The Law of God

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The law is God's revealed will and as such it is to be understood as torah, living historical instruction and not as nomos, eternal immutable law. In order to clarify this idea of the law as torah we must return to an idea that we developed in chapter two, namely that revelation and all reality is to be understood from the eschatological kingdom of God. "Vanuit zijn toekomst, waarin hij op ons toekomt vanuit het einde en de voleinding van alle dingen, dringt de levende God in ons heden op en breekt hij er in door en poneert hij zichzelf en zijn rijk in onze existentie."^4.9This implies that the Torah cannot be separated from the presence of God or from the eschatological kingdom of God. The law is the reconciling presence of God and this law is the law of the kingdom. If we combine these two ideas we could say that the law is the presence of the living God in history, a presence in which He Himself is dynamically involved in transforming this world into his image and reflecting his kingdom in it.^4.10

The Torah has an existential significance, it is to be understood as the presence of God.^4.11 The Torah is not to be understood as a set of laws and commands that have to be lived up to in order to be acceptable to God. The actual and only content of the Torah is the presence of God. "En de tegenwoordigheid Gods wordt verstaan als zijn aanwezigheid en bezigheid in het vleesch. Haar centrum ligt weer in het heil, dat hij aanbrengt. Hij is reddend-uit de ijdelheid der verloren existentie - tegenwoordig."^4.12 With his gracious revelation of his Torah God gave his gift of salvation to Israel. This gift of salvation is the presence of God himself. God the Redeemer and Saviour entered into the life of Israel, and not only into the life of Israel, but into the existence itself which is alienated from its Creator. The Torah is the reality of the redeemed life as it is realized in the praesentia realis of God the Redeemer. With the gift of the Torah God revealed himself as the God who does not forsake the work of his hands (Ps 138:8) but enters into this fallen world in order to save it from eternal perdition.^4.13

The Torah is God's saving presence and as such its primary concern is not to spell out what man should do, but what God the Redeemer is doing in and to the world. Therefore the Torah also has a kerygmatic significance. God is present from his eschatological essence (or one could say that God is present for the sake of the realization of his eschatological intentions) and his revelation is the revelation of this eschatological essence. This means that the law of God is the law of the kingdom. The saving presence of God is the revelation that in the eschaton God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). There is a close relationship between the Torah and the kingdom - The Torah is the law of the kingdom.^4.14 This must also be understood in a dynamic sense as the law of the coming kingdom. The Torah is an historical reality, foreshadowing the coming kingdom of God, not the eschatological reality itself. It is the law of the kingdom of God in the modality of an historical struggle against the powers of the flesh.^4.15 This eschatological significance of the law, namely that it is the revelation that in the eschaton God will be all in all, means that the law primarily contains a proclamation, a kerygma about the world which God himself will fulfil. The law is not given to man as a means whereby he can have a feeling of certainty because he knows how to win the favor of the divine; it is also not the ideal picture of the ordering and forming of redeemed life, it is life itself as it is given by God, the life that God wants man to participate in with Him, as a partner.^4.16The Torah reveals that God himself has entered into history and is busy setting up his kingdom in this fallen existence. The Torah is an expression of the reality of the kingdom of God in this world. It is not a formal set of rules that must be lived up to in order to be acceptable to God. In its very essence it is the only true and the ultimate gospel of God for his world.^4.17This is summarized in the definition of the law as the gift of God's grace.

The fact that God gave his law to Israel is inseparably bound up with the covenant of grace. One could even say that the giving of the law was the pinnacle of the realization of this covenant, and it must be remembered that throughout the Old Testament this covenant is seen as unearned and undeserved grace. Therefore the fulfillment of God's law is never to be understood as an achievement of man over against God. The law is to be understood exclusively from the love and grace of God. God's law shows man the way and creates for man the possibility of remaining in the covenant. "The law preserves the nation in the salvation that was received in the redemption out of Egypt, and expresses this salvation in the entire individual and social existence."^4.18 The law is a gift of God's grace and expresses the salvation that has already been received. The law is itself the expression of salvation and thus wants to be expressed in the totality of individual and social life, but before we pursue this important line of thought we must discuss the gift or, in other words, the historical revelatory character of the law.

The law is God's revelation to man and this law is to be understood in terms of torah and not nomos. It is a living, dynamic, historical reality that cannot be abstracted from the presence and the acts of the living God. The law is historically determined but this does not mean that the mosaic law is now only an historical antiquity. It means that the law itself is historical, full of the dynamic structure of the acts of the living God. The dynamic structure of the law rests in the historical-eschatological essence of the acts of God.^4.19 The law is historically determined because revelation is an historical act of God. In order to emphasize this historical and torahquality of the law Van Ruler defines the law as the medium between revelation and existence. Revelation is the most particular, it is the presence and work of God in and with existence. Existence is the most general. There must be a mediation between these two.^4.20 The law is the historical expression of God's salvation and as such is the medium between revelation and existence. But the law of God is nevertheless to be understood as revelation because "de openbaring brengt zelf het medium mee, om zich te vereenigen met de existentie."^4.21 As medium between revelation and existence the law finds its origin in the most particular, namely, in the presence of God. The law is not derived from the ethical rationality of man, it is not a formal authoritative body but is the presence of God himself and as such is a living, dynamic historical reality. The law is full of the dynamics of the works of God. Things are added to and taken away from the law. In the prophetic criticism the law can even be denied, but this is done out of respect for the law as the presence of God. As soon as the law is made to a formal instance and thus is used to exclude a person from the `open reality' of God's commands the prophets (as well as Christ and the Apostles) criticize the law . Things are also added to the law, for instance, the baptism practiced by John appears to simply be added to the law.^4.22

The qualities which have traditionally been ascribed to the Torah, namely its immutabilitas, perfectio, bonitas and spiritualitas, are to be understood in terms of the divine character of the law and not in terms of its formal nature. We saw in a previous chapter, that God's original and final intention is the establishment of his kingdom of glory. The Torah is immutable in the sense that it expresses this ultimate will of God and not in the sense of an inflexible and rigid rule which was imposed on Israel. Through all its historical changes the law remains the immutable will and law of God for this world.

The perfection of the Torah is implicit in its immutability. The whole and only content of the Torah is the real presence of God himself, his righteousness and his redemption. Therefore the Torah does not contain the perfection which is demanded from man but the divine perfection which is given to him. The imperative that man must do the law flows from the indicative that the Torah is God's perfect gift to him.

The goodness of the Torah must also be understood in terms of God's goodness. The Torah is the reality of God's presence among his people. In his infinite goodness and grace God creates a living relationship between himself and man by entering into our lost existence in his Torah. In his goodness God is struggling to redeem this world and express his image in it. That is the goodness of the Torah.

The spirituality of the law means that it is, and that it will forever remain the immutable, perfect, good and holy law of God. It is God's way of redeeming his world, he enters into fallen creation and creates history by setting an aim, an eschaton to history, which is his eternal kingdom of glory. The spirituality of the law means that ultimately it is not man who handles it in the realization of God's kingdom on earth. God himself is doing something with his Torah. He gave it to Israel and by this proclaimed in the historical existence of this people his kingdom of justice, peace and love.^4.23

The law is the expression of God's will for this world and as such is a proclamation of the coming kingdom of glory. But the law is not only a proclamation, it also has a command character and is imposed on man for him to keep and do. We noted above that the law was given to preserve the nation Israel in the salvation that was received in the redemption out of Egypt, and to express this salvation. The intention of God's salvation is that it is expressed in the ordinary forms of existence. As medium between revelation and existence the intention of the law is to be expressed in the individual and communal life of man. Therefore God's law comes to us in the form of a command because in this form revelation enters completely into existence. In this way the entire active existence of man finds its place in God's acts because "de wet, als noodzakelijke vorm van het evangelie, geeft aan het evangelie ruimte in onze menschelijke ruimte en aan ons menschen in de ruimte van het evangelie."^4.24 God gives his law so that the people who do these things, will live by them (Rom. 10:15; Gal. 3:12; Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11). God's works with man and the world cannot be understood in a fatalistic sense. With his saving works, God includes man as his co-worker and follower and "schept rondom den mensch de zedelijke en historische vrijheid, het veld der geschiedenis, waarop de mensch krachtens roeping met zijn taak in vrijheid bezig mag zijn."^4.25 The law appears within the context of the covenant of grace and provides the means of remaining within this covenant by expressing the salvation that has been received in the entire individual and social life of the nation. This indicates the totalitarian character of the law: "Zij omvat niet alleen den cultus van Jahwe, maar het heele leven; zij laat geen neutrale zone, al vervalt zij niet in casuistiek; zij wendt zich tot het geheele volk en beweegt zich ten volle in de gemeenschappelijkheid der existentie."^4.26 This totalitarian character of the law must be understood in an extensive as well as an intensive sense. It is extensive in the sense that it wants to order the whole of life; and it is intensive in the sense that it wants to place all aspects of life, individual and communal, under the reign of God.^4.27

God's law is the expression of his image and as such it is the law of his kingdom. The ultimate intention of the law is to go up into existence so that nothing is left except the triune God and the naked existence of things. This means that the law is more eschatological than the gospel.^4.28Bavinck expresses this by saying that the law is eternal and the gospel temporal.^4.29 This, in turn, means that the gospel was given for the sake of the law. The Son of God was incarnated and the Holy Spirit was poured out so that the righteousness of the law could be expressed in the totality of individual and social existence.^4.30 Not only can we say that the gospel was given for the sake of the law but we can also say that the gospel precedes the law. The law was given to preserve the nation Israel in the salvation that they had already received in the redemption from Egypt. The law is contained within the covenant of grace. However, the Israelites forgot this gospel character of the law and took it into their own hands in order to justify themselves. Instead of remaining in the covenant of the living God and his plan for the world, Israel entered into a `covenant with death' and an `agreement with Sheol' (Isa. 28:15). They prescribed `precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little' (Isa. 28:10,13) and the Lord became `like an enemy' to Israel (Lam. 2:5).^4.31

The law most certainly has a command character but we have seen that this command character gains its force from the gospel character of the law. As soon as this gospel character is forgotten or ignored the law becomes a formal set of rules to be lived up to in order to justify oneself.^4.32Thus man makes of God an enemy that has burdened his subjects with an unbearable system of laws and this `enemy' can only be placated by man living up to these laws. This is sin `beyond' the law and renders the law itself sinful. This is not sin against a specific law here and there, but against the law itself and the Lawgiver Himself by turning his greatest blessing into a fatal curse. The curse of the law is the curse with which we are cursing God by taking his law into our hands and treating him as an enemy to be placated and thereby bringing a curse upon ourselves.^4.33But even when man takes the law of God into his own hands it does not cease to be the law of God. In this context the law reveals sin as man's hostility towards God. It exposes him as a sinner and plunges him into guilt. The law not only reveals sin but forces man deeper into sin (Rom. 6:20). This is the usus elenchticus or pedagogicusof the law - the law shows man what sin is, convicts him of sin and shows him his inability to meet the demands of the law. Thus the law acts as a pedagogue to Christ - it brings us to our knees and shows us that we cannot earn salvation, we can only humbly accept it. The law, therefore, acts as the foundation of salvation in this world. We can only proclaim the kerygma of Jesus as the Christ in terms of the language of the Old Testament, the language of Canaan. The concepts of sin, guilt, reconciliation and messiah are israelitic ones. They do not denote general, human concepts. Historically it was the nation Israel that was pushed and held in guilt by God, by means of his law. This re-occurs in the christianization of a culture. The mosaic law must be added in order to talk meaningfully of guilt and reconciliation. It creates the theological as well as the kerygmatic language. It creates the language of Canaan and without this we could not properly proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.^4.34

The law is a tutor that leads us to Christ - the law is the means and Christ the goal! However, this is not the original and final, the eschatological meaning of the law. This alteration enters the law because of man's sin. Eschatologically the law is not the means and Jesus Christ the goal; but precisely the other way around. Only historically, in the historical works of God, in his act of the fulfillment of the law, has it received this function of kerygma regarding Jesus the Christ. Eschatologically it is the law of the kingdom and therefore the concern is not with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit but with the kingdom, that is, with the expression of the image of God in the ordinary forms of existence. The law has become a pedagogue to Christ but we must never forget its eschatological nature, especially when it functions as medium between revelation and existence. "Wij hebben ook dan hardnekkig gericht te zijn op de gewone vormen van de existentie; niet op de kerk, maar op de wereld; niet op het sacrament, maar op het gewone leven; niet op de kerkelijke liturgie, maar op de bevinding en de cultuur; niet op de kerkorde, maar op de staat."^4.35

Once the gospel character of the law has been understood it can be seen as giving complete expression to everything that God intends for this world in his works of salvation. There is a direct connection between the law and the kingdom. In this eschatological scope it is thus also more than medium between revelation and existence, it is also directly involved in the eschatological reality itself. The fact that salvation will completely go up into existence (that is, that there will be no duality between the will of God and the inclinations of man or between existence and its redemption - there will only be existence as such before God) is already expressed in the law. The law of God is thus completely directed at the final glorification of existence. However, in the messianic-pneumatic situation of the present the law can only be understood as medium between revelation and existence. In other words, in the present dispensation salvation only goes into existence. "Er is in het genadige handelen Gods met de wereld een orde opgericht, tusschen het heil en de existentie, waarin zij voor elkaar bewaard worden. Door deze orde wordt in de chaotische existentie een ordening ingedreven, zoodat zij niet - voortijdig - te gronde gaat."^4.36Here the law functions as medium between revelation and existence, its function is to preserve salvation and existence for each other by allowing salvation to go into existence (in the form of command) and erect a certain ordering of our chaotic and lost existence. This function of the law is expressed by the word sanctification. Thus the law is also the expression of salvation. This function of the law is summarized in the traditional doctrine of the triplex usus legis, especially in the usus didacticus or normativus, that is, the use of the law as a rule of life for believers, reminding them of their duties and leading them in the way of life and salvation; and the usus politicus or civilis, that is, the civil use of the law to temper sin and promote righteousness. The law is therefore not only a foundation of salvation but also the expression of salvation. However we must not over-emphasize this difference between foundation and expression. The knowledge of sin and guilt is a knowledge-with-God and as such is a part of sanctification. The distinction between these two functions of the law, namely as the foundation of, and as the expression of salvation in this world, can be clarified if we keep in mind the distinction between the messianic and pneumatic moments in salvation (as discussed in the previous chapter). The law acts as a foundation for the salvation that is given in the person and work of the messiah. But when we consider the work of the Holy Spirit the function of the law as the expression of salvation comes to the foreground.^4.37 In a christological context the law has a kerygmatic significance but in a pneumatic context the law has a functional significance and this functional significance means that: "de wet wijst aan, welke functie in het geheel van het historisch-eschatologische handelen Gods de gestalten hebben, welke door den Heiligen Geest in de christelijke existentie geschapen worden. De sacramenten en de ambten, de bevindingen en de goede werken, de gekerstende cultuur en de theocratische staat zijn `schaduwen der wet',welke langs de wanden der existentie vallen."^4.38

In its function of sanctification, the law erects shadows of the coming kingdom. This shadow-character of the law (Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1) is often misunderstood as a depreciation of the law, as if the law only exists to lead a person to Christ and has been abolished, in principle, for the believer by Christ.^4.39 However when we read these passages in scripture that refer to this shadow-character of the law we see that the shadows are shadows of the future things (that is, the eschatological kingdom of God). This means that there is a direct relationship between the law and the kingdom of glory and therefore the shadow-character of the law must be understood from the perspective of the future of God. From the light of the future of God (the kingdom of glory) a shadow is cast on the Old Testament by Christ. In Christ the kingdom of God is bodily present (Christ as the autobasilia) and it is the shadow of this bodily presence of the kingdom that falls on the Old Testament. It is important to note that there is a clear distinction between Christ and the `future things' in this image, because this excludes the idea that the gift of the law is only a shadow that must disappear when the reality, the gift of the Messiah, has come in its place. Christ's fulfillment of the law does not mean that the reality has come in place of the shadows - that only occurs in the consummation. By the fulfillment body has been given to the shadows. Through this they receive substance and corporeality - they are made effective. In Christ all the promises of God are yea and amen. Christ himself, in his person and work is the truth of the law, the body, the substance and the content of the law. The shadow of what God is doing in Christ, that is, setting up his kingdom in the flesh, is already to be seen in the Old Testament. There is no qualitative difference between what He did in the Old Testament with His law and what He is doing with it in Christ - only a difference in degree. In the Old Testament God was also concerned with the setting up of the righteousness of his law in the flesh. However this was accomplished once and for all (for all time and for all people) in Christ. The salvation we receive in Christ is a shadow of the coming glory.^4.40 The connection between this and what we have discussed in the previous chapters comes out very clearly here. There is an identity between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of God. They are different modalities of one and the same kingdom. The kingdom of Christ is a shadow of the kingdom of God, it is the kingdom of God in shadow form. "De messiansche realiteit is niet het tegengestelde van de toekomst Gods, maar is de toekomst Gods zelf op een bepaalde wijze. Zoo is zij ook niet het tegengestelde van de schaduwen der wet, maar zij is er het lichaam, de gestalte, de substantie en de inhoud van.^4.41