UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT KINDS OF LAWS
Understanding the Bible is impossible without understanding the law. Here is where being like a lawyer comes into play. In the New Testament lawyers interpreted and taught others from the Old Testament law. They convened in a council of religious elders called the Sanhedrin which had responsibility for judging people on matters related to the Law of Moses.

COMMENTARY ON THE SANHEDRIN: The Sanhedrin is a symbolic reference to the rule-making bodies of all religious organizations. Whether large or small, all religious organizations have boards and committees that meet to discuss and make policy decisions on the operations of the organization. They also oversee and supervise the doctrines of the organization, the printed materials used by the organization, its teachers and its teaching. It functions more-or-less like the Board of Directors of any other corporation, and has final authority on all matters pertaining to religious organizations (e.g. churches, synagogues, para-church ministries, etc.).

Members of these Sanhedrin-like bodies are not lawyers dealing with matters of civil law. They do function, however, as authorities on matters of religious law. They do not have professional degrees like lawyers who are licensed to practice law in judicial courts, but they are qualified to serve in Sanhedrin-like boards (i.e. elders, deacons) because of their knowledge of the Bible and because of their demonstrated faithfulness to adhere to the doctrines of the religious organization. They are elected to these boards because they have made names for themselves as pious religious people who have reputations for loving God and often for success in business.

It is important to note that Biblical accounts of the Sanhedrin show clearly that it was in opposition to Jesus and his disciples. The literal interpretation of these encounters with the Sanhedrin suggests that it was opposed to the man Jesus and his disciples. A spiritual interpretation tells us that it was opposed to the threat that the New Covenant posed to their Old/First Covenant religion which gave religious leaders position and income.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Jesus and the Money-Changers in the Temple for understanding of Jesus’ contentious relationship with temple leaders.

For those who understand the difference between the Old/First Covenant and the New Covenant, the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders is not a surprise. We see this conflict throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is not surprising that Judaism remains opposed to Jesus because of his criticism of the Pharisees and temple officials. Moreover, he prophesied about the downfall of the temple system which gave all religious leaders their position and income. In fact, Jesus entire ministry focused on the destruction of religious systems. This is also the focus of Jesus’ followers (i.e. New Covenant disciples).

But understanding the Bible is not just a matter of discerning between Old/First Covenant and the New Covenant. There are actually eight different kinds of laws that we must learn to identify:

STUDY TIP: When we look at this table, we see that religious laws and spiritual laws are the ones in view in the Bible. This is hard to do, however, because the Bible does not clearly indicate when it is talking about one law or the other.

Old/First Covenant religionists concern themselves with religious laws. People who are born again are New Covenant disciples who focus exclusively on God’s spiritual laws. See this link for an example of scriptures that are very hard to understand for Old/First Covenant religionists to understand but are understandable for New Covenant disciples.

With respect to all laws other than spiritual laws, we are acculturated from an early age to understand them and conduct our lives in ways that do not violate those laws. Failure to do this results in trouble, pain, and possible death in the case of natural laws. We may not suffer death when we break these laws, but authorities responsible for making and enforcing these laws will usually make sure that we experience trouble and pain of one kind or another when we violate them.

When we break our own personal laws, there are no external authorities to discipline us, but we will probably experience some sort of inner conflict until we bring our behaviors and thoughts into alignment with the laws we establish for ourselves.

We might be able to avoid discipline for breaking religious laws, but religious people, both those who have formal authority and those who do not have formal authority, can be depended on to use whatever influence they have to enforce the laws of their particular religion. Jesus is an example of someone who suffered at the hands of religious authorities who went to great extremes to keep their religion pure and safe from outside influences. New Covenant disciples who dare to speak the truth about religion can expect to receive the same kind of treatment from religious people with whom they once shared religious beliefs.

Spiritual laws are the only laws that are totally under God’s control. He makes them and enforces them without any help from religious people. These are the laws to which he is referring whenever the Bible mentions obedience to his laws, commandments, ordinances and so on.

As the creator and enforcer of spiritual laws, God does not use his authority in the same way that humans do. He is not slow to discipline as people count slowness, but he is patient and compassionate as he gives people time to repent before he punishes the guilty by sending them into exile from him (i.e. spiritual death).

New Covenant disciples are the only people who understand spiritual laws because they listen to and obey his spoken voice. Understanding that religion is sin, they have repented of practicing religion and listening to false prophets and have instead chosen to listen to God’s voice. From then on, God’s laws which are written on their hearts, control, more or less, their thinking and behaviors. They have been set free from slavery to religion.