Rebutting Tuininga On Propositions 1-6 — Part II

MT offers,

Here are my propositions.

1) The category of ‘moral law’ is an extra-biblical category that should play a role in our reflection but should not be brought to bear inappropriately on the primary work of scriptural exegesis. To quote New Testament scholar Doug Moo, “As has often been pointed out, the threefold distinction of moral, ceremonial, and civil law as separate categories with varying degrees of applicability is simply unknown in the Judaism of the first century, and there is little evidence that Jesus or Paul introduced such a distinction.” For more on this see Moo’s excellent article, “‘Law,’ ‘Works of the Law,’ and Legalism in Paul,” Westminster Theological Journal 45 (1983): 73-100 [85]).

First, by his own admission Doug Moo is a “modified Lutheran.” Some have suggested that Moo has been a significant contributor to the New Covenant Theology that has been embraced by so many Baptists. The only reason for mentioning this is to say that if MT is drinking heavily from the Moo well it might explain partially why he is coming up with non standard understandings of Covenant Theology.

To agree that the three fold distinction is an extra-biblical category is not the same as saying that distinctions in the law are not used in Scripture. Even our Lord Christ made a distinction between weightier matters of the law and matters that were not as weighty. So, though that distinction is not the same distinction that we are speaking of here, we still see that distinctions concerning the law are used in the New Testament. We will return to this later, but we should say here that what MT is doing at this point is a quite Dispensational move. If we go where MT is treading, and if we are consistent with this trajectory of thought, then when we come to passages that say “you are not under law but under grace” we are going to have to teach that since “the law” is always unitary therefore that must mean that we, as new creatures in Christ, can have no relationship whatsoever to that Law that Christ incarnated and that Paul can elsewhere say in Romans is “Holy, Just, and Good.” Of course this is a recipe for autonomous humanism and sounds a great deal like what the Serpent said in the garden when he asked Eve, “Hath God really said?”

MT writes,

2) When scripture uses the word ‘law’ it ordinarily refers to the law given at Sinai, that is, the Mosaic Law, representative of the of the whole Mosaic Covenant as a unit, encompassing all three categories of what later theologians called the moral, ceremonial, and civil law. (Sometimes, of course, it also refers to Old Testament scripture in general. But the former is the default meaning.)

This is just not true. The word “Law” in Romans alone has up to 7 or 8 shades of meaning. MT is arguing that the very law that was to be written on our hearts … that law that had formerly been written on tablets of stone (thus revealing that we are talking about the same Mosaic covenant of grace law here) is a law that believers no longer have any relationship to in terms of ongoing sanctification.

In Hebrews 7 we are told that a change in the Priesthood means that there is a change in the law as well. Referring to that change in the law the writer to Hebrews can say the former commandment is set aside. By MT’s reasoning this is proof positive that the law (Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial) is a dead letter to Redeemed Christians. And yet, the book of Hebrews can later recite that the very law that MT suggests is a dead letter to Redeemed Christians is a law that is written on their hearts.

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Now, is MT suggesting that the law written on our hearts (and remember this is the same law that had been inscribed on Mosaic tablets of stone — No abstracting of a Kernel allowed here) includes the ceremonial law as well so that we still have to do with it?

All this to say that it is obvious that the writer to Hebrews is making distinctions concerning the law. The change in the law mentioned in Hebrews 7 is a reference to the change in the Ceremonial aspect of the law. A New Priesthood (the Lord Christ) means a new law (the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin so that is finished). The law written on the hearts in Hebrews 10 is a reference to the Ten Commandments written on the hearts of God’s people.

Of course all of this is driven by MT’s insistence that the Mosaic covenant is a two tiered covenant. In this two tiered Mosaic covenant understanding there is one tier that does not belong to the covenant of grace but rather belongs to the covenant of works. So what MT has to do is to find ways to eliminate those lower register aspects of the Mosaic covenant from the covenant of Grace. Much of this stems from Kline’s sui generis teaching of the republication theory of the covenant.

MT writes,

3) Scripture decisively, explicitly, and repeatedly identifies the Ten Commandments as the Sinai (or Mosaic) covenant itself. The Ten Commandments were the “tablets of stone” placed in the ark of the covenant. Exodus 34:28 declares of Moses on Mt. Sinai, “And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” This is a fundamental claim in my argument. See Exodus 34:1-4, 27-30; Deuteronomy 4:11-13; Deuteronomy 9:9-15; Deuteronomy 10:1-5. Cf. 1 Kings 8:9; 2 Chronicles 5:10; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Exodus 24:12.

A fundamental claim that is undone by the reality that it is those very commandments that are written on the heart of the New Testament believer thus indicating that they belong to a new and better covenant. It is the Ten Commandments that are written on the hearts of the younger siblings of the Lord Christ.

MT writes,

4) Scripture never identifies the Ten Commandments in this way with the timeless, eternal moral law of God, despite the substantial degree of overlap between the two.

And yet Hebrews offers,

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”

Under the old covenant the law of God, given in the Mosaic economy, was engraved on tablets of stone and placed in the Most Holy Place. In the new and better covenant that same law is written on the minds of His people. The idea that law is written on the minds of those in the new and better covenant reveals the univocal nature of the author of Hebrew’s analogy with the God’s Ten words written on tablets of stone. The analogy can be extended to reveal even more continuity with our Old Testament brethren by observing that in the new and better covenant the people (Church) are like the OT Temple inasmuch as the law of God is within them. This fits the theme of the New Testament believers being God’s Old Testament Temple because they are a Temple in which the written law of God rests.

Mt writes,

5) The New Testament writers decisively, explicitly, and repeatedly direct our attention from “the law” to Jesus, whether as the true fulfillment and interpreter of the law (Matthew); as the one who, in contrast to Moses as the giver of the law, brings grace and truth and directs his followers to “my commandments” (John); as the one who has made a new and “better” covenant and thereby rendered the old one “obsolete” (Hebrews); as the one who has fulfilled and abolished the law, creating in himself the new man (Paul).

Of course the NT writers focus our attention on the Lord Christ. We should keep our eyes on Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith. He is the fulfillment of all that was shadowed in the unfolding covenant of grace. However, the focus of our attention being upon the Lord Christ could not have happened unless He was the one who gave substance to all that shadowed Him. Because this is true, Christ should not be pitted against the Ten Words but instead should be seen as the apex of what the Ten Words mean.

The fact that St. Matthew has Christ as the fulfillment of the law means that all the law harbingered is found in Christ. There is no opposition between Christ and the law as the law is used lawfully by the Redeemed saint in union with Christ.

When John writes,

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

He is not teaching that there was no grace and truth in the Old Testament economy as MT seems to imply by his quoting of this text. What St. John is contrasting here is the shadow with the reality.

When MT quotes the Lord Christ as saying, “If you love me keep my commandments,” is MT really implying that Jesus had another set of commandments from those issued by the Father so that we are to believe that God the Father had one ethic while God the Son has another ethic? What of immutability?

When MT quotes Hebrews as the old covenant being obsolete is he going all dispensational on us? Is MT contravening centuries of Reformed and Covenant understanding that the new and better covenant is new and better because it fulfills all that the unfolding covenant of grace anticipated? The new covenant is new and better because it is all that the previous covenants were progressing towards. Is the bloom of the tulip inconsistent with all of the tulip that came before in terms of the anticipated bloom?

Typically the passage in Hebrews 8 that MT cites

“13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

has been understood to mean that,

“the whole dispensation of Moses, as far as it was opposed to the dispensation of Christ, has passed away, then the ceremonies also must have ceased. (John Calvin)

But of course the Ten words of God as used lawfully, by the Redeemed saint, as united to Christ, as a guide to life, has never been opposed to Christ.

You know, over the years I have entered into apologetic discussions with Dispensationalists. I am now using many of the type of arguments that I’ve had to use with Dispensationalits in the past.

MT writes,

6) The New Testament writers decisively, explicitly, and consistently describe the Christian life, including what we would call obedience to the moral law, in terms of obedience to Jesus, following Jesus, putting on Jesus, conforming to Jesus, walking in Jesus, walking worthy of Jesus, or living in the Spirit (of Jesus). The New Testament almost never summarizes Christian obedience (including to the moral law) or sanctification primarily in terms of obedience or conformity to the law.

This is not a problem if one assumes that there is no dichotomy between following Jesus and walking consistent with God’s Ten words. This is only a problem if one presupposes discontinuity in their hermeneutic between God’s ten words which preached Christ to the Old Testament believer and Christ Himself. If Christ is the fulfillment of the law why would the inspired writers reach back to the shadows when they had the reality?