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Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum caused quite a stir recently with their book Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Crossway, 2012). The thing that makes you immediately flinch about their volume is, well, its volume. I fear few will read it. Charles Leiter’s The Law of Christ, however, is less than half its size, and while it does not play the same song, it is certainly on the same album.

Leiter, pastor of Lake Road Chapel in Kirksville, Missouri, addresses prickly questions that arise about continuity and discontinuity between the biblical covenants and testaments—question such as:

• Are Christians obligated to keep the Law of Moses?
• Does God still require a certain standard of beard-trimming and Sabbath-keeping?
• Do the Ten Commandments apply to Christians?

At the heart of the book is a wonderful explanation of the “Law of Christ.” Tenaciously faithful to the Scriptures, Leiter calls us to keep the new covenant command of love.

Biblical Theology of Law

The Law of Christ is rightly described as a biblical theology of law. In Part 1, Leiter flies over the scriptural landscape, pointing out the covenant flow from Abraham to Moses to Jesus. He shows how God in Christ ultimately made good on his promises to Abraham. He explains the laws, blessings, and curses of the Mosaic Covenant and how they fit into the bigger picture of God’s redemptive plan. Leiter then circles around the most glorious peak of all, establishing the Lord Jesus as the defining interpretative lens for the entire terrain.

Part 2 explores what it means for Christians to be released from the Law of Moses. Christians are free from the curse and condemnation of the Law, free from the burden of keeping the Law, free from the Law as an external rule that contradicts his real nature, and free from the Law as a covenant rule of duty. Leiter also explains the “But I say unto you” and the “least of these” passages, along with other important verses that seem to teach the continuation of the Law.

Part 3 is a magnificent exposition of the Law of Christ. Jesus is the standard; love is his command. Not a sentimental puppy love, either; his love demands our all. We must serve others, yield to others, forgive others, and lay down our lives for others. Again, Jesus is the supreme standard of the New Covenant ethic. And all of this is empowered by the Spirit of Christ who indwells his people (a point sometimes lacking in works on biblical law and ethics).

The Law of Christ

The Law of Christ

Granted Ministries Press (2012). 356 pp.

Too often Christians have looked to something other than Christ for their supreme rule of duty. They have centered their lives around a list of rules; rather than his new commandment to love. Not realizing that the goal of all Christian instruction is love, they have too often valued Bible knowledge, preaching ability, ministry, and gifts above the one thing that matters most in the Christian life. Yet, according to the New Testament, love is the fulfillment of the whole law, and no amount of sacrifice, knowledge, or even faith means anything apart from it. The goal of this book is to point believers to their perfect Savior and standard, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself love incarnate, and who alone can enable them in some measure to love as he loved.

Granted Ministries Press (2012). 356 pp.

The book concludes with several helpful appendices dealing with significant “Law” issues like the common tripartite (threefold) categorization, the lawful use of the Law, and how the Law applies today. Appendix E offers a tremendous list of FAQs speaking to everything from the ongoing validity of the Ten Commandments to hygiene and tattoos.

The Strength of the Argument

Leiter is hard to argue with if one stands on a biblical foundation, because he is standing squarely on the Bible. He does not supply circles of theological reasoning or extensive citations from accepted confessions. He refers to verse after verse and passage after passage of Spirit-inspired truth. He carefully relates what Scripture teaches about both the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ. In order to come to a significantly different view, then, one would likely need to be looking at a different landscape or through a different lens (such as giving interpretive control to the Old Testament or systematic theology rather than to Jesus).

Leiter courageously challenges leading theological opinions. No doubt he will be dismissed as “antinomian” by some. However, he declines to arbitrarily divide the Law of Moses into groups—civil, ceremonial, moral—or simply assert that the Ten Commandments are God’s enduring moral standard even though Scripture itself never once asserts the same. In The Law of Christ, Leiter manages to speak the truth about love in love.

A Challenge

The refreshing benefits of this book almost make me want to forego any opposition, but I believe Leiter’s point can perhaps be made even more pointedly.

Crucial for this discussion is 2 Timothy 3:16, since it affirms the Old Testament’s benefit for correction and training in righteousness. But deciding how it benefits usually grows out of assumption rather than exegesis. Consider this: the old covenant and its Law formed a unique relationship between God and Israel. No one argues that the Philistines were a people for God’s own possession, or that he built his temple in Babylon. Yet 2 Timothy 3:16 seems to imply that the Law given to the Jews should be used to train non-Jews (i.e., Christians) in righteousness. Is that the proper conclusion?

Not if we consider the text in its context. Verse 15 says the God-breathed Scriptures led to the “salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” He was their message. In the ensuing verses (4:1ff), Paul charged Timothy not to preach the Old Testament or the Law, but to preach “the word,” which in 1 and 2 Timothy is always the gospel. Timothy, then, should use the word of Christ to “reprove, rebuke, exhort” (4:2). The OT and its Law formed a giant arrow pointing to Jesus. He, not the Law, should be preached for training in righteousness. Thus, this is not an appeal to use the 600-plus commandments of the Law of Moses for training Christians. It is an appeal to preach Christ. This is why even though Paul and others illustrate from the Law, their zeal was for the disciples to obey everything Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:18–20).

Leiter agrees and makes the point effectively, but he also wants Christians to apply each of the commandments in the Law of Moses (see chapter 9 and Appendix D and E). He basically concludes that the Law isn’t binding but is still applicable. But how can a law be non-binding? He answers that we should find the Law’s true meaning in Christian love without imposing our findings on anyone else. But how would the “Christ lens” see laws of polygamy (Exod. 21:10), harvest resting (Ex. 23:10–11), and leprosy (Lev. 13:9ff)? This seems arbitrary, subjective, and forced. And it detracts from the Christ-centered hermeneutic he so compellingly presents. I suggest we shouldn’t be afraid to say with Paul that Christ is the “end” of the Law for those who believe (Rom. 10:4; cf. Gal. 3:25). If God ends something, we should let it end.

My misgiving on this point, however, doesn’t prevent me from urging all believers to read this book. It will help you know and please Jesus more. In the final analysis, what could be more beneficial?

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