Theological Term of the Week: Threefold Division of the Law

You’ll find different views about whether there is a clear threefold division in the law in the quotes and links included. 

threefold division of the law
The division of the Mosaic law into three categories: the moral law, the ceremonial law, and the civil (or judicial) law. Also called the tripartite division of the law.

• From the Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter XII, The Law of God:

  For the sake of clarity we distinguish the moral law which is contained in the Decalogue or two Tables and expounded in the books of Moses, the ceremonial law which determines the ceremonies and worship of God, and the judicial law which is concerned with political and domestic matters.

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, Of the Law of God:

II. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables: the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man.  III. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament.  IV. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.

• From 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law by Tom Schreiner: 

The distinction between the moral, ceremonial, and civil law is appealing and attractive. Even though it has some elements of truth, it does not sufficiently capture Paul’s stance toward the law. …Paul argues that the entirety of the law has been set aside now that Christ has come. To say that the “moral” elements of the law continue to be authoritative blunts the truth that the entire Mosaic covenant is no longer in force for believers. Indeed, it is quite difficult to distinguish between what is “moral” and “ceremonial” in the law. For instance, the law forbidding the taking of interest is clearly a moral mandate (Exod. 22:25), but this law was addressed to Israel as an agricultural society in the ancient Near East. As with the rest of the laws in the Mosaic covenant, it is abolished now that Christ has come. This is not to say that this law has nothing to say to the church of Jesus Christ today. …[I]t still has “a revelatory and pedagogical function.”

…Still, the distinction has some usefulness, for some of the commands of the law are carried directly over to the New Testament by Paul and applied to the lives of believers. It seems appropriate to designate such commands as moral norms. For instance, the injunction to honor fathers and mothers still spplies to believers (Eph. 6:2). Paul teaches that love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10), but he clarifies that those who love will not commit adultery, murder, steal, or covet (cf. Rom. 2:21-22; 7:7-8). Those who live according to the Spirit fulfill the requirement of the law (Rom. 8:4). The prohibition against idolatry still stands, though Paul does not cite the Old Testament law in support (1 Cor. 5:10-11; 6:9; 10:7, 14; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 5:20; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). Other commands and prohibitions that reflect the Ten Commandments are found in Paul.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is the difference between the ceremonial law, the moral law, and the judicial law in the Old Testament?
2. Jonathan F. Bayes: The threefold division of the law (pdf)
3. Richard Barcellos: The Biblical and Theological Basis for the Threefold Division of the Law
4. Richard Alderson: Law - Civil, Ceremonial, Moral
5. Justin Taylor quoting D. A. Carson: On the Tripartite Division of the Law
6. Mike Riccardi: Schreiner, the Threefold Division, and the Law of God

Related terms: 

• antinomianism
• covenant
• legalism
• Pentateuch

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

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Theological Term of the Week: Triumphal Entry

triumphal entry
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem riding on a colt prior to his crucifixion, when crowds welcomed him waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord … . ”1

• From scripture: 

  Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

  “Say to the daughter of Zion,

  ‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

  humble, and mounted on a donkey,

  on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

  The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (Matthew 21:1-11 ESV)

• From the ESV Study Bible : 

Jesus’ triumphal entry, with people waving palm branches to greet him, is celebrated in Christian tradition as “Palm Sunday.” His riding into Jerusalem mounted on a donkey fulfills OT Scripture (Zech. 9:9; see also Ps. 118:25–26). The waving of palm branches, which symbolically conveyed the notion of victory over one’s enemy, probably indicates that the people (mistakenly) thought that Jesus would then and there bring national deliverance from Israel’s political enemies, the Romans. Yet Jesus’ popular acclaim would not last; within a mere five days, the shouts of praise would turn to angry calls for his crucifixion.

• From The Final Days of Jesus by Andreas Kostenberger and Justin Taylor: 

Jesus Enters Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–10; Luke 19:29–44; John 12:12–19)

The Passover crowds and inhabitants of Jerusalem were filled with messianic expectation, and Jesus does not disappoint. On Sunday morning, Jesus and his disciples are on the Mount of Olives as they approach Jerusalem. He sends two of his followers to the nearby village (Bethphage or Bethany), instructing them to bring a donkey and colt on which he will sit for his entrance into Jerusalem. By this intentional symbolic action, Jesus will clearly communicate his kingship to the expectant crowds of Passover pilgrims by fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, that Israel’s future king would come riding on the foal of a donkey, and by copying Solomon’s entrance into Jerusalem when he was declared king.

As Jesus makes his westward descent down the Mount of Ol- ives and toward the Holy City, the crowds rightly interpret his actions with expectant joy and respond in kind by spreading robes and leafy palm branches in his pathway to create a royal red carpet (see 2 Kings 9:13) and by acclaiming him their Davidic king:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

(Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:10; see also Isa. 9:7)

The crowds are openly acclaiming Jesus instead of Caesar as king! 

The whole city is shaken by the events, and the crowd keeps spreading the word to any in Jerusalem who have not yet heard who Jesus is (Matt. 21:10–11). Some Pharisees instruct Jesus to re- buke the crowds for their dangerous messianic exuberance, but he refuses to correct or curtail the excitement of the crowd over his entrance into the city (Matt. 21:15–17; Luke 19:39–40). It would be hard to overestimate the political and religious volatility incited by Jesus’s actions—the Pharisees were taken by surprise and had no idea how to respond (John 12:19). Up to this point in Jesus’s ministry, he could still have managed to live a long, happy, peace- ful life, but his actions on Sunday set in motion a series of events that could result only in either his overthrow of the Romans and the current religious establishment—or his brutal death. He has crossed the point of no return; there would be no turning back. Caesar could allow no rival kings. As Jesus approaches the city, he weeps over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–44).

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is the significance of the triumphal entry? Answer in text or video.
2. Holman Bible Dictionary: Triumphal Entry
3. Ligonier Ministries: The Triumphal Entry
4. C. H. Spurgeon: The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
5. S. Lewis Johnson: The Triumphal Entry (audio)

Related terms: 

• ascension of Jesus
• crucifixion 
• king (as an office of Christ)
• Messiah
• resurrection of Jesus
• temptation of Jesus
• Transfiguration

1John 12:13 (ESV)

Filed under Person and Work of Christ

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Theological Term of the Week: Typology

typology
A method of biblical interpretation that arises from the concept that in God’s plan, elements found in the Old Testament (laws, institutions, and historical people or events) prefigure the things God purposed to accomplish in later times, especially in the work of Christ.

• From scripture: 

  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:14 ESV)

  By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). (Hebrews 9:8-9 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession, 1689, Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator: 

6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed which should bruise the serpent’s head; and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever.

• From the ESV Study Bible, Interpreting the Bible: 

The earliest followers of Christ interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures (the OT) as Jesus taught them—as a book of anticipations pointing to Christ himself. He was the long-promised Messiah, the Redeemer who would reverse the effects of the primal fall and restore the world to pristine holiness. Jesus taught that the OT spoke of him. To his critics he said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). The Gospel accounts suggest that Jesus understood the OT from a Christocentric, typological perspective; he is repeatedly cast as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear that his views did not contradict Moses, but he had come to invest the Law and the Prophets with their proper and full meaning (Matt. 5:17). Two themes run through Jesus’ teaching: (1) the Law was the perfect revelation of God to humanity, and (2) Jesus came to fulfill the Law by meeting its exacting demands for a righteous standing before God.

This approach to the OT is how the earliest writers of the Christian Scriptures (the NT) approached their own writings. They spoke of the OT in the same way that Jesus had: as a book not merely telling the pre-Christian history of Israel but telling that history in a way that had present and future significance for Christians. The OT was the original sacred book of the church, giving assurance that Jesus was the promised and anointed one predicted by the prophets.

• From 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer:

In a famous lecture (and subsequently published article), New Testament  scholar Richard Longenecker asked, “Can we reproduce the exegesis of the New Testament?” Longenecker was asking whether we, as modern interpreters, can apply typological interpretive methods to passages not so cited by New Testament authors. Bible-believing Christians have reached a variety of conclusions on the matter. In my opinion, it is necessary to ask how any part of Scripture points to Christ. We must be cautious, however, in proposing any typological correspondences that are not explicitly mentioned in Scripture. In other words, we should keep the surface-level meaning of the text the primary focus of our exposition and give appropriate interpretive caveats when suggesting a Christological application not found explicitly in the Bible. Obscure symbolic interpretations of Old Testament laws should be avoided. It is probably wise to ask a friend who is more experienced in biblical interpretation to critique any newly proposed Christological typology before publicly proclaiming it.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is biblical typology?
2. Theopedia: Biblical typology
3. Stephen J. Wellum: Three Features of Typology
4. Fred Zaspel: The Warrant for Typological Interpretation of Scripture and Typology as Prophecy
5. Wayne Jackson: A Study of Biblical Typology
6. Charles T. Fritsch: Biblical Typology
7. Richard Barcellos: Typology: Adam and Christ
8. Camden Bucey, Jonathan Brack: Issues in Biblical Theology: Types and Antitypes (audio)

Related terms: 

• biblical hermeneutics
• exegesis
• redemptive history

Filed under Scripture

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.