Tom Schreiner asks: ‘How should we describe the role of the law in the Gospel of John?’
John does not focus on the law but on Christ, and this is evident from the high Christology of John’s Gospel.
Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God (20.31). He is the Son of Man and the eternal Logos. Indeed, John emphasises that Jesus is divine (1.1,18; 20.28) and existed with the Father from the beginning (1.1; 17.5). The law, rightly interpreted, bears witness to Christ, and thus those who do not put their faith in Jesus as the Christ do not rightly interpret the law (5.38-39, 46).
Fulfilling the Old Testament
John develops this theme in many ways. The temple in Jerusalem points to Jesus as the true temple (2.19-22). The manna the Lord provided for Israel in the wilderness is fulfilled in Jesus, the true bread who has come from heaven and given his flesh for the life of the world (6.25-59). Jesus also fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles (M. Sukkah 4.9-10; 5.2-4). The water-pouring rite is fulfilled in Jesus, for one’s thirst is satisfied only in him (John 7.37–38). So, too, the lighting ritual that was practised at the feast finds its fulfill-ment in Jesus as well, for he is ‘the light of the world’ (John 8.12), which is verified by his ability to grant sight to the blind (John 9).
In the Old Testament, Yahweh is the shepherd of his people and promises to shepherd them in the future (Psalm 23.1; Ezekiel 34.11-16, 23-24), but this promise is realised in the ministry of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sake of his sheep (John 10.11-18). In the Old Testament the vineyard of the Lord is Israel (Isaiah 5.1-7), but Israel failed to produce good fruit; Jesus is the true Vine, the true Israel who always does what pleases the Lord (John 8.29; 15.1). The Lord liberated Israel from bondage at the Exodus, and Israel celebrated the Lord’s deliverance at Passover, but Jesus is the true Passover Lamb (John 18.28, 39; 19.14). The brief survey above indicates that the Old Testament finds its meaning and fulfillment in Christ, and hence we would expect the law to function similarly.
The Sabbath in John’s Gospel
The Sabbath, as in the Synoptics, plays a significant role in John’s Gospel. Jesus healed a man who was an invalid for 38 years (5.1-9). The Jews were indignant because the man carried his bed, for they believed that this constituted work and violated Sabbath regulations (vv.10-16). What is instructive is that Jesus did not respond casuistically in the first instance. He could have reacted by insisting that carrying one’s bed after a healing should not be defined as work. Thereby the charges raised against him could be dismissed as groundless. But Jesus responded in an altogether astonishing way, saying: ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working’ (v.17).
Unexpected reply
Jesus’s reply is unexpected at two levels. First, he admits that he was working. He avoids technical discussions of work entirely and freely acknowledges that he was working. But if he was working, then was he not violating the Sabbath? This brings us to Jesus’s second comment. His work is eminently defensible because, as the Son, he is doing the same thing his Father was doing. His work cannot be criticised since he was imitating God. The Jews were scandalized by Jesus’s defence, since it amounted to the claim that he was equal with God (John 5.18). This text is of great significance in tracing out John’s theology of the law, for it shows that Jesus is superior to the Sabbath. The Sabbath no longer has the same status now that the Son of God has come. The Sabbath law must be interpreted in light of the coming of Jesus Christ.
Different argument
Interestingly, Jesus returns to the same healing of the invalid in John 7.19–24, and on this occasion he argues quite differently! Here he offers the kind of legal argument that we might have expected in John 5. Jesus notes that circumcision is performed on the Sabbath without anyone thinking that the law is thereby infringed upon. Hence, his healing of someone on the Sabbath is quite legitimate. So, the argument turns in a different direction, and yet the divine prerogatives of Jesus are not entirely absent from the story. Jesus is like God in that he is able to make a man healthy (John 7.23). Here he imitates God, who can create life where there is death.
Grace and truth
One of the most important verses for the Johannine perspective on the law is John 1.17: ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’. John does not deny that there is grace and truth in the law. Indeed, the preposition anti in John 1.16 (translated in the ESV as ‘grace upon grace’) should be translated ‘instead of’ or ‘in place of,’ for this preposition is regularly used in terms of replacement and never means ‘upon’. Therefore, the grace in Christ replaces the grace that is in the law. It is acknowledged, then, that there is grace in the law, but the grace found in Christ is superior. Grace and truth exist in the law, but they reach their climax and purest expression in Christ. So, we have another indication that the law points to Jesus Christ.
‘My commandments’
John does not concentrate on commands that stem from the Old Testament law. Instead, as we would expect from John 1.17, the emphasis lies upon what Jesus instructs his disciples to do. He speaks of ‘my commandments’ (14.15,21; 15.10) and ‘my commandment’ (15.12), and what ‘I command you’ (15.14,17), and the ‘new commandment’ that ‘I give to you’ (13.34). The law has reached its fulfillment in Christ, and his commands are authoritative for believers. Obeying the commands of Jesus indicates one’s love for him (14.15,21,31; 15.10,14).
The way of the cross
John does not focus on the content of the commands. He does zero in, though, on Jesus’s command to love one another (15.12, 17). The commandment is new because disciples are to love one another ‘as I have loved you’ (13.34). Jesus’s surrender of his life on the cross becomes the paradigm and pattern for the love of disciples.
The focus is not on keeping discrete laws, for if disciples follow Jesus, who gave up his life for them, then the purpose of the Old Testament law will be realised in their sacrificial love. In other words, the ethical life the Old Testament demanded has now been expressed in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, for he always did the Father’s will (5.19). He did what pleases the Father (8.29) and therefore could not be convicted of sin (8.46). The purpose of the law was always that it would express itself in human lives. Jesus lived to do the Father’s will and his life was animated by love, so that he gave his life for the sake of his sheep (10.11). Certainly in John’s Gospel the cross of Christ becomes the supreme expression of love, and disciples are to follow Christ by showing love like Christ’s to others.
Summary
The law does not play a central role in John’s Gospel, though John does emphasise that the law points to and is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. John particularly stresses Jesus’s command to love one another, and Jesus’s giving of himself for the salvation of others on the cross becomes the paradigm for such love.
