Reviews for Law Dictionary

The average rating for Law Dictionary based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-07 00:00:00 Rolando Lopez A good intro to the issue; summarizes the major views from dispensational to theonomy, noting strengths and weaknesses of each. Critique of Reformed view: 3-fold distinction not biblical. Critique of theonomy: Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) and Paul (1 Cor. 5) do not seem to expect the entire Mosaic law to be enforced now; "it is not clear in Scripture that Christ intends to exercise his Lordship over civil governments through a direct use of Israel's law" (23). The differences tend to boil down to matters of emphasis, degree, and methodology. Practically, most Christians agree on what we should do; the disagreement is on how we arrive at that conclusion. Does a very satisfying job of working out the tension between being under the law and not being under the law. "The Old Testament law contains rich material for a total world and life view appropriate to a people of God.... What is needed is a principled Pauline-like use of the law to guid our thinking about hose aspects of life which it addresses in a theistic way.... Israel's institution's represent a revelational 'slice of life' by exhibiting one people of the ancient world as a sample of God's revealed moral will ..." (Dewitt). Ch. 3--We are not under the law The apostles did not view the Mosaic law a covenantal code binding on the Church; they called for selective observance. Gal. 3:10-12--the point is that the law emphasized "doing" and was heavily contingent on human obedience; this is different from a relationship based on faith alone. The theological reason for the NT's negative assessment of the law is man's inability to keep it (1 Cor. 15:56; Rom. 6:14; Acts 15:10) and also from the standpoint of historical fulfillment--the law has served its purpose historically. Thus Rom. 10:4--the law here may refer to a particular historical phase in God's program during which he was leading Israel (Rom. 5:20; 7:7-13; Gal. 3-4), a temporary measure whose jurisdiction ended when Christ came. "There was a time when the central feature in this program was an arrangement that emphasized God's requirements and man's inability to obey them. That arrangement has been left behind, and the main emphasis now is the grace displayed through the work of Jesus Christ" (44-45). KC contrasts life as OC member with life as a NC member--key difference is the role of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5-6). Love is the central feature of "the law of Christ"--"The point is that Christ, His redemptive work, and His teaching shape all our ethical decisions" (47). Ch. 4--We are under the law Gal. 5:13-15; Matt. 22:36-40--there must be some way in which the actual content of the law remains normative. As they obeyed God's law, Israel was to be a model for the nations--demonstrating the wisdom of God. "By obeying the Torah, Israel would model what God's wisdom/righteousness looked like in her specific covenant and historical-cultural situation" (54). Jer. 31:31-34--the law written in the heart--in OT context, we would assume a strong connection with Mosaic law (cf. Dt. 30). "recipients of the New Covenant would receive the internal capacity to live by the transcendent ethical standards upheld in the Mosaic law" (57). Matt. 5:17-19--"It is inadequate to say either that none of the Old Testament applies unless it is explicitly affirmed int he New or that all of the Old Testament applies unless it is explicitly revoked in the New. Rather, all of the Old Testament remains normative and relevant for Jesus' followers (2 Tim. 3:16), but none of it can rightly be interpreted until one understands how it has been fulfilled in Christ" (Blomberg)--this is what the sermon on the mount does; it sets forth the law of Christ which includes "the moral norms" of the OT (Schreiner). Rom. 8:4: by the HS, Christ enables us to live in a way that is in keeping with the ethics revealed in OT law. The NT views the OT law as a paradigm (cf. Greek student studying luo--he doesn't memorize all those forms because every Greek vb looks exactly like it, but because by that word, he can learn basic PATTERNS to help him analyze similar verbs). Truth about God sits right on the surface of many laws; thus they are directly applicable today (cf. Lev. 18 which God expected the nations to follow). Other laws so specific to Israel--1 Cor. 9:8-11. "God did the implementing for his people in the Old Testament, while in the New he in large measure gives us the freedom in Christ to do our own implementing.... But in both cases he holds us to the blueprint of the law of creation. in the Old Testament the explanations he gave included detailed instructions for the implementation of the blueprint; that was by way of apprenticeship. IN Christ we are journeyman builders--still bound to the architect's explicit directions, but with considerable freedom of implementation as new situations arise" (Wolters) Conclusion: * The law does not have direct covenental authority over the Christian * The Christian must continue to use the law as a paradigm--all laws remain binding "in a revelatory and pedagogical sense" (Dorsey) See 69-70 for humorous hypothetical examples of people insisting that certain ethical standards are merely APPLICATIONS of the law and thus not binding (ex: Bible prohibits stealing, but not embezzling)--even OT Israel had to think paradigmatically Question: Can the unbeliever today be said to be "under the law"?

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-03 00:00:00 Steph Jones This excellent little book from one of my seminary professors (so yeah, I'm biased) is really helpful. Casillas explains how to understand the relationship of the Old Testament Law to the New Covenant era and how to interpret it in its light. But I also found myself grateful that he expresses the tension and difficulty that I feel when I try apprehensively to preach the Law today. The author takes you under his wing and says, "I get your dilemma; let me show you what helps me." He lays out several pitfalls to avoid and guidelines to follow without being unnecessarily negative toward any one system of theology. I read The Law and the Christian in full a couple of years ago, and I find myself going back to it as a reference work and feeling refreshed.