CHAPTER 8 THE LAW OF CHRIST IS THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST

Bound up with love is the example of Christ. After all, it is Christs giving up of himself on the cross that is the paradigm for love. In John 13, Christ gives his people a new commandment: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. We have just seen how important this self-giving love is, but Jesus continues, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35, cf 1 John 2:7-8). 1 Jesus shows us what it means to love one another. Elsewhere John writes, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 John 3:16). The love of God was made manifest to us in that God sent his Son so that we might have life (1 John 4:9). This is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10, cf. 4:19). If God has loved us in this way (houts), we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11). If we love others, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12). Those bound to the Mosaic law did not have this great example of what it means to have selfsacrificial, Calvary-like love. This command is new because of the cross of Christ, and as Frank Thielman writes, the new commandment implies that the old commandment is no longer in force. 2 Jason Meyer writes, The love command is not new in the sense that no one ever knew about Gods command to love others. It is new in the sense that believers should love one another as I have loved you. 3 We are to imitate Christ in this sense. Many evangelicals have rightly defended penal substitutionary atonement (i.e. Christ paying the penalty for our sins) as the heart of the atonement, 4 but in doing so we are not throwing out the other models. Christ as example is an important motif in Scripture. Paul commands his churches to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Cor 11:1, Phil 3:17, Gal 4:12, 1 Thess 1:6). In this sense, the law of

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Carson, John, 484-85. Frank Thielman, The Law and the New Testament: The Question of Continuity (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999), 177. Meyer, The End of the Law, 286. E.g. see Thomas R. Schreiners contribution in The Nature of the Atonement, ed. James Beilby and Paul R. Eddy (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006).

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Christ is Christ himself! 5 So Gordon Fee says of Pauls ethics (which is part of what we are dealing with): Gods glory is their purpose, the Spirit is their power, love is the principle, and Christ is the pattern. 6 In Galatians 6:2 we are commanded to bear one anothers burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. All throughout Galatians we are shown that it is Christ Jesus who is the ultimate burden-bearer in his self-giving love on the cross. He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age (Gal 1:4). The Son of God loved us and gave himself for us (Gal 2:20). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal 3:13). He redeemed those under that law so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:5). Jesus Christ is the paradigm for Christian love.7 In Romans 15:1-3, the strong (with regard to food) are called to bear with the weak, and not to please ourselves. Paul is using the same word for bear (bastaz) here as he did in Galatians 6:2. He continues, Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up (Rom 15:2). But what is important for this section is the reason Paul gives: For [gar] Christ did not please himself (Rom 15:3a). Again, Christ is the great example of what it means to love our neighbor rather than pleasing ourselves. 8 Its important to note that when issuing commands to the churches, the New Testament writers rarely appeal to the Mosaic law, but often appeal to Christ and his gospel. Pauls ethic is a gospel-driven ethic. Our evangel informs our ethic. Christian husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25). Christians should love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34). When Paul wants to encourage the Corinthians to give generously, he writes, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). Christians should forgive one another as God in Christ forgave us (Eph 4:32, Col 3:13). We are to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Eph 5:2). 9
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Fee, Gods Empowering Presence, 463-64; Seifrid, Christ, Our Righteousness, 97. Unlike these scholars though, I am arguing that there are actual commands contained in the law of Christ. That the law of Christ is Christ himself is only part of the law of Christ. The New Testament has more to say. Although Justin Martyr does speak in places of Christ as a lawgiver, he also says that Christ himself is our everlasting and final law, in Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 20. Ibid., 463. Richard B. Hays, Christology and Ethics in Galatians: The Law of Christ, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 49, no. 1 (January 1987): 273. Hays says the law of Christ is the paradigmatic self-giving of Jesus Christ (275). I agree, but again, the New Testament has more to say. Ibid., 287. See Moo, Romans, 866. See Fred G. Zaspels excellent article, The Apostolic Model for Christian Ministry: An Analysis of 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Reformation & Revival 7, no. 1 (Winter 1998): 20-34.

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We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:3-8). Children are to obey their parents in the Lord (Eph 6:1). When we suffer for doing good we need to know that this is what we have been called to because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps (1 Pet 2:21). Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things because (gar) you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:2-3). In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Paul could have easily appealed to the seventh commandment of the Decalogue but that is not what he does. He says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! (1 Cor 6:15). In Romans 6:1-14 we are taught that we are not to continue in sin because we have died with and been raised with Christ. Pauls call to obedience is ever and always gospel-driven.