By: Matthew D. Dyer
“If ye love me, keep my commandments”
– Jesus in John 14:15
It is commonly taught that God’s law is not for us today, and that Jesus “did away” with the law upon the cross at his death, burial, and resurrection. If this is true, then Jesus would basically be telling his followers to live a life of anarchy [1] in the New Covenant age, and that there is no right or wrong. But this way of thinking contradicts what is spoken in Scripture. For example, in Jeremiah 31:31-33 concerning the future New Covenant this is said:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
According to the prophet Jeremiah (and the author of Hebrews, who quoted this prophecy in Hebrews 8:8-10), the New Covenant consists of God’s laws written on the hearts and minds of His people, for the purpose of putting them into daily practice in their lives and within their communities. It is impossible to be a New Covenant Christian without pursuing God’s laws both individually and societally.
In order to understand what happened at the cross with the law, one must understand the Old Testament. Which is sadly also overlooked in many Churches today. In the Old Testament God made a conditional covenant at Mt. Sinai[2] with the Israelites known as the “Mosaic Covenant”[3] or the Old Covenant. This is not to be confused with the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant made with Abraham and his descendants in Genesis chapter 17. The Mosaic Covenant was not unlike a marriage covenant between God Almighty and the Israelite people, and within this covenant were certain laws the Israelites had to follow concerning sacrifices, rituals, and the “dos and don’ts” of daily living as individuals and a nation. Jesus came to die upon the cross to fulfill (make complete) the Old Covenant in order for the New Covenant to begin. Jesus, through His perfect blood atoning sacrifice upon the cross fulfilled all those blood sacrifices of animals that were connected with the Mosaic Covenant.
The confusion often happens when Christians understand that the Mosaic Covenant was fulfilled at the cross, but they also believe God’s laws, statutes, and judgements were fulfilled at that time as well. This is incorrect. The laws, statutes, and judgments were in existence way before Mt. Sinai, and those laws were added to the contract/covenant given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. For example, we see in Genesis chapter 4 that Cain murdered his brother Abel and lied about it to God. If Cain thought that murdering his brother wasn’t wrong, why did he lie? Also, why did God curse him if Cain didn’t know any better. It’s because he did know better. Now some may say: “why didn’t God sentence Cain to death for murdering his brother?” This is a good question; the reason God didn’t is because there were not two or three witnesses against Cain in accordance with God’s law in Deuteronomy 17:6.
Long before Mt. Sinai, God caused a great flood to come upon the land of Noah’s day because of “the wickedness[4] of man.”[5] How would man know what wickedness was if there was never a law before Mt. Sinai? If we read in Genesis 7:1-2 we even see the mention of clean and unclean animals before Mt. Sinai. In Genesis 18:20 concerning Sodom[6] and Gomorrah, it says the Lord destroyed them because their “their sin is very grievous.” In Genesis 26:5 the Lord says that Abraham “obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” If the laws, statutes, and judgements of God didn’t exist until Mt. Sinai then what was the wickedness before the flood? What law did Sodom and Gomorrah transgress? And what law did Abraham obey?The answer is God’s law, which has been around since the beginning and was added to the Mosaic Covenant at Mt. Sinai.
If we read Galatians 3:16-19 the apostle Paul identifies the law that was fulfilled (made complete) at the cross as the law that was added four hundred and thirty years after the promises were given to Abraham, which was the Mosaic Covenant. This means only what law that was added at Mt. Sinai was made complete under the New Covenant. Any law in existence prior to the Mosaic Covenant cannot be the law Jesus made complete at the cross.
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
The Lord doesn’t change his morality between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant in Scripture. If the Lord thought murder was immoral and wrong back in the days of Cain, and He thought it was wrong during the days of John the Baptist, then He also believes it is wrong in the New Covenant age as well. The same goes for homosexuality, adultery, and all other laws found in the Ten Commandments, and their respected statutes, and judgements explained in the Old Testament that existed and were added to the Mosaic Covenant. Our God isn’t bipolar, He is the “same yesterday, and today, and forever.”[7]
Jesus the Christ did not die upon the cross and rise from the grave three days later so we could transgress His law freely all our lives and live like the heathen. He died upon the cross to fulfill the Mosaic Covenant which God’s people failed to keep, and to redeem (buy-back) His people and save them from their sins. None of this is to say or teach that Christians in the New Covenant are under the law as the Israelites during the Mosaic Covenant. The Bible is very clear that New Covenant Christians are not under the law, but under the grace of God[8]. We are no longer required to perfectly keep all of God’s laws for righteousness sake as were the Israelites under the Mosaic Covenant. Jesus Christ is our righteousness through His blood shed upon the cross, but that doesn’t mean we reject His law and live a sinful life. It was Jesus who said “If ye love me, keep my commandments” in John 14:15. Jesus being God in the flesh[9], that would include what we call God’s laws. If you are a professing Christian and you believe the Bible is true, yet you reject God’s laws and replace them with laws of man then you do not love Jesus the way Jesus has instructed us to love Him. The same goes for the professing Christian Pastors who stand behind the pulpit and refuses to teach their flock to follow God’s laws and ignores sin in his Church and in the public square because it is not politically correct. We as God’s people must reject this false teaching and teach our children to follow the Lord again in order to make our future a blessed one. In the book of 2nd Chronicles in chapter 7, verse 14, God’s people were instructed:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
God didn’t say He would erase the law from existence. He said if God’s people would humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways (sinful ways), then He would hear those prayers and forgive our sins. God doesn’t forgive a people who haven’t repented from their sinful ways. This is the judgement we see in our lives, families, nation, and our Parrish. We can’t expect for God to heal our land if we are sitting around ignoring sin in our lives, ignoring sin in our community, ignoring sin in our nation. We must reject sin and promote within one another the message found in 2nd Chronicles 7:14 and the rest of our Bible.
[1] Webster 1828 dictionary defines anarchy as: “a state of society, when there is no law or supreme power, or when the laws are not efficient, and individuals do what they please with impunity”
[2] Please read the book of Exodus and Deuteronomy for more history of these events.
[3] It is often called this because Moses was the mediator of that Covenant.
[4] Webster 1828 dictionary defines wickedness as “Departure from the rules of the divine law; evil disposition or practices; immorality; crime; sin; sinfulness; corrupt manners wickedness generally signifies evil practices.”
[5] Genesis 6:5
[6] We get our English word “Sodomy” from the city of Sodom in the Bible, because the main sin of those two cities was Homosexuality.
[7] Hebrews 13:8
[8] Romans 6:14
[9] For more information on Jesus being God, please read Is Jesus God? or a god? Scriptural Proof That Jesus Is God In The Flesh by Matthew D. Dyer at christianamericaministries.org.
Christian America Ministries 