[Music] the bible is not primarily a rule book the bible is a story of how god remains faithful to humanity despite humanity's constant tendency to set themselves in opposition to god in the words of a popular children's bible it's the story of god's never stopping never giving up unbreaking always and forever love the bible is not a rule book but there are plenty of rules in the bible in fact the old testament sometimes called the hebrew bible has 613 commandments so this raises an important question for christians are we supposed to follow all 613 commandments
are we supposed to follow any of them how do we know which ones consider some examples in exodus 2014 god commands you shall not commit adultery in deuteronomy 25 we're told that if a man's brother dies without an heir the surviving brother must marry his widow in order to provide an heir for him in leviticus 11 the people of god are forbidden from eating shellfish or any sea creature that does not have fins and scales and in leviticus 23 22 they even get farming advice in the form of a commandment against plowing their fields all
the way to the edges which of these should we live by and why before answering this question we must consider another thorny question what sort of authority does the old testament hold for christians today is it even relevant in the early days of the church and periodically since then there have been people who have argued that christians would be better off if they left the old testament behind entirely this was the view of an early christian theologian named marcion of synopy marcion argued that the grace that comes in jesus is so opposed to the law
in the old testament that the god of jesus must actually be a different god than the god of the old testament the old testament god is wrathful and violent and obsessed with law the new testament god is kind and gracious marcion even created his own version of scripture which included only some letters of paul and portions of the gospel of luke tertullian an early church father argued that marcion's view was nonsense christians cannot leave behind the old testament because it's precisely the old testament prophets who told of the coming of jesus moreover jesus showed himself
to be the same god as the creator god by commanding creation in all of his miracles while there's a distinction between the old testament and the new testament there's a more fundamental continuity in that jesus is the savior in both in the early 20th century the swiss theologian carl bart made the same point writing in a time when nazi fever was sweeping across germany bart's words stand as a courageous and clear condemnation of anti-semitism the old and new testaments according to bart tell one single story of a single community of god albeit a community that
stands under two different forms or aspects jesus christ is the promised son of abraham and david the messiah of israel and he's simultaneously the head and lord of the church called and gathered from jews and gentiles in both these characters he is indissolubly one and as the one he is ineffably both as the lord of the church he is the messiah of israel as the messiah of israel he is the lord of the church so the old testament is christian scripture and christians are not free to leave it behind but what sort of authority does
it hold for christian ethics there's an apparent paradox in the new testament jesus said the law was perfect and that heaven and earth would pass away before it would fail but the apostle paul points out that those who live by the gospel are actually released from the requirements of the law some have found the key to this paradox in jesus claim that he came to fulfill the law a common distinction in the history of christianity is the distinction between three types of law ceremonial laws which relate to worship in the temple ritual cleansing and food
purity laws civil laws which guide the israelites as a distinct people and nation including laws related to punishing wrongdoing dealing with land debt slaves and property and moral laws the clearest example of which are the ten commandments including don't worship idols honor your parents don't commit adultery steal kill lie or covet your neighbor's stuff what does it mean for jesus to fulfill each of these types of laws the ceremonial laws are understood to have symbolically pointed toward jesus so that once he came and offered the true and final sacrifice they were no longer necessary they
were a copy and shadow of the things to come as the book of hebrews says the purpose of the civil laws was to help the nation of israel thrive as a political community until jesus could emerge as its savior and king but jesus said his kingdom is not of this world and the community of those who follow jesus is no longer a distinct political community as for the moral laws jesus fulfilled those by living a sinless life for those who are in christ perfect fulfillment of the moral law is not the way to merit god's
favor but the moral law remains an expression of what a godly life looks like so the ceremonial and civil laws are no longer necessary though some might still be a good idea but the moral law applies at all times in all places so christians must not commit adultery but they may eat shellfish but what about the commandment not to plow to the edges of one's field so that the poor can glean a little bit that's left over in order to live is that a civil law or a moral law even if we're not literally to
practice this as a method of farming is there still something in it that we might take as normative and directing for us one way of moving forward is to shift our attention from specific proof text or individual verses to the broader narrative or story of scripture what are its themes and movements in the old testament these would include concepts such as covenant mishpat and settica and shalom i'll explain each one in turn a covenant is a binding relationship where the relationship takes precedence over the requirements in the old testament god initiates an everlasting covenant with
abraham and his descendants which is confirmed again and again and which is ultimately codified with the whole people of god at the giving of allah at mount sinai after moses leads the people out of egypt the first five books of the old testament are a record of this history and of the law that details how the israelites were to live in order to be a faithful covenant people the most common theme in the law is justice and righteousness mishpat and cetika which describe both dealing fairly with others but also acting so as to benefit the
poor and the downtrodden in the land and all of this is for the purpose of shalom which is translated as peace but which really means something more like universal flourishing wholeness and delight right relationships with god self others and the world so recall nt wright's analogy of a play christians understand themselves to be living in a five-act play that begins with creation the fall israel and jesus the church is the fifth act which will one day give way to new creation the culmination and consummation of the entire story the metaphor for acting in a play
suggests that christian ethics is an improvisational activity in which we must be ferociously loyal to what has gone before and cheerfully open about what must come next so back to the law against plowing your field to the edges while a civil law that's not directly binding this may still be an expression of what it means to live rightly in covenantal relationship with god it means not extracting every last bit of profit when doing so means that the poor will suffer it means that the work you do should reflect not only your private interests but the
interests of the common good and especially of the most vulnerable that's how a fifth act character might live in a way that's faithful but also distinct from the third act so lest this be understood the emphasis needs to be on faithful improvisation as any jazz musician or theater actor can tell you improvisation does not mean complete freedom from restraints improvisation only works if you're listening carefully to what comes before you and what others are doing and constraining your part in light of that improvisation only works if it's faithful to the structure of the existing melody
and patterns or to the previous scenes of a play the challenge of living our part well in light of what came before well that's a central question for christian ethics [Music]
