The New Legislator

by Gus Singh

Jesus, as the new legislator, expected his new legislation to be listened to and obeyed lest his listeners – at the time – be judged for not doing so!

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person….There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words.” John 12:47a-48a

This negates the notion of a time-delayed, post-death legislature. The case in point being the direction he gave the Samaritan woman.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

When a new legislature is in place, the legislator/s are never exempt from it themselves. We would find this absurd in politics if the lawmakers are exempt from the laws they make! Was Moses exempt from his own Old Covenant laws? If not, why then would we make Jesus exempt from his own New Covenant laws by continuing to serve under something that has become obsolete?

“When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete.” Hebrews 8:13a

Are we to say Jesus did not practice what he preached during his lifetime? This would be to condemn him as pharisaical as those Jews he condemned. For example, Jesus contradicts the Law of Moses on oaths (Ex 22:10-11; Num. 30.3) when he commands his followers:

“All you need to say is simply Yes or No; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37

Would his listeners at the time (and Jesus himself) be expected to follow this immediately or continue going around making oaths as per the Law of Moses?

One cannot serve two masters at the same time (Mat 6:24), I.e., the Law of Moses and the Law of Messiah (1Cor 9:20-21).
One cannot be enslaved in bondage and free at the same time (Gal 4).

And above all, we must be careful not to turn early Christians, and Jesus himself, into listeners only and not doers! As Jesus warned his listeners:

“Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but not do what I say?” Luke 6.46