Why Don't Christians Follow the Law of Moses?

Aren't we subject to God's Law?

In my last article, I talked about Psalm 1 and David’s description of a man who “delights in the law of the Lord” as being “blessed.” I described one situation where I actually delighted in the law of the USA and California when I was a college student. If you haven’t read it, you might want to do that before reading this.

A Christian might read those verses in Psalm 1 and say, “But according to Paul in the book of Romans, Christians aren’t bound by the Law of Moses, so do we need to follow it or delight in it?” That’s a great question! The Law of Moses includes circumcision for males and various dietary laws that prohibit consumption of pork and other animals, for instance. Most Christians don’t observe those laws. Why are we not required to? Another great question is whether Christians are bound by any Law whatsoever. We have freedom in Christ, right?

Yes, but there’s a little more to it than that. Let’s dive into it.

Covenants and Law

First, it’s important to understand that God’s Law is very intertwined with the idea of a covenant. While the practices around covenants in the ancient Middle East are deep and varied, for our purposes it’s easiest to think of a covenant as a blood oath. If that doesn’t mean much, think of it as a very strong contract, where the parties are bonded together through the oath and the terms of the contract are intergenerational.

There are many covenants in the Bible made by God and various other parties. For instance:

• God makes a covenant with Noah: Genesis 6:18 (ESV): “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”

• God makes his first covenant with Abram: Genesis 15:1-21. God then expands the covenant with Abram through circumcision and renames him Abraham: Genesis 17:1-27.

• God makes a covenant with Abraham regarding Abraham’s descendants: Genesis 22:15-18 (ESV): “And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

• God makes a covenant with Moses and the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai: Exodus 19. Before they leave Mt. Sinai, the people make a golden calf (Exodus 32) and God must renew that covenant (Exodus 34). God writes the 10 Commandments on the stone tablets to start to codify the Law.

• God renews the covenant again with Moses and the people of Israel when they are in Moab: Deuteronomy 29.

• God makes a covenant with David: 2 Samuel 7:5-16, 2 Samuel 23:5.

• Finally, God, through the prophet Jeremiah, promises the coming of a new covenant: Jeremiah 31:31-34. Christians believe this refers to the covenant established by Jesus (Luke 20:20, 1 Cor 11:25) with his death on the cross.

In each of these covenants, God promises blessings if the other party obeys him. In many cases, the requirements of the covenant are not written down and just exist orally (e.g., Noah, Abram/Abraham, and David). In the case of Moses and the people of Israel who escaped Egypt, God gives them the Law to govern the covenant, first in the form of the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments and, shortly thereafter, the Law of Moses written in the Pentateuch.

In the cases of the oral agreements, God usually says something to the effect of, “If you obey what I have commanded, then I will …” bless you or your descendants in some way.

Whether written or oral, every time God makes a covenant, he requires obedience to his commands. In the case of the Mosaic Covenant, the people must keep the Law in order to receive the blessings that God promised. If they do not, they will be cursed and God will bring about calamity. The Old Testament is largely a recording of Israel’s failure to keep the Law and trust in the Lord and all the trouble that results from that failure.

Are Christians Subject to the Law of Moses?

With that as background, let’s try to answer the fundamental question this article targets: Are Christians subject to the Law of Moses? Do we need to follow it?

The short answer is No, we are not subject to the Law of Moses, for two reasons:

1. Most Christians are gentiles, not Jews. Only the Jews are party to the Mosaic covenant between God and Israel that was governed by the Mosaic Law.

2. Regardless, Jesus fulfilled the Law so that those who accept his free gift of grace don’t have to. The Jews showed repeatedly through history that nobody can keep the Law, so Jesus came to fulfill the Law and take our punishment for being unable to do so. That is the foundation of the gospel message.

Does that mean the Ten Commandments and other notable pieces of the Law are obsolete or worthless?

No, not at all. There is a subset of Mosaic Law that theologians call the “Moral Law.”It’s best exemplified by the Ten Commandments. When we study the Moral Law, we can see God’s character and behavioral standards that he expects of us. But we are not required to follow the whole Law of Moses. You don’t need to be circumcised, for instance. You can eat bacon (Hallelujah!). You don’t have to avoid a variety of activities and situations mentioned in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that make you ceremonially “unclean” under Mosaic Law, and you are not required to make the sacrificial offerings to make yourself clean again.

Both Peter and Paul made this clear in several places:

1. Peter’s vision of a sheet with unclean animals being lowered from heaven and God’s command to kill and eat in Acts 10.

2. Peter’s interaction with Cornelius in Acts 11 that would have made Peter unclean as a Jew since he entered the house of a gentile and ate with him.

3. Paul’s argument with the Judaizers about whether Christians must be circumcised or not. This eventually leads to the Jerusalem Council, recorded in Acts 15, where Peter and Paul both say that the gentile Christians don’t need to be circumcised or keep the Law of Moses.

4. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul describes how he uses his freedom to try to win everybody to Christ (ESV): “¹⁹ For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

So, does that mean that as Christians there are no rules? Can we do anything we please?

No, not at all. As a Christian, you’re party to a New Covenant, a far better covenant, and that covenant is governed by a new law, something Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 9:21, above, something Paul calls the “Law of Christ.”

So, let me be very clear that being a Christian does not give you license to do whatever you want. Far from it, in fact. In every way, the Law of Christ is even more difficult for any sinful human to follow than is the Law of Moses. Fortunately, we have grace.

We’ll take a deeper look at the Law of Christ next time.

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