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What is the relationship of Christ to the Law of Moses?...

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Christ is the end, the termination, the superseding, the completion, the goal, the consummation, of the Law of Moses bringing righteousness to everyone who believes in Him.

From the context it appears that Paul means when we come to Christ we no longer are obligated to observe the Law of Moses. This interpretation agrees with Paul’s statements in the seventh chapter of Romans:

Wherefore, my brothers, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God (Romans 7:4).

However, there is more to the issue than the simple idea that when we come to the Lord we can forget about the eternal moral law of God. This is the current belief and it has destroyed the moral character of the Christian people.

Notice the following:

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 [Torah] in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:33).

Jeremiah here is prophesying of the coming of the new covenant, the Christian covenant. Think about these words:

"I will put my law [Torah] in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." The Torah, the term used to describe the new covenant, refers to the Books of Moses in particular, and also to God’s eternal moral law.

There certainly is a very great difference between bringing an end to the Law, and putting the Law, the Torah, in our inner parts and writing it in our hearts.

The Torah written in our mind and heart is not the letter of the Law of Moses but the eternal moral law of God. In one sense, when we receive Christ we no longer are under the Law of Moses. But in another sense we are more fully involved with the Torahthan is true of any non-Christian Jew.

To not understand this is to miss completely Paul’s explanation of the grace of God under the new covenant. It is true that as soon as we receive Christ we no longer are bound by the statutes of the Law of Moses. But the Law is not done away; rather, it is established for eternity in our heart.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. This is to say, He Himself is the Law. He who gave the Law is the Law. There is no higher form of the Law of God than the Lord Himself. The holy city, the new Jerusalem, is the highest form of the Law of God because it is the Wife of the Lamb; it is she who is one with Him.

Let us consider, for example, the ordinance of the Sabbath day, which is part of the Ten Commandments. The observance of the Sabbath day includes not working at our daily employment. The Jews of today, missing God’s point entirely, observe the Sabbath day by not turning on a light switch or not riding in an elevator.

Under Moses, the meaning of the Sabbath day is that we cease from our own works, our own pleasures, and seek the pleasure of the Lord. We are to do this once each week—on Saturday.

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words (Isaiah 58:13).

The Lord Jesus observed the above commandment seven days of every week, twenty-four hours of every day. He never sought His own pleasure. He always honoured God. He did not speak His own words, travel His own path, or perform His own works.

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (John 14:10).

As Christ is formed in us, we too enter the rest of God and cease from our own works, seeking God’s will and pleasure in every detail of our life..

Yes, we are free from the statutes of the Law of Moses.

No, the Law of God has not come to an end. It is created in us until we fulfil in our personalities the highest possible interpretation of the Law, the Torah.



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