In reply to lady fuschia's comment, I'll try to give a decent answer.
What needs to be understood is the concept of covenants. The bible is divided into two sections - the Old Testamant and the New Testament. 'Testament' probably isnt' the best word to describe it. It really should read 'Old Covenant' and 'New Covenant'.
After the nation of Israel came out of Egypt and into the Sinai desert, God instuted a covenant, or agreement with them. If they would follow His law and worship him, then he would be their God, and bless and protect them. He did not make this covenant with any other nation at the time. This covenant revolved around the law that was given to Moses. It involved the legal system, the priestly system, and the sacrificial system.
The Israelites lived (and died) by this law. It was the agreement that the nation had with God. The law itself showed what 'sin' was. God said that the reward of sin was death, but he instituted the system of 'substitutional sacrifice' to spare the people from death. A flawless animal was slaughtered in its place - its blood shed, and its body burnt on the altar. This death 'substituted' the death of the sinner.
Now skip forward about 2,000 years or so.
God sends his son, Jesus. (Actually, his name should really be more like 'Joshua' - Yehoshua, or Yeshua, which means 'the Lord saves').
Jesus grows up and lives a supposedly sinless life. At age 30 he is baptised by John the Baptist, and the spirit of the Lord comes to rest upon him. From there he goes out into the countryside, teaching and performing miracles. He teaches about God's ways, and begins teaching past the law - into the principles behind it. He goes past the 'deeds' issue and digs into the 'attitudes' side of things.
After 3 1/2 years of teaching, he is arrested by the priests and brought before the Romans as a heretic and a blasphemer. They pressure the Romans into executing Jesus.
Jesus - a sinless man - dies. God takes the sin of the world - past, present and future - and puts it on his shoulders. He takes the sin of the world, and serves as a substitute for every person. He is the perfect sacrifice - he willingly gave up his life, and willingly took our sin. He substitutes himself for us, and takes the punishment for every sin we will ever commit - one sacrifice for all sin.
Because of this, the sacrificial system is made redundant. His sacrifice paid for all sin, so there is no need to slaughter animals anymore.
When he died and rose again, he made the 'Old Covenant' obsolete, and instuted a new one - the covenant of Grace. Now we are saved by grace, not by the law. We do not need to fulfil the law in order to have salvation. Our salvation comes through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus. No longer is the law death to us, because Jesus' sacrifice fulfilled that - he died every death for every sin in the world.
This is where the "New Covenant", or New Testament comes in. The old covenant was done away with - it was fulfilled, not cancelled. Just as fulfilling the terms of an agreement completes that agreement, so Jesus fulfilling the law completed it.
We no longer live by the Law of Moses - we live by the law of Grace and the commandments that Jesus and God handed down when he instituted the New Covenant. The Law of Moses is still useful, because as the Apostle Paul wrote - it shows us what sin is. However, the law was about actions. The covenant of grace is about attitudes of the heart. Jesus taught that if the attitudes are right, the actions will follow.
There are some Christians who believe that we still need to follow the commandments of the Law, and to a degree that is true. I believe that if our hearts and our attitudes are right, we will automatically fulfill what the Law required.
Paul said that if the 'Gentiles', who did not have the Law, did the right thing and loved God, then they were a law unto themselves. They could be just as righteous with God, even without the Law of Moses.
So to answer the question, some laws no longer apply to us, and hence we do not follow them. In fact, you could say that the Law of Moses doesn't apply to us at all, but since obeying some of the laws are natural functions of a right attitude, then we follow it out of love for God, and that right attitude.
I hope this hasn't been too confusing...
Comments
No, this is exactly what I was wondering about, thankyou.
by Anonymous on March 12th, 2006
The question did not mention OT vs. NT rules. There are clearly rules in the NT Christians do not follow, e.g., 1 Corinthians 11. Your answer does not answer the question.
by Flynn444 on October 18th, 2006
I think "evading the question (however noisily)" covers the ground admirably.
by canoeguide on August 24th, 2010