The Old Testament Law for the New Testament Believer

Dispensationalists and followers of "New Covenant Theology" (hereafter "NCT") unite in claiming that the Old Testament law is not binding on Christians. However, Paul's use of the Law showed that he had no such opinion. I want to examine three places where he describes the abiding authority of the Law, including for Christians.

First is Romans 3:31: "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." While both dispensationalists and NCT claim that one is either in faith or in the law, implying a dichotomy between the two, that is certainly not Paul's doctrine. That's because of a bait-and-switch in the dispensationalist and NCT arguments. They properly point to a dichotomy of the two in the realm of justification. And I (and every other covenantalist) agree whole-heartedly that no one can be saved by the Law. However, the same people act as if that is the end of the discussion, sweeping the issue of sanctification under the rug. Yet that is Paul's point: the man saved by faith is now freed and enabled to love and obey God's law.

Second is I Corinthians 5:1: "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife." We know the story: The Apostle rebukes the church at Corinth for failing to exercise discipline against this member who is living in a sexual relationship with the wife of his own father (probably the man's step-mother). But how does Paul determine that such a lifestyle is wicked? It is never addressed anywhere else in the New Testament! However, in Leviticus 20:11, we read, "If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them" (see also Deuteronomy 27:20). Paul applies an Old Testament law, and one not repeated in the New Testament, something which both dispensationalists and NCT claim is necessary for a law still to be valid.

And third is I Corinthians 14:34: "The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says." Paul again issues a rebuke to the church for acting contrary, not to a principle stated in the New Testament, but rather to one in the Old Testament Law!

So, here we have three New Testament examples that refute the antinomianism of the dispensationalists and New Covenant Theology. Their rejection of the Law is contrary to the apostolic testimony, and, therefore, false. Rather, the Scriptures demonstrate the accuracy of the confessional covenant theology: "The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation" (Westminster Confession of faith XIX:5).