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God communicates
with His people through divine covenants,
and the commandments God wants us to keep
can change with each covenant. Each covenant
has its own legal code, or set of laws that
govern it.
The Mosaic Covenant that
God made with Israel on Mount Sinai was one
of several ethical codes of conduct that God
has made with people throughout human
history. That particular code had 613
commandments and stipulations that was meant
to govern every aspect of Hebrew life.
[1] There
have been other codes as well. Adam lived
under certain laws, the sum of which may be
called the code of Adam, or the code of
Eden. Noah was expected to obey the laws of
God given to him, so there was a Noahic
code. We know that God gave Abraham
additional commandments to follow that may
be called the Abrahamic code (Gen. 26:5).
And today we live under the legal code Paul
called the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2;
1 Cor. 9:19-23), or the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ (Rom. 8:1-11). This code contains
the hundreds of specific commandments
recorded in the New Testament.
[2]
The
Mosaic Law was done away in its entirety as
a code. It has been replaced by the law of
Christ.
“The law of Christ
contains some new commands (1 Tim. 4:4),
some old ones (Rom. 13:9), and some
revised ones (Rom. 13:4, with reference to
capital punishment). All the laws of the
Mosaic code have been abolished because the
code has. Specific Mosaic commands that are
part of the Christian code appear there not
as a continuation of part of the Mosaic Law,
or in order to be observed in some deeper
sense, but as specifically incorporated into
that code, and as such they are binding on
believers today. A particular law that was
part of the Mosaic code is done away; that
same law, if part of the law of Christ, is
binding. It is necessary to say both truths
in order not to have to resort to a
nonliteral interpretation of 2 Corinthians 3
or Hebrews 7 and in order not to have to
resort to some sort of theological
contortions to retain part of the Mosaic
Law.
An illustration of this idea: As
children mature, different codes are
instituted by their parents. Some of the
same commandments may appear in those
different codes. But when the new code
becomes operative, the old one is done away.
So, it was with the Mosaic Law when
our Lord became the end of the Law for
righteousness to all who believe.”
[3]
There
have been three basic periods in human
history (Hebrews 1:1-2).
After the
fall God gave the law of animal sacrifices
and now he has abolished it. What does this
prove? The laws that God gives and what God
requires of mankind has changed over the
years because of the different covenants
God’s people are under.
1. From Adam to Moses: They had animal
sacrifices (Gen. 8:20-21). After the flood they could eat
any living creature (Gen. 9:1-4), and after Abraham they
had circumcision (Gen. 17:10). They had no Levitical
priesthood, no Sabbaths or Holy days, no
baptism, no Lord’s Supper, and no permanent
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
2.
From Moses to Christ’s death: They had animal
sacrifices, circumcision, the Levitical
priesthood, the Sabbaths and Holy days, and
they had new dietary restrictions recorded in
Leviticus 11. They had no baptism,
no Lord’s Supper, and no permanent indwelling
of the Holy Spirit.
3. From Christ’s
death to
the Second Coming: Under the New Covenant,
we have baptism, the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:38-41;
Col. 2:12; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-25), and we
can eat any living creature (Acts 10:9-16; 15:1-20;
Rom. 14:1-23; Col. 2:16-17). We have no
circumcision, no Levitical priesthood, no
Sabbaths or Holy days, and no animal
sacrifices (Acts 15:1-28; Col. 2:14-17;
Gal. 4:10-11; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18).
And we have the permanent indwelling
of the Holy Spirit (John 14:10-23;
Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; Rom. 8:9-17;
1 Cor. 2:10-14; 2 Cor. 1:21-22).
The Old Covenant
Law was only meant to be a temporary
guardian until Christ came. When He died, He
brought the Old Covenant to an end and gave
us the New Covenant to live by (Gal. 3:24-25; Rom. 7:1-7; 10:4;
2 Cor. 3:1-11; Heb. 7:12, 18; 8:13; 9:1-4; 10:1-10).
God’s laws change depending on what covenant you live under.
If a Christian wants to know what laws they
are expected to follow they have to read the
terms for the New Covenant, not one of the
covenants that came before it.
A Covenant is a legally binding
agreement, a contract. Just like today, each
covenant has special rules that must be
followed. The First, or Old Covenant was
written down in the first five books of the
Bible and given through
Moses. The terms for the New Covenant were given to
the Apostles and Prophets who wrote them
down in the
twenty-seven New Testament Gospels and
Epistles.
The Mosaic Covenant had
613 laws designed to govern every area of
Hebrew life. The New Covenant has its own
law called the Law of Christ and is based on
the principles of loving God and your fellow
man. One list of New Covenant
laws totals 1,050.
[4]
The number of laws
is not as important as the manner in which
we are to keep them. Rather than memorize
all those laws we are to love and follow
Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior. When we
focus on him we will naturally strive to do
the right thing out of love. Rather than
being law-focused, we need to be Spirit-led.
References:
1. Drawn
from:
The End of the Law: from Basic Theology,
by Charles C. Ryrie.
2. See:
Christians are told to live by the law of
Christ.
3. See:
The End of the Law: from Basic Theology,
by Charles C. Ryrie.
4. See:
The 1,050 New Testament Commands/
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