Introduction- The Law cannot be changed?

There are two quotes from Jesus in the Gospels which seem to indicate that the Law of Moses must always be adhered to. The contention that this contradicts Christian teachings sometimes gets raised in inter-religious polemics. These are the two quotes:

(Luke 16:16.17) “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.”

and:

(Matthew 5:17) “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

We’ll analyze what is being said here in the upcoming as well as the context that they are set in order to be able to arrive at the correct implication.

The Law is only in Effect until John, and Jesus

Just one verse prior to the quote in question, Jesus says that the law and prophets actually also gives us reason to believe that the law and prophets are in fact no longer in question. The Jerome commentary makes an important observation in this regard (p.1182,3). The verses talk both of heaven and earth passing away, as well as “fulfilment”. However the Gospels are clear that Jesus himself is the fulfilment of all things (eg.Lk.22:37, Jn.19:30)). The terminology in Luke is “it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass”, so this is only describing the degree of difficulty involved, whereas the Matthean “till” serves as a time stamp. Because Jesus’ fulfilment referred to in that same verse also marks the time, that can just as easily be used to interpret the former time marker. That is, the passing away of heaven and earth, rather than referring to their destruction, could refer, based on the latter phrase, to their transformation in a “new creation” which Christ brings forth, and the new order in the Kingdom of Heaven which is now on Earth. “Heaven” in this case hardly refers to the Heaven of God, but merely the physical heavens above the Earth, also part of that creation.

Jews do not Adhere to the Letter of the Law

It is actually a misconception that Jews adhere to the letter of the written Law of the Torah, although it is a forgiveable misconception since the general impression of Judaism is that it wholly consists in the effort to keep to the letter of the Law. In reality, the Law presented practical problems because the 613 different laws are simply not enough to cover all the nuances of everyday living. The held belief of  present day Jews is that there was, along with the written Torah, also an oral Torah to go with it delivered by Moses. In addition to this there is an ongoing development and elaboration of the Law, all of which was handed down orally as the Mishnah, and eventually, and only at the time when Judaism was facing an existential threat was it finally put to writing in the form of the Talmud. So there is actually a lot more that is going on in Judaism than just what a Christian sees when they pick up their Bible. In fact if a Christian picks up Deuteronomy and goes “Wow! That would be impossible to keep!”, he would be largely right.

Jesus is Killed for non-Observance of the Law

The view that the primary purpose of Jesus’ ministry was to teach adherence to the “letter of the Law of Moses” would require Jesus came for the specific reason of observing practices of circumcision, washing of hands before meals, Temple sacrifices, Jewish festivals, rituals and punishments prescribed by the Law. Even a cursory look at the Gospels shows us that such observances and not in any way the substance or the thrust of the Gospel narratives.

Quite the contrary, the story of the Gospels is that of a Jewish Rabbi who made extraordinary claims, and is opposed and put to death by the Jewish orthodoxy in the heart of the world centre of Judaism: Jerusalem. It is the Hight Priest Caiaphas himself that condemns Jesus at his trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin. How did this come about?

Jesus clearly and repeatedly describes to his apostles how he is concerned with “fulfilling” Scripture (or the Law), right from the earliest part of his ministry when he reads from the Scroll of Isaiah to state that the prophecy therein is indeed being fulfilled by him, through to the period immediately prior to the Passion when explains he must suffer and die in order to fulfil the scriptures, and finally after the Resurrection where he explains how all his actions have been a fulfilment of “the law and the prophets”.  The Greek word for “fulfilment” is πληρόω (pléroó) to make full, to complete, it is simply not the word for “obey” (We get from this English words like “plenty, plenitude, plentiful, plethora” etc.) Jesus never says: “I have come to obey the law”.

That the Old Law is Incomplete

There was a purpose of the Law, and the purpose was fulfilment in Jesus. old Law is in a way contained in the New. Everything in the Bible is a progression. So Laws are either pertaining to crime, or to ritual purity and Temple practise. The Laws that pertain to crime are still present, but there punishment is now permanent in Hell. All the Temple practise is still present but in it’s true form, both priest and Sacrifice are Jesus

It is obvious that the Old Law lacks completion for one simple reason: its observance is nowhere linked to the obtaining of man’s eternal destiny. Jews are not asked to observe the Law with the object of being giving admittance into Heaven rather merely that they might be able to live in peace and security in their own homeland. The very notion of the individual living forever is not included in the Law, rather it is said to the Jews that they will live forever as a nation in that Land. This is a point that is easily missed, but at no point are the Jews told that they will attain individual immortality. Numerous Old Testament writers like Job, King Hezekiah, the writer of Ecclesiastes express this sentiment of mortality “can the dead praise you?” Moreover even the punishments prescribed under the Old Law are not eternal punishments, rather they are temporal- Hell is simply not an outcome of non-observance of the Law, only death. As the ages progress, it is seen that the onus on temple sacrifice begins to regress, indeed as though awaiting some form of definitive fulfilment not yet revealed. Famous and beautiful examples from the Psalms of David:

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40)

¹⁶ You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
    You do not want a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
    You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51)

Finally we come to the definite proclamation of Jeremiah of the “New Covenant”, the only place in the Old Testament where this phrase it used. Indeed the Last Supper of Jesus is the only place in the New Testament that it is used:

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 33:31-34)

St. Paul puts this nicely:  Hebrews 7:17-19 “There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God. … accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.”, and Hebrews 10:1-4 “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Jesus, on not Practicing the Letter of the Law

During the three years of Jesus’ ministry, He simply does not follow the letter of the Law in the form current to his time. The temple sacrifices, with the sprinkling of the blood of the covenant, and the various Jewish festivals with the Passover festival as the greatest of them, are central to the observance of the Jewish Law. Jesus completely changes the whole institution of Sacrifice, when at the Passover meal, at the time when the sacrificial lamb would normally have been eaten, as the sign of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, Jesus substitutes in its place his own Body! “Take this and eat it, this is my Body broken for you…” In the “Bread of Life” discourse of 6^th Chapter of John, it is seen how the Jews are scandalised at the mere suggestion of any such “new ritual” that involving the eating and drinking of Jesus himself.

Further, Jesus also goes against the offering for Sin prescribed by the Law when he forgives sins himself, in the words of the Jews themselves: “making himself equal with God”. That Jesus does not come to obtain mercy and forgiveness for us through the observance of the Mosaic Law should be obvious. He is, in his Person, the Mercy and Forgiveness of God himself.

The Law is no longer recognisable as the Law because the Law is changed by becoming “fulfilled”. It was incomplete and Jesus fulfils it in his own Person: the “New Covenant”, “In his Blood”.

Changing in Order to Fulfil, in Himself

“For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted among the lawless’; and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.”(Luke 22:37)

These famous verses immediately follow the verse where Jesus says he did not come to change the Law! In fact the passages that precede that are the Beatitudes “blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit…those who are persecuted…the peacemakers”:

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…” Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-33, 38-39, 43-44 (KJV)

On the Sabbath Mark 2:24, 27-28 (KJV) And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. On food Matthew 15:11 (KJV) Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man….”

Jesus breaks ritual cleanliness laws for one is not meant to touch a leper, such an act makes one unclean. With Jesus on the contrary, not only does the uncleanness Law not apply, but Jesus cleanses the leper. There is nothing in the Law whereby the unclean is made clean. Jesus literally revokes the Deuteronomic allowance for divorce (Dt.24:1-4), the only place in the Bible where such a stipulation occurs. The Jerome (p.1267) observes “Jesus does this by quoting genesis 127 and 224 and affirming that marriage creates a relationship of unity rather than a partnership of two. Finally he establishes this is God’s doing, something humans should not undo…. He points to one scripture passages more authoritative than another to justify it…. Jesus uses the double quotation of Genesis…to argue for the principle of monogamy as divine intention. This principle allows Jesus forbid divorce and to equate it with adultery when His disciples ask him in private about this teaching (mark 10:10-12…)”

Jesus first justifies that fact that his disciples do not fast and then signifies the changes that he is bringing by giving the analogy of the new wine and the cloth bursting the the old wine skins and tearing away from the old cloth (Lk.5:33-39, also Mt.9;14-17, Mk.2;18-22).

Has the Old Law Passed Away?

When an acorn grows into a mighty oak, you cannot find the acorn anywhere in the oak, and yet the acorn has not been “wiped away”. Similarly, when a person is “fulfilled” either in marriage or in the maturity of old age, the silly and innocent child they once were or the impetuous teenager are not “wiped away”. Their travails and struggles are all written into and are necessary for the fruition of that individual. In what form do we find the Old Law in the New? You might be surprised, but the death and description that was prescribed in the Old Law is not vanished it is present and in even more definite and horrifying form: the death and destruction of eternal damnation! Eternal damnation is completely missing as a punishment under the Law, more proof that the Old Law was indeed incomplete- al the punishments are temporal. As St. Paul comments on the Old Law: “now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come” (1 Cor.10:11)

Jesus’ intention is clearly stated ‘Not a single letter of the Law shall pass’. Adultery in the Old Testament had an entirely different connotation. Adultery constituted abstaining from physical relations with anyone apart from the wives and sex-slaves of one’s own harem, similar to Islamic teaching today. But these were a people who had not experienced the true love of God manifested in his Son. It seems as though the goal posts then, were set a bit wider for them, indeed the narrow gate a bit broader. What Jesus does is not to do away with this teaching, for the law of abstaining from physical relations with one who is not lawfully yours is still wrong, but he takes it further, much further right upto the state of man’s original innocence ‘in the beginning’, when he also ordains that a lustful look at a woman is a sin, the sin of adultery. This is the point of God’s saving action in the world after all, to restore man back to his fallen grace. Again, the punishment for this sin, used to be death by stoning. An unrepentant adulterer put to death in this way would also risk eternal damnation. This penalty has hardly been eased, for and unrepentant adulterer still risks the same eternal penalties, rather the penalty has also been expended to those who look lustfully at women that are not their wives. Again, the authority vested in Moses to the extent that unauthorized priests were burned by fire, these letters have not been washed away, the same authority has been vested in the Pope, and we do not even know what is the penalty for disobedience.

Capital Punishments for Religious Crimes– Changed?

Under the New Law there is no circumstance under which inflicting bodily harm is the response to any religious matter. To make a short outline, the capital punishments in the Bible are in relation to the following situations: sexual sin like adultery, profanation of the Sabbath. These are addressed directly by Jesus, who does not prevent his apostles from picking grain on the Sabbath, nor does he stone the woman caught in adultery. Jesus completely even changes what constitutes adultery, for divorce is not even allowed, as it previously was. There is as a result no means of administering the punishments under the Law for offences related to adultery. We have presented all of these in the extensive passage from Matthew 5 which ends with the definitive prohibition of violent reprisal “you have heard an eye for an eye…”

Worship not in Jerusalem- Change

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you^[c] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24)

Circumcision– Changed

“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.” (Jer.4:4)

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” (Jer. 9:25)

“In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Col.2:11-14)

“O you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have sent down, confirming that which is with you, before We obliterate faces and turn them toward their backs or curse them as We cursed the sabbath-breakers. And ever is the decree of Allah accomplished.” (Surah 4:47)

This circumcision of the heart is required because people’s hearts are “callused”. This thick and dead skin covering of heart must be peeled away, just like the covering of the penis.

“Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:10)

“For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’” (Matt.13:15-17)

Or as the Qur’an echoes, “sealed”: “Allah has sealed their hearts and their hearing, and a covering has fallen over their eyes. They deserve severe chastisement.” (Surah 2:7)

OT Violence– Changed to be Fulfilled

There are many time-bound violent edicts in the Old Testament. It would be bizarre if anyone was supposed to follow these right into the present day and so its hardly discrepant that Jesus does makes changes which is amply bore out in all the passages that we have been quoting up to now. That fulfilment of the violent edicts is not the end of violence but rather the violent Judgement that Jesus will bring when he comes in Person as is described in many Gospel verses ““The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king (…)Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:1,13,14) ”He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 24:51) “ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed. 35That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”…” (Matt. 18:34,35) But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me. (Luke 19:27) and borne out in the visions in Revelations of Jesus coming in Judgement.

CHANGE- “Against such things there is no Law”

The destruction of the Temple is the end of the Mosaic administration in terms of its ceremonial application. Jesus himself, Jeremiah, Amos and other prophets make the distinction between the moral and the ceremonial commands. The new Law pertains to internal conversion, rather than external ritual. I heard Jewish author Amy Giles-Fraser says in conversation on Unbelievable podcast: “where Christians get it wrong- they think that Jews are all struggling to follow every single  jot and tiddle of the Law and if they don’t God’s gonna snap them with a lightning bolt or condemn them to hell which makes all Jews either sanctimonious or neurotic. And Jesus comes along and says “don’t worry be happy” when he doesn’t he actually makes the law more rigorous, right? The Law says don’t murder, he says don’t be angry, that’s harder. The Law says don’t commit adultery, he says don’t think about it, that’s harder. That integration of the internal and the external..”

St. Paul beautifully describes the new Law of the Spirit: “…Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” (Gal 5:16-25)

The morality “framework” is love and sacrifice, patterned on Christ. What else could possibly be needed for morality, or the removal of what else is required to corrode morality. This is precisely why Christ summarises the whole law in two commandments (Matthew 22:35-40), which Jesus reminds his disciples of in John 13:34-35, that our love is patterned on the sacrificial love of Christ. Again, we have the rule to love one’s neighbour as oneself repeated (Luke 6:31, Matthew 7:12, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8-16.

Change- a “New Law”?

Christians having been given the New Covenant, “in Christ’s Blood”. When we look to see just what this “New Covenant” constitutes, the person of Christ himself: “This is my Blood of the New Covenant…, this is my Body broken for you…” When asked for the same teaching in words Jesus says that all the Law and Prophets are summarised in the commandment of Love (Matthew 22:40), indeed he gives his “new commandment” “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:34-35). In the New Covenant we find everything in Christ- we find forgiveness in him, Love in him, God in him, the Way, the Truth and the Life in him, and so we have no hesitation in asserting that our conduct be an imitation of his Life on Earth.

For ultimately it is not the harsh Laws of the OT that save us but Jesus’ Law of Love: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10)

Jesus as the new Torah

This is to be taken from the Divinity article.