Colossians 2: 13-14 is an intriguing passage which says as follows:
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling THE RECORD OF DEBT THAT STOOD AGAINST US WITH ITS LEGAL DEMANDS. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
What debt is this passage referring to? It is generally believed that it is the debt owed to God by people for their sins. What then are the legal demands that this passage refers to? It could only be the demands of the last Covenant God made with the Hebrews, and all the laws that encompasses. The last Covenant was made when God rescued the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. God says to the Hebrews in effect, ‘See? I have rescued you. What do I demand in return? Since you are prone to sin, I demand that you abide by the hundreds of Laws given to Moses to minimize your sins. Hopefully these Laws will keep you out of trouble.’
The New Testament that comes after the Gospels, including the passages from Colossians above, provides that Christians are not beholden to the Law given to Moses, rather, they can go by the Covenant God made Abraham as provided in Genesis 15: 5-6. That passage says, “And [God] brought [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ JUST AS ABRAHAM ‘BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS COUNTED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS’?”
God’s Covenant with Abraham came before His Covenant with Moses, and Abraham wasn’t enslaved in Egypt. So, Christians generally believe that because Abraham’s faith in God was counted as righteousness, one need only to have faith in God, without having to abide by the Law given to Moses, to be considered righteous. At the same time, the New Testament explicitly does away with the Law given to Moses, so we must presume that the Law was on the minds of both the writers and those they were writing to, when the writers made that assertion. For example, Romans 7 says “But now we are RELEASED FROM THE LAW, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” As an aside, the “new way of the Spirit” is very similar to what is described in Genesis 15: 5-6.
But what does Jesus have to say about the Law given to Moses? He says in Matthew 5:17,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” It seems that for Jesus, the Law given to Moses is still around. It is the Law the Hebrews were required to abide by because of their sins, in exchange for their being rescued from slavery in Egypt. If we were to stop right here in reading the New Testament, the inference is that anyone who believes the God of the Hebrews must share in the obligation presented by the Old Law. In effect, those whose ancestors were not rescued from slavery in Egypt, become co-guarantors of that obligation. So why, for instance, do Christians believe they are not obligated to, for instance, honor the High Holy Days that Jews are expected to honor? Why do Christians believe that things like Passover don’t apply to them, despite the fact that Jesus partook in the Passover Seder?
When Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all others, did he tell his disciples that the Law God gave to Moses does not apply? What he did say, in Matthew 28:19, was “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Did he command them to ignore the Law given to Moses?
But later on in the New Testament we have this, from Hebrews 6:1-3: “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.” What to make of that? Did the Spirit of Jesus return to earth after Matthew 28:19 and tell a different set of disciples that the Law given to Moses is no longer necessary? Nonetheless, that’s what Hebrews 6:1-3 in the Scriptures says, and since 2 Timothy 3:16 infers that we are obligated to abide by the Scriptures as we would abide by God himself, it seems something must have happened that isn’t stated in the Scriptures.
In a sense, there is some suggestion, found in the Old Testament in fact, that sometime in the future in the future since after Deuteronomy, NOBODY has to abide by the Law given to Moses as part of the Covenant God established with the Hebrews.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
It seems that Jesus could have come to abolish the Old Law if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. So it would seem that despite what is found in the New Testament, the Old Law, denoted by the Covenant God made with Moses and the Hebrews, still lingers at least. And at this point, we don’t know exactly what the Law is that God will, or may have put, in our hearts in accordance with Jeremiah 31: 31-34.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling THE RECORD OF DEBT THAT STOOD AGAINST US WITH ITS LEGAL DEMANDS. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
What debt is this passage referring to? It is generally believed that it is the debt owed to God by people for their sins. What then are the legal demands that this passage refers to? It could only be the demands of the last Covenant God made with the Hebrews, and all the laws that encompasses. The last Covenant was made when God rescued the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. God says to the Hebrews in effect, ‘See? I have rescued you. What do I demand in return? Since you are prone to sin, I demand that you abide by the hundreds of Laws given to Moses to minimize your sins. Hopefully these Laws will keep you out of trouble.’
The New Testament that comes after the Gospels, including the passages from Colossians above, provides that Christians are not beholden to the Law given to Moses, rather, they can go by the Covenant God made Abraham as provided in Genesis 15: 5-6. That passage says, “And [God] brought [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ JUST AS ABRAHAM ‘BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS COUNTED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS’?”
God’s Covenant with Abraham came before His Covenant with Moses, and Abraham wasn’t enslaved in Egypt. So, Christians generally believe that because Abraham’s faith in God was counted as righteousness, one need only to have faith in God, without having to abide by the Law given to Moses, to be considered righteous. At the same time, the New Testament explicitly does away with the Law given to Moses, so we must presume that the Law was on the minds of both the writers and those they were writing to, when the writers made that assertion. For example, Romans 7 says “But now we are RELEASED FROM THE LAW, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” As an aside, the “new way of the Spirit” is very similar to what is described in Genesis 15: 5-6.
But what does Jesus have to say about the Law given to Moses? He says in Matthew 5:17,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” It seems that for Jesus, the Law given to Moses is still around. It is the Law the Hebrews were required to abide by because of their sins, in exchange for their being rescued from slavery in Egypt. If we were to stop right here in reading the New Testament, the inference is that anyone who believes the God of the Hebrews must share in the obligation presented by the Old Law. In effect, those whose ancestors were not rescued from slavery in Egypt, become co-guarantors of that obligation. So why, for instance, do Christians believe they are not obligated to, for instance, honor the High Holy Days that Jews are expected to honor? Why do Christians believe that things like Passover don’t apply to them, despite the fact that Jesus partook in the Passover Seder?
When Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all others, did he tell his disciples that the Law God gave to Moses does not apply? What he did say, in Matthew 28:19, was “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Did he command them to ignore the Law given to Moses?
But later on in the New Testament we have this, from Hebrews 6:1-3: “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.” What to make of that? Did the Spirit of Jesus return to earth after Matthew 28:19 and tell a different set of disciples that the Law given to Moses is no longer necessary? Nonetheless, that’s what Hebrews 6:1-3 in the Scriptures says, and since 2 Timothy 3:16 infers that we are obligated to abide by the Scriptures as we would abide by God himself, it seems something must have happened that isn’t stated in the Scriptures.
In a sense, there is some suggestion, found in the Old Testament in fact, that sometime in the future in the future since after Deuteronomy, NOBODY has to abide by the Law given to Moses as part of the Covenant God established with the Hebrews.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34 says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
It seems that Jesus could have come to abolish the Old Law if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. So it would seem that despite what is found in the New Testament, the Old Law, denoted by the Covenant God made with Moses and the Hebrews, still lingers at least. And at this point, we don’t know exactly what the Law is that God will, or may have put, in our hearts in accordance with Jeremiah 31: 31-34.
