03 - Chapter 1 - What Is the Law?

Before I plunge into the deep, I must define my terms, and give a brief summary of the various biblical meanings of ‘the law’.1 And there is need! Most evangelicals think of ‘the law’ as a moral system encapsulated in the ten commandments. This is a bad, bad mistake, and the source of much misunderstanding and trouble. True, ‘the ten commandments’ is a biblical phrase, but its use in Scripture is very rare, and the law is never defined in this way, never! The phrase ‘ten commandments’ occurs only three times in the entire Bible (Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 10:4), never once in the New Testament. Of course, the ‘tablets of stone’, and ‘the ministry... written and engraved on stones’ are mentioned in the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:3,7), but whether these are references exclusively to the ten commandments or to the entire Sinai covenant is debatable. So where did the idea – that ‘the law’ means ‘the ten commandments’ – come from? It originated with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, was developed by the Reformers, and reached its zenith in the following hundred years under the Puritans. It is still with us. And it confuses – and worse than confuses – the debate right at the start.