Preface To The Second Printing
1. Must God Plead With God?
   
2. How The Spirit Leads
   
3. Physical Reinforcements of Faith
   
4. Jesus' Physical and Spiritual Death
   
5. Is There Merit in Pain?
   
6. The Six Days of Creation
   
7. Adding Guilt to Anxiety
   
8. Wine and The Disciple
   
9. Revolution or Evolution
   
10. I Am That Disciple
    
11. When People Disagree
    
12. Is Unity Based Upon Seven Doctrines?
    
13. Our Seven Sacraments
    
14. Instrumental Music
    
15. The Mood of Worship
    
16. Justified Then Sanctified
    
17. Is Christian Our Name?
    
18. The Lord's Table
    
19. Righteousness That Exceeds
    
20. Neither Destroyed Nor Nailed To The Cross
    
21. The Right of Self-Protection
    
22. A Tree of Error
    
23. God is Limited
    
24. You Are Here
    
25. God is In Charge
    
26. Hook's Points
    
27. Lamentations of A Mediocre Preacher
    

NEITHER DESTROYED NOR NAILED TO THE CROSS

The Law of Moses was neither destroyed/abolished nor nailed to the cross.

Jesus had been criticized early for his conduct on the Sabbath. As he prefaced his discussion of some points of the law, he explained his attitude toward the law in Matthew 5:17-19: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus expressed a respect for the law that we have not always appreciated.

The law delivered through Moses was not some sort of mistake or undeveloped concept. It was unique in that it combined political and religious laws. When a Jew paid his tithe, he was paying his taxes and supporting religion at the same time. Some have described this system as an inferior arrangement that would permit vengeance by a person repaying in like kind. That is a gross misunderstanding. The "eye for an eye" provision did not permit personal retaliation or vengeance, but it spoke of the justice to be provided by due process of law before the judges, guaranteeing that punishment would not be too severe or too lenient. The punishment was to fit the crime.

"It was just a carnal law," we hear. Is that right? Paul wrote, "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (Rom. 7:12). In verse 14 he continues, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin." The defect of carnality is in man. Man cannot keep law perfectly. He sins. Law cannot remove guilt, neither the Law of Moses nor any other law.

The loftiest concepts of Jesus' teachings were not new to him. They were from the law. There he found the two greatest commandments. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 6:4-5). "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord" (Lev. 19:17f). There is nothing carnal or inferior about those commandments. Of his Golden Rule, Jesus said, "for this is the law and the prophets."

Did Jesus destroy the law? Let us consider three facets: (1) The Old Testament Scriptures were not destroyed, (2) the moral law did not cease, and (3) the ceremonial law was not abolished.

1. The Old Testament Scriptures Were Not Destroyed. The early disciples were not called upon to scrap their Bible. They searched the Scriptures and they preached from them. The Scriptures spoke to them and they still speak to us. Timothy was urged to "attend to the public reading of the Scripture." Even in his last epistle, Paul exhorted Timothy, "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:14-17). We misapply this text. Paul is not referring to New Testament writings. None had been written in Timothy's childhood, and no collection of sacred writings to the disciples had been made when this letter was written. The Old Testament writings are a great support to Christian faith.

2. The Moral Law Was Not Abolished. Jesus warned that whoever would relax the least of the commandments would be called least in the kingdom of heaven. These laws projected into the realm of the kingdom.

The rabbis, scribes, and Pharisees expounded the traditional interpretations which relaxed some laws and made others more stringent. When Jesus would say, "You have heard that it was said... but I say...," he was not giving new Christian regulations so much as explaining what the law meant originally. "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" is but an explanation of the original intent of "You shall not commit adultery."

Moral law existed before Moses and apart from Moses. All men have been accountable to moral law. That's true now. A Gentile was not a sinner because he did not keep Jewish rituals, but because he had violated moral law. An alien today is not a sinner because he does not keep Christian rituals, but because he has violated moral law. He finds his forgiveness in Christ.

That the moral law, even as contained in the Law of Moses, is still in effect is evident from many passages such as Romans 13:8-10.

Didn't Jesus nail the law to the cross? No. That would have destroyed it. He didn't destroy it. But what of Colossians 2:13f? Let's look at this favorite proof­text. Paul speaks of God "having forgiven all our trespasses." By what means? "Having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands, nailing it to the cross." The thing canceled was our sins-that list of violations of laws-which bond was nailed to the cross. The context reveals that Paul is addressing the uncircumcised Gentile. He had not been under the Law of Moses and he had no need for its removal. But his sins were nailed to the cross.

The New Easy to Read New Testament renders it simply, "We owed a debt because we broke God's laws. That debt listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. God took away that debt and nailed it to the cross."

With this interpretation, there is still a problem in harmonizing Ephesians 2:14f in which Paul explains: "For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end." The outer court of the temple in Jerusalem had a barrier beyond which a Gentile was not permitted to go. Metaphorically, this represented the law. When Jews and Gentiles were baptized into Christ, that wall was destroyed metaphorically in the body of Christ-"in his flesh."

"You have died to the law through the body of Christ," Paul assures, and he adds: "But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit" (Rom. 7:4,6).

The law which distinguished between Jew and Gentile was made ineffective because neither came to Jesus through it, but through faith. The law was no longer a barrier to exclude the Gentile though it was still kept by Jewish disciples. In this setting (Romans 7), Paul expresses his respect for the law and reveals his continued struggle with it.

3. The Ceremonial Law Was Not Destroyed. The Jewish disciples continued to keep rituals of the law. They circumcised. At the Jerusalem conference (Acts 15), it was agreed that circumcision or the law could not be bound on the Gentiles. But the decision expressed no intention of stopping the Jewish practice, assuring that Moses was continually preached. Later, Paul took Timothy and circumcised him (Acts 16:3). After many years of preaching, on his way to Jerusalem before his arrest, Paul cut his hair, for he had a vow (Acts 18:18).

When Paul arrived at Jerusalem (Acts 21:17-26), James and the elders said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; they are all zealous for the law..." They then requested that Paul involve himself in ceremonies and offerings of purification to convince all that he kept the law. He complied.

Without question, the law was being kept by disciples. These rituals did not disqualify them from the grace of Christ. However, if they performed them as an effort toward justification, they would fall short of grace, because grace and forgiveness did not come through the law. Grace must come through Christ. These religious rituals were expressions of devotion but they were not efforts of justification.

Jesus said that he would fulfill the law. That's what he did. Being fulfilled, the ceremonies would become irrelevant and fade from practice. All of the ritual offerings would find their fulfillment in Christ -the Passover, scapegoat, atonement, firstfruits. peace offering, sin offering, trespass offering. No longer would the Temple visit bring the disciple into the Presence, for he is a temple himself. The Temple priest is not needed, for the disciple is a priest. The real thing will replace that which foreshadowed it. The law was not destroyed, but it was fulfilled.

A man might be in service overseas. Each night his wife lovingly studies his portrait and kisses it before going to sleep. But when he returns home, she will not kiss his picture any longer though she will keep and cherish it. While doing no violence to his picture, the kissing of it will give way to his embrace and kisses. Marriage does not abolish courtship, but fulfills it. Adulthood does not destroy childhood, but fulfills its purpose. So, Jesus did not destroy the law, but he accomplished its purpose.

God's final message to Israel is in the epistle to the Hebrews. As it was being written, the old order was "growing old and is ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8:13). With the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., when the Jews were scattered, the Jewish political-religious system was finally dissolved and it became impractical to keep that system of law which had created and regulated it. It had fulfilled its purpose.