Objection No. 9: Luke 16:16 proves that Christians have nothing to do with law.
Luke 16:16 reads as follows:
“The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it.”
Place beside this the parallel passage in Matthew 11:13:
“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”
The word “were” in Luke 16:16 is a supplied word. Luke simply wrote: “The law and the prophets, until John.” If the translators had compared his words with those of Matthew, they would have seen that Luke did not mean that the law and the prophets ended in John’s day, but that they “prophesied” until that day. The difference is very great and provides the key to the meaning of the passage under discussion.
The phrase, “the prophets and the law,” or more commonly, “the law and the prophets,” is used often in the Bible to describe the writings of Moses plus the writings of the other Old Testament prophets. The writings of Moses, the first five books of the Bible sometimes called the Pentateuch, were so distinguished by recording the laws given to Moses—moral, ceremonial, and civil—that they very understandably were often described as “the law,” in contrast to the writings of the other prophets.
That fact in itself removes this objection from consideration, for neither Luke nor Matthew is really discussing the ten-commandment law. They are discussing the entire Old Testament. What they are saying is that the Old Testament pointed forward to Christ, but now that we have Christ we preach not the prediction of the kingdom of God, but its arrival.
What these gospel writers are saying in context is that “the law and the prophets,” the Old Testament, pointed forward to Christ. Skepticism that Jesus was the Messiah was very common among the Jews of Jesus’ day, but of course they insisted that they believed Moses and all the prophets. Christ sought repeatedly to make clear to them that He was the one foretold by the prophets, and likewise his forerunner, John the Baptist was foretold, and that now the kingdom of God was being preached unto them.
When Christ began His public ministry He declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Mark 1:15. The prophets had foretold the coming of the Messiah. Christ announced that those prophecies were now fulfilled.
To the skeptical Jews, who failed to see in Christ the fulfillment of these prophecies, He declared: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?” John 5:45-47.
When Philip found Nathanael and sought to bring him the thrilling news that the promised Messiah had come, he said, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” John 1:45.
When Christ was resurrected from the dead He came that same day to the troubled, bewildered disciples and inquired, “Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” Luke 24:38. Then He reminded them that what had happened to Him on that fateful week end was what the prophets had foretold, that all things must be fulfilled, “which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.” Verse 44.
Paul declared that his mission in life was “witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.” Acts 26:22.
Obviously, what Moses and the other Old Testament prophets wrote was one of the most important proofs Christ offered the apostles in support of His claim to be the Messiah.
Prophets “prophesy” until the time when their prophecies meet fulfillment, after that prophecy becomes history. Thus, our Lord, in declaring that the prophets and the law prophesied until John, was simply announcing that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” He was not implying the Old Testament was now abolished, much less that the ten-commandment law had come to an end.