Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job

This topic will focus on the Ten Commandments, as found in the books of Genesis and Job.  Prior to the time God gave the Ten Commandments (so-called) to Moses/Israel at Sinai in Exodus 20.

The books of Genesis and Job reflect most of the moral directives or laws that were later codified for Israel and the Jewish people in the Mosaic Law.  My topic “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” notes three dozen of God’s principles seen or implied in Genesis.  James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

God’s righteous standards for mankind and the Kingdom of God, and even glimpses of Christ’s gospel, are seen in the book of Genesis.  Albertus Pieters Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind; we have here the institution of the Sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  A careful reading of the Genesis narrative bears this out.

Genesis was written/compiled by Moses, as inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.  It tells of ancient non-Jews.  Some of them applied God’s ways, while others violated the principles of God and His Kingdom.

The Lord said of the gentile/non-Jew Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed My voice, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20 KJV 1611 edition “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  Abraham, living ca 2000 BC, was obedient to the Lord.  Abraham followed God’s principles/commandments, known in Genesis.  (also ref “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

The book of Job shows that Job practiced the Golden Rule.  Jesus said in Mt.7:12, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them”.  Jb.1:1 “Job was blameless, upright, fearing God.”  Righteous Job (Ezk.14:14) cared for others (e.g. Jb.31:16-20)….ca 1700 BC.  Jb.1:8 the Lord called Job “My servant”.  Job was the greatest man in the East (Jb.1:3).  He wasn’t Jewish.  The patriarch Job lived for 200 years (cf. Jb.42:16).  Job’s trials probably were in the 1700s BC.  see “Job and the Land of Uz”.

Among the ancient gentile Godfearers who obeyed God…were Abraham (Ge.22:12) and Job (Jb.2:3).

In Genesis and Job, there’s no nation of Israel.  Later, the Lord had Moses codify the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, seen in Ex.20 & De.5.  The Old Covenant for Israel/Jews contained the Ten Commandments and other moral precepts/laws existent in Genesis, which ancient righteous gentiles such as Abraham & Job obeyed earlier.  (The Old Covenant also contained ceremonial rituals not seen in Genesis or Job.)

Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law [of Moses].”  A close reading of actions in Genesis and Job reveals both knowledge of and violations of the commandments which later became the Decalogue for Israel.

Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses didn’t invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.”  Living by faith included living by God’s Ten Commandments.

We’ll now go through the Ten Commandments from 1 to 10, according to Ex.20:1-17.  As we go, we’ll also show them as implied in the books of Genesis and Job….obeyed or disobeyed…prior to 1700 BC.

#1) Ex.20:1-3 “God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I AM the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods besides Me.”  In Ge.1–2 the Lord God is identified as the Creator.  He is the true Deity.  God told Abram in Ge.15:7, “I AM the Lord who brought you out of Ur”.  Abraham’s servant said in Ge.24:48, “I bowed and worshiped the Lord; and blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham”.  Jb.1:21 “Job said, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Jb.42:1-2 “Job answered the Lord, ‘I know that You can do all things.”  Abraham and Job knew the Lord God.  They didn’t worship pagan gods.  Ge.35:1-2 “God said to Jacob [Abraham’s grandson]…‘make an altar to God.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all with him, ‘Put away the strange gods which are among you.”  Jacob rid his house of other gods.

#2) Ex.20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness [graven image or petroglyph] of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath….you shall not worship them or serve them.”  The Lord forbad the worship of carved images or heavenly bodies.  Jacob’s father-in-law Labán was an idolator.  Ge.31:35 “He [Laban] searched, but didn’t find his idols [terraphím, Hebrew].  Again, Jacob and his household put away their own idols.  Ge.35:4 “Jacob buried them [idol gods] under the oak near Shechém.”  Job acknowledged in Jb.31:26-28, “If I regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon, so that I worshiped them with my mouth and hands, that would have been iniquity…I would have denied God above.”  Job knew that worshiping/idolizing heavenly bodies would’ve belied the true Creator God.

#3) Ex.20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”  Abraham enjoined his servant in Ge.24:3, “I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth”.  Abraham’s requirement that his servant take a solemn oath in the name of the Lord indicates they understood the name of God isn’t to be taken in vain.  Abraham himself swore in Ge.14:22, “I raise my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth”.  Misusing God’s name can mean taking His name lightly, blaspheming or cursing Him.  Job’s wife berated Job in Jb.2:9-10, “Curse [or renounce, Cambridge Bible] God and die….In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.”  In all his trials, Job didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain.  Job blessed God’s name (Jb.1:21).

#4) Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and rested on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  In the Bible, the 7^th day was the first thing God made holy!  After Creation, Christ ceased or rested in Ge.2:1-3. “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and made.”  This was the beginnings of 7^th day sabbath rest.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Pulpit Commentary Ge.2:3 “A 7^th day Sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden.”  Dwight L. Moody Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.  Matthew Henry Commentary Ge.8:12 “Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he [Noah] expected special blessings.”  JFB Ge.8:12 “Seven days – a strong presumptive proof that Noah observed the Sabbath in the ark.”  Ellicott Commentary Ex.16:23 “Much can be said in favor of the primeval institution of the Sabbath, and its having been known to the family of Abraham.”  Matthew Henry Ge.2:1 “Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath…was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.”  The patriarchal age included Abraham & Job.  The 7-day week, known by the ancients, was a customary time period for feasting (Ge.29:27) and mourning (Ge.50:10, Jb.2:13).  Ex.16:27-29 God’s 7^th day sabbath law already existed before He gave the Decalogue in Ex.20.  In the (supposed) Book of Jasher 70:47, a Pharaoh had decreed 7^th day rest for Israelites decades prior to the Exodus.  (also see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)

#5) Ex.20:12 “Honor your father and your mother.”  We see examples in Genesis of sons honoring, and dishonoring, their parents.  Ge.25:8-10 “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him [Abraham].”  They gave their father a proper burial.  Ge.28:7 “Jacob obeyed his father and mother [Isaac and Rebekah].”  But Ge.9:24-26, “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.”  Dishonoring a parent or grandparent is wrong.  Ge.38:8-10 Onán disobeyed his father Judah, and the Lord took Onan’s life.  Job’s trials included the deaths of his sons & daughters (Jb.1:18-19).  Job was stripped of his honor and dignity; his relatives and associates avoided him (Jb.19:9-19).  However, respect or honor for elders in general is seen in Job.  Jb.32:4-7 “Elihú had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he.”  The younger man Elihu deferred to Job and Job’s three friends, allowing them to speak first.  JFB Commentary “In deference to the seniority of the friends who spoke.”

#6) Ex.20:13 “You shall not murder.”  Murder was committed in Ge.4:8. “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”  Consequently, God cursed Cain from the land (v.9-13).  God commanded Noah in Ge.9:5-6, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man”.  Murder is a capital crime; it was condemned from the beginning.  Jb.24:14a “The murderer arises at dawn; he kills the poor and the needy.”  The poor may be cruelly killed, because they have no more that can be taken from them.  Job asserted himself against any charge of hypocrisy in Jb.31:39. “If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or caused the owners to lose their life.”  Pulpit Commentary “Either by actual violence or by depriving them of the means of support.”  Job was a wealthy man of renown.  But he didn’t kill others to take possession of their land (cf. 1Ki.21:18-19).

#7) Ex.20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.”  Adultery occurs when a man has sexual relations with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man.  The ancients knew adultery was sin.  Ge.20:6-9 conversing with Abraham, Abimélech referred to adultery as a great sin.  Also ref Ge.26:10-11, where sleeping with Isaac’s wife Rebekah would’ve brought guilt upon anyone who did so.  Ge.39:7-9 “The master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘How could I do this great evil and sin against God?”  Joseph viewed adultery as a great evil!  Jb.24:15 “The eye of the adulterer waits for the dusk, thinking, ‘No one is watching us.’ He disguises his face.”  Also Jb.31:9-11 “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor’s door….it would be an iniquity.”  Having sex with a neighbor’s wife is iniquity.  Adultery was sin for gentiles/non-Jews too…long before Christ’s Decalogue was codified for Israel at Sinai.

#8) Ex.20:15 “You shall not steal.”  Regarding Jacob’s wages, Jacob said to Laban in Ge.30:33, “If I have any goats that aren’t speckled or spotted, or any lambs that aren’t black, it will be counted stolen by me”.  Joseph’s brothers asserted to his house steward in Ge.44:8, “How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? If any of us has it, let him die.”  Many ancient nations had severe (or excessive) punishment for theft.  Jb.24:14b “At night he is as a thief.”  The Sabeáns and Chaldéans raided & stole Job’s livestock in Jb.1:14-17.  Theft was a crime from the beginning.  Robert Flockhart The Street Preacher, p.16 “Eve stole the forbidden fruit, and Adam partook of it [Ge.2:16-17, 3:6].”

#9) Ex.20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  The Lord God said man would surely die if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Ge.2:17).  But the serpent then spoke falsely to Eve about God’s declaration.  The serpent said in Ge.3:4, “You shall not surely die”.  In Ge.39:14-20, the wife of Joseph’s master falsely claimed that Joseph had tried to rape her.  Her false charge resulted in Joseph being sentenced to prison (perhaps for life).  False witness and lies can have grave consequences.  Job maintained his integrity, as seen in the following verses: Jb.6:28 “Please look at me, and see if I lie to your face.”  Jb.24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me false and make my speech worthless?”  Jb.27:4 “My lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue utter deceit.”  Jb.31:5-6 “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit, let God weigh me on just scales.”  Jb.36:4 “Be assured that my words are not false.”  False witness and lies were wrong…before Sinai.

#10) Ex.20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  To covet wrongly is to (illicitly) desire something we can’t come to rightfully have or obtain someday.  Ge.3:6 “The woman [Eve] saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise.”  Eve coveted the fruit from the forbidden tree…and she ate from it.  Wrong coveting can lead to overt sins such as stealing, adultery, violence and murder.  Ge.6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was evil continually.”  Coveting begins in the heart.  Laban coveted wealth and cheated Jacob (Ge.31:7), who worked for him.  Job said in Jb.31:7 ISV, “If my heart covets whatever my eyes see….”  Carteret Carey Theology in the Book of Job, p.27 “Covetousness is regarded in the light of idolatry (31:24-25).”  The apostle Paul tied coveting to idolatry in Col.3:5. “Covetousness [or greed], which is idolatry.”  Wrong covetousness was in Eden.  also see the topic “Coveting – Wrong and Right Desire”.

In the above paragraphs, we’ve found the Lord’s Ten Commandments (implied) in the books of Genesis and Job, for ancient gentiles/non-Jews.  Yes, God had moral laws in Genesis, from the beginning.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”  Sin isn’t imputed when there is no law, according to Paul (Ro.5:13).  Barnes Notes Ro.5:13 “There must have been a law of some kind.”  God’s laws, which show how to love God and love our neighbor, existed from Creation…for all of mankind.

Bruckner op. cit., p.208-209 “Law is presented, in this first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order….The basis for all cultures and times. Thinking of Biblical law in the context of creation as prior to the Sinaitic covenant…establishes Biblical law as operative beyond the confines of a historical past or a single culture, and establishes it in the bone and flesh of created humanity.”

To relegate the Ten Commandments solely to the Old Covenant of Ex.20 for Israel, is short-sighted.  The principles of the Ten Commandments long predate both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant!  They are common to all mankind.

Between the lines of Genesis and Job are seen God’s righteous standards, including the Ten Commandments.  Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.”  Gentiles and Jews who are obedient to God’s commandments, living forever with the Lord Jesus.  Praise God!

Added in the Old Covenant (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation of “Added in the Old Covenant (1)”.  Most of the background material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here.  In this topic, we’ve been addressing two main passages of scripture:

#1) The apostle Paul wrote in Ga.3:18-19, “For if the inheritance is based on law [Strongs g3551 nómos, Greek], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis, seven New Testament (NT) occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15]…until the Seed should come.”

The majority of Bible students think the apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added.  Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.

#2) The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Je.7:22-23, “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085 shemá, Hebrew] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

The Lord had said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed [h8085] My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Due to transgressions of God’s pre-existing moral laws/principles (seen in Genesis), the Old Covenant Law of Moses was subsequently added for ancient Israel.  (ref Part 1)

God’s Old Covenant included His pre-existing moral laws that date from Adam (which Abraham obeyed)…plus pilgrim feasts, Levitical ceremonial tabernacle/temple rituals and the sacrificial system.  Gentiles in Genesis didn’t have pilgrim feasts or recurring animal sacrifices, sin/guilt offerings, etc.

Part 1 ended with two related questions: What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system for ancient Israel?  Why did God add recurring burnt-sin-guilt sacrifices to the (pre-existing) moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant (OC) from Genesis?

God did so because…upon leaving Egypt, Israel proceeded to transgress and disobey God, and evidenced unbelief (prior to Ex.21 judgments at Sinai).  Let’s briefly trace their history leaving Egypt:

Ex.14:11-12 Israel rebelled at the Reed Sea (ref Ps.106:7).  The Lord parted the sea for them, and the pursuing Egyptian army drowned.  Ex.15:22-25 Israel then grumbled about water at Maráh.  So the Lord showed Moses a tree and Moses threw it into the waters; the waters miraculously became sweet.

Ex.16:27-28 Israel then broke God’s 7^th day sabbath.  (see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)  The Lord gave them manna to eat.  Ex.17:1-7 Israel tested the Lord at Massáh/Meribáh; they even wanted to stone Moses!  Moses obediently struck a rock and water gushed forth for them (ref Ps.106:14).  Ex.18:5, 16 in the wilderness, Moses made known to them pre-existing statutes and laws of God.

The Lord kept intervening for His people Israel…yet they kept sinning in unbelief.  Prior to Sinai.

Ex.20:1-18 at Sinai, Christ spoke the Decalogue.  (De.4:13 the Ten Commandments or ten “words”, h1697 debarim, was the heart of the OC.)  The people heard His voice!  Ex.20:19-20 but they’re afraid of God and only want to hear Moses, not God.  v.21 so Moses alone approached the Lord in the cloud.

The Lord won’t speak directly to His people after that; He speaks through Moses the mediator.

Then the Lord instructed Moses in Ex.21:1-ff, “These are the judgments which you are to set before them….”  Civil judgments and the sacrificial system are seen in remaining chapters of the Péntateuch.

In the beginning, Adam & Eve heard (h8085) the Lord’s voice…but they hid themselves, Ge.3:8.  Israel later didn’t hearken to (h8085) God’s voice.  Nu.14:22 the Lord said of Israel, “Ten times you haven’t listened to [h8085] My voice”.  De.4:12, 5:25, 18:16 the people didn’t want to hear (h8085) God’s voice at Sinai.  Later, Joshua wrote that those coming out of Egypt didn’t obey (h8085) God’s voice, Jsh.5:6.

Again, Je.7:22-23 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”

Ge.26:5 father Abraham had obeyed (h8085) God’s voice.  After God miraculously provided water at Marah for Israel, Moses told the people in Ex.15:26, “If you will earnestly heed [h8085] the voice of the Lord, and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have put on the Egyptians”.  Obedience to God’s pre-existing moral principles was expected of them…in Ex.15:26 there is no sacrificial system for sin.

Before He gave the Ten Commandments, the Lord said to Moses/Israel in Ex.19:5, “If you will obey [h8085] My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples”.  Later, De.5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horéb [Sinai]. The Lord didn’t make this covenant with our fathers.”  The fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob didn’t have the OC (although they knew God’s moral principles/commandments, which later became part of the OC).  For example, A-I-J didn’t have individual sin or guilt/trespass offerings; none of those sacrifices appear in scripture before Le.4–6, given to Moses later at Sinai (ref Le.27:34).  see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.

In Ex.24:7-8, Israel affirmed they would obey the Lord’s OC. “The people said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do and be obedient [h8085]!’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you.”  The OC was a blood covenant between the Lord and ancient Israel.  It was ratified.

But in Ex.32:1-10, Israel then held an idolatrous golden calf feast with burnt/peace offerings!  Ps.78:10-20 they disobeyed, didn’t keep God’s covenant.  Ps.78:17 “They continued to sin against Him.”

The Lord recapped in Je.11:7-8, “I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, saying, ‘Obey [h8085] My voice’. Yet they didn’t obey, but each walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.”  Most of them repeatedly refused to hearken to God.

The Lord is holy.  God won’t dwell with sin.  Sin must be atoned.  God told Moses in Ex.25:8, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them”.  The tabernacle was the place of God’s Name, where Christ (the good Shepherd, Ps.80:1 & Jn.10:14) dwelt among His ancient people.  (also see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

A purpose of animal blood sacrifices at God’s tabernacle was to expiate sins.  see “Day of Atonement (1)”.  Thus the sacrificial system was instituted for a holy God to dwell with them.  However, 1Sm.15:22-23 “To obey [h8085] is better than sacrifice, to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”  Obeying the Lord is much preferable to disobeying and then having to sacrifice to expiate the sin.  Where there’s no transgression or sin, there’s no need to offer an atoning sacrifice!

From Are Christians Freed from the Old Covenant?: “When Paul states, in Galatians 3:19, ‘It (the body of law governing sacrifices) was added because of transgressions,’ he is referring to a contractual provision, one that would not have been put into effect had Israel obeyed God. How do we know this? Notice Hosea 6:6: ‘For I (the Eternal) desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.’ (Also notice Psalm 40:6, 8.) But animal sacrifices were not instituted by God as an afterthought, any more than was Christ’s sacrifice.”  see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.

David wrote of God in Ps.40:6-8, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. To do Your will, my God, I desired. Your Law is within my heart.”  The Lord didn’t take pleasure in the flesh of sin offerings.  He desires obedience to His righteous moral principles (which predate the OC) more than animal sacrifices.

Again, the Lord said in Ho.6:6, “I desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings”.  By comparison, animal sacrifices were secondary in importance.  JFB Commentary Ho.6:6 “God valued moral obedience as the only end for which positive ordinances, such as sacrifices, were instituted.”  In Mk.12:32-34 of the NT, Jesus confirmed that to love God and to love one’s neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices!

Je.6:20 “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable. Your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”  At that time (ca 600 BC), Judah was offering them from an evil and insincere heart.  Barnes Notes “God rejects not the ceremonial service, but the substitution of it for personal holiness and morality.”

So after centuries of disobedience, God eventually sent His people into captivity…Israel to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon in 597 BC.  The Lord ceased to honor their feigned sacrifices, offered insincerely.

The fault was with the people…not with God’s Old Covenant!  He.8:8 “Finding fault with them….”  Not, “with it.”  A purpose of the OC was to reflect: the Lord’s standard of law, so crime wouldn’t run rampant in the streets…a standard of order, to prevent chaos in society.  The Law given to Moses/Israel also contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.

Again, Ga.3:19 “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions.”

Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law.  Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [g3847].”  And Ro.5:13, “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”  Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.”  So there must be some form of law in existence for there to be sin/transgression (of that law), as per Paul.

Earl Henn What Was the Law ‘Added Because of Transgressions’? “For years, people have wondered how anyone could have transgressed the laws before they were given. Simply put, Paul is talking about the laws of God which have been in full force since Creation! When he writes that the Old Covenant was added ‘till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made’, he means that the Old Covenant was temporary; Christ would replace it with the New Covenant. Rather than saying that God’s [moral] laws had become obsolete, he is explaining how important it was to preserve the knowledge of God’s laws in Israel….Paul is showing that the Old Covenant was an interim, temporary addition to the [prior] covenant made with Abraham. It was necessitated by Israel’s transgressions of God’s holy laws that had been—AND STILL ARE!—in full force and effect since Creation.”

James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.207 “In the pre-Sinai narrative, Biblical law is set in the context of creation.”  p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

John Sailhamer The Law Was Added Because of Transgressions “As Israel continued to transgress the laws given to them, God continued to give them more. God did not give up on His people. When they sinned, he added laws to keep them from sinning further….The laws were added to keep them from disappearing into the world of sin around them. It thus was the transgressions of the people that provided the motivation for God’s giving the Mosaic law.”

After 39 years of wilderness experience, Moses repeated to the next generation in De.13:4. “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him, and you shall keep His commandments and obey [h8085] His voice, and remain loyal to Him.”  Although they didn’t obey then either…they eventually will obey God!

De.4:30 “When you are in distress, in later time, you will return to the Lord your God and obey [h8085] His voice.”  Eventually Israel will obey the Lord with a steadfast heart.  Benson Commentary De.4:30 “Particularly in the days of the Messiah.”  And Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel will be saved”.

Animal sacrifices and the detailed sacrificial system for Israel are no more!  Yet there are righteous moral principles of God brought into the OC Mosaic Law which predated and transcend that OC.

As Paul wrote in Ro.8:4, “That the righteousness [g1345] of the Law may be accomplished in us, who live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.  Gill Exposition Ro.8:4 “By the righteousness of the law, is not meant the righteousness of the ceremonial law, though that was fulfilled by Christ; but of the moral law, which requires holiness of nature.”

Yes, Christians are able to obey God’s moral principles (also contained in the Old Covenant), via the Holy Spirit (HS).  Whereas carnal-minded ancient Israel, most of whom didn’t have the HS, was unable to obey.  Ro.8:7 “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God; it doesn’t subject itself to God’s law, because it is powerless to do so.”  But the HS will figuratively write God’s righteous principles, seen in Genesis also for gentiles, on the minds & hearts of New Covenant Christians (He.8:10).

Also Ro.2:26-27, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the righteousness [g1345] of the Law…if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you [Jews] who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor [g3848] of the Law?”  The HS enables uncircumcised gentile Christians to obey God’s moral laws.  Barnes Notes Ro.2:26 “It could not be supposed that a pagan would understand the requirements of the ceremonial law; but reference is had here to the moral law.”

That’s the moral laws, commandments and statutes which the gentile Abraham obeyed (Ge.26:5), and which Moses made known (Ex.18:16)…prior to Sinai and the OC.  Meyer’s NT Commentary Ro.2:26-27 “The uncircumcised person, who observes what the law has ordained, i.e. the moral precepts of the law, shall one day be awarded the same salvation….The standard of judgment remains the [moral] law of God.”  God’s moral principles/laws…seen even in Genesis for gentiles prior to Moses.  see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.

bible.org The Mosaic Law “The moral principles embodied in the law of Moses Paul calls ‘the righteousness of the law’ (Rom 8:4), and shows that such principles are the goal of the Spirit-directed life in the same context in which he teaches the believer is not under the Mosaic law (Ro 6–8).”

Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.  Unlike most of faithless ancient Israel, real believers do desire to follow and obey Christ the Lord.

The Christian isn’t under the Mosaic law as such…since it included sacrifices and Levitical rituals.  Those are impossible to perform without a tabernacle/temple.  Those are inapplicable today.

The Old Covenant was added for ancient Israel…added because of sins/transgressions of God’s prior eternal laws, Ga.3:19 (ref Part 1).  The OC also contains judgments which governed civil society.

The Lord isn’t an anarchist!  God’s moral principles/laws existed for gentiles prior to the OC.  And those just principles were then put into the OC for ancient Israel.  Those principles/laws of God are still valid for humanity/Christians today!  The HS enables the willing heart to obey them.  (see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)  The character and principles of Jesus Christ, the God of ancient Israel, are the same…yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  He is Lord and Master!

Added in the Old Covenant (1)

Paul wrote in Ga.3:19, “Why the Law [of Moses]? It was added because of transgressions”.  What prior law(s) was transgressed that led to God adding the law of Moses?  And what all did the Lord then add (for Moses/Israel) to His more ancient prior laws after those were transgressed?

The majority of Bible students think the New Testament (NT) apostle Paul meant the Lord’s Old Covenant for ancient Israel was added.  Others think Paul mostly had in mind the detailed sacrificial system which was added.  In this topic, we’ll explore the issue.

Paul said transgression, sin, law-breaking…doesn’t exist without law.  Ro.4:15 “Where there is no law, there is no transgression [Strongs g3847, Greek].”  And Ro.5:13 “For until the Law [of Moses], sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”  Ro.3:20 “Through law comes the knowledge of sin.”  So there must have been some form of law already in existence for there to be sin or transgression (of that law), according to Paul.

Since the Bible mentions sin several times in Genesis (Ge.4:7, 13:13, 18:20, 20:9, 31:36, 39:9, 42:22, 50:17), prior to the Law of Moses…Divine Law must have existed and been revealed to humanity prior to Moses, for sin to have been present!  1Jn.3:4 “Sin is the transgression of the law [lawlessness].”

Sin occurred in the Garden of Eden (Ge.3)…long before sin was described in God’s theocratic laws for Moses & ancient Israel and identified elsewhere.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”  Divine Law, which the serpent violated (Ge.3:3-4) and Cain violated (Ge.4:7-11)…existed from the beginning!

Ge.26:5 the Lord said, “Abraham obeyed [h8085 shemá, Hebrew] Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Abraham did all that…prior to the Law of Moses!  He was very obedient to God.  Also Wisdom of Sírach 44:20 “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  God Most High had laws in Abraham’s day (centuries before Moses).  Abraham had much faith/belief, to obey God!

There were (eternal) laws of God in existence during the period from Adam to Moses.  Those laws were kept by early righteous gentiles such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Job, etc.  1Enoch 99:2 “Woe unto them who pervert the words of uprightness, and transgress the eternal law.”  1Eno.106:13-14 “Some of the angels of heaven commit sin and transgress the law.” (cf. 1Jn.3:4)  An eternal law existed before the Law of Moses, according to 1Enoch.  Abraham was aware of God’s earlier moral laws, and he obeyed.

The topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?” references some of those more ancient (eternal) laws.  They won’t be listed here.  James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.208 “Law is presented, in the first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order.”  There are scriptures that show principles of all the Ten Commandments reflected in Genesis, long before Moses.

Paul also indicated that a moral sense of God and of sin has always existed in man’s consciousness.  Ro.1:19-21 “That which is known of God is evident within them. For since the creation of the world, even though they knew God, they [most] did not honor Him as God.”  Early humans knew of God.

God’s moral principles/laws seen in Genesis, and given to ancient Israel…weren’t new in Moses’ day!

Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses did not invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.”  Yes, real ‘living by faith’ includes living by God’s moral law.

Then in the Old Covenant, God included His preexisting moral commandments, statutes, laws (which Abraham obeyed)…and added to them.  Added new in the Old Covenant Law of Moses were: pilgrim feasts (Ex.12:1-13:7, Ex.23:14-18); the daily morning & evening sacrifice (Ex.29:38-43); sin & guilt offerings (Le.4–6); the tabernacle/temple sequence of offerings, rituals, ceremonies (Nu.28–29); etc.

Conspicuously absent in Genesis are the (later) three pilgrim feasts and the Levitical ritualistic aspects with the detailed sacrificial system.  In Genesis, there’s no tabernacle/temple, and no Passover before the Lord later ‘passed over’ Israelite homes (Ex.12:13).  see “Feasts of the Lord  and the Jews”.

Ga.3:18-19 “If the inheritance is based on law [g3551 nómos], it is no longer based on a promise, but God granted it to Abraham based on a promise. Why the Law [of Moses] then? It was added because of transgressions [g3847 parábasis].”  (7 NT occurrences: Ro.2:23, 4:15, 5:14, 1Ti.2:14, He.2:2, 9:15.)

Meyer’s NT Commentary Ga.3:19 “It [Law of Moses] was, after the covenant of promise was already in existence, superadded to the latter.”  Cambridge Bible Ga.3:19 “It was added’, yet so as not to interfere with the promise.”

Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “But there could obviously be no transgressions until the law existed. The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law.”  Yes, laws of the Ten Commandments, and several other laws, existed for Abraham and gentiles in Genesis.  There could be no transgressions, if there’s no existing laws to transgress (according to Paul, Ro.4:15).

God’s moral principles/laws existed, for gentiles, prior to the Old Covenant.  The Lord carried-over those principles/laws into the Old Covenant as codified for Israel and for aliens among them. The prior laws remained applicable to gentiles.  (see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.)

Moses wrote in De.11:1, “You shall love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, ordinances, and His commandments”.  Notice the similarity of that verse to what all Abraham had obeyed earlier in Ge.26:5 (without an Old Covenant Law of Moses).

Barnes Notes Ga.3:19 “The Law [of Moses] was given [by the Lord] to show the true nature of transgressions, or to show what sin was.”  Benson Commentary Ga.3:19 “To restrain the Israelites from transgressions.”  Restrain them from transgressions of God’s prior enduring moral laws.

Also, the Old Covenant law contained judgments and case law to govern an orderly society.

Paul wrote in Ro.4:13, “The promise [g1860 epangeleéah] to Abraham or to his seed that he would be heir of the world [g2889 kósmos] wasn’t through law, but through the righteousness [g1343 dikaiosúnay] of faith”.  Vincent Word Studies Ro.4:13 “Paul here takes the Jewish conception of the universal dominion of the Messianic theocracy prefigured by the inheritance of Canáan, divests it of its Judaistic element, and raises it to a christological truth.”  Gill Exposition Ro.4:13 “Not through the law of circumcision, or on their obedience to that, for this promise was made before that was enjoined; see Genesis 12:2; nor through the law of Moses, which was not yet given.”  God made the promise to Abrám back when there were no pilgrim feasts (no Passover), Levitical rituals, sin offerings, etc.

God’s promise to Abraham wasn’t made through the Law of Moses or the Old Covenant.  The gentile Abraham didn’t have that.  But Abraham knew God’s moral principles/laws which predated “the promise”.  However, the focus of this topic isn’t “the promise” to Abraham…but what was added later, according to Paul in Ga.3:19.  Yet the promise was made to the Abraham who…“obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”, Ge.26:5!  He knew God’s righteous precepts…and they were later incorporated into the Old Covenant, which God codified for Moses/Israel.

{Sidelight: Moses too had known God’s preexistent righteous precepts.  After Israel exited Egypt, Moses’s father-in-law Jethró came to Moses/Israel in the wilderness in Ex.18:5.  Moses said to Jethro, Ex.18:16, “I judge between a man and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and His laws”.  Moses made known God’s preexistent laws/principles and justice…prior to the Old Covenant (Ex.24), and even prior to God speaking the Ten Commandments (Ex.20)!}

Early gentiles like Abraham didn’t have the detailed sacrificial system.  It was added for Israel…added after Israel rebelled against the Lord in unbelief as they left Egypt.

Je.7:22 “I didn’t speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  Gill Exposition Je.7:22 “These are not in the decalogue or ten commands…but are an appendage or addition to it; and though they are of early institution and use, yet they never were appointed for the sake of themselves.”  JFB Commentary Je.7:22 “The ten commandments having been delivered first.”  (see “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)  Cambridge Bible Je.7:22 “In general it may be said that obedience to the moral law always ranked first.”  Ellicott Commentary Je.7:22 “The ritual in connection with sacrifice was prescribed partly as a concession to the feeling which showed itself, in its evil form, in the worship of the golden calf.”

Again, the (eternal) laws which Abraham and other righteous gentiles in Genesis obeyed, and the Decalogue spoken by the Lord (Ex.20)…were absorbed into the Old Covenant Law for Israel.  It was ratified in Ex.24:1-8, and repeated/amplified in Deuteronomy as Israel was finally entering the Land.

Je.7:23 “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey [hearken to, h8085] My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”  Barnes Notes Je.7:23 “Sacrifice is never the final cause of the [old] covenant, but always obedience.”  God wants obedience first, not recurring sacrifices.

But Matthew Poole Commentary Je.7:22 “They [sacrifices] have been of Divine institution ever since Adam, Ge.4:3-4. God doth not condemn them, or deny them, save only comparatively in respect of obedience, not so much these as obeying His [moral] commands.”

The Lord didn’t institute the detailed sacrificial system for Israel until after they faithlessly rebelled against Him.  Yet there was animal sacrifice before Moses/ancient Israel, and before Abraham.

Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “As early as the 4^th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On….Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4^th and the 3^rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gúdea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”

Sacrifice was ordained by God, and it’s probable He told Adam how to do it.  After Adam & Eve sinned, God required the first sacrifice, providing them with clothing (Ge.3:21).  It’s unlikely Cain & Abel invented sacrifice on their own (Ge.4:3-5).  The practice was passed down to others.

Animal sacrifice to (pagan) deities was customary in much of the ancient world.  Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Job) offered sacrifices to the Lord long before ancient Israel left Egypt.  see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.  Yet no verse in Genesis commanded anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices.

Later, in Ex.3:18, 5:3, 8:27, 10:24-26, Moses was to ask permission from Pharaoh for Israel to have a sacrificial 3-day feast in the wilderness (his request was denied).  Animal sacrifice wasn’t new to those Egyptians.

Ex.12:1–13:7 God ordained the Passover for Israel and the accompanying days of unleavened bread as they were leaving Egypt.  Ex.12:51 the Lord brought them out of Egypt.

What prompted the Lord to command the detailed sacrificial system to ancient Israel?  Why did God add recurring animal sacrifices to His prior moral precepts which He brought into the Old Covenant?

Those questions are addressed as this topic is concluded in “Added in the Old Covenant (2)”.

Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter

The heart is used figuratively in the Bible as man’s moral, emotional and sometimes intellectual center.  Jesus said emphatically in Mt.22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind”.  Jesus was quoting De.6:5 of the Old Covenant (OC).  In this topic, we’ll look at the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (NC), in relation to the heart.

Our Bible forms an integrated whole, a standard for the church.  2Ti.3:16 all scripture is given by the inspiration of God.  Yet Christians and others overlook some of God’s (enduring) principles, because they were cited in the OC.  Many speak of the OC with disdain, not considering that moral principles therein were evident in Genesis for gentiles…and that was before there ever was a nation of Israel or an OC!  see the topics, “Added in the Old Covenant” and “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.

Most of ancient Israel didn’t like the laws of God.  Neither do some NC Christians.  In that regard, it seems these Christians somewhat resemble the mindset of OC Israelites/Jews!  They dislike, or ignore, or may even be hostile towards some of God’s written laws (purposed for the good of society)!

There is only One true Lawgiver.  Ja.4:12 “There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.”  God the Lawgiver had His morality and justice recorded for humanity and the Kingdom of God!

But from the beginning, man opted to establish his own laws and ways, thinking that man of himself innately knows right from wrong.  But a just determination of good & evil is a prerogative solely of God the Lawgiver, not man.  If man tries to ascertain what’s good vs evil on his own, he does so from the wrong tree of the knowledge of good & evil.  ref Ge.3:3-6.  (see “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)

God’s theocracy of ancient Israel was given His just laws.  Moses asked the rhetorical question in De.4:7. “What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God?”  None.  No other nation on the face of the earth!  Old Testament (OT) Israel was given God’s very own principles of morality and His commandments.  Le.22:31 “You shall keep My commandments and do them; I Am the Lord.”  God isn’t unfair.  He didn’t require the ancient nation He loved to do that which wasn’t doable!  God’s commandments are doable!  But their heart wasn’t in it.

Who specifically gave God’s divine laws to Moses/Israel?  Jesus said that no human in OT times had heard Father God’s voice or seen His form.  ref Jn.1:1, 14, 18, 5:37, 6:46.  John indicated it was Jesus the Word of God who the Jewish prophet Isaiah had seen in vision on the Throne! (cf. Is.6:1-ff with Jn.12:41-44.)  De.32:3-4 “Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect.”  The Rock of Israel, who went with them in the wilderness…“That Rock was Christ”, according to Paul (1Co.10:4)!  It was Christ who’d personally visited Abraham (Gen.18).  It was Christ who spoke to Moses, gave Israel the Decalogue (Ex.20), and then established the OC (ref Ex.24:1-8).  Moses and the elders of Israel saw the preincarnate Christ (Ex.24:9-12)!  also ref the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.

Orthodox Study Bible, p.652, quotes church historian Eusebius writing about OT saints. “It is obvious that they knew God’s Christ Himself, since He appeared to Abraham, instructed Isaac, spoke to Jacob, conversed freely with Moses and the Prophets who came later.”  Christ/the Word was the God who spoke with mankind in the OT!  And He.13:8…“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

During their OT history, Israel rebelled against Christ the Lord and His laws, and later corrupted God’s precepts with their own man-made religious traditions.  Je.17:9 “The heart of man is deceitful above all, and corrupt.”  The human heart is deceitful.  Most of ancient Israel didn’t have the Holy Spirit (HS).  So under the OC, the HS wasn’t impressing God’s principles on their hearts.  The last verse of the book of Judges sums it up.  Jg.21:25 “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  Apart from God’s laws, man does what seems right in their own conscience or circumstances…an ancient form of humanism.

(Some Christians seem to do this too, yet may attribute their actions to the HS leading them…as if Christ or the HS isn’t consistent, and contradicts God’s written word or moral principles from the OT!)

As a result, God sent disobedient Israel and Judah into captivity…for bloodshed, idolatry, incest, usury, sabbath-breaking, oppressing the weak, etc. (ref Ezk.22:1-16).  The law of God wasn’t in their heart.

Some from the southern kingdom of Judah later returned to the Holy Land.  These Jews wrote selected OT verses in small boxes or phylácteries.  They literally strapped them to the arm & forehead.  De.6:4-9 “Hear O Israel! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. These words shall be on your heart. And you shall bind them on your hand.”  But their literal practice became a pretense; they did it mostly to impress others.  Jesus said in Mt.23:2-5, “The scribes and Pharisees…do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.”  (De.6:8 a literal physical binding of scriptures in phylactery or téfillin boxes wasn’t the meaning of the verses anyway.  For example, Pr.3:3 & 7:2-3, “binding” God’s commandments on necks, fingers and hearts…was metaphorical only, not to be taken literally.  They weren’t to tie them onto the fingers!)

Jesus called them hypocrites (or stage actors) in Mk.7:6. “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”  Most Jews who returned from captivity didn’t “write” upon their hearts the principles of God, which Christ and the HS had given Moses.  Jesus accused Jews who opposed Him in Jn.7:19. “None of you carries out the Law.”  They disliked Christ’s OT laws.  Those Jews considered God’s written commandments a burden.  But 1Jn.5:3 “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”  According to John, real love involves keeping God’s commandments…and they’re not a burden!  (see “Love – Godly Love”.)

However, there was a minority of OC Israelites who honored and even loved God’s written principles, and desired to obey them.  King David was such a man.  Ac.13:22 (quoting 1Sm.13:14) David is called “a man after God’s own heart”!  1Ki.11:34 “David observed My commandments and My statutes.”  Only in the matter of Bathsheba/Uriah did David turn aside from what God commanded him.  1Ki.15:5 “David did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”  David made mistakes, a few very serious, but his overall intent was to obey the Lord.  [Note: Mic.5:2 is a prophecy of Bethlehem, David’s birthplace (1Sm.20:6, 17:58) and Jesus’ birthplace.  Lk.2:4 the family ancestry was there.  Mt.9:27 Jesus is the son of David!]

David’s name appears over 1,100 times in the Bible.  Interestingly, both the first and the final name mentioned in the New Testament (NT), except for “Jesus”…is “David” (in Mt.1:1 and Re.22:16)!

In some respects, David was a forerunner of real NC Christians!  1Sm.16:13 the HS was mightily on David from that day when Samuel anointed him!  Jesus said in Mk.12:35-36, “David himself said in the Holy Spirit….”  The following two verses, written by David, reflect how he viewed Christ’s principles and laws: Ps.19:7-8 “The law of the Lord is perfect”.  Ps.40:8 “Thy law [toráh Strongs h8451, Hebrew] is within my heart.”  The HS figuratively wrote God’s laws on David’s heart.

Therefore we might call David a prototype of He.8:8-11 (prophesied in Je.31:33-34). “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel’, says the Lord. ‘I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. All shall know Me.”  In the NC, God writes His laws upon human hearts.

God made the NC with Israel and Judah…other Christians are grafted-in, according to Paul.  ref Ro.11:13, 17, 23-27 all of ‘spiritual’ Israel will be saved, via the NC (not via Judaism).  As God’s laws are being written on our hearts in the inner man, we shouldn’t habitually sin.  We should be able to say with David, “Thy law is in my heart” (Ps.40:8).

Similar to Je.31:33 (Je.38:33 LXX), is Ezk.36:26-27. “I will give you a new heart…I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and observe My ordinances.”  Real Spirit-filled Christians allow God to write His laws and principles on their hearts & minds!  The apostle Paul said in Ro.3:31 e.g., “Do we nullify the Law through faith? God forbid! We establish the Law”.

David wrote of the righteous man in Ps.37:31. “The law of God is in his heart; his steps do not slide.”  David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul essentially are saying the same thing in the verses quoted.  Paul wrote in Ro.7:12-14, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good. We know that the law is spiritual.”  Yes, the Holy Spirit had given it to Moses.  Paul goes on in v.22-25, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man….I myself with my mind am serving the law of God.”  According to the NC (He.8:10), God was writing His laws upon the apostles’ minds and hearts too.  2Co.3:3 Christ’s moral laws are no longer written on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

Other ways of describing the heart on which God can write His laws are…a new heart (Ezk.36:26), an exchanged heart, a circumcised heart.  These are interchangeable terms for that heart which is willing to obey the Lord.  De.30:6 was Moses’ prophecy of a future (non-physical) heart circumcision which God would do (to the hearts of both men and women).  Paul wrote in Ro.2:29, “Circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit”.  Not the physical circumcision operation of the foreskin done by men.  Col.2:11 “In Him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.”  God does it (this fulfills De.30:6).  These persons will allow God’s principles to be written on their heart by the HS.  (see the topics “Circumcision in the Bible” and “Holy Spirit-Filled”.)

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to hear a Christian speaker from Mozambique.  This man had reportedly resurrected a dozen people from the dead in the name of Jesus!  He related to us a vision he’d received.  In the vision, he was shown people with trees growing out of their heads!  He said the Lord told him the vision represented modern society (including the church) partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil (Gen.3:6)!  Even the church appears humanistic, many churchgoers attaching Jesus’ Name to that wrong tree, not desiring God the Lawgiver’s definition of good & evil on His terms.

On another occasion, a pastor from Uganda was invited to speak at a church in my city.  He told of closing himself off for three days in his room to seek the Lord for the topic.  He said God told him to address Ezk.22:26. “Her priests have violated My law, they make no distinction between the holy and the profane, or between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths.”  That visiting pastor spoke courageously!  But his sermon was hard for some to hear.

Is.8:20 “To the law and to the testimony [the Decalogue, Ex.31:18]! If they don’t speak according to this word, it is because they have no light.”  Too many Christians (perhaps unknowingly) are attaching Christ’s Name to man’s laws and justice system from the wrong tree of humanism…as if man is God.

It can feel more comfortable to be religious or follow denominational traditions which may not honor God’s written word.  That’s what the majority of OC Israel/Judah did, and the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day.  Paul wrote of them in Ga.6:13. “Those who are circumcised [physically] don’t even keep the law.”  Those Jewish religious leaders who contended with Jesus weren’t keeping God’s written laws.  Mt.15:18 “The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart.”  The scribes & Pharisees who spoke against Jesus…God’s written principles weren’t on their hearts.  (Jesus was law-abiding).

Let’s us not be pharisaic NC Christians by resembling OC Israelites/Jews that disrespected God’s laws.  Sectarian church traditions or the views of so-called church ‘fathers’ (e.g. some Roman Catholic Church tradition) shouldn’t be placed above the written word of God.  That practice can also be a cause of division in the Body of Christ.  (also see “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.)

The Lord exclaimed in De.5:29, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever”!  But such a heart wasn’t in most of those OC Israelites, and they failed to be a right example to the nations.

In conclusion…God saves the upright in heart (Ps.7:10).  We too can be real NC (grafted-in) Christians, having God’s righteous moral principles written on our hearts and minds!  And they’re not burdensome (1Jn.5:3).  And as the gospel spreads, obedient NC Christians will reflect the righteousness and true heartfelt love of God to the world!  To God be the glory!!

Paul the Apostle (1) – Law and Works

There are many Bible readers who view the apostle Paul’s epistles as unclear or controversial.  Some Christians who believe in Jesus even think Paul was a false apostle!  Did Paul mean it is necessary to maintain good works and obey God’s commandments/laws…or it isn’t necessary?

As Christians, our belief in Jesus, in salvation, in the veracity of scripture, etc., is to a large extent based upon the testimony of (eye) witnesses.  For example, the four gospels testify of Jesus.  Books of the Bible were composed by God’s servants, inspired by the Holy Spirit (HS).  2Ti.3:16 Paul wrote “All scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness”.  And according to Ps.119:172, “All Thy commandments are righteousness”.

Our Bibles, both Testaments, contain numerous righteous commandments/laws of God.  Ps.119:142 “Thy law is truth.”  Yet Christians today reading Paul come to varying opinions about the continuing validity of God’s laws & commandments seen in scripture.  The true moral laws & principles God gave to ancient Israel…are they applicable today?  Should they be obeyed by Christians, by mankind?

Let’s fabricate, make believe, a trial to simulate how a court would ‘rule’ on this issue.  We’ll use the holy scriptures or their writers as the witnesses.  We won’t use the historical Roman Catholic Church or other denominations, or opinions of church ‘fathers’, theologians or other people.  A court ‘verdict’ can be delivered only after the witnesses have been heard.  Let’s now call the Bible witnesses.

Ge.26:5 “Abraham obeyed Me, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, My laws.”  All that!  That indicates Divine laws were known by gentiles well before God’s codified law was given to Moses & Israel.  (see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?” and “Genesis Principles Predate Moses”.)

Moses wrote in De.11:1, “Love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments”.  Also De.4:8 “What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole Law?”  Israel had such just laws, blessed beyond other peoples!

Joshua wrote of the Lord’s exhortation to him in Jsh.1:7-8. “Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. For then you will make your way prosperous and have good success.”  Obeying the laws God made known to ancient Israel would result in prosperity and success!

David was a man after God’s own heart (ref 1Ki.11:4, 34, 15:5; Ac.13:22).  David wrote in Ps.19:7-9, “The law of the Lord is perfect. His judgments are true, righteous altogether.”  That’s high acclaim!

The Preacher (Ec.12:9) taught in Ec.12:13, “The conclusion, when all has been heard: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind”.  After we’ve tried other things or other lifestyles, when all is said & done…obeying God’s commandments is the bottom line for right living!

Isaiah wrote in Is.8:20, “To the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, it is because they have no light.”  Anyone not speaking according to the Lord’s commandments/testimony is in some darkness, whether they realize it or not.

Josiah said in 2Ch.34:14-15, 19, 21, “Great is the wrath of the Lord because our fathers haven’t observed the word of the Lord, to do all that is written in this book”.  This king was grieved to find God’s book of the law had been disobeyed.  Josiah instituted reforms.

Jeremiah prophesied that eventually the Lord would even write His laws on peoples’ very hearts!  Je.31:31-33 “I will make a New Covenant. I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it.”  God’s living principles would thereby become internalized in man.

Ezekiel prophesied in Ezk.36:26-27, “I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and observe My judgments”.  The day would come when the HS would enable people to live according to God’s statutes & justice.  (This passage resembles Je.31:33 above, regarding the New Covenant.)

Daniel lamented in Da.9:10-11, “All Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, so the curse has been poured out on us”.  Wise Daniel understood that curses can result from violating God’s laws.

Malachi wrote the Lord’s warning in Mal.4:4-6. “Remember the law of Moses My servant, the statutes and judgments I commanded him. Lest I come and smite the Land with a ban of destruction.”  In the final verses of the Old Testament, future generations are exhorted & warned to remember God’s laws.

Jesus the Lord confirmed in Jn.14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me”.  God had promised Moses/Israel in Ex.20:6, “I, the Lord your God…showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.”  Jesus linked real love of God to obeying His commandments.  Jesus castigated those Pharisees & scribes who rejected His commandments in favor of Judaism’s oral law.  Mk.7:8-11 “You set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”  Jesus attacked the rules & regulations of men, but never the written commandments of God, including those which He’d spoken to Moses/Israel.  Jesus wouldn’t contradict the Lord Himself!

Peter said in Ac.5:29, 32, “We must obey God rather than men…The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”  Rather than fearing man, obedience to God is necessary and is a key to being Spirit-filled. (see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.)  God commanded in Le.11:44-47 e.g., “I am the Lord your God. Be holy for I am holy. This is the law to make a distinction between the clean and the unclean.”  Peter said in Ac.10:14, “I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”  Later as an old man, Peter still advocates holiness, which pertained to the Lord’s command (Le.11:45) regarding clean/unclean, “It is written, Be holy for I am holy” (1Pe.1:16).  also see “Unclean versus Clean Food”.

James wrote in Ja.4:12, “There is One Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy”.  Jesus’ relative recognized God as the one and only genuine Lawgiver.  God’s laws & standards are intrinsically right!

John reiterated Jesus’ words about loving Him (Jn.14:21) in 1Jn.5:3. “This is the love of God, that you keep His commandments.”  The elderly apostle defined real love as keeping God’s commandments!  John wrote in Re.12:17, “The dragon was enraged and went off to make war with those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus”.  Satan hates commandment-keepers!  And John also warned in 1Jn.2:3-4, “The one who says ‘I know Him’, and doesn’t keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”.  Those opposed to Divine law may just pay lip-service to Jesus.

To inherit eternal life, in Lk.10:25-28 Jesus acknowledged a person should: (1) Love God…De.6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul [life], with all your might.”  (2) Love your neighbor…Le.19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”  (see “Love – Godly Love”.)  The Lord had told these principles to Moses many centuries earlier.  They didn’t originate with Jesus in the 1^st century!  God’s laws all generally come within these two broad headings…love God and love your neighbor.  187 chapters of the Bible are attributed to Moses, many of them containing God’s commands & precepts.

Jesus again, at the very end of our Bible, Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they who do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life”.  Eternal life for both Jews and gentiles (e.g. the non-Jew Abraham in Ge.26:5) who do God’s commandments.

We’ve quoted and examined the Bible testimony/evidence of 15 witnesses.  Witnesses from Genesis to Revelation attest to the laws of God!  De.19:15 “A single witness shall not rise up…on the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.”  A minimum of two witnesses is necessary.  Jn.8:16-18 Jesus confirmed, “The testimony of two men is true”.  Jesus applied De.19:15 to disputes between church brothers in Mt.18:16. “By the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses.”  (It’s not limited to murder cases.)

1Ti.5:19 Paul instructed Timothy, “Don’t receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of 2 or 3 witnesses”.  He.10:28 “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without pity on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses.”  Even God has His unique 2 witnesses!  Re.11:3 “I will grant authority to My 2 witnesses.”  So we see in both Testaments…at least 2 or 3 witnesses are necessary as evidence.

So again, we’ve read 15 witnesses who are in agreement about God’s laws, etc.  But, what if another single witness arises who disagrees or seems to disagree with the above 15 witnesses of scripture…whether he’s a Bible character, a church ‘father’, a modern ‘prophet’, whoever?  Or what if a single witness seems to agree with those 15 witnesses part of the time, and seems to disagree part of the time?

That’s how many Bible readers view the apostle Paul.  What many see in Paul’s writings is…he’s vacillating between obedience to God’s commandments/laws and indifference or laxity.

Let’s look at the question of whether or not good works (érgon Strongs g2041, Greek) are necessary for Christians.  Jesus said in Mt.5:16, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works [g2041]”.  Jesus says in Re.2:1-2, 18-19, 3:1, “I know your works [g2041]”.  Jesus rebuked and urged them to repent of dead works (also ref He.6:1).  James wrote in Ja.2:18, 26, “I’ll show you my faith by my works [g2041]….faith without works [g2041] is dead.”  Peter wrote in 1Pe.1:17, “The Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work [g2041]”.  Paul wrote in Ti.3:8, “Be thoughtful to be leading in good works [g2041]”.  Paul in Col.1:10, “That you might walk worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work [g2041]”.  And Paul in Ro.2:5-6, “The righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works [g2041]”.  Confirming the need to maintain good works, here we’ve read 4 ‘witnesses’…Jesus, James, Peter, and Paul himself.

But Paul in Ro.4:6 (seemingly conversely against Ro.2:5-6) wrote of “the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works [g2041]”.  Also Ep.2:8-9 “By grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of works [g2041].”  What?!  Taking these two passages at face value, Paul contradicts not only himself…but Peter, James, and even Jesus too!  Our wayward human nature may favor the Paul of Ro.4:6 & Ep.2:8-9…and dismiss the Paul of Ti.3:8, Col.1:10 & Ro.2:5-6, and the above words of Peter, James and Jesus!  But Peter warned of lawless men who twist Paul’s writings.  2Pe.3:15-17 “Our beloved brother Paul, in all his letters are some things which are hard to understand; which the unstable distort as they do also the rest of the scriptures, carried away by the error of lawless men.”  Peter indicated the lawless dislike God’s laws/commandments, and use Paul’s epistles to excuse themselves.

The phrase “works of the law” appears 7 times in Paul’s writings.  e.g.: Ro.3:20 “By the works [ergon g2041] of the law [nómos g3551] no flesh shall be justified in His sight.”  Ro.3:28 “A man is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.”  Ga.2:16 “A man isn’t justified by the works of the law.”  Ga.3:5 “Does He who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the law or the hearing of faith?” (also Ro.9:32, Ga.3:2, 3:10.)  What was this “works of the law”?

The concept “works of the law”, which Paul was against, is found as Esséne rituals in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QMMT.  This related to their sectarian solar calendar, purity regulations & cooking utensils & ceremony, the intermarriage of priests with commoners, etc.  (Essene law concepts weren’t continued in rabbinic Judaism.  Neither’s oral law applies to Christians…they aren’t God’s commands.)

Dr. John Bergsma Dead Sea Scrolls: Paul and Works of the Law “4QMMT is a letter from the Essenes to the Pharisees about ritual purity. In 4QMMT, it’s the only use of the phrase ‘works of the law’ in ancient literature outside of Paul. These aren’t issues of eternal, moral principles; these are all issues of cultic purity. Not a reference to good works in general.”  They were ritualistic works.

Martin Abegg 4QMMT, Paul, and Works of the Law “Works of the law’ in 4QMMT are extant precepts concerning acts which trespass the boundaries between the pure and the impure. Paul consciously reflected the term ‘works of the law’ which was used by the author of 4QMMT and, I would suggest, by Paul’s opponents in Galatians. MMT is couched in the exact language of what Paul was rebutting in his letter. It appears highly likely that Paul was reacting to the kind of theology espoused in 4QMMT, that a person was reckoned righteous by keeping ‘works of the law.”  Via purity regulations.

4QMMT C31 ending “It will be reckoned for you as righteousness, when you perform what is right and good [regulations herein] before Him, for your own good and for that of Israel.”  Ro.4:22 Paul wrote, “It was reckoned to him [Abraham] as righteousness”.  A likeness of expression to 4QMMT.

Barry F. Parker ‘Works of the Law’ and the Jewish Settlement in Asia Minor “It is not a case of Paul attacking the law in Galatians. Rather, he is attacking a particular understanding of the law. His assault is not on the law but on certain ‘works of the law’. There is no place whatsoever for a random selection of works of the law. 4QMMT’s ‘works of the law’ is the linguistic equivalent of Paul’s ‘erga nomou’ (e.g. Rom 3:20, 28; Gal 2:16; 3:2, 5, 10). Indeed, it seems to be the only extant equivalent. As such, it is crucial in the understanding of Paul’s use of the phrase ‘works of the law’. Rom.3:20-22, Paul makes the point that Christ adhered to the law in its entirety and not selectively. Paul’s opponents in Galatians have twisted the purpose of the law almost beyond recognition, and Paul has no tolerance for their view. Notably, he condemns their emphasis on ‘selective works of the law’ [MMT Miqsat Ma’ase ha-Toráh]. The more disparaging language concerning law in Galatians doesn’t refer to the Torah [written] per se, but to a perversion of it. The use of ‘works of the law’ there confirms both that Paul is in (indirect) dialogue with those familiar with Essene terminology and that selectivity is in view. Although he speaks to a different audience about a different problem regarding the law in Romans, when Paul uses the phrase ‘erga nomou’ in Romans 3, the immediate context is quite similar to what he addresses in Galatians.”  4QMMT promoted sectarian selected practices (non-scriptural).

‘Works of the law’ (ergon nomou) also related to temple sacrifices.  As per Le.6:1-7 – After confession, restitution, pay the fine, do animal sacrifice at the temple…for forgiveness, atonement, justification…only then did the offender become reconciled to God again.  This process for Old Covenant Israel was justification by works of the Torah.  And it was work!  Philo The Special Laws1, p.556 re Le.6:1-7: “Pardon shall be given to such a man, who shows the truth of his repentance, not by promises, but by works. Restoring the deposit he’d received, giving up what he’d stolen or found, paying in addition 1/5 of the value as an atonement for the evil he’d done. Also go to the temple and sacrifice a ram.”  The now obsolete system of ritually killing animals for expiation also was a “ministry of death” (2Co.3:7).

A closer look at the ‘inconsistent’ Paul of Ro.4:6 and Ep.2:8-9, Ferrar Fenton 1903 translation: Ro.4:6 “The man to whom God grants righteousness apart from rituals.”  Ep.2:8-9 “You are saved by a gift through faith, not from rituals.”  Paul here had in mind ritualistic works, not good deeds or morality.  Which makes sense, because Paul went on to say in v.10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works”.  Would Paul contradict himself in consecutive verses; that works aren’t done in v.9, and yet the same works should be done in v.10?  Rather, Christians needn’t do rituals, but should do good deeds and moral obedience.  Thus, Paul in these two passages doesn’t contradict the Paul of Ti.3:8, Col.1:10 or Ro.2:5-6…nor does Paul contradict Peter, James, or Jesus regarding works.

Sacrificial & ritualistic works were not the Decalogue/10 Commandments, nor were they God’s dietary laws for health.  Obviously it requires no work to: rest on the sabbath day, refrain from murder or theft, refrain from eating pigs, mice, bats, cats, dogs, or from drinking blood!  A person can refrain from violations of those written principles even by staying in bed…no ‘works’ are involved whatsoever!

How did Paul view the written moral laws/commandments of God?  Paul wrote in Ro.3:31, “Do we nullify the Law through faith? By no means! On the contrary, we establish the law.”  Then in Ro.7:12-14, “The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. For we know the Law is spiritual.”  (The Holy Spirit had given the Law to Moses.)   Paul goes on to say in v.22-25, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man…I myself with my mind am serving the law of God.”  It seems God was writing His laws upon the heart/mind of Paul too.  As Jeremiah prophesied.  Paul told gentile converts in Ep.6:2, “Honor your father and mother”, quoting the very Law of Ex.20:12, De.5:16.

The above verses are examples of Paul’s testimony not contradicting what the HS inspired the other 15 witnesses.  That is the true Paul.  Again, 2Ti.3:16 Paul himself wrote, “All scripture is inspired by God”.  Paul even says in Ro.8:7, “The carnal mind is hostile toward God, for it doesn’t subject itself to the Law of God, it is unable to do so”.  Folks may sit in church on Sunday morning, yet are unable to subject themselves to God’s laws.  According to Paul, that’s indicative of a carnal mind, unable to really obey God’s spiritual law.  Some may call Jesus “Lord, Lord” (Lk.6:46), but not really obey the Lord.

We ‘called the witnesses’ in our simulated trial…Gentile, Israelites, Jews…Prophets, Priests, Kings.  From Genesis to the final chapter of Revelation!  Jesus had said in Jn.17:17, “Thy word is truth”.  Since our Bibles include 13 letters (87 chapters) bearing the name of Paul, we tend to overlook the fact that he is solely just one witness!  And although Paul’s epistles aren’t essential for us to inherit eternal life, Christians would prefer a clear, consistent understanding of Paul.

Would a sound-minded judge throw out the testimony of 15 separate witnesses to side with 1 whose testimony seems inconsistent?  Needless to say, a just judge would side with 15 righteous witnesses, and disregard any (supposed) contrary testimony of merely 1 witness!  And we saw where Paul too acknowledged the need for 2 or 3 witnesses; and read where he agreed with the 15 Bible witnesses.

Also we saw verses where Paul exhorted good works.  And Paul’s reference to “works of the law” related to Jewish sectarianism/Éssenism which Paul opposed, and to sacrifices.

Finally, the writer to the Hebrews quoted Jeremiah in He.8:8-10. “Behold, I make a new covenant. I will put My laws in their minds and will write them upon their hearts.”  Here a final ‘witness’ confirms that God writes His laws within New Covenant believers.  The moral principles & laws which the Lord gave ancient Israel, the people He loved (e.g. De.7:7-8), are being written on yielded hearts. (also see “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter”.)

We’ve heard/read the ‘witnesses’ of scripture.  Ladies and gentlemen of the jury…how will you decide?  As for me, I believe the verdict is…God’s moral laws/commandments and good works are valid for Israel, gentiles, Christians, all mankind!  Praise God, our Lawgiver (Ja.4:12)!

This series about Paul is continued in “Paul the Apostle (2) – The Chameleon?”.