The Truth about the Law (Sabbath/ Circumcision etc)

1. 1st Reading: John 5:1-16 (in Jerusalem at a feast of Jews)

 Jesus heals man impotent(paralysed for 38 yrs). It was the Sabbath.
 v 10 - Jews accuse man of breaking law (by carrying bed on Sabbath – Ex 20:10/ Jer 17:21)
 v16 – The Jews real motive for accusing the healed man of breaking the law – hatred & murder
in their hearts.

2. 2nd Reading: John 7:19-24 (in Jerusalem at feast of Tabernacles)

 v19 - Jesus asks Jews: “Didnt Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps it. Why go ye
about to kill me?”
 v20 - Jews reply saying “You have a devil: who goeth about to kill you?” – They lie to the wrong
person.(Heb 4:13)
 v23 – Jesus reminds them that some of them are circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of
Moses( regarding circumcision-Ex 12:44,48/ LEV 12:3) should not be broken.
 v24 – He adds: “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgement”
(see Rom 8:5/ Philp 3:15-19/ Col 2:16-23)

3. 3rd Reading: Matt 12:1-9/ also in Mk 2:23/Luk 6:1-5 (In the cornfields)
 Jesus & disciples going through cornfields pluck & eat corn on the Sabbath
 Pharisees accuse them of breaking law (in this case – Sabbath)
 Jesus reminds them of how David (their beloved patriarch) broke the law by eating shewbread
which was meant to be ALWAYS before the Lord (Ex 23:35), and ONLY the priests could eat
(Ex 29:32-33/Mk 2:26/Luk 6:4)
 Secondly, Jesus reminds them, how that this same law they accuse Jesus & disciples of
breaking, required Jewish priests (to indirectly profane the Sabbath) by offering sacrifices every
Sabbath (Num 28:9-10), yet remain blameless before the law. (Matt 12:5)
 Finally Jesus leaves them with the saying “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath” (Mk 2:27) and “the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day”(Matt 12:8/Mk 2:28).

4. 4TH Reading: Matt 12:10-14 / also in Mk 3:1/Luk 6:6-11 (In synagogue, a Sabbath after
returning from the cornfields with the disciples)
 Jesus heals a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath.
 Before this, the Pharisees carefully watch for the moment where Jesus heals the man (i.e.- does
some form of work), so they can accuse him of breaking Sabbath (Mk 3:2/Luk 6:7). Knowing
their intentions, Jesus tells the man “stretch forth your hand” (i.e. – Jesus did not do anything. In
response to what Jesus told him, the man did something that everyone does - even the
accusers,i.e. - simply stretch his hand)
 With the Pharisees first line of attack unravelled (since Jesus did not do any visible work), all
they can do is question Jesus “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
 To this Jesus answers and reminds them that if one of them had a sheep which falls into a pit
on the Sabbath, wouldn’t they go and lift it out? (Matt 12:11). He asks them, “Is it lawful to do
good on the Sabbath or evil” to save life or to kill? (Mk 3:4/Luk 6:9)
 With their plan of accusing Jesus shattered, the Pharisees mad with anger, take counsel how
they might destroy him.(Matt 12:14/ Mk 3:6/Luk 6:11)

5. 5th Reading: John 9:1-41

 v 6-7 - Jesus heals a man blind from birth on the Sabbath, by making a lump of clay from his
spittle (saliva) and anoints the blind man’s eyes, telling him to “Go wash in the pool of Siloam”
 v 16 - As usual, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, calling him a sinner
 v 24 - They try unsuccessfully (using spiritual sounding language) to get the healed man to say
Jesus is a sinner telling him: “Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner”.
 v 29 - Enraged (with their efforts to accuse Jesus going nowhere), they blurt out “We only know
that God spoke to Moses” referring inferiorly to Jesus saying, “as for this fellow, we know not
from whence he is”

NOTE: The Jews faithful observance(to the letter, when it suited them) of the law(in these cases
- the Sabbath), never took away the hatred & murder from the hearts and lies from their lips &
sadly kept them blind to the fact that their much awaited Messiah(Christ) was right there
among them. They found no problem calling him a sinner and devil-possessed, even belittling
him as a “this fellow”.
When was the law given?

Jer 31:32/ Heb 8:9 – the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them out
of Egypt
Gal 3:16,17 – 430 years after the promises were given to Abraham and his seed(Isaac &Jacob).

To whom was the law given/ who was it for?

Jer 31:32/ Heb 8:9 – “the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them out
of Egypt”
John 7:19 – Jesus to the Jews: “Did not Moses give you the law?”
I Tim 1:9-10 – Law was not meant for the righteous man but for lawless & disobedient

What was the standard of righteousness required by the law?

Deut 27:26/Gal 3:10 – Curse to anyone who does not do ALL the law
Matt 5:20 – Jesus said: “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes &
Pharisees(they knew & taught ALL the law, but never kept it), ye shall not enter into the
Kingdom of heaven”
Rom 2:13 – Not the hearers of the law are justified ONLY the doers.
Gal 5:3 – All who boast in circumcision i.e.- law keeping), are debtors to do the WHOLE law
1 Tim 1:8 – The law is good IF a man use it lawfully (i.e. – keep ALL of it)
James 2:10 – Even one (1) offence, means a person is guilty of breaking ALL the law

Did the Jews (or anyone else who dared or tried) succeed in keeping the law ?

Jer 31:32/Heb 8:9 – The fathers (of Israel) broke and disregarded God’s covenant
John 7:19 – Jesus to the Jews: “none of you keepeth the law”
Rom 3:12 – “there is none that doeth good, no, not one”
Gal 6:13 – “Neither they who are circumcised keep the law”
Matt 5:17 – Only Jesus could keep the law perfectly
Act 7:53 - Stephen to the Jews: Ye “have received the law by the disposition of angels, and
have not kept it.” – While making his defence to the Jewish elders, scribes & council who had
accused him of speaking “blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.”(Acts 6:11)

Was there anything wrong with the law (i.e.- it’s standards)?

Rom 7:7 – The law is NOT sin

Rom 7:12 – The law is holy, just & good
Rom 7:14 – The law is spiritual
Gal 3:21 – “Is the law against the promises of God? God forbid...If there had been a law which
could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law”
1 Tim 1:8 – The law is good, IF a man use it lawfully (i.e.- keep ALL of it)

If the law is spiritual & holy, just &good ....then what/who is the problem?

Gal 2:16 – A man is NOT justified by the WORKS of the law

Gal 3:10 – For as many as are of the WORKS of the law are under the curse
Gal 3:11 – No flesh is justified by the law (i.e.- by doing it), in the sight of God
Rom 3:12 – There is none that doeth good, no, not one
Rom 3:20 – By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
Rom 7:14 – The law is spiritual, BUT I am carnal (i.e.- man is carnal)
Rom 8:3 – The law was weak through the flesh (i.e.- no human could keep it fully)
Rom 8:7,8 - the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Could the law make a man perfect or justify him in God’s sight?

Rom 3:20 – By deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified

Gal 2:21 – If righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain
Gal 5:4 – Christ is become of no effect to whoever is justified by the law...are fallen from grace
Heb 7:19 – The law made nothing perfect...but brought in a better hope
Heb 7:11 – If it (Aaron’s priesthood- under which Israel received the law) was perfect, what
further need was there of another priest (after the order of Melchisedec)
Heb 10:1 – Law could never make the comers thereunto(those who did it) perfect
Heb 9:9/10:1,2,11 – The law prescribed sacrifices that could never take away (the conscience
of) sin, since the sacrifices had to offered regularly(every year)
Heb 8:7 – If 1st covenant had been faultless (i.e.- man could successfully keep ALL of it), then
there would have been no need for a 2nd.

Then why was the law/covenant given in the first place?

1) To show what sin is (i.e. – to define sin)

Rom 3:20 - “...By the law is the knowledge of sin”
Rom 7:7-8 - “ .. I had not known sin..except the law said, ”Thou shalt not..””
2) To make us realise we’re all (human race) guilty before God
Rom 3:19 – “...All the world may become guilty before God”
Rom 3:9 – “Both Jew and Gentiles..all under sin”
Rom 3:22,23 – “There is no difference..all have sinned”
Rom 7:18-24 – “..O wretched man that I am”
3) To show how bad sin is
Rom 7:13 – “...that sin by the commandment, might become exceeding sinful”
4) To ultimately lead us to (faith in) Christ
Gal 3:24 – “..law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ”
Heb 7:19 – “..law made nothing perfect, but brought in a hope of something better -
our drawing near to God
Heb 10:1 – “The law having a shadow of good things to come...can never make the
comers thereunto perfect”
Matt 5:45-47 – Jesus told the Jews: “Ye trust in Moses...If ye believed Moses, you
would have believed me: for Moses wrote of me.”
John 5:39,40 – Jesus to Jews: “Search the scriptures (law)...they testify of Me...ye will not
come to me, that ye might have life”

What did Jesus coming and death accomplish regarding the law and its requirements?

Matt 5:17 – Jesus said “I not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it”- The only man able to
Rom 8:3 – Jesus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law, might be
fulfilled in ALL who walk not after the flesh(keeping the law), but after the Spirit(faith in Christ).
Gal 3:10 – No man is justified by the law(i.e.- by doing it)...the just shall live by faith.
Gal 5:13 – “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law”
Gal 5:18 – “If ye be led by the Spirit, ye a not under the law”
Eph 2:15 – Christ abolished in his flesh the enmity (the law of commandments contained in
ordinances).. to make in himself of twain(two- i.e. Jew & Gentile), one new man(the church)
Col 2:14 – By dying, Christ took the handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us (i.e.- the
requirements of the law and the curse that it pronounced on all who could not keep it),
nailing it to His cross.
Heb 8:13 – He hath made the 1st old... It decayeth ... ready to vanish away.
Heb 10:9 – “He taketh away the first (law/covenant), that he may establish the 2nd”
Matt 26:28 – Jesus said: “This is my blood of the new testament(covenant), which is shed for
many for the remission of sins
What is this new/2nd Covenant/Testament?

Jer 31:33 – God said “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.
Rom 6:14,15 – Ye are not under the law but under grace
Rom 8:3 – Jesus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law, might be
fulfilled in ALL who walk not after the flesh(keeping the law), but after the Spirit(faith in Christ).
Heb 8:10-13 - “I will put my laws in their inward parts and write them in their hearts...I will be to
them a God, they shall be to be a people...They shall not teach one another saying “Know the
Lord” because everyone from the least to the greatest shall know Me ....their sins & iniquities will
I remember no more”
Heb 10:16-18 – God said “I will put my law in their hearts and in their minds will I write
them..their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”
Gal 3:2 – We (mankind) receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith (Eph 1:13), NOT by the works of
the law.
Gal 5:1 – “Stand fast in the liberty whereby Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage.” (Circumcision/Sabbath & law keeping)
2 Cor 3:17 – Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
Jas 2:12 - So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
Rom 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin
and death.
Gal 6:2 - Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Does this new/2nd covenant mean God’s righteousness and holy standards have
changed,dropped or reversed altogether?

Rom 6:14,15 – Since we are not under the law but under grace, shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid
Heb 10:28-31 – He who despised Moses law died without mercy under 2 or 3 witnesses...how
much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant (i.e.- the new/2nd covenant- Matt 26:28),
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Rom 8:3 – the righteousness of the law, might be fulfilled in ALL who walk not after the
flesh(works of the law), but after the Spirit(faith in Christ).
Rom 3:31 – “Do we make void the law through (because of) faith? God forbid: we establish
the law” (i.e.- we(Christ in a believer) establish the righteous standard demanded by the law)
Gal 5:13 – Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to
the flesh, but by love serve one another.
1 Pet 2:16 – As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants
of God
What about the 7th day sabbath (rest)?
 It’s effect on those it was first given (the Jews on their way to Canaan)?
Psalm 95:9-11/ Heb 3:9-11 – “Your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in
their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that
they should not enter into My rest (to Canaan – the rest God had prepared for them).”
Heb 3-16-19 - For some, when they had heard, did provoke (Ps 78:40): howbeit not all
that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not
with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware
he that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see
that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Heb 4:6 – “they to whom it (Sabbath/rest) was first preached entered not in (to God’s
rest) because of unbelief:”

 What about the sabbath in the new/2nd covenant?

Heb 4:3 - For we which have believed (saved/born again) do enter into rest (sabbath)..
Heb 4:8-11- For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
For he that is entered into His rest (God’s rest), he also hath ceased from his own works
(our own righteousness and good works, which ultimately lead to hardness of heart), as
God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief.
Col 2:16,17 - Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to
come; but the body is of Christ.
Other notes:

1. Some try to distinguish between moral law (10 commandments) and ceremonial law
(levitical priesthood, washing etc.), saying the moral law is the one spoken about in Rom
3:31 and other scriptures. These 2 terms are referred to as the law since there is no such
distinction in scripture.

2. The 1st covenant is also referred to in Scripture as the law, the old covenant, Moses, Moses’
law, Moses and the prophets, the law & the prophets, the law of sin and death, handwriting
of ordinances that was against us etc.

3. Jesus to Scribes & Pharisees:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith:
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. - Matt 23:23

4. Both Stephen and Paul were accused of teaching against the laws of Moses:

Acts 6:11 - Then they(those who disputed with Stephen and couldn’t resist the wisdom with
which he spoke), suborned (paid/bought-off) men, which accused Stephen saying, ”We
have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.”

Acts 18:13 - Jews at Corinth accused Paul saying, “This fellow persuadeth men to worship
God contrary to the law.”

5. Many use the phrase, “the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath”, (Matt 12:8/Mk 2:28)
to imply that Jesus advocated and expected his followers to keep the Sabbath. This does
not tie up with the context of the passage this phrase is taken from. The above phrase was
Jesus reply to those who accused him and his disciples of not keeping the Sabbath when
they had passed by cornfields on the Sabbath and had plucked and eaten the corn.

6. Scriptures showing the law(Moses law) was never from the beginning:
Rom 5:20 – “Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound..”
Gal 3:19 – Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions..”.

7. Jesus summarised the Law & the prophets :

Matt 7:12 – Whatever ye would that men do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the
law & the prophets.
Matt 22:34-40 – Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart & soul & mind. Love thy neighbour
as thyself. On these 2 commandments hang all the law & prophets.
Gal 5:14 - For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
I Tim 1:5 – End (summary) of the commandment is “charity out of a pure heart &
conscience and faith unfeigned.
JAS 2:8 – If ye fulfil the royal law: Love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.

(All quotes from the King James Version)

Comments & queries: vulagi@mail.com, 2009