Thoughts on attending a same-sex wedding

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘God Behaving Badly’ by David T Lamb (2011, IVP)

This is an excellently-conceived and well-written book on an important theme, outlined in the subtitle: Is the God of the Old Testament angry, sexist and racist?

For Christians as well as non-Christians, this is a problem that has to be addressed. Certain parts of what we now call the ‘Old Testament’ seem to portray God in these terms, so how are we to settle this in our own minds and how should we respond to those who use this to attack our faith?

Combating Misconceptions

Lamb’s opening sentence is intriguing: “How does one reconcile the loving God of the Old Testament with the harsh God of the New Testament?” (p9). Read this too quickly and you’ll miss the point! The author often asks this question of his students and once they’ve realised he hasn’t misspoken a lively discussion usually ensues.

In the book, Lamb makes his initial point well. We are so fixated on the New Testament portraying a God of love that we forget how often the Old Testament shows him to be merciful, compassionate and slow to anger. We also forget how God’s angry side is still apparent once we cross the divide into the New.

Perhaps Lamb’s title should end with a question mark, just so that we are clear on the author’s intent. But we soon realise that he is very much wanting to clear God’s ‘bad reputation’ and set the record straight by examining as many biblical texts as possible across the diverse genres of Old Testament literature. His aims are to discuss many of the problematic passages in which God appears to ‘behave badly’ and combat the negative perceptions that arise from these.

Lamb sets out to clear God’s ‘bad reputation’, discussing many of the problematic passages in which God appears to ‘behave badly’ and combating the negative perceptions that arise from these.

Tackling Difficult Issues and Passages

Lamb tackles these issues one at a time, chapter by chapter. After three initial chapters on the topics of ‘angry’, ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’, he goes on to ask if God is violent or peaceful, legalistic or gracious, rigid or flexible, distant or near?

He places all of his discussions within historical context, for instance with reference to ancient Near Eastern texts, and also ends each chapter “looking at a relevant incident from the Gospels, showing how the particular characteristic of Yahweh is also manifested in the behaviour of Jesus” (p24).

As he goes, Lamb does not shy away from tackling difficult and controversial passages, such as the smiting of Uzzah dead simply for touching the Ark as the oxen pulling its cart stumbled. His explanation here is excellent – but you’ll have to read the book to discover it!

Safe Hands

The author writes in a way that convinces us that he has thought through every point he makes. Indeed, he has taught this often to his classes so the reader feels in safe hands. He employs occasional touches of humour where appropriate to lighten what could otherwise be a heavy and disheartening read.

Lamb mentions those who get round the ‘problem’ of God’s apparent bad behaviour by saying that those passages can be regarded as fictitious. Some today, like Marcion of old, say we can simply cut out those passages from our Bibles. Lamb’s counter-response is this:

While I find this conclusion attractive in one sense (the problem does disappear), I am unwilling to reject large sections of the Old Testament because the God it portrays doesn’t fit my perception of what he should be like. I continue to be troubled by Old Testament images of God, but I will work to understand them better by continuing to study the text on its own, within its biblical context and within its ancient Near Eastern context. (p102)

The author writes in a way that convinces us that he has thought through every point he makes.

Yesterday, Today and Forever

He ends the book with an epilogue summarising each of the eight chapters that have gone before. While all our questions may never fully be answered, he demonstrates that God is loving and gracious across the whole Bible, both as Yahweh in the Old and Jesus in the New. There is no discrepancy of character. Our God is fundamentally good, whichever part of the Bible we are reading.

After the epilogue comes a section of discussion questions, several for each chapter, making the book an excellent resource for study groups. There are also good endnotes, a sufficient bibliography to encourage further reading, and a very extensive Scripture index making it easy to look up any passage you might come across later in your Bible reading.

The author has tackled a difficult topic extremely well and his book is highly commended.

‘God Behaving Badly’ (205pp, paperback) is available from Amazon for £11.99 (paperback). Also in e-book form.

Maureen Trowbridge reviews ‘What Am I Worth?’ by Marion Daniel (New Wine Press, 2010)

In this, Marion Daniel’s second book, the author begins by asking questions about the difference it would make to each of our lives if we understood our worth as a person. She outlines many issues which have a lack of self-worth at their root, and throughout the book seeks to show the difference God’s love and grace can make.

Causes of Poor Self-Worth

The first chapters consider the origins of poor self-worth, covering many possible influences including society, the media, our culture of success, plus the all-important effects of family and friends. Linked in with these are our environment and circumstances. Each of these factors affect our way of thinking and what we believe about ourselves.

However, God looks for different attributes in the lives of those who trust Him. The author shows how the way to right living and Godly thinking is to align ourselves with the Word of God and with the Father, who does not see us as the world sees us, or as we see ourselves (1 Cor 1:27-29).

What difference would it make to each of our lives if we understood our worth as a person?

Humility Key

There are helpful chapters on the power of God’s encouragement, as well as on how to lift our eyes off ourselves and our inadequacies and become focused on God instead.

Further on in the book, it is suggested that “humility is the key to self-worth”. The Apostle Paul, for all his intellectual skill and learning, realised that his spiritual power was in God alone, who gives grace to the humble. Having been made alive in Christ, Paul could then be used in the service of the Lord (Gal 2:20).

Prayers and Declarations

At the end of each chapter there is a helpful summary and the author also includes prayers which will enable readers to seek God’s help to change their hearts and minds.

In the last chapter there are ‘biblical declarations’ of who we are in Jesus Messiah. We are encouraged to keep reading these, which will help to transform our thinking about ourselves.

The way to Godly thinking about ourselves is to be aligned with the Word of God and with the Father, who does not see us as the world does.

This book will certainly strike a chord with many who struggle with their own sense of self-worth. It provides a biblical framework through which they can alter their perception of themselves and develop an understanding of what has hindered them in the past.

What Am I Worth? (128 pages) is available for £6.99 from Sozo Books. Also available on Kindle.

Paul Luckraft interviews Michele Guinness, whose latest book on the remarkable life of Grace Grattan Guinness has just been published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Have you ever had a chance discovery that has delighted and enthralled you? Have you ever got round – at last! – to clearing out the attic, and found something from the past that has intrigued you and set you off on a new path?

A Captivating Discovery

Such an experience happened to Michele recently when, preparing for her husband Peter's retirement from his parish, she discovered in the attic a trunk of letters, diaries, journals and notebooks (some over a hundred years old) which had belonged to Grace Guinness, her husband's grandmother. Not only did these documents provide an illuminating insight into the life of an exceptional woman of the period, but they also shed further light on her better-known husband, Henry Grattan Guinness, the renowned speaker and evangelist.

Michele described how she was captivated and enchanted by what she read. These were not dusty old relics but fascinating accounts, written in an engaging and often humorous style. Suddenly, part of her family history came to life in an unexpected way.

The documents Michele discovered provide an illuminating insight into the life of an exceptional woman of the Edwardian period.

An Unconventional Marriage

Grace was born in 1876 into a strict Brethren family – her father was Charles Hurditch, a gifted speaker and evangelist. But she soon developed a mind of her own and a rather rebellious streak - though in a godly way! She was never going to be conventional, hence her very unconventional marriage to Henry Grattan Guinness, the great revivalist preacher and one of the leading lights of the evangelical awakening of 1854-56. When they married, she was just 27 and he was 68! How did this happen?

Henry's first wife, Fanny, had died and in his loneliness he regularly prayed for a new companion. God answered his prayers in a remarkable fashion. One night Henry dreamt of a young lady who came and sat on his knee and kissed him! Perhaps nothing unusual there – but in his case it actually happened! The young lady in question was Grace, and they soon married.

They only had a few years together. Henry died in 1910, aged 74, but not before two sons had been born, John and Paul, when Henry was aged 70 and 72 respectively.

Ahead of Her Time

After Henry's death, Grace remained devoted to his memory and never remarried, instead she struggled to support herself and her two sons. She had no fortune so had to find work which would never be easy in a society that frowned upon a well-bred single mother going out to work. Here her rebellious streak came to her aid. Ever-defiant of social customs she became a businesswoman who ran her own hotel and engaged in other activities previously thought unsuitable for an Edwardian lady. In many ways she was ahead of her time.

Grace was never going to be conventional – that shone through in her marriage and came into its own after her husband died, leaving her as the sole provider for two young boys.

Henry was one of leading lights in the historicist school of prophecy, meaning that he looked for the actual fulfilment of prophecy in historical events. Finding Henry's old Bible, full of written notes on Daniel and Ezekiel, showed how seriously he took such prophetic portions of Scripture. From this understanding he saw ahead to the key years of Israel's re-establishment, 1917-1948, though he did not live to see it. However, Balfour, whom Henry had met, was an avid reader of his work, and no doubt influenced by it.

At the time of their marriage he was writing one of his most famous works, The Approaching End of the Age: Viewed in the Light of History, Prophecy and Science. Grace became his amanuensis, even though she had to admit she found it difficult to spell apocalypse!

A Life of Devotion

Michele is very enthusiastic about what she has learnt from Grace's life and devotion. She lived through exciting and changing times and met several outstanding Christian leaders of the day, but there were many hardships too. She never grumbled about her struggles over money and work, or having to bring up two sons on her own. Her thankfulness and faith shine through - as does her humour, which kept her going in all she did.

Grace lived through exciting and changing times with many hardships, but her memoirs are full of thankfulness, faith and humour.

Grace was also a great reader and remained open to learning new things, even into her seventies. She constantly read the Bible and heard God's voice through this. But she also read The Times daily, and at least one book a week, keeping herself well-informed on current affairs and her mind active. She could comment eruditely on several topics, including science, music and literature, as well as theology.

Curiosity Sparked

Michele has come to appreciate Grace in a new way. Little was known of her until her writings came to light – inevitably, the main family interest had been in Henry. But once Michele realised what treasures had fallen into her lap, her curiosity was sparked and it became clear that this unique collection of writings should become better known.

The book is based upon memoirs, letters and diaries, but written up by Michele in the first person, weaving them into a narrative of her life. Grace was a woman who wrote in a frank and (for her time) sometimes risqué way about her life, love, hopes and fears. Michele's book captures all of that, as well as providing an interesting cultural and historical look at the lives of the Guinness family of that period and the background of the many Christian organisations that began at the time.

This book captures something of Grace's fascinating life and character, as well as providing an interesting window in on life in the Edwardian period.

Click here to read our review of Michele's book.

Ian Farley reviews 'Grace' by Michele Guinness (2016, Hodder & Stoughton, 380 pages, hardback, available from Amazon for £15.90)

It is often commented today that we are in a world which is changing rapidly and dramatically, especially in the field of technology. But Grace Grattan Guinness, born in the first rush of railways but when the horse was still the main form of transport, and yet dying after international flight had arrived, surely saw unimaginable change throughout her life.

Grace lived through the struggles of the Suffragettes and witnessed great changes to women's education and birth control. Also living through the height of the British Empire, she died in 1969, in the throes of its dismantling.

So how did a child raised in the revival of the mid-Victorian era, who lived through two world wars and on into the swinging sixties, actually think? What of faith when you are widowed after only seven years of marriage to a great evangelist and have two little boys to bring up alone? What of life when you need to do a day job and a night job in order to survive, especially in an era when well-bred women did not go out to work?

This is a marvellous book. Michele Guinness writes in the words of Grace herself and very successfully brings her to life. One can but weep with her as she struggles in her loss and laugh with her in older age as she surveys the antics of the modern world.

Depressed by the climate of Scotland and wondering how anyone can thrive in Leeds, Grace is not some pie-in-the-sky Victorian hero - she is a real woman, who faces real life in both joy and hardship and through it all finds God at her side. Her life is worth knowing. It can only cheer you on the way.

You can read more about Grace's story in our interview with her granddaughter-in-law, Michele Guinness.

Clifford Denton completes his study of the relationship between law and grace.

Recap: Law and Grace Part 1

In this series we are tracing what some have called "the parting of the ways between the Church and the Synagogue". Our concern is with the identity and origin of the Christian Church, because there are serious consequences of its separation from the roots of our faith- for both Christians and Jews.

One consequence is the way in which we read our Bibles. Separation from our roots brings a conceptual break in the continuity of the Scriptures. We have paused in our historical survey in order to illustrate this important point. In the first part of this study we explored what the word law might mean, as found in the New Testament. We differentiated between the Torah (teaching of God), and its interpretation into Halakhah. We reasoned that there is a difference between interpretations that bring legal bondage to those which encourage a walk with God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We must not allow ourselves to be robbed of the freedom that is given for living out a biblical lifestyle under the grace and leading of the Holy Spirit. However, it is not the Torah that is at fault – it is the way Torah is interpreted."

Rebuilding relationship between Jews and Christians

Reconciliation with the Jewish community is something of great importance in our day and should be a consequence of the Christian Church being properly rooted in all aspects of life and faith. Those who value the Torah are not necessarily walking a wrong path and need not necessarily be bound up in legalism. To be free to explore afresh our common heritage should build bridges of reconciliation, since to not care for the Torah has been a symptom of not caring about our relationship with the Jews.

Dr Marvin Wilson has spent many years in the pursuit of reconciling Christians and Jews. In his book Our Father Abraham, Dr Wilson poses some strong questions about accusations of Judaising levelled at Christians, who are exploring the roots of their faith with freedom whilst remaining sure of their salvation:

To those in the modern Church concerned about the dangers of Judaising after nineteen hundred years of de-Judaising, we would pose these questions: Is it Judaising to seek to reconstruct certain aspects of the first-century Jewish context of the New Testament and early Church? Is it Judaising to investigate the life and teaching of Jesus through Jewish eyes? Is it Judaising to find personal fulfillment by adopting personal perspectives on God and one's neighbour that emerges from the teaching of the Hebrew prophets?

Is it Judaising to resonate positively to a Jewish pattern of worship, music, and celebration of special events in life? Is it Judaising to find in modern Israel – within its people and the historic land itself – that for which you deeply care, a veritable laboratory filled with spiritual and historical meaning? To each of the above questions we would answer an emphatic no!¹

On the one hand, we must beware of the warnings gleaned through the Scriptures, concerning denial of salvation through faith, in favour of ritual observance of 'the law'. We must avoid an artificial self-righteousness resulting from a wrong view of the teaching (Torah) of God.

We must avoid the legalism of ritual observance of 'the law'. However, we must also avoid going too far the other way: rejecting the beneficial teachings of Scripture and our opportunity to freely discover the Jewish heritage of Christianity"

On the other hand, we must also recognize when a bondage of a different kind is being imposed: namely, when the accusation of Judaising is incorrectly levied, restricting us from freely practising the beneficial teachings of Scripture, as discovered from the Jewish roots of Christianity. We cannot avoid facing this challenge when we seek to restore the Christian faith to its relationship with Israel and the Jews.

The Torah is good

The whole of Israel's life, before the writing of the New Testament, and the context from which the Gospel was sent, was founded upon the teaching of God. The task over all history was to accurately interpret the teaching of God into everyday life. The Hebrew word for this teaching is Torah - teaching for a right direction in life.

The Torah is God's teaching for a right direction in life. In the New Covenant, it becomes a living walk in the Spirit, received in the heart.

The word Torah does not appear in translations of the New Testament. This was not because God's teaching was done away with: it is because of the poor translation into the word law. Indeed, Jesus made that important point very clearly during His great teaching of the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law [Torah] or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law [Torah] until everything is accomplished.

Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law [Torah], you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:17-20)

Read carefully and with the mindset of the continuity of Scripture, we understand that the Sermon on the Mount was spoken to the disciples of Jesus in the early stages of the New Covenant. The New Covenant brought the interpretation of Torah as the walk in the Spirit, where Torah was received in the heart rather than on tablets of stone. Jesus' teaching kindled new light in the understanding and purpose of Scripture. In his great sermon Jesus was referring to the Torah, the teaching of God, which He had come to interpret correctly and not replace.

This explains why Paul can warn his readers about misapplication of the Torah of in the letter to the Galatians, and also say that the Torah is good in Romans (Romans 7:12). Our salvation does not depend on ritual obedience to the Torah of God. Those who teach the opposite have denied the sins of the flesh that need a remedy beyond what the will of fallen man can itself accomplish. Jesus came to be our sacrifice for sin in fulfillment of the sacrificial requirements of God in his Torah so that we would be free from the impossible burden of trying to earn our own salvation.

Far from Jesus changing the teaching of God, Torah includes what Jesus has done for us through his sacrifice, to atone for those of God's requirements that we cannot reach for ourselves. He has atoned for our sins - those things we do that cause us to fall short of the perfection of Torah.

Our salvation does not depend on ritual obedience to the Torah of God. But the life to which God's teaching points is still our goal- by the help of the Holy Spirit, and by faith."

Being aware of our shortcomings, however, does not mean that we should neglect the teaching of God and the right application in our lives. The life to which God's teaching points us is still our goal by the help of the Holy Spirit, and by faith in Jesus' covering of our sins. Torah, rightly interpreted, still shows us what is good, and the Sermon on the Mount shows us that God's teaching has depth of meaning that can be missed by superficial study.

We must weigh carefully our English understanding of the word law, what is meant by the New Testament word nomos (the Greek word for law), and the Hebrew understanding of Torah and halakhah. In right balance, we see that the New and Old Testaments are compatible in conveying the full range of God's teaching. All of God's teaching, rightly interpreted, is good.

So now let us turn to the meaning of grace, attempting to further achieve a balanced understanding.

Grace

By the word 'grace', we understand God's unmerited favour. God put Adam and Eve (and, as a consequence, all their descendants) outside of the Garden of Eden. He left us with the weakness of our flesh and the temptation to sin. Yet, he did not abandon us. Over the few thousand years since then he has shown us that he is outworking a plan for redeeming a community from this earth for all eternity. His plan is worked out through the principle of covenant, revealed progressively through the Patriarchs and fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah.

It is a useful exercise to go back, conceptually, to the time of Adam and look forward, as if through a telescope. From such a viewpoint, in the distance is the coming of Jesus and his sacrificial death on the Cross, his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower his disciples to preach the good news to all nations. The view encompasses the covenant principles given through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jeremiah. All of this was through God's unmerited favour, his grace. This grace includes the aspects of Torah given to Moses in the wilderness years.

It is a mistake to think that grace began with the writing of the New Testament. The entire plan of God is through grace, and it is one coherent plan from start to finish."

Confusion has often arisen because of a misreading of John 1:17:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Even if we insert the word Torah for law, taking this verse in isolation, we are still left with the same possibility of thinking that what Moses was given was replaced when Jesus came to earth. Yet, John 1:17 is preceded, in the same passage, by John 1:1-3:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus, the Son of God, was with the Father before Creation. All things came through him, including all of God's spoken and written word, and what Moses was shown. Moses was not the originator of God's grace: this was the higher call of God in Jesus, both pre-incarnate and incarnate. Moses, born of the flesh, was an agent of central aspects of God's Torah but he was less than Jesus. Yet it was grace that brought forth the Torah- as with all of God's goodness.

In his Gospel, John was comparing the ministry of Moses and Jesus more than comparing grace and law.² The main point that we are making here is that we must not bring a false contrast between grace and law when both are from God and linked together.

Ultimately, through all the strands of history and all the experiences of mankind in seeking to restore fellowship with the One True God, through grace God has been outworking a plan that all who can be saved will be saved. He has revealed to us what is good and made provision in Jesus for the shortcomings that the flesh cannot achieve by its own will.

Restoring balance

There have been nearly 2000 years of gradual separation of the Christian Church from its relationship with Israel and the Jews. Now we have a somewhat different task before us than was faced in the Council of Jerusalem of Acts 15. We need to look back at the root meaning of some of the terms used in the New Testament, such as grace and law, in the context of the continuous covenant plan of God from the Fall in Genesis to the Restoration envisioned in the Book of Revelation. We need to reconnect the Church into the seamless flow of covenant history through this restored balance.

The New Covenant brought a new and permanent sacrifice for sin. Trust in God through faith in Jesus' sacrifice brings forgiveness of sins that are by grace alone. Forgiveness of sins leads to desire for sanctification – a clean heart and a pleasing walk with God. The Holy Spirit interprets Torah at heart level. Study of all Scripture is to be understood in this context.

The challenge in all things is to give no place to the flesh and encourage one another on this walk, in the balance of all of God's teaching, into the life of faith through the grace of God.

We must not even seek to "work up faith" as some do in the areas of healing and deliverance, turning faith into works. Our goal is to encourage one another on a personal walk with God through prayer and study of the Bible, trusting the Holy Spirit to be our tutor on this walk together.

For Study and Prayer

This study is not a complete overview of this sensitive subject; rather, it should be a prompt for further study. Despite all we have written, the subject is yet deeper and wider, with many implications to consider. You may have realised that this topic requires something of a mindset reorientation, and this can take some time.

• Consider how recognition of the continuity of all Scripture influences the way we study key topics from the Bible.
• Can you discover other topics that begin in the early chapters of the Bible and develop right through from Genesis to Revelation?
• Do you agree that a separation of the Christian Church from its historical foundations has affected the way we study the Bible?

Next time: Jesus the Jewish Messiah

These studies are developed from the course Christianity's Relationship with Israel and the Jews, first prepared for Tishrei Bible School.

References

1 p26, Eerdmans, 1989.

2 There was also a possibility that John's use of the term 'Moses' stood symbolically for the interpretation of the teachers of Torah, of his day. This is how the teaching of Moses was passed on. It was interpreted by the teachers of the day as much as studied from the written word. Thus, 'Moses' can mean the current teaching and interpretation of the Books of Moses. Thereby there is an element of contrast between what had become the practices of Torah in Jesus' day and the grace through which he brought true emphasis to God's teaching.

Clifford Denton's latest study on the Hebraic roots of Christianity turns to the tricky subject of the balance between 'law' and 'grace'.

The rift between Jews and Christians

The broken relationship between Jews and Christians has had immense consequences. Misunderstanding has often fuelled the flames of hate and aggravated the harm that has been done to God's people. There have also been consequences for the way we read the Bible, particularly since Hebraic thinking has been replaced by a Greek mindset. This has detracted from the continuity between the two Testaments and has unbalanced perspectives through the centuries.

Among the Bible themes disjointed by the ascension of Greek thinking is the relationship between law and grace, now often separated in the thinking of many Christians. The common error nowadays (despite the way some Scriptures seem to read otherwise) is to consider 'law' as completely done away with in favour of 'grace', because of the sacrifice of Jesus."

However, if we read the New Testament with a thorough grasp of its continuity with the whole of Scripture, and put it in proper historical context, the subtle relationship between law and grace takes on a clearer perspective. It was through God's grace that all His teaching (the Torah) was given to us. All the law that was revealed through Moses came through the grace of God. There is much to consider on this topic, but that is a good starting point.

Is this Judaising?

This call to flee Greek thinking and return to the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith must not be construed as 'Judaising'. 'Judaising' is the word often used to accuse those who seem to be too caught up with all things Jewish (in contemporary usage, it often carries with it a hint of anti-Semitism). Those accused seem to be overly fascinated with external forms of Jewishness that come more from tradition than from conventional Christian interpretations of the Scriptures. They are also often thought of as having a faulty understanding of law and grace.

There is a difference between Judaising - becoming overly fascinated with external forms of Jewishness - and developing a right respect of God's laws."

Paul gave plentiful warning against Judaising activity to the Galatians (eg chapter 2). However, there is a difference between Judaising and developing a right respect of God's laws. Let us now consider the situation in the First Century when the Gospel message began to move out into the Gentile world.

From Moses to Jesus

The teaching of God (Torah), considered to be founded on the first five books of the Bible, has needed practical interpretation ever since the time of Moses. Torah remains a set of written principles until interpreted into action.

An important principle was established when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, helped Moses understand how to teach the people the way to obey the principles of Torah:

You shall teach them the statutes and the laws and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God......let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. (Ex 18:20-22)

From that time onwards, the burden of teaching was shared by the elders of Israel, comparably to the way Scripture is taught today through the ministry of teaching in the Church.

The purpose of the teaching was so that every member of the Children of Israel - every family, clan and tribe, and the entire Nation - would know how to walk out the principles of Torah. The Hebrew for 'walking out' is halakha - a practical application of Torah according to the wisdom of God (walking is also the metaphor applied to the life of faith for the Christian - see Romans 8, where Paul explores the walk in the Spirit).

By the time of Jesus, the elders whom Moses had appointed in his day had been transformed into the members of the religious authority called the Sanhedrin. In addition, schools of Rabbis had formed with different shades of interpretation of Torah. However, whilst these different Rabbinic schools were zealous to interpret Torah accurately, their walking out of God's law had become more religious duty than personal relationship with him.

Every human being is prone to legalism, feeling more comfortable with rules than relationship."

This is the main point in understanding what the term 'law' meant in Paul's day and, indeed, what it means in Judaism today. The flesh of all human beings is prone to legalism, feeling more comfortable with rules than relationship. This can be so for Christians as well as Jews, and was the reason for Paul's warnings in the New Testament. At the time when Paul taught about law and grace, law was not so much Torah (the Old Testament teaching of God in its written form) as it was the interpretation of Torah into principles of living (indeed, 'halakha' in our own day is still the term used in Judaism for legal interpretations of Torah).

It is therefore reasonable for us to suppose that when Paul talked about law, he was referring to the teaching of the Rabbis, whose method of interpreting Torah imposed binding rules on their disciples rather than encouraging a personal walk with the God of Israel. This close relationship had been understood by their own Prophet Micah, when he wrote:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic 6:8)

Torah and Halakhah correctly interpreted

Torah, the teaching of God brought through Moses, is subject to interpretation and application. It becomes the legalism against which we are warned when wrongly interpreted as obligations of the flesh, and sometimes even into rules made by men (Col 2:22).

God's law becomes legalism when it is wrongly interpreted as obligations of the flesh, rather than a living walk with him."

By contrast, the New Covenant was the means by which Almighty God sent his Spirit to us to write the Torah on our hearts (Jer 31:33) and mobilise our walk with him (halakha) in a new and living way. Understanding the subtlety of this helps us to rebalance our view of Paul's teaching and to reconsider the balance of law and grace in the whole of Scripture.

Law as a Protector

If the Law of God is considered to be replaced by the grace of God, this not only impacts individual understandings but so the stability of entire societies.

God's law works to protect and guide human beings who are not able to live by the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Nations such as Britain, which have been impacted by the Gospel message over many centuries, have long been stabilized through biblical laws on their statute books. In Britain we can go back at least as far as King Alfred to trace the influence of biblical principles of law.

Consider this quotation from Sir Francis Palgrave's 'History of the Anglo Saxons'¹ (emphases added):

The third and chief principle which actuated Alfred, was his endeavour to impart the spirit of the law of God to the temporal legislation of his kingdom. Alfred's statutes are prefaced by the Decalogue, to which is added a selection from the Mosaic precepts, and the canons of the first Apostolic council. "Do these", he continues, "and if these commands be obeyed, no other doom-book will be required." We commonly say that Christianity is a part of the law of the land. Alfred had a clearer perception of the station which religion should possess in a Christian commonwealth. He would have wished to render Christianity the law itself. The necessity for any human law exists solely in proportion to our neglect of the Divine law; and if we were enabled to write the law on our hearts, nothing whatever would be left for human legislation to perform.

Do you see what the author had detected in a balanced understanding of law to be applied to a nation? It is instructive to note that Palgrave (1788 -1861) was born into a Jewish family and converted to Christianity, which adds special emphasis to this insight into the history of the British Nation, especially in the context of our study of law and grace.

For Study and Prayer

Consider the biblical principles of Torah and halakha in relation to what a Christian should understand by the word law.

Next time: We will continue to consider the balance of law and grace.

These studies are developed from the course Christianity's Relationship with Israel and the Jews, first prepared for Tishrei Bible School.

References

1 p114, The Collected Historical Works of Sir Francis Palgrave, Vol 5: The History of the Anglo-Saxons, 1921 [2013]. R. H. I Palgrave (Ed), Cambridge, CUP.