Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Freed from all things
Acts 13:39

"by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:39)

Is this verse just too good to be true? We are "set free" (NRSV) "from all things" (NKJV). Well, there's always a catch. Contextually, this is about sin (Acts 13:38) and justification or declaring one righteous. We are not free to do as we wish. We are not free to contemptuously break the Law. That said, there does appear a difficulty, for this verse seems to imply through its negative that there were some things from which you could be justified by the Law of Moses. Furthermore, Paul is recorded as also writing that, "the doers of the Law shall be justified" (Romans 2:13). This appears to contradict what Paul said elsewhere in Galatians, probably written soon afterwards:

"that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith.'" (Galatians 3:11)

In the Galatians passage, Paul ends by quoting Habakkuk 2:4, whilst in Acts he finishes with Habakkuk 1:5 (Acts 13:39-40), clearly showing his thoughts on justification by faith were strongly influenced at this time by his meditations on Habakkuk, a book widely studied also by the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls community.

Calvin seems to suggest that Paul was being clever in his language at Antioch in Pisidia so as not to completely crush his Jewish hearers, for he was preaching in the Sabbath service of the local synagogue. He did not want to suggest that the Law was worthless, which it wasn't, but that Christ came to do what the Law could never do, not to change what it could already do.

Elsewhere, Paul agrees that the Law is good:

"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12)

"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;" (1 Timothy 1:8)

The classic Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, commentary on this verse resolves this apparent difficulty by suggesting that the second half of the phrase "from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" is "is not an exceptional but an explanatory clause", therefore,

"The meaning is not, 'Though the law justifies from many things, it cannot justify from all things, but Christ makes up all deficiencies'; but the meaning is, 'By Christ the believer is justified from all things, whereas the law justifies from nothing.'"^F1

This is not a negative statement that the Law cannot justify, for it was never intended to. If you remember the logical and chronological sequence of the giving of the Law you will recall that it was first given to a people, already rescued and redeemed from Egypt, as a guide to life in covenant relationship with God, not as a method of either salvation or justification to get "into" that relationship. The erstwhile Edinburgh Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, A.B. Davidson concurred:

"The law was given to the people in covenant. It was a rule of life, not of justification; it was a guide to the man who was already right in God's esteem in virtue of his general attitude towards the covenant. … No assumption of sinlessness is made, nor, indeed is such a thing demanded. The institutions of atonement provided for the taking away sins done through infirmity, and the law was a direction to the believer how to bear himself practically within the covenant relation."^F2

In the same place Davidson goes on to say that we are justified by faith (see Romans 3:28,30), but faith itself is justified by works, in this way we are legitimately "justified by works" but not in a technical legal sense. Clearly, the first use of "justified" really means "made righteous" or "accounted as accepted" whereas the second "justified" suggests that works "show us" to be justified, they are the evidence. So what does "justified" mean in Acts 13:39?

"by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.." (Acts 13:39)

The NIV and NAS translate like the NKJV quoted above, some other versions are below:

"set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses" (NRSV)
"absolved from all those things from which the Law of Moses could never set him free" (Philips)
"freed from all guilt and declared right with God - something the Jewish law could never do" (NLT)
"all things from which ye were not able in the law of Moses to be declared righteous, in this one every one who is believing is declared righteous" (Young's)

The actual Greek word is δικαιοω dikaioô (Strong's #1344) meaning "to be in a right relationship", to be "made righteous", either by evidence or declaration, and usually refers to the Hebrew verb צָדַק tsâdhaq (Strong's #6663) which means to be "straight, right or true".

David Stern, in his Jewish New Testament Commentary, seems to think that the passage refers to a "clearing" of the things for which the Torah Law provided: no sacrifice, some 36 transgressions, according to the Jewish Mishnah:

"The things concerning which you could not be cleared by the Torah of Moshe.
According to the Mishna, "There are thirty-six transgressions for which the Torah specifies the punishment of karet," that is, being "cut off" from Israel (K'ritot 1:1). For these the Torah provides no "clearing": no sacrifice or punishment named in the Torah provides atonement or restores fellowship. These transgressions include the prohibited sexual unions of Leviticus 18, blasphemy (Numbers 15:30), idolatry, necromancy (Leviticus 20:6), profaning Shabbat (Exodus 31:14), certain violations of ritual purity laws, eating chametz during Pesach and eating or working on Yom-Kippur.

The transgression must be committed "wantonly" to be subject to karet; if committed by mistake or in ignorance, a sin offering may be brought. In fact, according to the plain sense of Numbers 15:30, the key element in any unpardonable sin is acting "with a high hand"; and the New Testament is equally clear that the New Covenant provides no remedy for those who intentionally sin (see Ro 3:7—8; 6:1—2; Hebrews [MJ] 6:4—6; and especially James [Ya] 2:10—11N).

Karet means excision from the Jewish people (Leviticus 18:29 and the verses cited above); the Talmud explains it more specifically as premature death (Mo‛ed Katan 28a). Regardless of its exact meaning, karet is regarded as a punishment administered directly by God; no human court determines it. But according to the Talmud,

"Rabbi Akiva says that if those subject to the punishment of karet repent, the Heavenly beit-din [court] grants them remission." (Makkot 13b)

However, this is not specified in the Written Torah; and I speculate that Rabbi Akiva, who lived in the second century C.E., was developing defensive theology (3:22—23) against Sha'ul's [Paul] teachings." ^F3

So, whilst Stern suggests that the "all things" only refers to the 36 unpardonable sins of the Jewish Law (ignoring the later Talmudic teaching of repentance), I would tend to agree with Davidson that Christ's death does not replace the Law or "top it up" to cover the extra 36 transgressions, rather that it provides that wholly separate act of God, like the Exodus intervention, to bring about justification or "right relationship" with God. The Law of Moses was only ever a guide to "keeping" the people of Israel in relationship with God, it was never able to "bring" others into relationship, nor declare a Jew right before God, that has always been by faith, as with Abraham, as with Habakkuk, and evidenced by works.

FOOTNOTES:
F1: Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D., A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1992
F2: Prof. A B Davidson, i, T&T Clark, 1904, p.280.
F3: Stern, D. H., Jewish New Testament commentary : A companion volume to the Jewish New Testament, Clarksville, Md.: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992.

Copyright Statement
'Difficult Sayings' Copyright 2024© KJ Went. 'Difficult Sayings' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each article, along with a link to https://www.studylight.org/language-studies/difficult-sayings.html  2) 'Difficult Sayings' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.