"Correctly Handling The Word of Truth"

       
2 Timothy 2:15

When we consider the Old Covenant or The Law of Moses we need to consider what laws were included in it?

The Old Testament record says: "So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." (Exodus 34:28).

We also read, "So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone." (Deuteronomy 4:13).

The people at the base of Mt. Sinai agreed to obey all the laws of God as we read Exodus chapters 20-23.

The first covenant, or Testament, included directions for building the tabernacle, the altar, and for the Levitical priests in offering the animal sacrifices. (Exodus chapters 25-31). 

These additional laws were part of the covenant that God made with Israel and that covenant was then ratified, or given formal consent, in the offering of that blood (Exodus 24:6-8).

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He nailed this entire law to the cross taking it out of the way and declaring it obsolete. (Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:14-16)

It no longer has legal or binding authority today and has been replaced with the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13).

Paul deals with this issue in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and also shows us that the Ten Commandments were done away. In verse 3 Paul makes a clear reference to the Ten Commandments when referring to the tables of stone.

In verse 6 he begins to contrast the New Covenant with "the letter," which in context means the letter of the old covenant.

Then in verse 7 and 8 he talks about the law being engraved on stones as well as the shining of Moses' face:

"But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?" (NKJV)

The first or old covenant was certainly glorious, but as scripture tells us, it was "fading away" and it was being replaced by a covenant much more glorious; the New Covenant that came by Christ's death and resurrection.

Paul went on to say, "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Rom. 8:3-4).

God never intended for the Law of Moses or the First Covenant to make a person righteous. The Law could not do this because it was weak in that it could not forgive and remove sins.
(Read Hebrews 10:1-4)

God planned before the foundation of the world to save mankind by way of His Son. (1 Pet. 1:17-21)

By our Lord's death on the cross, Christ has redeemed us from eternal death and condemnation, which is the penalty of a broken law. (Galatians 3:13; Romans 10:4)

In another revealing discussion of law Paul said:  "Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.  Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God." 
(Romans 7:1-4).

The Scriptures are always consistent; never contradictory. New Testament Christians are not required to obey the Law of Moses.
Even though it was glorious throughout the Mosaic Dispensation, it has been superseded by Jesus Christ and His New Covenant.

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him," 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 
40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)

God bless until our next time...