The Newness of the New Law

Written for Fundamental Moral Theology with Dr. T. Patrick O'Neill, November 20, 2020

In discussing the unity of the Old and New Testaments, the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes reference to a statement generally attributed to St. Augustine:

“As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”[1]

When we compare the old law and the new, we might better state this as “the New Law lays bear that which was hidden in the Old Law.” Aquinas tells us that the New Law is distinct in one way from the Old Law, but not in another:

“We must therefore say that, according to the first way, the New Law is not distinct from the Old Law: because they both have the same end, namely, man's subjection to God; and there is but one God of the New and of the Old Testament, according to Romans 3:30: "It is one God that justifieth circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith." According to the second way, the New Law is distinct from the Old Law: because the Old Law is like a pedagogue of children, as the Apostle says (Galatians 3:24), whereas the New Law is the law of perfection, since it is the law of charity, of which the Apostle says (Colossians 3:14) that it is "the bond of perfection."[2]

When we consider the Old Law, and specifically the Decalogue, we see a list of rules that tell us what to not do. The Decalogue don’t really all state “Thou shalt not,” but it’s easy to see why that became a sort of shorthand to refer to them. Even the few commandments that are stated in positive language, as is “Honor your father and mother,” is easily stated in the negative, “Do not dishonor your parents.” As Aquinas pointed out, this is because the Decalogue were given to a people who as yet had little understanding of God. Estimates vary, but the Decalogue predate the birth of Jesus by well over a milennia. Even though God had revealed Himself to the people before Moses, they were still in the infancy of their understanding of him. Moses was a prophet who delivered the Decalogue to the people, but he was not a prophet who would discourse on their meaning and interpretation. The Decalogue are couched in simpler terms than the Beatitudes, since that was what the people of the time were able to internalize.

Aquinas, however, clearly states that the Old Law has not passed away because of the New Law:

“On the contrary, Our Lord said (Matthew 5:17): ‘I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil’: and went on to say (Matthew 5:18): ‘One jot or one tittle shall not pass of the Law till all be fulfilled.’”[3]

In Matthew 19:17-19, Jesus specifically refers to the Decalogue’s commandments when asked “what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?”[4] His response ought be enough to tell us that the Decalogue’s instructions remain valid:

“If you would enter life, keep the commandments. . . . You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [5]”

One might well ask why Christ did not here also state the first three commandments. However, it seems clear that by referencing only commandments of the Decalogue, and not the various additional rules and laws that man had added to their religion, he has signified that the Decalogue remains. We have a confirmation of this in Acts 10, when Peter has the vision telling him that the dietary laws need not be followed, and that God reaches out to all men, not just the Jews.

            The Church teaches that the Decalogue were revealed by God, written by the finger of God, and are “pre-eminently the words of God,”[6] and that

“It is in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ that [the Decalogue’s] full meaning will be revealed.”[7]

The Catechism continues, explaining that the Commandments have particular meaning as a sign of the Covenant. Quoting Origen, the Catechism states:

“Since there was a passing from the paradise of freedom to the slavery of this world, in punishment for sin, the first phrase of the Decalogue, the first word of God's commandments, bears on freedom ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’.”[8]

The Commandments are more than simply instructions for how to live:

“[The Commandments] express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant. Moral existence is a response to the Lord's loving initiative. It is the acknowledgement and homage given to God and a worship of  history.”[9]

However, the rules of the Decalogue are not enough to guide our path to heaven and beatific vision. Aquinas tells us:

“the New Law is compared to the Old as the perfect to the imperfect. Now everything perfect fulfils that which is lacking in the imperfect. And accordingly the New Law fulfils the Old by supplying that which was lacking in the Old Law.”[10]

The Commandments are a dialogue; they begin with God speaking to us directly, “I am the Lord.” They are addressed to us in the second person singular: “You shall not have other Gods before me.” The Catechism specifically tells us:

“In all God's commandments, the singular personal pronoun designates the recipient. God makes his will known to each person in particular, at the same time as he makes it known to the whole people...”[11]

The Catechism continues, quoting St. Irenaeus:

“The Lord prescribed love towards God and taught justice towards neighbor, so that man would be neither unjust, nor unworthy of God. Thus, through the Decalogue, God prepared man to become his friend and to live in harmony with his neighbor.... the words of the Decalogue remain likewise for us Christians. Far from being abolished, they have received amplification and development from the fact of the coming of the Lord in the flesh.”[12]26

Turning our attention to the Beatitudes, we see a difference in tone. Jesus does not give the Beatitudes in a dialogue. In Matthew 5:3-12, and as listed in the Catechism at 1716,  they are given as a series of eight statements of what makes us blessed; they lead us to happiness, and to our deepest desire, to be with God.

“The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven.”[13]

Now the end of every law is to make men righteous and virtuous, as was stated above (I-II:92:1): and consequently the end of the Old Law was the justification of men. The Law, however, could not accomplish this: but foreshadowed it by certain ceremonial actions, and promised it in words. And in this respect, the New Law fulfils the Old by justifying men through the power of Christ's Passion. This is what the Apostle says (Romans 8:3-4): "What the Law could not do . . . God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh . . . hath condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the Law might be fulfilled in us." And in this respect, the New Law gives what the Old Law promised, according to 2 Corinthians 1:20: "Whatever are the promises of God, in Him," i.e. in Christ, "they are 'Yea'." [The Douay version reads thus: "All the promises of God are in Him, 'It is'."] Again, in this respect, it also fulfils what the Old Law foreshadowed. Hence it is written (Colossians 2:17) concerning the ceremonial precepts that they were "a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ"; in other words, the reality is found in Christ. Wherefore the New Law is called the law of reality; whereas the Old Law is called the law of shadow or of figure.

Now Christ fulfilled the precepts of the Old Law both in His works and in His doctrine. In His works, because He was willing to be circumcised and to fulfil the other legal observances, which were binding for the time being; according to Galatians 4:4: "Made under the Law." In His doctrine He fulfilled the precepts of the Law in three ways. First, by explaining the true sense of the Law. This is clear in the case of murder and adultery, the prohibition of which the Scribes and Pharisees thought to refer only to the exterior act: wherefore Our Lord fulfilled the Law by showing that the prohibition extended also to the interior acts of sins. Secondly, Our Lord fulfilled the precepts of the Law by prescribing the safest way of complying with the statutes of the Old Law. Thus the Old Law forbade perjury: and this is more safely avoided, by abstaining altogether from swearing, save in cases of urgency. Thirdly, Our Lord fulfilled the precepts of the Law, by adding some counsels of perfection: this is clearly seen in Matthew 19:21, where Our Lord said to the man who affirmed that he had kept all the precepts of the Old Law: "One thing is wanting to thee: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell whatsoever thou hast," etc. [St. Thomas combines Matthew 19:21 with Mark 10:21.

[1] CCC 129

[2] STI-II, Q107, A1

[3] ST I-II, Q 107, A2

[4] Matthew 19:16

[5] Matthew 19:18-19

[6] CCC 2056

[7] CCC 2056

[8] CCC 2061, quoting Origen, Hom. in Ex. 8,1: PG 12, 350; cf. ⇒ Ex 20:2; ⇒ Deut 5:6.

[9] CCC 2062

[10] ST I-II, Q107, A2, respondo

[11] CCC 2063

[12] CCC 2063, quoting St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., 4, 16, 3-4: PG 7/1, 1017-1018.

[13] CCC1716