
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst (1 Cor. 5:1-2; cf. 7:1-3).
Some sexual impropriety had taken place in the Corinthian church. Paul references Old Testament law (Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:30; 27:20). The Bible required that the unrepentant person be removed from the church and treated as an unbeliever (see Matt. 18:15-20). This would have been done by the elders after all remedies for reconciliation had failed. Paul writes, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:5). The old leaven was to be cleaned out so the new leaven would not be affected (5:6-7). I guess the accused should have told Paul, “That’s ‘Jewish Law.’ It doesn’t apply under the New Covenant.” Some preterists today would say, “That law was still in effect, but it was done away with when Jesus returned to put an end to the Old Covenant Law” in AD 70. This makes no sense since we learn from various examples that specific Old Covenant laws were done away with before the judgment coming of Jesus before their generation passed away, circumcision being the most evident example.
By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today
God's Law is Christianity's tool of dominion. This is where any discussion of God's law ultimately arrives: the issue of dominion. Ask yourself: Who is to rule on earth, Christ or Satan? Whose followers have the ethically acceptable tool of dominion, Christ's or Satan's? What is this tool of dominion, the Biblically revealed law of God, or the law of self-proclaimed autonomous man? Whose word is sovereign, God's or man's?
Buy NowSome years ago, I participated in a discussion with a group of dispensationalists about the kingdom of God. Naturally, the subject of the law came up. Dr. Harold Hoehner, at the time a professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, said: “Well, if something isn’t repeated in the New Testament, it’s not applicable today.”
David Chilton asked this pointed question in response: “So if your pastor was found to have had sex with an animal, what would you say?” Hoehner responded, “Since it’s not repeated in the New Testament, it’s not a sin.”
The other DTS professors backed away from Hoehner’s claim. They remarked, “The prohibition comes under laws governing fornication. The New Testament forbids fornication.”
I responded, “I agree with you. It is covered under the provision regarding fornication. How do you know what constitutes fornication from the New Testament alone?”
They knew they were trapped. “The Old Testament defines fornication,” they said.
What do we do with an Old Covenant law (Ex. 21:17; Lev. 20:9) that Jesus uses against the Pharisees concerning the death penalty for “he who speaks evil of father or mother” (Mark 7:10)? Of course, Jesus was not addressing little children. He was condemning the way the Pharisees were manipulating God’s law to avoid its practical applications and thereby “neglecting the commandment of God” and setting it aside “in order to keep [their] tradition” (vv. 8-9). Jesus not only rejected their unbiblical traditions, but He also quoted a law from the Torah to condemn them.
Jesus repeated the commandment in the NT. Is it still applicable? Jesus applied it to adults. What do we make of the woman caught in the act of adultery? Did Jesus overturn the sanction for this prohibition? Some scholars believe He did. Then why not the commandment regarding rebellious children?
Paul freely uses Old Covenant law in the NT. He applies a law about the mistreatment of animals (Deut. 25:4) to “the laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim. 5:18). See an expanded application in 1 Corinthians 9:7-10 where Paul references what is written in “the law of Moses” (v. 9) and broadens its application by stating that it was written “for our sake” (v. 10).
He makes a similar application from the OT about different animals being yoked together for work (Deut. 22:10) with believers and unbelievers being bound together, that is, being “unequally yoked” (ἑτεροζυγέω=hetero [differently] + zugeó [yoked]) (2 Cor. 6:14).
The Old Testament is filled with such applicational laws that did not pass away with the coming of the New Covenant. That’s why Paul could write the following: “All Scripture is God-breathed [θεόπνευστος/theopneutos] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Reproof, correction, and training in righteousness are moral categories. Paul commended Timothy because “from childhood” he had “known the sacred writings” (v. 15). Paul is referring to the Old Covenant by using the terms “sacred writings” (ἱερὰ γράμματα/hera grammata) and “scripture” (γραφὴ/graphē). They were, and still are, applicable today, though in different forms.
The Law of the Covenant
If we take a man-centered approach to these laws, we might say that the purpose of this legislation is only to ensure human prosperity. Such an approach to the law of God misses the most basic point. These laws show us God's own genuine personal care for His world, and as such these laws cannot be altered by human whim. To be sure, the Bible is man-oriented, and thus obedience to these laws will improve human life; but the laws are God's, and cannot be changed by man. Thus, as we examine the laws in Exodus 21-23, our first concern must be the glory of God, not whether these laws seem right to us sinful men. If we start with God, we will soon see how these laws also improve human life.
Buy NowWhat about Hebrews 8:13? If the moral law from the OT was no longer applicable except for those laws repeated in the NT, which most people did not have access to, then why did God promise to put His “laws into their minds and write them upon their hearts” (8:10) in the New Covenant? What laws are these? They seem to be biblical laws— “elementary principles of the oracles of God”—that were to become second nature by way of study, practice, and application (Heb. 5:11-14).
The writer to the Hebrews explains in what way the first covenant was “obsolete … and growing old” and “near [ἐγγὺς/engus] to disappear” (8:13). He was referring to the “regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary” (9:1). Jesus is the Word that “became flesh and tabernacled” among the Jews during His earthly ministry (John 1:14). He is the lamb of God (John 1:29, 36), the temple (2:13-2), and the once for all sacrifice (Heb. 10:10). These are the laws that passed away because they found their fulfillment in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ:
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant (Heb. 9:11-15).
There is nothing about the passing away of the moral application of the law to the individual and society at large. The moral law was designed for the nations (Deut. 4:1-8).
We cannot live within the fluid boundaries of legal relativism. There must be a definitive and final legal standard of appeal to justify moral decisions at the personal and governmental levels. If not, then one judge’s opinion is as good (or as bad) as another. “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6)
The debate over the applicability of the whole law of God to Christians has been addressed in numerous places. Before you critique the position, learn what all the factors are. The following materials will help:
• Greg L. Bahnsen, By This Standard: The Authority of God’s Law Today.
• Greg L. Bahnsen, No Other Standard: Theonomy and Its Critics.
• Greg L. Bahnsen, “M.G. Kline on Theonomic Politics: An Evaluation of His Reply.”
• Greg L. Bahnsen and Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., House Divided: The Break-Up of Dispensational Theology.
• Kenneth L. Gentry, God’s Law Made Easy.
• Kenneth L. Gentry, Covenantal Theonomy: A Response to T. David Gordon and Klinean Covenantalism.
• Gary North, ed., Theonomy: An Informed Response.
• Gary North, Victim’s Rights: The Biblical View of Civil Justice.
• James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant: An Exposition of Exodus 21-23.