Understanding Christian Freedom and the Old Testament Law

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The Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Law in general, that was never given with the thought that anyone might earn heaven by obeying them all perfectly or even adequately. The covenant that God made with Israel was much bigger than just the law, just bigger than the commandments that they had to keep. [00:03:47]

The Old Testament law can also be summarized as Jesus did in Matthew chapter 22. So let me read this passage to you, Matthew 22 verses 35 through 40, where Jesus says, "Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, saying, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?'" [00:04:46]

Jesus simplified the law. He simplified the law, simplified the Ten Commandments, but this simplification doesn't eliminate the Ten Commandments; it fulfills them, showing us the heart and the desire of God for his people. The problem is that we haven't kept the two commandments, much less the ten. [00:05:27]

More importantly, we know that Jesus himself was the only one to ever keep the law of Moses perfectly. Jesus kept it perfectly in the ten, in the two, and in the whole law of Moses. Only Jesus was the one to keep it perfectly. Jesus never needed to sacrifice for his own sin. [00:06:13]

For the believer, the obedience of Jesus Christ is credited to them, and Jesus fulfilled the law on their behalf just as we previously read in Romans chapter 8. And the ceremonial and the sacrificial aspects of the law are likewise fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and we are specifically told that we are not under such law. [00:09:51]

We live in freedom in regard to the law, especially in regard to its ceremonial aspects, which are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So the law was a unified whole. If Christians are under the law in the same sense that Israel was, then we are also under the law of sacrifice, we're under the dietary laws. [00:10:48]

Though we are no longer under the law as Israel was, the Old Testament law remains a valid expression of God's heart and mind, not in its ceremonial aspects but its basic moral aspects. So an example of a moral aspect is you shall not murder. That's just as valid for the Christian today. [00:11:39]

Obedience is not legalism. Now, there are people who use legalism and calls to obedience as a cloak for it, but they're not the same thing. Hope that's helpful for you, Maria. Let me go now to the questions that have come in on the live chat beginning with a question from God Child 55. [00:17:37]

We are not under the law as Israel was, but we are under obligation to obey God in joyful consistency with who he has made us in, or I should say as, new creations in Jesus Christ. Let me say one fourth thing, Maria, before I get to the questions that have come in. [00:16:31]

For a Christian to say we should obey what God tells us to do in this book, I mean with a right understanding of the place of the law and all of that, but make no mistake about it, the Bible gives the believer in Jesus Christ, the Christian, the one who's under the new covenant of God, the Bible tells that person how to live. [00:17:04]

Keeping the commandments of Jesus does speak to our personal morality, yet when Jesus said those words in John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commandments," I think his emphasis was on the commandments that he just gave, that they should love one another, have faith in him and God the Father as demonstrations of obedience to his commandments. [00:14:43]

It's easy to think of loving Jesus as a merely sentimental or emotional thing. Now, it's wonderful when our love for Jesus has emotion and passion behind it, that's great, but it must always be connected to keeping his commandments, especially his commandments to love one another and to trust God, or it isn't love at all. [00:15:14]

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