Victor C says:
Point taken.
The law written into us isn't from Sinai, and
that is in the very previous verse from your quotation. The context of
Hebrews 8, which quotes
Jeremiah 31:31-34, calls that covenant from Sinai
faulty in
Hebrews 8:7, and verse 13 explains that the covenant from Sinai is
old,
decaying, and ready to
vanish away.
It can't be the ten commandments that is written into our hearts and minds.
While you claim that my theology is shy of defining what the law
is (it isn't; I have linked you to my work
twice on the subject), you have performed a theological conclusion that is nullified by the immediate context.
Here's my post on the subject
God replaces the schoolmaster:
I agree that
torah conveys the meaning of 'instruction' with force equal to the definition of 'ordinance'. There is a passage from Jeremiah and Hebrews that I haven't seen you show consideration for:
Jeremiah 31:31-32
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD.
Hebrews 8:6-9
6 ¶ But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For
if that first had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Jeremiah makes it clear that the new covenant would not be according to the one made at Sinai.
Hebrews makes the very same assertion when it quotes Jeremiah, and further qualifies the
reason the new covenant wouldn't be according to Sinai stems from the covenant made at Sinai contained a fault, specifically, it wasn't complied with by the recipients of that covenant, and did not justify anyone.
By the exclusion of the covenant made at Sinai, this excludes the ten commandments from taking a part in the new covenant. This is the reason that <a member on CARM> started his presentation with the identification of precisely what the covenant made at Sinai was: the ten commandments, as
Deuteronomy 4:13 and
Exodus 34:27-28 define it to be.
Now, you and I agree that
torah means instruction as well as law. Consider where Jeremiah and Hebrews are leading us to after exclusion of the ten commandments from the new covenant:
Jeremiah 31:33-34
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Hebrews 8:10-11
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And
they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
The end result of the new covenant written into our hearts and minds is to know
God, with
no more need for instruction. The law of the new covenant doesn't fit into the description of a written ordinance, as that causes you to know only the created ordinance, and
not the Author of that ordinance.
What is this law written into us? After exclusion of the covenant from Sinai, the ten commandments, clues are presented that should lead you to recognize that it is describing the entrance of God Himself, and not a written ordinance.
Hebrews 10:15-16
15 Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
The Spirit of God is written in the present tense of His ability to witness to each of us personally, and this description is addressed to those who are already new covenant recipients.
This is as
Ezekiel 36:26-27 presents the same concept, only it doesn't use the
torah as a cause to know God - it reverses the roles to using God's Spirit as the cause to know His judgments and statutes. The Hebrew terms used here are
choq and
mishpat, neither of which are equivelant to
torah:
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And
I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
There isn't an inclusion of a covenant based on the ten commandments already labelled as 'faulty' in the new covenant. The new covenant is God's Spirit.
Romans 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Victor