“A New Day”

Thursday, December 29, 2016

I know as believers under the New Covenant that we are no longer bound by the law.  But, besides making disciples of all the nations, I think our Jesus-given mission is to live a holy life… obeying, as well as we can, the law out of love and appreciation for our salvation and to generally set the example of a life given to Christ.  With that said, Jesus told us that the greatest command was to love God with all we have and to love others as ourselves.  That command given by Jesus would closely fulfill the Ten Commandments.  But what about Levitical laws?  What commands outside of the Ten do we need to observe?  Where is the line if there is one?  And, for that matter, is any command in the Old Testament outside of the Ten important?  Please don't get me wrong, I know we are saved by grace, and no matter how many laws we obey, we could never work our way to salvation.  I am not trying to save myself; I just want to know what commands we are advised to obey in the Old Testament.  I just want to give my entire life to God, but I don't know where to start.  What commands does God still like to see from us under the New Covenant?

Sincerely,
A New Believer

Dear A New Believer,

We don’t need to obey any of the Old Testament laws unless they are repeated in the New Testament.  Even the Ten Commandments no longer apply… except for the fact that nine out of the ten are repeated in the New Testament (the only one left out is to “keep the Sabbath holy” – see “The Nine Commandments” post for further details).

The Old Testament was a law given to the nation of Israel (Lev 26:46).  Though many of those laws were appropriate to reiterate in the New Testament (i.e. laws against murder, idolatry, etc.), the Old Testament has been put away by the blood of Christ (Col 2:14).  Today, we look to the Old Testament for examples of godly (and ungodly) people.  Paul says that the books of the Old Testament are written down as examples for us (1 Cor 10:6-11).  We don’t follow the same rules as David, Isaiah, Daniel, etc., but we can learn from their lives and follow their examples.

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