Do Christians need to “keep” any Biblical law? Are “Christian under any Biblical law? I often have heard that Christians are not “under” law. By Biblical law, I am referring to the laws given in the Bible or mentioned in the Bible. I’m also including any references or mention of God’s commandments. There seems to be much disagreement in the “Christian” community on this subject. Much of the “debate” is caused by not having a clear definition of what “law” is. Let’s look at the major occurrences in scripture of what is commonly referred to as law or commandments and then let’s look at some different phrases used for what we assume means “to do” the law such as “keep the law” and “under the law”.
A list of those that I am think of when I think of law, commandments, or instructions from The Father:
- Laws or instructions given to Adam and Eve.
- The laws that God gave to Noah as His covenant with Noah, his sons, and their descendants in Genesis 9.
- Laws that God wrote with His finger onto tablets of stone, called The Decalogue or Ten Commandments.
- The laws given to Moses for the Israelites to be governed by, in the land they were relocating to (Canaan).
- The laws, commandments, words brought by and spoken by Yeshua, The Son of God.
- The law of Christ, referred to by Paul in Galatians and I Corinthians
Logically speaking, let’s talk about these and then let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures in Revelation.
In the order listed:
Laws or instructions given to Adam and Eve:
Laws or instructions given to Adam and Eve:Of the instructions given to Adam: Adam and Eve were instructed by God to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We have no such and no Garden of Eden to take care of. The couple was also told to be fruitful and multiply. That has never been a problem for mankind, but one of God’s statements has a far reaching effect for as long as there will be marriage.That is the cleaving part where a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Marriage defined for all of mankind. “Food laws” were also given: Every plant yielding seed on the surface of the earth and every tree yielding seed was given for food to mankind. The animals were given every green plant for food. I wonder about carnivores such as lions, etc… All of mankind descends from Adam and Eve. I believe we should pay particular attention to what God said to, and did for our ancestors. Also during this creation of the universe, God sanctified the Sabbath and rested on that day. I believe we should follow suit. We should be seeking to do what pleases our Father. So even though the Sabbath Keeping was not commanded here, it will be later in the Ten Commandments.
- The laws that God gave to Noah as His covenant with Noah, his sons, and their descendants in Genesis 9:
Verse 1 of that chapter says that God blessed Noah and his sons. Verse 2 goes on to say that the animals, birds, and fish will all fear mankind. Then we have new food laws. We are told that everything that moves and is alive is food for mankind but man is not to eat flesh with its blood (its life). Also is included this statement: “Whoever sheds human blood, by man his blood shall be shed.” Again, the instructions are to be 
fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly. The Covenant of The Rainbow was made with Noah and every living creature that was with him, for all future generations. The rainbow is the sign of the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature that never again will the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. We are descended from Noah. We are those future generations. I believe God’s instructions to Noah are pertinent to us.
- Laws that God wrote with His finger onto tablets of stone, called The Decalogue or Ten Commandments:
The only time that God wrote it directly…with his finger. Yeshua said God is a Spirit but the correct composure of those 10-11 commandments was so important that God wrote it himself with His finger. He even wrote them twice because Moses broke the first ones. I believe we need to do all that we can to obey and keep His Ten Commandments. I believe we are to obey these laws or commandments, mainly because Yeshua quoted from The Decalogue. It is often referred to as God’s moral law.
- The laws given to Moses for the Israelites to be governed by, in the land they were relocating to (Canaan):
When Moses was preparing the Israelites to enter Canaan in Deuteronomy chapter 6, he says, “Hear Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (The Shema)” Moses is about to give the commandment, the statues, and the judgements to the Israelites one more time so that they may do them in the land they are taking possession of. When asked what the greatest commandment in the law is, Yeshua answered with The Shema. He went on to say, “The second is like it, ‘ You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” I believe the civil law that Moses gave to the Israelites is not meant to govern us. It was to govern the Israelites in their possession of Canaan. But I also believe that it benefits us to read it, examine it…its good to know what pleases our Father and live to please Him and Yeshua. I doubt that we would be called upon to help our neighbor get his donkey out of the ditch but we may very well be needed to help him get his car out of the ditch; in which case, the Spirit of the Law (The Shema and Love Your Neighbor law from Leviticus) applies to us even if the letter of the law would not likely be. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves should definitely be the umbrella over our adherence to our civil or governing law that we already have in place. In addition the first part of the Ten Commandments seems to be about loving God and the latter part about loving our neighbor or doing unto others as we would have them do unto us (The Golden Rule).
- The laws, commandments, words brought by and spoken by Yeshua, The Son of God:
I believe we should cling to and live by the words that Yeshua spoke. He came from The Father with the Words of The Father. He said no one comes to The Father except through him. He said if we love Him, keep His commandments. He said that everyone that hears His words and applies them is like the man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. If you want to hear from God, read the words of His Son, Yeshua.
- The law of Christ, referred to by Paul in Galatians and I Corinthians:
I do not know what law of Christ, Paul was referring to. I would hope he meant what Yeshua taught and said while He walked this earth but Paul didn’t explain. In Galatians chapter 1, he says he neither received the gospel he preached from man, nor was taught it, but received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Hopefully the Law of Christ that Paul taught matched the words of Yeshua that He taught.
- Revelation 12:17 says:
The dragon is angry with the woman who keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. 14:12 refers to the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Both of these scriptures speak to saints keeping commandments. We need to diligently seek The Father and His Son, their will, obedience; asking daily for help from The Holy Spirit to be in obedience and loyalty, worship, and love!
I spent some time doing a word search/study for scriptures that contain the phrase “Keep the law”, focusing on the word that the translators chose to translate as “keep”. I looked at both the Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) for the phrase.
There are eleven scriptures in the OT where the combination of keep, the, and law appear and four Old Testament Scriptures where keep, the, and commandment appear. In every instance where the combination of words keep, the, and law, or keep, the, and commandment in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word was shamar. Interestingly, there are 439 verses and 572 individual uses of the word shamar in the Old Testament. The first use of the word is in Genesis when God puts Adam in the garden of Eden to “tend” to it. The next instance is when Adam is driven out of the garden and a cherubim with a flaming sword that turns in every direction is put in place to “guard” the way to the tree of life. The basic idea of the word shamar is to “guard”, “watch over”, “take great care over”, “protect”. The translators chose : keep, beware, fulfil, be careful, guard, confine, be attentive to, comply with, perform, be responsible for, take care, did or do- when they were translating shamar to English.
There appears to be much more to “keeping” the law or commandments than just “doing” or “obeying” them. They are to be protected, and guarded; which implies “cherished”. We are to guard them, treat them as holy, as God’s unique will for his individual flocks, according to the situation and His desired outcomes for those flocks.
What about the words “keep the law” or “keep the commandments” in the New Testament? The word translated as “keep” is the Greek word tereo. It basically has the same meaning as the Hebrew word shamar. Some scriptures take on a slight change is meaning when we read them, keeping in mind what all tereo can mean but that’s another post. Today we’re talking about the depth of the word “keep” as in “keep the law” or “keep the commandments”.
The word that is translated “under” in “under the law” in the NT is a preposition en. Paul used the phrase “under the law”. Four times it simply means a fixed position in time, place, or state,,,so it simply means “under”. The other times he used the phrase “under the law”, the Greek word is hupo and similar to en, it simply means under! So what does it mean to be under the law?
I pray this study has blessed you today. I’ve been blessed preparing it.
It’s a heart matter.
