Law
The law is God's instruction to a people he had already saved. We learn the moral, ceremonial and judicial law as the Reformed confessions distinguish them, their fulfilment in Christ and the law's three uses, and read the gleanings and the love of neighbour in Leviticus 19 that way.
A law for a redeemed people
Readers going through the Bible in order often slow down in the second half of Exodus and in Leviticus, where laws of sacrifice, purity and feasts follow one after another. The first key to reading the law is to see to whom it was given, and when. The Ten Commandments do not begin with a command:
And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exodus 20:1-2
God first says who he is and what he has done, and only then gives the first commandment (Exodus 20:3). The law is not a ladder for slaves to climb to freedom; it is the way of life for a people already set free, living with the God who freed them. The Hebrew word for it, , carries the sense of instruction. The book as a whole is introduced in the Leviticus lesson.
In Leviticus 19
Leviticus 19 opens with a call to the whole congregation: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2). Verses 9 to 18 show what that holiness looks like in the field, in wages and in court:
When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:9-10
Observe first. For whom is this law? The poor and the foreigner. What does it ask? Do not take everything; leave some. The verses that follow forbid stealing, lying and false oaths, holding back a worker's wages overnight, cursing the deaf or tripping the blind, and partiality in court (vv. 11-16). They reach as far as hatred in the heart, and close: "love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD" (v. 18).
Look for repetition, too. "I am the LORD", once with "your God", comes five times in verses 10 to 18. Under every command lies who God is.
Matthew Henry, an English minister, says of this chapter: "There are some ceremonial precepts in this chapter, but most of these precepts are binding on us, for they are explanations of the ten commandments" Matthew Henry. And who is the neighbour of verse 18? John Wesley, who led the Methodist revival in eighteenth-century England, answers "Every man", comparing verse 34, where the same law is applied to foreigners Wesley. Scripture explains Scripture. Jesus named this command the second great one (Matthew 22:39).
Kinds and uses of the law
Yet the same chapter has rules for eating a peace offering (vv. 5-8), and most of us have no field whose edges we could leave. Must every command be kept in the same way? The Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches distinguishes three kinds of law:
| Kind | What the Confession says | In Leviticus 19 |
|---|---|---|
| Moral | binds everyone for ever, the justified as well as others | stealing and lying forbidden; love of neighbour |
| Ceremonial | ordinances of worship that prefigured Christ, now abrogated under the New Testament | the peace offering |
| Judicial | Israel's laws as a nation, which ended with that state, binding now only as far as their equity requires | the edges of the field and the gleanings |
These distinctions are in ch. 19.3–5. Even among the Reformed, where a particular command belongs is sometimes debated, but the gleaning law, tied to Israel's land and nation, can be read as part of its judicial law. Such laws, the Confession says, bind no one now ‘further than the general equity thereof may require’ ch. 19.4. The law of the field's edges has ended; its equity, a share left for the poor, still teaches us.
All the law is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus said, "I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17), and Hebrews calls the law "only a shadow of the good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1). The sacrifices are fulfilled in his one sacrifice, and "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10).
Other Christians read the law's unity and uses in other ways. The Lutheran churches, who follow Martin Luther's teaching, make the right distinction between law and gospel the key to reading: the law states God's demand and shows our sin; the gospel gives freely in Christ. New covenant theology, which arose among some Baptists and other evangelicals in the late twentieth century, reads the law of Moses as one covenant code, fulfilled as a whole in Christ; believers now live under what Paul calls "the law of Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:21). The essay Do Christians have to keep the Old Testament law? and the doctrine course's Law and covenant take the question further.
John Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva, spoke of three uses of the law. First, "the Law is a kind of mirror" Calvin, Institutes 2.7.7: it shows us our sin and sends us to Christ (Romans 3:20). Second, it is a curb, restraining evil by the fear of punishment 2.7.10. Third, it guides believers. The Westminster Confession says that, though true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, it is of great use to them ‘as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty’ ch. 19.6; Calvin called this the principal use 2.7.12. The Lutheran churches confess a third use too, in their own terms, in the Formula of Concord (1577): since the renewal of the regenerate is only begun in this life, the law remains a rule of life for them as well Formula of Concord, Art. 6. The Reformed course goes further in One covenant of grace in many ages.
Try it
Open Leviticus 19 on the map. In the map under the Jesus tab, open Leviticus and tap chapter 19: it has a ‘One-line summary’ and ‘Notes’. ‘Read Leviticus 19’ opens the text.
Read verses 33 to 37 and write what you see. Whom are they to treat, and how? What reason is given? Find the words you met in verse 18 and in Exodus 20:2. For example: ‘v. 34: love reaches the foreigner too’.
Ask three questions. What does this command show of God? In the Westminster Confession's distinction, what kind of law is it, and how is it fulfilled in Christ? What does it ask of me today? Then put the whole chapter into a one-line summary.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 7
In Exodus 20:1-2, what does God say before he gives the Ten Commandments?
- Practice 2 of 7
What does the Westminster Confession say about the ceremonial laws?
- Practice 3 of 7
According to the Westminster Confession, what has become of the judicial laws given to Israel?
- Practice 4 of 7
What did Jesus call the command of Leviticus 19:18, "love your neighbor as yourself"?
- Practice 5 of 7
What use of the law does the Westminster Confession describe in ch. 19.6, the use often called the third?
- Practice 6 of 7
Which tradition makes the right distinction between law and gospel the key to reading Scripture?
- Practice 7 of 7
How does new covenant theology read the law of Moses?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1559 — The classic statement of Reformed theology: first a small book printed at Basel in 1536, revised and enlarged until the last edition of 1559. Book 1, chapters 7–8: Scripture is confirmed by the inner witness of the Spirit, and the proofs of its credibility (ch. 8) are secondary helps to our weakness. Read
- Lutheran churches, Formula of Concord 6 (1577) — Art. 6: the third use of the law; the law remains a rule of life for the regenerate, because their renewal is only begun in this life, not completed.
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and the Fathers and classic commentary. They take the church's long rule of reading, that Scripture explains Scripture, as their standard, bring out the Reformed confessions' teaching, and present each tradition's way of reading fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.