The Lord Jesus Christ formed this People of the Old Testament, redeemed them from Egypt, carried them on eagles’ wings through the Wilderness, and gave them His Law as their God. As we move on to the Content, Purpose, and Praxis of the Law, having our conclusion here firmly in place, it should become plain that even the Law itself was an integral part of administering the one redeeming work of Christ to the Saints of the Old Testament.

He who is the foundation of the covenant of grace, held also the highest rank in the giving of the law. (Calvin on Galatians 3:19)

As we continue our study of how Christ was administered to the Saints in the Old Testament, we move now to the Law of God.  We have so far discussed the Seed, the Land, Circumcision, and the Sacrificial System, all of which were shown to be “for that time, sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation” (The Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. 7.5). Of course, each of these are included in God’s Law as broadly defined, so we have done much of our work already.

But I would here like to begin a study of how even the moral aspect of the Law, the very “handwriting that was against us” (Col. 2:14), including the Ten Commandments, was also integral to the administration of the one redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, this administration can be seen most clearly in the Sacrificial system and the many promises, but I believe it can also be shown that the Whole Law of God was part of the sufficiency and efficaciousness of Christ’s redeeming work in the Old Testament.  After all, that is the underlying thesis of this whole series—that Christ’s work was dispensed by means of the Old Covenant, not in spite of it.

In this and the following three brief posts, I will explore four propositions toward this end:

1. Christ, the Giver of the Law
2. Christ, the Content of the Law
3. Christ, the Purpose of the Law
4. Christ, the Praxis of the Law

Christ, the Giver of the Law

A basic Trinitarian error lies at the heart of much confusion over the Law of God as an administration of Christ in the Old Testament. It is often presumed that the Father was the lone Law Giver on Mt. Sinai and, accordingly, the lone dispenser of judgement, whereas the Son was still yet to come, and that only on a mission of grace. Yet, as Herman Witsius has written concerning the promulgation of the Law, “we judge it criminal for any to doubt, that this is to be understood of the whole undivided Trinity, whose equal majesty, in one Deity, we are all bound to acknowledge and worship” (Economy of the Covenants, p. 163).

For starters, Paul tells us specifically that the Israelites in the Wilderness ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink as do we, that is Christ, the rock that followed them (1 Cor. 10:3-4). We are then warned, based upon the example of the Church of Old, that “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:9-10). Jude tells us much the same when he writes, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5).  In both cases, it is Christ who redeemed Israel, nourished them in the Wilderness, and was tempted by them, leading to their judgment.[1]

In fact, in the following we see the whole of the Trinity involved in the redemption and subsequent judgment of Israel:

I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.”
And he became their Savior.

In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them. (Isa. 63:7-10)

God redeemed His people according to His steadfast love and goodness, by means of “the Angel of His Presence”, and yet the people grieved His Holy Spirit and were judged. What we see here is the ordered yet inseparable operations of the Holy Trinity found in all God’s ad extra works of creation and redemption.

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[1] Some texts read kurion (“Lord”) rather the Christon in each of these texts. Besides the obvious preceding references to Christ having been with them in the Wilderness, please see Roy E. Ciampa’s and Brian S. Rosner’s contribution on 1 Corinthians 8:1-6 and 10:6 in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Beale & Carson) for the interchangeability of the words in this context.