Friday, January 26, 2007

Why Did God Enact Bad Laws?

In a previous post, I pointed out how God said he enacted bad, impossible-to-follow laws because the Israelites kept rebuffing his righteousness. Here again is his conclusion from Ezekiel 20:25:
I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by.
By chance ("providence"?!), I just read much of the book of Galatians, and found a rather interesting corroboration of this.

In the first three chapters Paul is arguing with the Gentile Christians of Galatia that they are doing wrong to start following Jewish laws as part of their Christianity. He says that righteousness did not come from following the Law of Moses, but from believing in God. He quotes Genesis 15:6 which says that Abram believed God about becoming the father of innumerable descendants, resulting in that belief being credited to Abram as righteousness. Paul's point is that the righteousness of God does not come from obedience to the Law of Moses, but rather from faith. Here's the actual passage:

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. -- Gal. 3:6-9
Paul continues, quoting from Deuteronomy 27:26 and Habakkuk. 2:4:
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." -- Gal. 3:10-11
Paul was fully aware that no one could abide by all the little rules and regulations of the Law of Moses, and thus was cursed with having to try, and cursed by knowing he was failing at it, and cursed because he failed at it. But Jesus took that curse, making us free.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." -- Gal. 3:13
Paul goes on to say that the Law of Moses didn't even exist until another 430 years had passed, and even then, the "new" agreement did not undo the "old" agreement:
What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. -- Gal. 3:17-18
And here's the corroboration with Ezekiel:

What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. -- Gal. 3:19
In summary, Abram and his descendants were credited with righteousness because they had faith. However, because some did not have faith unto obedience, the Law of Moses was enacted 430 years later. And as Ezekiel reports, YHWH ...
... also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by.
And wrapping this up, Paul says:
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. -- Gal. 3:23ff
Thus we have no responsibility to that Law of Moses, which was a curse for all who tried to follow it.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. -- Gal. 5:1

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

On Jan. 26, you mentioned the bad laws that G-d gave Israel (Ezekiel 20:25). I think that those are not the laws of the Torah that can't be kept, but the laws of their fathers and their idol worship (Ezekiel 20:18 and 24) that were bad. Maybe G-d arranged for them to keep those bad laws because they rejected His laws.

Kent West said...

I think you're right anonymous; I think I misunderstood the Ezekiel 20:25 passage. I've posted a corrective comment back on the original Jan 24th post.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes!