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Does God Give The Old Law Only To The Jewish People

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Old Law
God wishes Israel to become a virtuous community through the gift of Law. Old Law comes from God in a special way to the Jewish people for two purposes: First, the Old Law ordered to Christ by giving testimony to Christ; Second, the Old Law ordered men toward Christ in the manner of a disposition, since by drawing men back from idolatry, it enveloped them within the worship of the one God by whom the human race was to be saved through Christ. So the Old Law was given for the salvation of men, but it was effected through the grace of Christ. Why does God give the Old Law only to the Jewish people? Thomas answers this question by saying “One reason that could be invoked for why the Law was given to the Jewish people rather than to the …show more content…

And so the other peoples were unworthy to receive the Law” The Law was received in the time of Moses. Were they faithful to God after receiving the Law? No. They had fallen into the idolatry even after having received the Law. But God educated the chosen people in order to testify to Christ and prepared them through prophecy. So the Old Law was as pedagogical and as a kind of clarification of the natural law, knowledge of which was somehow obscured by sin. As Thomas says it is a kind of clarification of the natural law, he puts three precepts as a classification in the Old Law, namely, (a) moral precepts, (b) ceremonial precepts, and (c) judicial precepts. This division enables us to separate the Law into permanent and non-permanent parts. Among these some still continue as permanent, while some others have passed away. The Old Law contains the moral precepts which is permanent, because for just as the main intention of human law is to establish the friendship of men with one another, so also the intention of divine law is mainly to establish man’s friendship with God. Because of this man has to be good as God. So these moral precepts guides and leads man regard to what is good and evil in order to make good …show more content…

The New Law does not alter the precepts of the Old Law, but gives perfection and fulfils the purpose of the Old Law. Thomas shows the relationship between the Old Law and the New Law in I - II, q. 107. In a. 2, Thomas clearly explains the fulfilment of the Old Law in the New Law. The New Law is related to the Old Law as the perfect to the imperfect. Now everything perfect supplies to what the imperfect lacks. Accordingly, the New Law brings the Old Law to fulfil insofar as it supplies what the Old Law lacked. The New Law brings the Old Law to completion by conferring justification through the power of Christ’s passion. Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount: “in ancient time you have heard like this, but I say to you, this may show as a contradiction to the Old Law.” But Jesus carefully brings to the complete moral perfection, teaching them the true meaning of the Old Law as the complete representation of the Christian life. So the interior acts of the moral precepts of the Old Law continues in the New Law in the teaching of our Lord Jesus. If an action is moral means it should be completed in the good external and internal sense. If an action externally done without proper good intention cannot be said as good action. So “the New Law’s regulation of internal acts as revealing the way to perfect obedience of the commandments, the moral core of the Old Law.” Hence the

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