Do Christians Have To Follow The Old Testament?

[Abdicate]

This can get a little confusing but note that in the teaching of Jesus, the Law was not revoked nor repealed but fulfilled. (Matt. 5:17.) Under the gospel of Christ, murder, adultery, and dishonesty are still prohibited, and the formal requirements of the Law are still essentially in place; but the demand of the Law of Moses has been expanded, has been filled to its fullest extent. Where there is no hatred or greed, there can be no murder; where there is no lust, there can be no adultery. With the coming of Christ, the ethical portion of the Law had not been abolished; it had been caught up by, included in, and expanded to a broader application its intention, its potential as an ethical standard, had been fulfilled.

It is sad when people can't understand what you wrote. Jesus fulfilled the law in the flesh, something we cannot do. The Ten Commandments (really 613) were not able to be performed. They were only to point out that God's grace is the only way. The law could never give you the power to keep it and yet demanded perfection it could not give. But God's love toward us is so powerful that He Himself, lived the perfect God-pleasing life only He could do, and then turned around and took our sins, our guilt, our punishment, and He gave us His innocence. And by that He also gave us the ability to use Him to fulfill His will by giving us His love for others. Praise God Almighty!!!

 

[christianbacktobasics]

Good question. Mosaic Law are the laws passed onto the Jewish people through Moses -- these are laws like the dietary laws, hygienic laws, marital laws (eating kosher, divorce from the wife, washing one's hands required before meals, etc). Divine law are the laws that still existed during the Old Covenant but continued on too as they were laws directly from God -- only worshiping God, not murdering because of the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage as being of a covenant of God, etc.

You'll find that we aren't bound by Mosaic law anymore as they are expressed in Romans 7:6, Hebrews 8:13 -- but most important, in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:28) Jesus uses the phase "You have heard it said that... but I say to you..." many times. He proceeds to give a number of examples of how the new law is harder and a higher standard than the old. For example, He replaces the Mosaic Law of "eye for an eye" with "turn the other cheek." It is clear from this that Jesus is entirely prepared to replace and expand upon the Mosaic Law.

That's a great explanation Lysander and well said. The OT was a shadow of things to come and inferior to the teachings of Jesus but the OT proves the new in perfect harmony giving us clear and solid teachings. I think many Christians still struggle to understand that man could never live by the perfect law of God (except Jesus of course) due to the indwelling sin, a full view of Romans 5-8 is where Paul explains this fully and man when you have the revelation, that you are no longer under law but under grace, that's when the true freedom and liberty comes to serve Jesus Christ as a friend and not a slave! Blessings and again, well put!

 

[RAY QUEST]

i would to say that this is very important topic
according to me OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW TESTAMENT are made whole through LORD CHRIST sacrifice for our sins on the cross and new and old testaments are equally important