Articles
Which Law?
In the Bible we read of God giving His law (commands and ordinances) to people regarding how to please Him. In the very beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, they had one law: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17 - NKJV). Adam and Eve broke that law and paid the consequences God said they would pay (Genesis 3:16-24).
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Sin is a transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4; Romans 4:15). People have lived under God's law from the beginning. After the sin in the garden, God communicated to people through the fathers. This is commonly called the Patriarchal Law and is seen exercised throughout the book of Genesis in the Bible.
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When God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage He gave them a written law through His prophet Moses. This is commonly called the Mosaical Law. The ten commandments were put on tablets of stone (Exodus 24:12) and the rest of the ordinances were given orally for Moses to write down for the people (Exodus 19:1-6). The book of Leviticus contains much of the ordinances given through Moses. This law was given only to the children of Israel. Everyone else, not of the Israelites, were still under the moral law that had been handed down through the fathers and kept in the hearts of people (Romans 2:14-15).
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When Christ died on the cross He brought redemption to all people, Jew and Gentile alike, and gave them a new covenant (consider Hebrews 8:7-13). It is the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). That is the law of God that we are under today. Consider this point from what the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
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"Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh -- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands -- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:11-18; NKJV).
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This is why we no longer observe the ceremonial feast days, sacrifices, forms of worship and a priesthood found in the Old Testament. Christians (follows of Christ) are found in the New Testament (Acts 11:26) and that is our authority for how we serve God today, through His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ. Jesus is our only High Priest for sacrifices (Hebrews 4:14-16), the only mediator between God and humanity for prayer unto God (1 Timothy 2:5) and the only Lawgiver for us to follow today (Matthew 28:18; James 4:12).
