In the beginning, way back when God established the way things ought to be, God created Adam and Eve for relationship with himself and each other, and to represent him to his creation. God commanded that they should multiply, fill the earth, and exercise dominion over all creation. God established them as images of himself, representatives created to rule on his behalf. However, when sin entered the world, relationships were broken, and humanity no longer rightly reflected the good and loving God to the world.
When God rescued the people of Israel out of Egypt, he called them his son, and he instructed Pharaoh to let his people go so they could worship God in the wilderness. God was moving toward his people to renew his relationship with them. Once he redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt, after promising that they would be his people and that he would be their God, God gave the people the Mosaic Law. As with Adam and Eve, God instructed his people to live in a way that represented him to the world. The Law was intended to instruct the Israelites on how to live in a way that pleases God and reflects his nature and character.
Unsurprisingly, the pervasiveness of sin thwarted all attempts to live in a way that rightly reflected God. The Law was incapable of saving—in fact, it was never designed to do so. Only God saves. No system of works can rescue anyone from God’s wrath against sin. Only by trusting in God’s promises of grace and forgiveness can a person be right with God. This truth applied to the Hebrew people, and it also applies to us today.
In the book of Galatians, Paul defended this gospel of faith against the influence of false teachers. These Jewish false teachers believed that both faith and circumcision were required in order to be justified before God. However, Paul argues vigorously that faith in Christ alone is the basis for our justification, as well as its fruit, sanctification:
“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? . . . Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’?” – Galatians 3:5-6
Paul exposes a common struggle for believers. We are commanded to live according to God’s word and by faith. In this passage, Paul helps set faith and obedience in the proper order. First, God establishes a relationship with his people, just like he did in Exodus. Only then does God call his people to live in a way that reflects their relationship with him. Thus, we obey God’s commands because we love God and because he first loved us, not because we want to be made right with God. Paul argues that faith in Christ is the way we are made right with God, and faith in Christ is the way we are made to reflect God’s nature and character.
Having explained the relationship between faith and obedience to the Galatians, Paul goes on to exhort us to pursue restoration for believers who have fallen into sin: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). What does Paul mean by the phrase “the law of Christ?” In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus summarizes the entirety of the Old Testament law in one statement: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus identifies the center and spirit of the Old Testament law as loving God and loving people. In Galatians 5:13-14, Paul calls believers to use our freedom in Christ to serve one another in love. Our relationship with Jesus both enables and compels us to reflect Christ’s love for others.
How then do we fulfill the law of Christ? If the entirety of the Old Testament hinges on love for God and neighbor, certainly the New Testament does not lessen the importance of these elements. Jesus gives us the clearest statement of “the law of Christ” in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
There are many “one another” statements in the New Testament that inform what it means to “fulfill the law of Christ.” We are called to bear one another’s burdens, to restore those caught in transgression, to humble ourselves and exalt others, and to share in one another’s joys and sorrows. We are commanded to exhort one another to love and good deeds, to pray for one another, and to consider others more highly than ourselves. In all these commands, we are seeking to reflect the nature and character of Christ because of the relationship he has established with us. As we seek to fulfill the law of Christ, let us remember our ultimate motivation to love God and others: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Todd Young (MDiv, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as the Tech Team Lead and as a Community Group Leader at Oak Park Baptist Church. He and his wife, Heather, have three children, and they live in New Albany.