The task of man's earthly life is preparing
himself for eternal salvation and beatitude. To attain this, a man must live in
a holy and pure manner - that is, according to God's will.
How can one recognize this will of God? First of all, in one's conscience, which for this reason, is called
God's voice in the soul of man. If the fall had not darkened the human
soul, man would be able unerringly and firmly to direct the path of his life
according to the dictates of his conscience, in which the inner moral law is
expressed. We know, however, that in a sinful man, not only are the mind, heart
and will damaged, but the conscience is also darkened and its judgment and
voice have lost their firm clearness and strength. It is not without reason
that some people are called unconscionable.
Therefore, conscience alone - the inner voice -
became insufficient for man to live and act according to God's will. The need
arose for an external guide, for a God-revealed law. Such a law was given by
God to people in two aspects: first, the preparatory - the Old Testament law of Moses - then the full and perfect Gospel law.
There are two distinguishable parts in Moses' law:
the religious-moral and the national-ceremonial which was closely tied with the
history and way of life of the Jewish nation. The second aspect is gone into
the past for Christians, that is, the national-ceremonial rules and laws, but
the religious-moral laws preserve their force in Christianity. Therefore, all
the ten commandments in the law of Moses are
obligatory for Christians. Christianity has not altered them. On the contrary,
Christianity has taught people to understand these commandments, not externally
- literalistically, in the manner of blind, slavish obedience, and external
fulfillment, but it has revealed the full spirit and taught the perfect and
full understanding and fulfillment of them. For Christians, however, Moses' law
has significance only because its central commandments (the ten which deal with
love of God and neighbors) are accepted and shown forth by Christianity. We are
guided in our life not by this preparatory and temporary law
of Moses, but by the perfect and eternal law of Christ. St Basil the Great
says, "If one who lights a lamp before himself in broad daylight seems
strange, then how much stranger is one who remains in the shadow of the law of
the Old Testament when the Gospel is being preached." The main
distinction of the New Testament law from that of the Old Testament consists in
that the Old Testament law looked at the exterior actions of man, while the New
Testament law looks at the heart of man, at his inner motives. Under the Old
Testament law, man submitted himself to God as a slave to his master, but under
the New Testament, he strives toward submitting to Him as a son submits to a
beloved father.
There is a tendency to regard the Old Testament
law incorrectly. Some see no good in it, but only seek out features of
coarseness and cruelty. This is a mistaken view. It is necessary to take into
consideration the low level of spiritual development at which man then stood
thousands of years ago. Under the conditions of the times, with truly coarse
and cruel morals, those rules and norms of Moses' law which now seem cruel to
us (e.g., "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," etc.) in
reality were not such. They did not, of course, destroy human cruelty and
vengeance (only the Gospel could do this), but they did restrain it and
establish firm and strict limits upon it. Moreover, it must be remembered that
those commandments about love toward God and neighbors, which the Lord
indicated as the most important, are taken directly from the law
of Moses (Mk. 12:29-31). The Holy Apostle Paul says of this law, "The
law, therefore, is holy and each commandment is holy, just and good"
(Rom. 7:12).
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