Have You Not Read - S1:E28

Welcome to Have You Not Read, a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of Scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification of the

Saints. Before we dig into our topic, we humbly ask you to rate, review, and share the podcast.

Thank you. I'm Dylan Hamilton and with me are Michael Durham and Andrew Hudson.

Today we had another question sent in from one of our listeners. The question reads, what is theonomy and is it biblical?

Michael, you wanna start us off? Sure. So the term theonomy is a combination of two terms, theos and namos, talking about God's law.

In the broadest possible sense, when we deal with a term like theonomy, we're talking about God's law and our relationship to it, its application and vital use in the lives of believers and indeed everyone today, the significance of God's law for everyone today.

And in particular, theonomy as a technical term being used to describe a system of theological belief, a hermeneutical approach to the interpretation and application of the

Bible, theonomy is getting at the usefulness, the utility of particularly the law of God for all of life.

So that when we read passages in the Old Testament, for example, that many people, hey,

I just don't know what to do with this. There are instructions in the Old Testament concerning a lot of strange things.

What does this have to do with how we live today? Somebody who is a theonomist is going to say, well, obviously all

Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for adoption, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

And, wow, what Christian would disagree with that? We all agree with that, that all the Scriptures are inspired, all of them are

God -breathed, all of them are profitable in these ways, and we rejoice in such a rich gift from God in the

Holy Scriptures. And all of them are authoritative. You know, these are God's holy words to us.

Now, in theotomy, the idea basically is this, that the law of God has not been abrogated by the grace of God, that there is not a sense in which the instructions of God to Israel in the

Old Testament have in any way been tossed aside for life today.

Now, certainly there are ceremonial laws and things that have some application, some principle application, that we don't follow today.

But there are several, they would say that there are, beyond the ceremonial laws, they would speak of moral laws, and they would speak of civil laws, and they would say that these things have very important applications for our lives today as believers.

And, in fact, the law system that God gave to Israel in the

Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, really ought to be brought forward to be utilized today.

Now, there's going to be various flavors of theonomist and theonomy to whatever degree some think that the law is to be applied, to what degree, how much, and they would be disagreeing with one another about that.

So, when, for example, I think a key passage is going to be Matthew chapter 5 and verses 17 through 20.

Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 to 20, Jesus says, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Why does Jesus have to say this?

Because the things that he's saying to his Jewish audience, who have been discipled in the context of the

Second Temple Judaism that is fairly far astray from what

God had instructed them, the things that Jesus is saying to them sound very different. And Jesus is not saying things about God's Word the way that the

Pharisees and scribes were saying it. There seems to be a very clear division in the teaching between Jesus and the

Pharisees. So, what he's saying to them is, look, I'm not speaking against the law and the prophets, right?

He's not saying, I have come to undo and completely do away with and destroy the law and the prophets.

That's not his ministry. He says, I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Now, to fulfill has a very big significance.

To fulfill something is to bring it to its culminating zenith, to bring it to its purpose.

In a sense, he's saying that the law and the prophets achieve their end in him.

Okay, so this is why he's giving an explanation of why what he is saying sounds different than what they have been.

There's one reason why it sounds different. Verse 18, he says, For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot, or one yod, is the smallest letter in the

Hebrew alphabet. One jot or one tittle, which is a little serif, a little squiggle on the side of a

Hebrew letter. So he's saying not the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, not even the smallest stroke in the

Hebrew text, will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Well, how is it fulfilled? Well, he just said he came to fulfill it. So he's saying that everything that has been written down, none of it's going to be tossed away as superfluous, none of it is meaningless, none of it is going to be burned up like chaff in the fire.

Every single last element of it is important and vital and it is fulfilled in him.

He came to fulfill it. And he underscores this in verses 19 and 20.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the

Scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, the

Scribes and Pharisees were concerned about the least of the commandments in the

Old Covenant, in the Old Testament. They were. I mean, they would even tithe their herbs, their mint and their dill and their cumin.

They would weigh it out and give a tenth of their herbs to God. They were concerned with the very least portions of the law.

Now, Jesus says, your righteousness has to exceed that. So, what is he after?

What he's after is, he's saying that, I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

And these commandments, these commandments still matter.

They are still to be followed. But the righteousness involved in this endeavor is something that is far greater than the

Scribes and Pharisees. As we continue to look at the teaching of Christ in the

Sermon on the Mount and begin to put the pieces together in the New Testament, what we discover is that as we follow

Christ, who is the fulfillment of the law and to righteousness for all who believe, Romans 10 4, as we follow

Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, and we are renewed in him as our attention is fixed upon him, that we are renewed into this same image of God.

That there is a transformation that takes place. That as we, as our lives are centered upon Christ, as we sing the song of the redeemed and follow the

Lamb wherever he goes, we discover things such as, we keep the Sabbath as we abide in him.

We discover that we keep the feast as we celebrate with him in communion. We discover that we are circumcised because he has circumcised us with the circumcision that is not made by the flesh but by the

Spirit. And we just discover every which way we turn as we follow Jesus that the law and the prophets are fulfilled in him and thus we end up keeping all the commandments and teaching others to do the same as we compel one another to follow

Christ. And this is, I think, essential for our understanding about authority.

I would say a theonomist who would read Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20 would see the emphasis on keeping the commandments which is rightly given by Christ and say, well, you must keep the commandments.

So when it says do no work on the Sabbath, you better not do any work on the Sabbath. And when it says that you are to institute these particular punishments for these particular crimes, that's exactly what you have to do.

And now there is a lot of wisdom, there's a lot of wisdom and applicability and doctrine and reproof and correction and all of these tenants of the law, but I do believe they lose their shine that they don't have their proper arc of interpretation and application unless we see them first and foremost in the light of Jesus Christ.

So I would say a theonomist would indeed immediately grasp hold of that and loving

Jesus would would want to immediately agree, but I would say that any kind of theonomy that does not do diligence and honor in Christ and seeing the interpretation of the law through the fulfilled the fulfillment of the law in Christ, that they're they're missing

I think a significant note in the symphony that Jesus creates in his teaching and ministry.

Andrew, what are your thoughts? Can the flesh obey God? Or do my

Galatians? It's I think a little bit easier for me to understand a place for a theonomy in the sense that God is ruling over all things and of course if we were to try to institute

Christ honoring government with laws that reflect his character, the unbeliever would not want to submit to that because they cannot.

But for us on this other side in his kingdom, no longer in darkness, the discussion about the application of how to rightly order government is more collegial, but could also turn into a power struggle behind, well you know this is the correct interpretation, so therefore we're gonna steer government to this end.

And that's what I find to be problematic with theonomy. But yet again, what do we see the

United States government currently constituted? What what law are they seeking to fulfill?

Is the idea of all people in the United States of America to honor Christ in all things, including their government?

No. So where do you get your laws from? I want

God honoring government. So in this first phase of theonomy, I want to do away with some other ruler who is an illegitimate king who is trying to rule over me and want to seek to replace it with Christian government.

Phase two on the intricacies of what that might look like, that might be left to another generation.

Right, so it's not necessarily your concerns have you avoiding the pursuit of God's law and an application in the world, but they're maybe slower than just you implementing yourself and maybe passing it on to second, third, fourth generations to apply these things.

I like that, I like that view of it. I think that one of the correctives that theonomists offer is a sense that in a lack of discipleship about what the doctrine of scripture and the the harmony and the diversity of the

Old Testament and New Testament, with with little understanding of what had what to do with the Old Testament, that a lot of discipleship has suffered in the

Christian Church, in the North American Christian Church, and who I don't really know about the other contexts.

There's been a problem with knowing what to do with the Old Testament, and in general it's been a very unbiblical approach and just simply ignoring it, not looking at it, not listening to preaching and teaching from it.

And if you do, then a lot of times it's kind of an allegorical approach and perhaps it's inadequate in other ways.

But the theonomist is going to say, hey look it's all the Word of God and it all should be submitted to, and of course this is the proper sentiment, this is the proper approach.

I mean we have been given the scriptures and all of it is profitable, all of it is authoritative, all of it is inspired by God, it is all eternal, and it is all about Christ.

It is all about Him and exalting of Him and glorifying to Him. It is the Father through the

Spirit speaking of His Son, so that those who are made in the image of God may be redeemed and saved and transformed.

As we look at Christ in the Word, we will begin to look like Christ in the world.

And in this, God is achieving His ends through His perfect Son.

When we think about the law and the relationship to the Christian, which is again theonomy, I mean theonomy is trying to give expression to this,

God's law and the relationship to the Christian. Because of that, you know, God's law and relationship to all the world.

Well when we go to Galatians chapter 3, in Galatians 4, we begin to see this relationship laid out.

I mean Paul is not against the law. He says it in Romans as well, he is not saying that the law is bad or that it's evil, that it's wrong.

I mean the law is from God, it expresses its character, it gives us all manner of guidance.

But when we think about the law, Paul says the law, he indicates that the law can be used unlawfully, meaning that it can be used in a sense that is not according to its purpose, right?

It would be like, for instance, Israel for the sake of Israel. Well Israel is for the sake of Christ, right?

If we read Israel for the sake of Israel in the Scriptures, where do we end up? A very confused kind of hermeneutic.

What about the law? Law for the sake of the law? No, no, the law is unto Christ, right?

So we've got to have that hermeneutic when we read. And the way that Paul handles it is he talks about that the good of the law, the purpose of the law, was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

Many times this is read in a reductionistic way, that it was only dealing with the Ten Commandments, only the moral code that convinces that we're a sinner and thus we need a

Savior. Well it certainly does that, but it's not only that, because Paul is dealing with issues about feast days and circumcision and all kinds of ceremonial aspects of the law as well in the book of Galatians.

So he's thinking about the whole thing, and the whole thing about the law of God, the way in which

God structured his relationship with Israel and called them to obey his commandments, and they were several, and even though we may call them moral, ceremonial, and civil, they were mixed together like a deck of cards, and you know, they were not neatly stacked out into different categories.

When we think about the law of God, Paul says the law of God leads us to Christ, and that living under the law was kind of like, yeah sure, you know, you're a child in the household, but a little better than a slave because you're under the schoolmaster, right?

This tutor is instructing you, and you have to, you know, to shape up. But isn't it important to be educated?

Isn't it vital that you understand the concepts, the precepts, the categories, you know, everything that you need to know?

But now things are different, right? Things are different in the New Covenant.

Christ has come. He's the fulfillment of the law. And now, Paul says in Galatians 4, it's like you're living as sons, right?

You've moved out of the slave category under the schoolmaster of the law. Now that Christ has come and fulfilled the law, now you're living free as sons.

And he's telling the Galatians, why do you want to live under the law again? Why do you want to reinstitute circumcision?

Don't you understand you bring back circumcision, everything comes pouring through that pinprick hole you made in that dam?

The whole reservoir of the law comes through if you make one hole. And so he's cautioning the

Galatians against that route, and he's trying to lead them to rejoice in the difference.

Even going so far as to give an analogy, a parable of his own, with Hagar, the slave woman, the bond woman, and Ishmael, the earthly Jerusalem, that this is the

Old Covenant, and it's a life of slavery, the law for the sake of the law. But we have a new

Jerusalem, a heavenly Jerusalem. We have Sarah and the true seed. This is where we should recognize our sonship in the fulfillment of the promises of God and the law of God in Christ.

So this is not to say that we now live as if there is no law. God forbid.

God forbid that we would do that. And the definition of sin stands very clearly in the

Bible. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is living like God never gave us any standards or laws to follow.

But we should remember that the righteousness of God has been manifested in Christ supremely.

And again, the kingdom is his, and he has all authority in heaven and on earth. And everything comes down to whether or not we bow the knee and do homage to the

Son and find refuge in him, or we rebel and rage against him. He's the king. And as the fulfillment of God's law and as the administrator of the kingdom, as the king in the kingdom, he gets to say how we live.

He gets to say how everybody lives. Amen. Yep, amen to that. So when people talk about theonomy, there are several different people who would be talking about theonomy with different emphases.

But if you want to know if God's law is important, yeah, that's biblical.

Does God get to say how everybody should live everywhere in the universe, everywhere on planet earth?

Yes, he does. Does God get to say how we live our lives as Christians, whether we're with our families or in our businesses or at the church or so on and so forth?

Do we look to the scriptures to understand God's will for how we live and we want to read those scriptures and apply them through Christ?

Yeah, yeah, he gets to say that. So if that's someone's definition of theonomy,

I agree. So we would say, to the second half of the question, is theonomy biblical?

Yes. But what does that theonomy look like? Yeah, exactly. Because, I mean, there are several unbiblical ways to try to follow

God's law, right? You can unbiblically try to submit yourself to God's law.

And we have examples of them throughout history. Yes. Let's think about maybe one or two of those.

Well, I would say even in today, a prime example could be the Hebrew Roots movement and their emphasis on the law.

Is that the same thing as a Hebrew Israelites or is that something different? That's different because they also put ethnicity in there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, a form of theonomy, right? Right, and you can do it wrong.

You know, I mean, there were communes out in Tennessee near where I used to live for nine years, where the people celebrated the feast days.

And they said that they were following, you know, the laws of ancient Israel. And there were several splinterings of Adventists groups who said, look, the

Bible says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And the Sabbath day means Saturday.

It's clear as clear can be. And if you don't follow the

Sabbath, if you don't keep the Sabbath day holy and rest on the Sabbath, then you're breaking God's law.

How can you call yourself a Christian and you don't even care about God's law like that, right? And although their error is much more manifest than perhaps other errors are, the error is always the same.

A refusal to read the law as having been fulfilled in Christ and Christ as King, still ruling and reigning and mediating the authority of God in our lives through His Word.

Amen to that. Well, I think that wraps up our discussion of theonomy for now, because we might have to come back and hit it, I'm sure.

But what are we thankful for, Michael? I am thankful for friends, thankful for brothers in this church where we can encourage one another and we laugh together and we live life together and we worship together.

And I'm just thankful for Christian friends. Amen to that. Andrew? I'm thankful to God.

We were just discussing about theonomy and righteousness, the law. It drew me to 1st

John chapter 3. But I wanted to say this, by this we know His love for us.

Because He laid down His life for us. And this also comes, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren.

I am thankful to God for the exhortation to be like Christ and to love our brothers.

Amen to that. I'm thankful again for my wife who does so much around the house to allow me to come and do this with you guys.

We have lopped on a lot of responsibility around our place and she handles it with grace and acumen and does so in such a loving way for me and both of my boys.

And I'm so thankful for her and all that she does. And that wraps it up for today.

We are very thankful for our listeners and hope you will join us again as we meet to answer common questions and objections with Have You Not Read.