A. THE ROLE OF THE LAW
Paul speaks of the role of the law at Gal. 3:23-25. There he says:
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
(Italics added.) Note Paul speaks of a “faith” that was the subject of
revelation. The “gospel” that he preached was a “revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 1:11-12.) Note also that Paul does
not say, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith
while complying with the law as a matter of obligation (or otherwise).” Instead, Paul says that “after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,”
and Paul does not there express any further role for the law.
Christians are righteous. They are righteous by “faith.” (Rom. 1:17; 3:22; 4:5.) But the law is not made for the righteous. Paul said at 1 Tim. 1:9-10:
“the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine[.]”
(Italics added.)
As you know, when a person becomes a Christian, the person shares in Christ’s death and resurrection, and this impacts the person’s relationship to the law. Thus, Paul teaches at Gal. 2:19 (NASB) that he can say of himself, “
I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” (Italics added.) Paul did not say that he lived “to God
and the law,” or that he lived “to God
while complying with the law as a matter of obligation (or otherwise).”
Similarly, Paul tells Christians at Rom. 7:4-6 (NASB): “you also were made to
die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. [¶] . . . [¶] . . . now we have been
released from the Law,
having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” (Italics added.)
Indeed, Ephesians 2:13 and 15 record that Christ died and thereby “
abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; “
setting aside in his flesh
the law with its commands and regulations” (NIV), and “
abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is
the Law of commandments contained in ordinances” (NASB). (Italics added.)
But if Christians are
dead to the law, they are not subject, or under obligation, to the
law of Moses or
its commandments, whether ceremonial, judicial, or moral. Therefore, Paul proclaims at Rom. 6:14 (NASB), “
for you are not under law but under grace.” (Italics added.) Under grace, Christians pursue a Scriptural way of life with repentance from sin, and with faith, love, and good works. And Christians are free not to comply with the law for any purpose.
Christians sometimes sin and offend God. However, since Christians are dead to, and not under, the law, their sins do not break that law, i.e., Christians’ sins are not transgressions. This is consistent with Paul’s statement that “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). The law has no hold on the dead; as a practical matter, to the dead there is no such law. And because Christians cannot transgress the law, they cannot be found guilty of violating it. Consequently, Paul writes, “Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1, NASB.)
With the above as background, consider Romans 13:8-10. There Paul declares,
“8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
(Italics added.) Paul teaches that “love” has fulfilled the law. “Love” is part of the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22.)
Paul says that love “hath fulfilled” the law. The phrase “hath fulfilled” here is a translation of the Greek word “pepleroken,” which is a word in the Greek perfect tense. (Barbara and Timothy Friberg,
Analytical Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), p. 502.) Basically, the Greek perfect tense conveys the idea that previous on-going action has culminated in an abiding state. (Richard A. Young,
Intermediate New Testament Greek (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1994), p. 126; Ray Summers,
Essentials of New Testament Greek (Nashville, Tenn. Broadman Press, 1950), p. 103). Paul is teaching that, by love, the law has been fulfilled, and stands fulfilled. And, if the law stands fulfilled by love, nothing but love is necessary, or sufficient, to fulfill the law.
Paul begins Rom. 13:9 with the word “For,” signaling an explanation to come. Paul then lists five commandments based on the law of Moses. Sometimes people distinguish between the “moral,” “judicial,” and “ceremonial” commandments of the law, and teach that the ceremonial ones (such as those requiring animal sacrifice) are transitional but the moral commandments are permanent and binding on the Christian. It is important, then, to note that, at Rom. 13:9, Paul lists five “moral” commandments. Four of them, those involving adultery, killing (murder), stealing, and bearing false witness, are prohibitions involving outward conduct. One, involving coveting, is a prohibition involving inward desire.
Paul teaches that these five moral commandments, and
any other commandment of the law of Moses, is summed up by another commandment of the law. That commandment is “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” found at Lev. 19:18.
Thus, Paul has shifted focus from
several moral commandments of the law to a
single moral commandment of the law: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Moreover, Paul has shifted from moral commandments, several of which
prohibit outward conduct, to a single commandment that
requires an
inner virtue.
But Paul did not tell the Roman Christians to comply with the moral commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” That is, Paul did not tell the Roman Christians to comply with the commandment
of the law of Moses found at Lev. 19:18. Paul’s reference to Lev. 19:18 is part of his
explanation concerning why Paul has
himself commanded Christians to “love one another.” The Roman Christians are subject to a commandment based, not on
the law of Moses, but on
Paul’s independent and personal authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ. The commandment based on the law is “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Lev. 19:18.) The commandment from Paul the apostle to the Roman Christians is “love one another.” (Rom. 13:8.)
Indeed, John 13:34 records that Jesus Himself said to His disciples, “A
new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (Italics added.) Why did He give a new commandment if the old one (“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Lev. 19:18)) applied? Lev. 19:18, referred to in Rom. 13:9, commanded love of one’s neighbor as
one loves
oneself. The new commandment commanded love of one another as
Christ loved
His disciples.
At Rom. 13:10, Paul teaches that love “worketh no ill to his neighbor.” That is, a person motivated by love would never commit adultery, kill (murder), steal, bear false witness, or covet, whether or not these things were specified in the law. Therefore, love itself, an inner virtue produced by the indwelling Spirit of God in the Christian, is the fulfillment of the law. Paul is
not saying that we fulfil the law when we
use love to comply with the commandments
of the law. Instead, Paul is teaching that, if we simply
have love, we no longer need be concerned about the moral commandments
of the law, including the Ten Commandments or “any other commandment” (Rom. 13:9) of the law of Moses.
Thus, Paul has again shifted focus, this time from a single
commandment of the law pertaining to love, to
love itself, without the
commandment of the law. And importantly, Paul invests the word “love” with a technical meaning; it is part of the “fruit of the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:22.)
Paul says at Rom. 13:10 that “love is the
fulfilling of the law.” What does he mean by “fulfilling?” The “-ing” suffix could suggest continuing activity. This in turn could suggest continuing outward conduct. But the Greek word translated “fulfilling” at Rom. 13:10 in the KJV means neither continuing activity nor continuing outward conduct. That Greek word is “pleroma.” (George V. Wigram and Ralph D. Winter,
The Word Study Concordance (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1978), pp. 630-631.) “Pleroma” is a noun, not a verb. (Vine’s New Testament Expository Dictionary.
Fulfill, Fulfilling, Fulfillment - Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words - Bible Dictionary; italics added.) It is used 13 times by Paul and, each time in the KJV,
except here at Rom. 13:10, “pleroma” is translated “fulness.” (Wigram, pp. 630-631.) The other 12 times are found at Rom. 11:12, 25; 15:29; 1 Cor. 10:26, 28; Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:10, 23; 3:19; 4:13; Col. 1:19; 2:9. (
Ibid.) Although the phrase “love is the
fulfilling of the law” (italics added) is found at Rom. 13:10 in the KJV, there is no reason that that phrase cannot be rendered, “love is the
fulness of the law.”
Accordingly, one Greek-English interlinear translates this phrase in Rom. 13:10 as “love [is]
fulness therefore of [the] law.” (George Ricker Berry,
The Interlinear KJV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1897), p. 429.) One commentator observes, “Vs. 10, literally translated, reads ‘The
fullness of the law, therefore, is love.” (Gerald R. Cragg, “
The Epistle to the Romans,” The Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1954), IX, p. 607 (italics added).)
Thus, Paul commands the Roman Christians to “love one another.” (Rom. 3:8.) He does so knowing that love itself is the
fulness of the law of Moses. Paul does not command that we comply with any commandment of the law of Moses. He does not command that we keep the “moral” commandments
of the law of Moses. He does not command that we comply with the commandment
of the law found at Lev. 19:18, i.e., “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” He does not command that we comply with or keep the Ten Commandments. Instead, the law of Moses has been fulfilled, and stands fulfilled, by love, produced by the Spirit of God in the Christian.
To say that
we are free from any obligation to comply with the Ten Commandments is not to say that
we are free to sin. Christian are still, of course, taught not to sin. (1 Jn. 2:1.) But as Christians, our motivation for not sinning is no longer a fear of condemnation for transgressing a law, but a desire not to grieve and hurt God. (Eph. 4:30) and instead to glorify Him (1 Cor. 6:20). God teaches Christians to love Him (Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 2:9), and to love one another (Rom. 13:8, 1 Th. 4:9), but not as commandments
of the law.
The account of the discreet scribe at Mark 12:28-34 reveals that the scribe knew that “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” were the greatest commandments
of the law but, even then, Jesus taught that the scribe had not yet made it into the kingdom of God, though he was “not far” from it. The scribe had yet to learn that the law would be “
fulfilled in” (Rom. 8:4) us, not kept, through the love of the One with Whom the scribe was speaking, and from Whom the scribe was “not far” physically or spiritually.
Accordingly, Jesus taught at Mt. 5:17, “. . .
I [the person of Christ] am . . . come . . . to
fulfil [the law].” The Greek word translated “has fulfilled” at Rom. 13:8 is a form of the Greek word translated “fulfil” at Mt. 5:17. (Wigram, p. 630. The Greek word is “pleroo.” (
Ibid.))
Christ came to fulfill the law.
He did not say that His audience or Christians were to fulfill it. Christ in fact fulfilled it, He now dwells in the Christian by faith (Eph. 3:17), and now love, part of the fruit of the Spirit,
has fulfilled the law. Christians can voluntarily comply with the law as a matter of preference or conscience, but not because they are under the obligation of the law.
What Paul teaches at Rom. 13, he teaches more briefly at Gal. 5:13-14. Those verses read:
(13) For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. (14) For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
(Italics added.)
The Galatian Christians were being wrongly taught by unbelieving Judaizers that the Galatian Christians had to comply with the law. Here, at Gal. 5:13, Paul commands the Galatian Christians to do works of service motivated “by love.” Paul begins Gal. 5:14 using the word “For,” again, signaling an explanation to come. Paul’s explanation is that the law is fulfilled by “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” i.e., by Lev. 19:18.
But Paul has not commanded the Galatian Christians to
comply with the commandment of the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” According to Paul, if persons, including Christians,
could hypothetically comply with that Mosaic commandment, and
all the other commandments of the law of Moses,
perfectly throughout their lives, then, and only then, would their compliance with that verse fulfill the law. For “cursed is every one that
continueth not in
all things which are written in the book of the law to
do them.” (Gal. 3:10; italics added.)
The commandment which the apostle Paul gives to the Galatian Christians is to serve one another “by love.” He knows that the
love motivating that service has fulfilled the law.
The phrase “is fulfilled” at Gal. 5:14 is a translation of the Greek word “peplerotai,” which is a word in the Greek perfect tense. (Friberg, p. 585.) “Peplerotai” here and “pepleroken” at Rom. 13:8 are different forms of the same Greek word (“pleroo”). (Wigram, p. 630.) Paul is teaching that the law
has been fulfilled by the commandment of the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But this is Paul’s explanation concerning why Paul, in the exercise of his apostolic authority, commands the Galatian Christians to serve by “love.”