The Threefold Division of the Law: Part 4 - The Apostolic Interpretation of the law in the Book of Acts

In part 3, we Ross introduced the majority of the remaining time of his lecture by framing his discussion around the following two questions:

1. What may we conclude from the Gospels? - From the words and deeds of  Jesus up to the point where the veil was torn.

2.What, if anything, changes after the rending of the veil? - What do the Apostles and their Epistles have to say to all this?

We dealt with the first question in its entirety in the last post. This post is the first half of Ross' answer to the second question dealing with the events in the Book of Acts focusing on how the church viewed God's Law in light of Jesus' mission being accomplished. The last post was about how Jesus talked about the law in his Sermon on the Mount and how Jesus demonstrated in his actions that the purpose of the purity laws were to show Israel's separation from the other nations which was coming to an end with the temple veil being torn in two when Christ died.

Jesus' entire earthy ministry was a life in conformity with the law. His teachings highlighted that obedience to the law was not conformable to the terms that the receivers understood, but that God's laws came with their own terms of obedience which were not being followed in Jesus' day. Ross, finally, pointed out that the embryonic form of the threefold division appearing in the Old Testament (OT) was not overturned by Jesus' life or teaching.

Now, Ross will be contending that the Evangelists will be confirming those same presuppositions through the book of Acts and their Epistles throughout the rest of the New Testament (NT).

As with the previous three posts and next three in this series, here's the big picture of where this current post fits:

1. Introduction
2. Five Old Testament presuppositions that shape the New Testament's understanding of law
3. Jesus and the Gospels
4. The Apostolic Interpretation of the law in the Book of Acts
5. The Epistles of the Apostles
6. Conclusion
7. Sabbath Extracts

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The book of Acts provides indications of the Apostles' approach to the law and gives us some narrative background to the Epistles. (pgs. 239 - 240)

Some say Luke was zealous for the law, while Evangelicals, such as Craig Blomberg, are happy to think Luke saw the law as nothing more than 'a cultural phenomenon'. Neither approach is satisfactory. (pgs. 241 - 242)

Throughout the book of Acts we encounter Christian thinking that presupposes the validity of the Decalogue. (pgs. 243 - 244)

For Luke, the Jews were the real transgressors of the Decalogue's precepts. (pgs. 242 - 243)

Luke quotes several laws outside of the Decalogue, but Ross only has time to address one instance in Acts. (pgs. 247 - 254)

Peter's reference to Deuteronomy 10:17 in Acts 10:34. (pgs. 248 - 250)

Peter's use of Deuteronomy shows how he took that one law in its context and began to see that not only are all animals fundamentally clean, but that all people are equal. Peter understands that the abolition of food distinctions means that national Israel is no longer the exclusive theater of Divine love. (pg. 249)

From where Peter now stands Deuteronomy's declaration of God's love for the sojourner may always have been indicative of the temporality of the separation laws. (pgs. 249 - 250)

The most complex legal issue in Acts seems to be the Apostolic decree of Acts 15. Partly because of differences in biblical manuscripts that the church has used throughout history. (pgs. 254 - 257)

Richard Bauckham gives exhaustive arguments for the decree being based on Leviticus 17 - 18, but Ross thinks his arguments are unconvincing. (pgs. 257 - 261)

The decree is only really complex when people are determined to interpret it either as liberation from the law, or imposition of the law. (pg. 261)

In the end, the basis for the decision was that it seemed good to us. It was no more a legal decision than the council's decision to send out Paul and Barnabas, or Luke's decision to write his gospel. It seemed good. The rationale was unity. Church unity was more important than absolute liberty. (pgs. 261 - 263)

The decree does not give us a hermeneutic of biblical law but a example of Christian behavior. (pg. 262)

In the end, all we can say about Acts is that it assumes the principles of the Decalogue. It gives good reason, at points, to support the confessional statement of cultic and judicial law, but the decree and the accounts of cultic obedience are legally neutral. (pgs. 263 - 264)

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The notes above are a summary of chapter 6 in Ross' book which is 25 pages long. The next post in this topic will continue to address the changes in the law after Jesus' death as found in the Epistles of the Apostles.