How many laws are there in America? One thousand? Ten thousand? One hundred thousand? The truth is, no one knows. In 2013, a Senior Legal Research Specialist with the Library of Congress wrote that “trying to tally the number” of federal laws “is nearly impossible.” [1]
The laws governing life in ancient Israel were also numerous. Many laws were created by rabbis as part of an oral tradition later codified in the Talmud. But the laws given by Moses—laws actually written down in the Old Testament—CAN be numbered.
When you read the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, it can seem like the law goes on forever. But the actual number of Old Testament laws is 613.
Honestly, that is still a pretty high number isn’t it? Why so many? Because God was removing an oppressed people from slavery in Egypt, giving them a new land, and training them to govern themselves.
The law teaches the people how to prepare sanitary food, maintain health and hygiene, raise families, educate children, exercise religion, cooperate with neighbors, conduct business, mediate conflicts, prosecute criminals, maintain healthy cities, and defend the nation. But most importantly, the Old Testament law taught the Jewish people how to have a relationship with God. It taught them to know right from wrong.
But the law did not save anyone. The law COULD NOT save anyone.
Paul explained that “no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith” Galatians 3:11. “We who are Jews … KNOW that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” Galatians 2:15-16. This was not a new concept, but was stated in the Old Testament: “The scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and told the GOOD NEWS ahead of time to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed because of you” Galatians 3:8.
But why is justification by faith good news? Wouldn’t it be easier to be justified or saved by doing good works? After all, people want to DO SOMETHING. That gives us security. We want God to give us a holy TO-DO List so we can check the box as we complete each task. Wouldn’t that be easier? No. Because you would never complete the list. It would be an impossible list. Box number one would say: “Always obey all 613 Old Testament laws” and you would fail. Box two might say: “Never have hatred, jealousy, or pride in your heart” and you would give up. Box three might say: “Always flee lust” and you would realize your soul is doomed.
The good news is, we are justified by faith.
But if we are saved by faith, why did God give us the law? Why do children and young Christians spend so much energy on rules, sometimes obsessing over them to the point of legalism? Because the law is a valuable teacher.
“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” Galatians 3:24. We need the law to humble us and to reveal our sins and our sinfulness. Attempting to perfectly obey God’s laws proves to us that we cannot perfectly obey. We will never be holy by following the law because we can’t follow the law. But what we can do is learn from the law.
The law is our teacher, teaching us right from wrong and teaching us that we need a Savior to cleanse our sins and transform our hearts.
A personal word: as a young Christian finishing high school and beginning college, I became quite legalistic. For several years, I was obsessively focused on Christian disciplines such as having a quiet time every day, reading my Bible every day, memorizing Bible verses, praying with a written prayer list, and sharing my faith whenever possible.
Then, just about the time my compulsive habits became burdensome, God changed everything by teaching me about GRACE. The book of Galatians and other letters of Paul were a big part of that. Surprisingly, no book made a bigger impact on my discovery of grace than Ecclesiastes, a book that says study is burdensome, we should eat and drink and tell ourselves our labor is good, and we should remember our Creator every day.
All of the Christian disciplines are important—and time spent studying the Word will ALWAYS pay off. But WALK IN GRACE. Walk with Jesus. Enjoy Him. Relax a bit and rejoice in the beauty of the world around you. Thank Him for His blessings and thank Him that you do not have to earn salvation.
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[1] https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/03/frequent-reference-question-how-many-federal-laws-are-there/
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