How to Preach The Old Testament Law

My sermon series through Exodus was smooth sailing. Now, my people are lost: Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy threaten to kill our Bible-in-a-year reading plans.

Traversing the bridge between explaining Old Testament laws and applying their significance can seem daunting. The thought of preaching from the law may tempt you toward avoidance or despair. Resist both. The law is challenging to preach, but there is hope.

Here are 7 things to consider to help you preach the Old Testament genre of law.

1. All scripture is profitable.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that “all scripture” is inspired by God and “profitable” for the formation of people. That includes the law. The one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord” is like a “tree planted by streams of water,” fearing neither drought nor storm (Psalm 1). If all Scripture is profitable, we can have both courage and hope to preach the Old Testament law. When people drink deeply from the well of God’s teaching and instruction, they grow.

Don’t end your Exodus sermon series at Sinai. Continue through the giving of the law to the end of the story. Preach Leviticus and Deuteronomy! Preaching God’s law does not need to be drudgery but can be a “delight” for both preacher and listener (Psalm 119:77). God’s full, inspired word is waiting to be explained and applied. Like gold waiting to be discovered, there is value in mining into the law.

2. The Son fulfills the law. Apply from Christ’s fulfillment.

Jesus did not come to “abolish” or “relax” but to “fulfill” the law (Matthew 5:17-20). Preacher, do not detangle yourself from, nor disparage, the Old Testament. Rather, show how Christ is the ultimate, fulfilling “substance” to the law’s “shadow” (Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 8:5-6).

Seek to discover how Christ first “fulfills” (embodies, obeys, models, or teaches) the law before applying the law. How? Walk the text “forward” through redemptive history to see how the law is “fulfilled” in the person and work of Christ.

Consider an example. Where Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 say, “You shall not murder,” Jesus says anger is liable to “judgment” (Matthew 5:21-26). Anger is murder in seed-form. “Fulfillment,” here, means Jesus takes sin just as (or more!) seriously than ever. Christ lived a murder-free life where humanity fails, offers forgiveness of sin, provides his righteousness for our justification, and gives instruction for obedience.

Walk the particulars of your text-in-its-context “forward” through redemptive history to see how the person and work of Christ fulfilled the law. Then, draw applications and implications from Christ’s fulfillment.

3. The Father gives the law. Apply from God’s character.

When preaching the law, consider drawing applications and implications directly from the character of the God who gave the law. For example, Deuteronomy 22:8 says, “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.” How can we derive an application or implication from this verse?

In “The Heresy of Application,” Haddon Robinson encourages preachers to consider whether the implications they seek to derive from a text are necessary, probable, possible, improbable, or impossible.<span class=”footnote”>1</span> With Robinson’s categories in mind, for example, a preacher might ask, “Is Deuteronomy 22:8 saying it is necessary to say that homeowners must install a railing around their roof, and until they do, they are out of step with God’s command?” It’s highly improbable that this is an implication of this text.

Instead, consider abstracting a specific command to a general affirmation about the character of God. Ask, “What does this particular law show me about the universal character of the Father who gave the law?” In our example, the specific command to “make a parapet” in Deuteronomy 22:8 shows God’s protective heart towards people.

Returning to Robinson’s categories, one could possibly or probably apply God’s protective character like this, “Considering people’s physical safety reflects God’s protective character. When you are mindful of the safety of others (parapets, deck rails, baby gates, salting icy sidewalks), you reflect God’s protective posture more than you may realize.”

If it is improbable or impossible to apply the exact detail of a specific law, consider instead the probable or possible implications that can be generally applied from the character of the lawgiver.

4. God’s law functions like a mirror, map, and guardrail.

The reformers Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon remind us that God’s law  functions like mirror, map, and guardrail.<span class=”footnote”>2</span> God’s law reveals both sin and savior (like a mirror), guides (like a map), and protects (like a guard rail). These three metaphors provide helpful categories for sermon explanation and application:

• God’s law is like a mirror. Something humbling and hopeful happens when God’s word is preached. God’s law doesn’t show me how I want to look. Like a mirror, it shows me how I actually look, sinful flaws and all. Preacher, don’t let the weight of guilt drive your listener to hopeless despair or self-righteous effort. Let the weight of sin drive your listener to the saving arms of Jesus Christ. The mirror of God’s law reveals both my guilt and God’s forgiveness, my need and God’s provision, my brokenness and God’s restoration, death in sin, and life in Christ. With surgical precision and humility, let God’s word point out sin. With grace-filled joy and hope, let God’s word point to the savior. Show your listener that sin is great, yet Christ is greater.
• God’s law is like a map. Something helpful happens when God’s instructions are taught. After God’s word has pointed out both sin and savior, the heart is ready to receive God’s instructions like a map. The same command that once crushed now serves as a lamp to our feet and light to our path. Like maps to a mountain explorer, God’s law guides the believer on their way. Don’t shy away from application; God’s word teaches, nurtures, trains, and guides people along the path of Christian discipleship.
• God’s law is like a guardrail. Something protective happens when people heed God’s commands. Like a guardrail protects a car from careening off a mountain road, God’s instruction protects people from their own demise. Veering outside of God’s command does not offer greater freedom but hastily leads to destruction. Our obedience does not contribute to justification. Christ’s obedience makes up the righteousness that justifies people before God. However, obedience can protect a marriage from destruction by infidelity, for example. Obeying God’s command against adultery is for our good (Exodus 20:14). Obedience can protect a career from self-inflicted implosion by financial deviance. Obeying God’s commands against idolatry, theft, and envy is for our good (Exodus 20:4-5, 15, 17). Every command of God does not come from his desire to oppress and stifle but rather to protect and care. Preacher, apply God’s commands not only because they are true but because they are good—show how obedience helps people flourish.

5. Apply from grace, not for grace.

How can the same Bible say the letter “kills” (2 Corinthians 3:6) and those who rely on the law are “under a curse” (Galatians 3:10) while also saying “your law is my delight” and “let your rules help me” (Psalm 119:174-175)? Is scripture contradicting scripture? No. How? In short, obey God’s law from grace, not for grace.

The law does not and cannot justify—Christ does (Galatians 3:11). After salvation, however, something beautiful happens to the believer’s relationship to obedience. The gospel transforms obedience from burden to delight, from obligation to opportunity. Christians are not saved by good works but for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10). Hear how William Cowper poetically explains the believer’s relationship to obedience in “Love Constraining to Obedience:”

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.

‘What shall I do,’ was then the word,
‘That I may worthier grow?’
‘What shall I render to the Lord?’
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

The gospel makes obedience a means of nourishing grace, not a means to saving–grace. You can preach the law (biblical genre) without preaching the law (salvation by works). The difference has everything to do with how you theologically frame your application.

Point out, first, what God has done before you call your listener to do anything.

Theologically framing your application will make the difference between nurturing a church of self-righteous Pharisees (who obey for grace) or nurturing a church of Christ-following disciples (who obey from grace). So take time, in sermon application, to ensure your listener knows the relationship between grace and obedience.

6. The Holy Spirit empowers obedience.

Christ died “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). The Holy Spirit now dwells within and empowers believers to obey God’s commandments (John 14:15-17).

Therefore, the same command that once crushed me, now empowered by God’s Spirit, brings life through my obedience. Preacher, tell believers they can obey, empowered by God’s Spirit. The strong wind of obedience to God’s commands no longer blows in our faces but at our backs to fill our sails.

7. Call in reinforcements.

There is gold to be found in the nooks and crannies of the genre of Old Testament law. If you are looking for a helpful resource on the biblical genre, consider Richard Averbeck’s book, The Old Testament Law for The Life of The Church: Reading The Torah in The Light of Christ. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2022.

You may have to do some digging before you can reveal the gold of a particular passage of the law. A study Bible will bring you deep. Trusted, exegetical commentaries on particular verses will bring you deeper. Keep digging! Like gold waiting to be discovered, there is value in mining into the biblical genre of law for the good of God’s church.