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Jesus taught we are to keep the ten Commandments. But do we keep all the laws God gave Moses? Which are to be kept
and how do we differentiate between them?
We can find this information from the apostle Paul.
Paul was accused of no longer
believing in keeping the law of Moses. At Jerusalem, he was about to face a crowd of Jewish people who heard he was teaching
the law had become irrelevant.
So,
he had to go through a purification ritual just to show he believed the law was still important and relevant for the Jewish
people.
Yet the non-Jewish people were
told they did not have to keep most of the law of Moses, only certain parts of it...
... although Moses gave a rule that both Jews and gentiles were to keep the law.
Previously in Acts, the gentiles were told which laws they were
to keep. These laws were the same laws as listed in Acts 21, "pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from thingsstrangled, and from blood.."
But
notice how the gentiles did learn Mosaic law and were instructed to keep it (v. 21).
The gentile converts previously practiced
a false religion which advocated idol worship and with it a sinful nature before becoming converts to Christianity. For
them, it was difficult enough just to learn and keep the most important laws of Moses. New to the faith, they needed to
first learn what sin was and how to stop doing it.
Putting too much law on them could have turned then away from the new found
faith in Christ because it would have been too much of a burden to keep.
It could have caused them to give up, lose their faith, and go
back to worshipping false idols.
The Jewish people were raised to keep the Mosaic law and still they had a difficult
time keeping all those rules. If it had been possible to keep all of them, then certainly someone would have succeeded
in doing so.
Yet Paul says...
Everyone needs redemption
from sin.
What we learn from this is that the early Jewish Christians did not want to burden the early
gentile converts with extra laws so they taught them what was most import to obey from the Mosaic law.
But this does
not mean we no longer keep the law whether, Jew or gentile. In fact, Paul made it clear we are to keep it.
This leads us back to the same question. If Christ fulfilled
the law, which He did,...
...then how do we keep the law?
We can find the answer by categorizing the Moses laws and showing
Scripture examples of each.
There are three types of laws:
moral laws...
civil laws...
...and sacrificial laws.
The moral laws begin
with the ten Commandments. Other moral laws (such as the Leviticus example) extend from and help explain how to keep these
Commandments.
Jesus taught we are to keep these Commandments as acts of love to God and man (Matt. 22:37-39).
Through Christ's
atonement, the moral law is both kept and fulfilled: as we have sinned, we have also found salvation by His blood "through faith."
The
establishment of sin and later atonement given in place of it can be understood by the law of "cause and effect."
Cause:
sin.
Effect: guilt from disobedience of law, condemnation, separation from God.
Cause: Christ shed His blood for remission of sin.
Effect:
atonement, salvation, eternal life with God.
The civil laws governed the nation
of Israel during Moses' time. They may or may not change, depending on the country and its time span in history.
However, the
civil laws of any country should blend in with the moral laws which teach how to enact righteous judgment...
mercy...
and remember
to help the less fortunate.
Sacrificial laws were fulfilled by Christ as the passover Lamb sent from God
and need not be practiced as they once were in the Mosaic law.
Because Jesus is the passover lamb of God, the prophetic
holy days (Lev. 23) tell us what Jesus did and will do. They may still be kept as feasts and sacred days if we choose to
practice them.
But we shouldn't judge others for it.
Keeping them is a way of remembering and celebrating what the Lord did for us.
But they are best kept by remembering
to practice sincerity and truth.
Qualities such as honesty and sincerity are
what the Lord wants most from us and are more important to practice than keeping holy days ritual.
Remembering that Christ is the atoning sacrificial
Lamb, we can understand what is meant by "under the law to Christ."
It means He alone is our Savior who could save
us from our sinful nature.
We keep the law for Him and because of Him.
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Further
Scripture study:
Romans 3
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this
time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one
God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Acts 21
15 And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.
16 There
went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we
should lodge.
17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
18 And the day following Paul went in with us
unto James; and all the elders were present.
19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought
among the Gentiles by his ministry.
20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how
many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
21 And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest
all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk
after the customs.
22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
23 Do therefore
this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges
with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing;
but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded
that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled,
and from fornication.
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify theaccomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
Ephesians 2
8 For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
John
14
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye
know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while,
and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father,
and ye in me, and I in you.
James 2
8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
Luke 16
16 The
law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
17 And it is
easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Matthew 5
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if
ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what
do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Revelation
21
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it
were transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23 And the city
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24 And
the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into
it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And they shall bring the glory and
honour of the nations into it.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Matthew 7
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it
came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes.
Hebrews 9
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 10
1 For the law having a shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually
make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should
have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then
said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Romans 6
1 What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye
not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For
he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but
in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield
ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under
the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not,
that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity;
even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from
righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now
being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages
of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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