Why then the Law?
Over on TikTok, there's this disturbing rise in popularity of the view that Christians must keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. I refer to the people that hold this view as "Judaizers," after the Apostle Paul's use of the term (Galatians 2:14). It's not just on TikTok, either. You can see these guys showing up on other social media platforms. It's not new. The Judaizer perspective has been around almost as long as the Church has, and every so often it rears its ugly head again.
This perspective is heretical. It's dangerous in that it can very easily affect salvation. The Biblical text is explicitly clear about the relationship between Christians and the Law, but there are more than a few teachers promoting this perspective by severely twisting the Scriptures, and they're tricking younger, less informed Christians into buying it, to their detriment.
I felt like I should post again on the subject to do what I can to warn the people connected to me to stay away from the Judaizer nonsense, or to warn those who've perhaps accepted it already to repent and abandon it.
As a preface, let me say that I am not condemning all things Jewish. I am not condemning Messianic Judaism. I'm not condemning the acknowledging and respecting of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith, or denying that Christianity can be rightly understood as the completed form of Old Testament Judaism. And I am certainly not anti-Jewish. This is not meant in any way to bash the Jewish people. My only goal here is to establish that the teaching that Christians must keep the Law of Moses is contrabiblical.
To begin:
Basic Christian teaching holds that Jesus lived a perfect life according to the Law of Moses, and then He gave Himself as a sacrifice for sins, and was raised back to life again. Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the Law, never failing even once at a single point; and by faith in Him, we are clothed in His righteousness, so that through faith, we also fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law. Paul is explicit about this in his letter to the Romans:
Romans 3:21-26:
"21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
Romans 4:22-25:
"22 That is why [Abraham's] faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
Romans 8:1-4:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
These passages are some of what forms the basis for the central Christian doctrine of Justification: we are declared entirely just in the sight of God by virtue of Jesus' imputed righteousness, and not by any righteousness that we ourselves possess.
Paul goes on to declare in no uncertain terms that we are freed from the Law on the same basis: for the one who has died is free from the Law.
Paul says in Romans 6:3-4:
"3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
And in Romans 7:1-6:
"1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."
When we are included in Christ's atonement by faith, we are spiritually united with Jesus in His death and subsequent resurrection; this is what is depicted in baptism. In a very real sense, after coming to faith in Christ we have died, and having died, we are no longer under the Law. Paul goes on to say in chapter 10, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
It is very hard to escape the clear point Paul makes in these passages. This is the same point that is made in summary at the Jerusalem Council recorded in Acts 15, and in Paul's letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 2, Paul writes:
"15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."
Please don't miss this part: Paul wrote the book of Galatians specifically to address the Judaizer heresy, and here in chapter 2, Paul makes this very strong statement: "For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law that I might live to God...I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."
In other words, Paul is saying that teaching that the law is required for Christians is an attempt at rebuilding the old way, and doing so transgresses the way of Christ by nullifying God's grace. He punctuates his point by saying that if the law could bring righteousness, then Jesus died for nothing. Holy Scripture insists that to make the Law of Moses necessary for salvation is to make Christ's death meaningless.
The Judaizer may object by saying that Jesus Himself established that the Law wouldn't pass away until all the Law and prophets be fulfilled. He said so in Matthew 5:17-18:
"17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."
Jesus' statement here encompasses all the prophecies in the Old Testament. If we take Him at face value, then we have to admit that the Law has not passed away yet, because not all of the Law and the Prophets has been fulfilled. That means that the Law must still be in place, serving its intended purpose. Doesn't that mean that the Law is binding on Christians?
No, it doesn't.
Paul writes in Galatians 4:19-27:
"19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."
And then in 1 Timothy 1:8-11, Paul writes:
"8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted."
Like Jesus taught, the Law is still in place, serving its intended purpose: the Law serves to teach us what sin is, and show us our own unrighteousness, and stands against all those who are outside of Christ.
But equally true is the fact that the Law is not binding upon those in Christ, who have died to it, and who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, as Paul pointed out.
At this point, the Judaizer may say that we're teaching antinomianism (a name for an ancient heresy that means "lawlessness"), because we're suggesting that Christians have no moral standards to uphold; no Law, no obedience, anything goes. And again, the Judaizer would be wrong.
Being united with Christ's death and resurrection in the atonement opens the door for the Holy Spirit to indwell us. With God's Holy Spirit inside of us, we are now empowered to serve God from the inside out, in the "new way of the Spirit, and not the old way of the written code," as Paul put it. The Holy Spirit empowers us to deny the demands of our fallen natures and instead choose to obey the Lord sincerely (Romans 6). He leads us into righteous behavior. The Holy Spirit also provides for us a model as to what a righteous life looks like in the writings of the New Testament. Paul and the other Apostles give us instructions as to how to live the Christian life; Romans 12-15, 1 Corinthians 6, Galatians 5, 1 Peter 1:13-25, just to name a few passages. These instructions are replete throughout the New Testament writings, but they can be encapsulated in the summary the Lord Jesus gave us: love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.
Lest there be any misunderstanding, the New Testament instructions are not a series of written laws we must keep in order to be saved, but rather a depiction of the behaviors of a person who is filled with God's Holy Spirit; if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and seeking the Lord, our lives will conform to what is written in the New Testament (Galatians 5:16-26).
Paul teaches explicitly that salvation does not come by doing works of righteousness, but by grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9); and James teaches us that genuine saving faith will necessarily result in works of righteousness (James 2:14-26). So, we understand that good works are the product of salvation, not the cause of it.
The danger of the Judaizer position is extreme; holding to it can cost a person their salvation. Paul writes in Galatians 5:4, "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace." This is no small thing. If you embrace the Law of Moses and hold that it is a requirement for salvation, you cut yourself off from the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
The Judaizer is left with no Biblical harbor for their view. But it gets worse. The Judaizers are inconsistent with their take on what exactly Jesus does for them. For, on the one hand, they want to bind Christians to the Law of Moses, knowing full well that the Law requires complete obedience to every point (Deuteronomy 27:1, 26; 2 Kings 17:13; Galatians 3:10, 5:3; James 2:10), and then on the other, they want to claim that Jesus' sacrifice abrogates all portions of the Law concerning animal sacrifice. It can't be both ways. If we keep the Law, we must keep all of it without exception; that requires animal sacrifices, a Levitical priesthood, and a Temple (and this is impossible for anyone to do, since there hasn't been a Temple for almost 2,000 years). If we are set free from the Law through Christ Jesus so that He serves as our once-for-all sacrifice, then we are set free from all of it. On pain of inconsistency, the Judaizers have to go one of two ways: either Jesus doesn't relieve them of the need for animal sacrifice and thus they're all Lawbreakers regardless of what they do, or else Jesus sets them free from the Law, and their entire position crumbles.
I understand why people want to adopt the Law as part of the Christian way. It seems exotic (at least for those of us who are Gentiles). It makes a person feel special. It makes them feel like they've stumbled onto secret knowledge. It makes them feel closer to God. It goes a long way to relieve feelings of guilt and shame over our repeated moral failings (at least in the beginning). But it does all of this at the expense of God's very clear instruction to us. We can't let ourselves be tricked into thinking that we're closer to God by disregarding His plan, purpose, and directives to us. Don't follow this deception and lose out on salvation. It's a tragedy that so many think they'll find God by abandoning Him.
If you're tempted by the Judaizer message, flee from it. You'll find nothing good there. If you're already part of the Judaizer movement, I beg you, please reconsider. Please search the Scriptures and seek the Lord in serious prayer. The Judaizer position is contrary to both the Gospel and reason. Repent and run back to God before it's too late.
