Question:

I’m hoping you could shed some light on these questions of mine. What is "the Law"? What is "the Old Testament law"? What is "the Law of Moses"? What is "the Law of Christ"? I see and hear these terms used quite often and I wanted to find out if you could provide a breakdown for each in order to help me to understand what the differences are if any.

Answer:

In the Bible, "The Law" is most often a reference to the Law of Moses, which is the legal system/covenant established at Mt. Sinai during the wandering in the Wilderness under Moses. There are times when "The Law" might refer to something more broad than that. For example, in Colossians 2:14, when Paul mentions "the written code" he may be speaking of laws in general, not just the Mosaic Code. Also, James 2:9-10 might be a reference to Law in a broader sense. This might even be a reference to the "law" of our conscience. Romans 2:14-16 hints at something like this. So, in most contexts, in the Bible, "the Law", "the Old Testament Law" and "the Law of Moses" are normally one and the same thing, but there are exceptions. This is the Law which Jesus claims to have come to fulfill (Matthew 5:17-20) so that we are no longer under the "curse" of the Mosaic Law. The reason this Law was a "curse" in a sense, is because none of us were able to keep it and therefore none of us were perfected by following the Law of Moses or any other law. For a rather thorough discussion of "the Law," which, in context, is the Law of Moses, the entire book of Galatians can serve this purpose.

The Law of Christ is an expression only used a couple of times in the entire New Testament. One is 1 Cor 9:21 and the other is Galatians 6:2. It is difficult to be sure exactly what Paul means by "The Law of Christ." One possibility is that it refers to the same thing mentioned in Romans 8:2, which says that "through the Law of the Spirit of life" we are "set free from the law of sin and death." The Law of Christ may be the "Law" of salvation by Christ–the opposite of the Law of sin and death. If so, then it is hard to see how this works in Galatians 6:2, which says that if we carry each other’s burdens we are fulfilling the Law of Christ. In this context, it appears that the Law of Christ is a principle of living like Christ lived. I believe we will have to settle for the fact that the Law of Christ is not really all that well defined in the New Testament.

John Oakes