We are answering the question: Should a Christian Keep the Law? The biblical answer is yes and no. We should keep the moral commandments that are rooted in the immutable nature of God. God is holy. God is a moral being who holds people morally accountable. God does not change. So, the moral boundaries that flow out of who God is are eternal.
Why do we keep the moral commandments of God? They are restated in the New Testament. “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.” Those are commanded under the New Covenant as well as the Old Covenant. We don’t abide by those because they are stated in the Old Covenant. We abide by them because they are stated in the New Covenant. Should we Keep the Law? Yes, we should live in the boundaries of God’s moral law, not to become righteous, but because we are righteous by the grace of God.
Should we keep the Law? No, we should not keep the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament because those were fulfilled by Christ at His first Advent. We cannot deal with these matters thoroughly, but we are addressing a few biblical principles that help us answer the question. In a previous teaching, we explored two principles.
Principle #1: Jesus established a NEW Covenant better than the OLD Covenant set forth in the Old Testament.
Hebrews 8 explains this thoroughly. Then in verse 13 says: “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”i The whole book of Hebrews is a warning for Christians to not go back under the Old Covenant system. So, we must decide which covenant we will live under: the Old Covenant of types and shadows or the New Covenant of grace and spiritual reality in Christ. We err if we try to mix the two.ii Grace and works are like oil and water. They simply don’t mix.iii So, the first principle the Christian must understand is that “in Christ” he is not under the Old Testament covenant. He is under the New Covenant as defined in the New Testament. The Old Covenant provided valuable revelation and preparation for the New. But it was set aside when the New and better covenant was established at the cross.
Principle #2 was also discussed in that message: The MORAL boundaries taught to Israel in the Old Testament are also taught to Christians in the New Testament. We demonstrated that truth with several New Testament passages and showed how the abandonment of God’s commandments concerning moral behavior (known as antinomianism) is condemned as apostasy by the apostles.
There were two kinds of apostasy going on in the early church, and those same errors are occurring today. The most prevalent is antinomianism. In a distorted interpretation of love and grace, many are abandoning the moral commandments set forth in the New Testament and heaping upon themselves God’s judgment.
The other apostasy is a return to the Old Law that Jesus fulfilled at the cross. To do this dishonors the work of Christ. In Galatians 5:2 Paul said, “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.” He says that in the context of an extensive teaching against going back under the Old Testament system. I had a discussion with a Christian who was falling under the legalism that the Galatians were exercising. As I quoted this verse and others, the person interrupted me and said, “Wait, you cannot use Paul’s writings because Paul was a false prophet.” The deception that began subtly had progressed to a rejection of New Testament inspired Scripture. According to Galatians and Hebrews that thinking can progress into apostasy. It’s a slippery slope. It is spiritually very dangerous.
Scripture predicts a great falling away in the last days. There are signs that is happening as we speak. If the devil can’t get a person to go into antinomianism, he will push them into the ditch on the other side of the road: legalism. People have all kinds of distorted definiens of legalism. Some call living by the moral boundaries established in the New Testament as legalism. Others justify keeping Old Testament ceremonial law and think that is a higher form of spirituality. How do we get a sound definition of legalism? We let the New Testament tell us what it is. And if you study the New Testament as a whole, you will see this distinction between eternal moral commandments and temporal ceremonial commandments. There is a reason orthodox Christianity has honored that distinction. It is in the Bible!
Today we will discuss 5 other principles that will clarify the distinction in the New Testament between the moral versus ceremonial rules that were given under the old Mosaic covenant. In an effort to be clear, there may be some repetition with what was previously said. Four additional principles that help us answer the question: Should Christians keep the law?
PRINCIPLE #1: God relates to people through COVENANTS.
He tells them what He expects from them and what they can expect from Him. He does this so they can obey Him and trust Him. Without covenant revelation, we would not know what we’re supposed to do, and we would not know what we could trust God to do for us. The appropriate relationship between humans and their creator is trust and obedience. Trust and obey; for there is no other way.
Our introduction to covenant begins immediately after the creation of man. In Genesis 2, God declared a covenant with Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:7-10: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.” Verses 11-14 describe those four riverheads. Then Genesis 2:15-18 continues, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ 18 And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Notice two sides of this arrangement: God’s gracious provision and God’s boundary on man’s behavior: Blessings within the boundary and consequences of stepping outside the boundary.
God related to Noah in covenant. The rainbow is a reminder of that. God made a covenant with Abraham. Foundational to understanding our subject today is the concept of covenants as vehicles for God’s interaction with people. We cannot go into more detail than that. We are particularly interested in two covenants: (1) the covenant mediated by Moses to the nation of Israel, and (2) the new everlasting covenant mediated through Christ.
PRINCIPLE #2: The Old Covenant made through Moses was SUPERCEDED by the New Covenant established by Christ. This was promised in Jeremiah 31 and other places in the Old Testament. Hebrews 8:13 explicitly tells us the old has been replaced by the new. “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
What part of the Mosaic covenant are Christians required to obey? Listen carefully, NONE of it! We are not subject to any of the covenant laws that God gave Moses for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. But someone will say, “Pastor, I thought you said we are to keep the moral laws of God.” We are to keep those moral laws as declared in the New Covenant. So why do we follow the Ten Commandments? We do not submit ourselves to those commandments because they were given to Moses. We submit to nine of those because they are declared boundaries in the New Testament. Our obligation is to obey the commandments set forth in the New Testament. Since the holy nature of God was expressed in the Old Covenant and is also expressed in the New Covenant, there is a continuity between the two. But the Christian is not subject to the law of Moses at all. He is subject to the law of Christ as set forth in the New Testament. And the law of Christ specifically demands obedience to nine out of ten of the Ten Commandments.
Which one of the Ten Commandments is not explicitly required of Christians in the New Testament? “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:8-11).
Why does the New Testament not require that of Christians? Its fulfillment was raised to a higher level through Christ’s work in our behalf. In one sense, we live in a perpetual Sabbath because we have ceased from our own works and through faith rely on Christ’s works.
The spiritual fulfillment of this commandment is expressed in Hebrews 4:1-10: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’; 5 and again in this place: ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.’ 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
The Greek word translated “rest” in verse 9 is sabbatismos. The NIV translates it “Sabbath-rest.” It literally means “a Sabbath day’s rest” (USB Greek Dictionary) or “to keep the sabbath” (Thayer Greek Lexicon). Michael Morrison asks the question, “Why then does he [the author of Hebrews] call this a Sabbath-rest?” He then answers, “By using this word, he indicates that this is what the Sabbath pointed to. Just as the bronze snake pointed to Jesus’ crucifixion (John 3:14), and the washings pointed to forgiveness, and the sacrifices pointed to Jesus, similarly, the weekly Sabbath pointed to something spiritual: our rest through faith in Christ.”iv By resting our faith in Christ we are keeping the Sabbath as God intends it under the New Covenant.
A mistake Christians have made is to think the New Covenant simply moved the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday. We do not meet on Sunday in an effort to keep the Mosaic Sabbath on a different day. If that were the case, we are doing a terrible job of it. The Sabbath rules Moses gave were far more rigid than taking the day off and going to church. We meet on Sunday because the early church established that tradition, probably in celebration of Jesus’s resurrection on the first day of the week. But even that was not set forth as a law we must follow. We are simply given that example in Acts. For example, in 1 Cor. 16:1-3 Paul wrote, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. 3 And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem.” The implication there is that they were meeting “on the first day of the week” (Sunday).
Again, in Acts 20:7 we read, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”
That does not prove that all first-century Christians met on Sunday. It is simply an indication that the tradition was taking shape. Justin Martyr was in Rome in about 150 AD. He wrote, “On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read. . . . Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.”v It has been argued by some that Constantine changed the meeting day from Saturday to Sunday in about 300 AD. But the change clearly happened long before Constantine was even born.
There is no command in the New Testament that we meet on Sunday. The Sabbath law of Moses does not apply to Christians. Therefore, there is no command that we meet on Saturday either. Since the principle of the Sabbath is fulfilled through faith in Christ, there is no command for either day.
So why do we meet on Sunday. Church tradition has made it culturally advantageous to meet on Sunday. More people are off work and free to meet. It is a good way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every week. Humanly speaking we are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. We work during the day and rest at night. We work through the week, and rest on the weekend. Of utmost importance, we are instructed to come together to worship God and encourage one another in the Lord. Heb. 10:24: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Not only do we have a direct command like that, but we have the example of the early church to guide us. Acts 2:42 describes the core activity of the church, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” All through Acts we see the church coming together in those activities. And the epistles are full of instruction for conducting the church meetings. One non-negotiable is that we faithfully and consistently meet together as a church.
But there is no commandment in the New Testament that says it must be done on a particular day of the week. In fact, Paul declares liberty in that matter in Rom. 14:5-6, “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.” The NIV says, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (14:5).
PRINCIPLE #3: The New Covenant reinstates the MORAL laws that are rooted in God’s nature, but declares the Ceremonial ordinances fulfilled by Christ and no longer required.
For convenience, theologians divide the law of Moses into three categories: the civil ordinances that governed the nation, the ceremonial statutes that directed the worship, and the moral commands that set boundaries on ethical behavior. While the civil laws for governing the nation contain principles that may be applicable today, the rules themselves are not restated in the New Testament. Those were designed to guide the nation of Israel in her civil affairs.
In general, the moral commandments are incorporated into the New Covenant. In fact, Jesus took those to a higher level by dealing with the inner thought life as well as the external behaviors. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matt 5:21-22). “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-29). In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit comes into the believer and empowers righteousness at a deeper level. Hebrews 10:28-29 says, “Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” The idea that the New Covenant requires less moral accountability than the Old Covenant is very misguided.
PRINCIPLE #4: The CEREMONIAL statutes taught in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ and are no longer applicable in the New Testament.vi
Hebrews teaches us those ordinances and commandments were types and shadows which were fulfilled by Christ during His First Advent. That’s why we do not slaughter bulls and goats during our morning church service. Those sacrifices were fulfilled by Christ’s death on the cross. But other more subtle ordinances were also fulfilled. The Old Testament ritual cleansings foreshadowed the deeper cleansing that would come in the New Covenant.
After the Pharisees condemned Jesus’s disciples for not practicing their ceremonial washings, Jesus explained the limitation of those external ordinances. Mark 7:14-23 says, “When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!’ 17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, ‘Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?’ 20 And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”
In Colossians 2:16-17 we are instructed, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” We have talked quite a bit about the sabbaths. We are also not required to keep the Old Testament festivals. They are celebrated in other ways in the New Covenant. For example, Jesus transformed the Passover feast into the ordinance of Communion. When we partake of the Communion Table, we are celebrating Christ as our Passover. All the feasts were revelations concerning the coming Messiah.vii
The food ordinances in the Old Covenant are specifically addressed in the New Covenant as obsolete. Romans 14:17: “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The NLT says, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The Seventh Day Adventist have failed to understand the transition that Paul taught in his epistles. They have all kinds of teaching about what a person should eat based on Mosaic Old Testament instruction. The purpose of those Old Testament eating ordinances was to alert Israel to distinguish between the clean and the unclean as a spiritual principle. It also served to distinguish them from other nations as a special people called to bring Messiah into the world.viii There may have been health benefits inherent in the prohibitions, but that was not the purpose of those commandments. There is not one place where Israel is told to follow those ordinances for dietary health reasons.
How do we arrive at this New Covenant distinction between moral law and ceremonial law? It is not explicitly stated as two groups of laws within the Mosaic law. But we arrive at those categories through an inductive study of the New Testament. We are given enough information there to conclude the distinction. Moral requirements are restated, and ceremonial requirements are dismissed as types and shadows fulfilled in Christ. There is not a chapter and verse in the New Testament that explicitly states the concept of the Trinity. But an inductive study of the New Testament brings us to that conclusion. We do not keep the ceremonial ordinances because they are not reinstated in the New Covenant, and beyond that, we are told in places to not require them.
PRINCIPLE #5: Requiring adherence to the law of Moses is strongly CONDEMNED in the New Testament as a forsaking of faith in Christ.
Paul said to the Galatians, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). However, you interpret that, it cannot be good. The legalism of Judaism is a slippery slope that can ultimately take a person to hell. I’m not saying everyone treading on that slipper slope is going to hell. I am saying, it a very dangerous playground.
Some of Paul’s strongest condemnation was directed against Judaizers—those who tried to bring Christians under the Jewish laws. In Philippians 3:2 he warned, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” To the Galatians he wrote, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:6-8). He is pronouncing a curse on those who would lead Christians to come under the laws of Moses. I don’t know how anything could be more serious.
When Peter started compromising on this issue, Paul stood up to him and rebuked him for the compromise (Gal. 2:11-19). This is not just a matter of personal taste. There is some liberty taught in the New Testament that we don’t have time to explore.ix
Conclusion:
We have addressed five principles today.
(1) God relates to people through covenants. Our primary interest has been with the Old Covenant mediated by Moses and the New Covenant mediated by Christ.
(2) The Old Covenant made through Moses was superseded by the New Covenant established by Christ. Christians are not under the law of Moses at all.
(3) The ceremonial statutes taught in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ and are no longer applicable in the New Testament. We find the distinction between the moral laws reiterated in the New Covenant versus the ceremonial laws declared fulfilled by inductively studying the New Testament.
(4) The ceremonial statutes taught in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ and
are no longer applicable in the New Testament.
(5) Requiring adherence to the law of Moses is strongly condemned in the New Testament as a forsaking of faith in Christ.
Should Christians keep the law? An oversimplified answer is they should live by the moral law that is declared in both covenants. But they are not required to keep the ceremonial laws.
ENDNOTES
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Cf. Luke 5:36-39.
iii Cf. Rom. 11:6.
iv Michael Morrison, Sabbath, Circumcision, and Tithing: Which Old Testament Laws Apply to Christians (New York: Writers Club Press, 2002) 158.
v First Apology, 67 as quoted by Morrison, Sabbath, Circumcision, and Tithing, 174.
vi Many Christians are confused on this issue through teachings about the modern rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. While God has a long-term commitment to the nation of Israel, they will rebuild the temple and reinstate sacrifices in unbelief—still rejecting Jesus as Messiah. That unbelief leaves them vulnerable to Antichrist’s deception. God is not sanctioning those blood sacrifices any more than he did the sacrifices between the death of Christ and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
vii I am making broad statements here. Some of the festivals to foreshadow things to come. But that is beyond the scope of this message.
viii See Lev. 11:44-45; 20:24-26.
ix There is some justification for celebrating feasts voluntarily as long as it is done with the right mindset. Paul at times celebrated feast days.
