of the new covenant?
By God's grace this piece will answer this question and many more.
Looking at the Laws of the Old testament we can categorise them into:
1. The Moral Laws
2. The Civil Laws
3. The Ceremonial Laws
THE MORAL LAWS
The Moral Laws are those Laws that are concerned with the principles
of right and wrong behaviour.
They are given in order to make sure that the people are upright,
decent, virtuous and ethical.
The ten commandments falls under the Moral Laws[Exodus20:1-17].
Other examples of Moral Laws can be found in Leviticus19:1-37.
The question now is: 'Are these Moral Laws[not committing adultery,
lying, cheating stealing, etc] still applicable to us as followers of
Christ?'.
Yes, because Christ made reference to them in his "Sermon on the
Mount" [Matt.5:21-22, 27-28, 33-34].
He emphasised on the Moral Laws and even made them more firm, likewise
the early apostles in their various epistles.
Therefore, a believer of the New Covenant is not expected to tell
lies, cheat, fornicate or go contrary to the Laws of Morality and
virtue.
THE CIVIL LAWS
These are Laws peculiar to the governing of a nation. They are
constitutional and the judges are to make sure punishments are meted
out to offenders.
Some of these Civil Laws are also Moral Laws[E.g The Law against
Adultery falls both under the Moral and Civil Law].
Some of these Civil Laws can be found in Dueteronomy chapter 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Some include: Laws concerning restitution, dressing, retaliation(An
eye for an eye), Idolatry, divorce, cutting off hands and stoning to
death.
Once again, Are born again Christians(followers of Christ) to keep the
Civil Laws?.
In Mtt.5:31-32, Mtt.19:8-9, Mtt.5:38, Mtt.5:44-47, John8:5, our Lord
Jesus Christ spoke against some barbaric and cruel Civil Laws like
divorce, retaliation, killing of enemies and stoning to death, thus
discouraging their continuity.
Every other Civil Law, so long as they are not cruel, retaliatory,
hateful, malicious, uncharitable and oppressive are still relevant.
[You remember how zaccheaus promised to restore(restitute) all he had
taken by false accusation, when he met Jesus[Luke19:8].
That was a demand of the Civil Law[Restitution] which was also
practiced under the New Covenant.
The Civil Laws were not meant for the Jews only to keep. As we can see
in Acts15:20, The early apostles commanded the gentiles(non-jews), who
had recieved Jesus to keep some of the Civil Laws such as: Abstinence
from Idols and fornication, as well as other Laws concerning strangled
meat and blood.
THE CEREMONIAL LAWS
These are sacraments, rituals and conventional practices of the Old
Testament which brought justification, forgiveness, purity, cleansing
and deliverance from the punishments of sin. The ceremonial practices
points us to Christ.
Some of these practices includes:
-The feast of passover and the feast of harvest of the first fruit
offering, which was set aside to mark the Liberation of the Jews from
slavery.[Exodus13:1-15] [Now replaced with The Lord Supper].
-All kinds of washing and bathing[Exodus19:10].
-Separation from the camp for a number of days [Leviticus15:25-32].
-Sacrifice of Animals [Leviticus16:1-34].
-Circumcision [Gen.17:10, Exodus12:48]
-Burning of Incense [Exodus 30:7].
-The use of anointing oil [Exodus29:21] etc.
Are we to keep the ceremonial Laws? No, because they were pointing to
Christ and now that Christ has come, crucified, buried, risen and
ascended,
-He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world[John1:29].
-He brings justification and forgiveness[Rom.4:25].
-He delivers, liberates and saves from the bondage and consequences of
sin.[Mtt.18:11, John3:16].
-His blood cleanses, sanctifies and purges from sin [Heb.13:12].
-He is also our Firstfruit [1Cor.15:20].
Therefore ceremonial practices are no longer needed or valid.
WHAT ABOUT TITHING, DIETARY LAWS AND THE SABBATH?
- As for tithing, Jesus said: "...you pay tithe of mint and anise and
cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgement and
mercy and faith: THESE OUGHT YOU TO HAVE DONE[TITHE PAYING] AND NOT TO
LEAVE THE OTHER UNDONE[THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS] [Matt.23:23].
In other words, He was saying 'You should have done both'. Therefore
tithing is still valid.
-As for dietary Laws[clean and unclean meats], Romans14:14 reads: 'I
know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean
of itseelf: but to him that esteems anything to be unclean, to him it
is unclean'.
No animal is unclean but '...abstain from meats offered to idols'
[Acts15:29] and don't let '...this liberty of yourrs become a
stumbling block to them that are weak... If meat make my brother to
offend I will eat no flesh while the world stands...'[1Cor.8:9,13].
-As for the Sabbath,
Romans 14:5&6 reads: 'one man esteems one day above another: another
esteems everyday alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his mind.
He that regards the day regards it to Lord: and he that regards not
the day, to the Lord he does not regard it...'
The early apostles had fellowship on the first days of the
week(sundays)[Acts20:7, 1Cor.16:2], notwithstanding, they still had
fellowship with the people on saturdays [Mark1:21, Acts17:2].
Any day can be set aside for the Lord as a day of worship.
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