Anyone who picks up a Bible will notice it is divided into two parts, called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament tells us about God creating the heavens and the earth, sin entering into the human experience, and God beginning to work His plan of salvation for sin. Animal sacrifices were first offered by individuals to atone for their sins, but God would choose Abraham and his descendants to be a holy nation, giving them His covenant, the Law of Moses, to govern how they should live.
An important part of the Law of Moses was the promise of the Son of God coming to fulfill God’s plan for humanity’s salvation. Jesus would be a descendant physically of David (Romans 1:3), but conceived of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), born in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4). He would bring about the completeness of God’s purpose in providing a way for forgiveness of sin. The New Testament begins with the coming of Christ into the world, His life, death, and resurrection from the dead, and tells us about how, through His apostles, established His church. It speaks of how it spread throughout the known world in the first century, and what is the doctrine and practice of those who obey the gospel and are added to the church.
These two different parts of the Bible reveal two different covenants God has given: the Law of Moses, and the gospel of Christ. Or, to use the language found in most Bible headings, the Old Testament (covenant) and the New Testament (covenant). Which covenant do we live under today? Can we pick and choose between both of them for doctrine? How can we accurately handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) and know what God wants for us today?
The Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses contained in the Old Testament, was given by God for a specific purpose. In writing the churches of Galatia, Paul states, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). God had promised Abraham that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Again in Galatians, Paul would refer to this promise and by inspiration write, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ” (Galatians 3:16). The Law was given, then, to prepare the people for the fulfillment of the promise of the coming Christ.
The Law of Moses itself looked forward to the time when it would be fulfilled by the coming of Christ, and His new covenant, the gospel. God spoke in the days of the Old Testament era about the new covenant He would establish, making the old covenant, the Law of Moses, no longer binding. The Hebrew writer refers to what the prophet Jeremiah had said. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah’” (Hebrews 8:7-8). Elsewhere the New Testament tells us that the Law was a shadow to what Christ would do and have us to do (Hebrews 10:1). Christ is the real image; the shadow He cast in this figure of speech is the Law of Moses. In other words, the Law of Moses is in itself incomplete. In Christ it finds its fulfillment and completion.
Certainly the Old Testament is important. Jesus Himself testified to this when He said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). But once it was fulfilled, it was completed and no longer in force. For example, the Law of Moses commanded animal sacrifices, but they were a shadow of the perfect sacrifice Jesus would offer for the sins of the world (John 1:29). Now that Jesus has died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead, animal sacrifices are no longer valid. They foreshadowed what Jesus would do, but with the coming of Jesus, they have completed their purpose. That’s why the Hebrew writer would say, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). However, Jesus’ blood does cleanse us of our sins (Hebrews 9:14).
Think of it this way. People make a will before they die, as to how their estate will be managed, what conditions must be met to receive its benefits, and so on. Only one will, however, is valid, and it is the last one that stands in force. Any previous will is set aside when another one is written and validated. So it is with the Law of Moses and the gospel of Christ. When Christ fulfilled the Law, the gospel was put in its place. Again, the Hebrew writer tells us, “He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-10). In the context of this passage, he is speaking of the Law of Moses in contrast to the gospel of Christ. Paul wrote the church in Ephesus and said that Jesus abolished in His flesh the enmity, “which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” (Ephesians 2:15).
What does this mean for us today? It means while there are lessons about obedience we can learn from the Old Testament, the nature of God, the promises of His Son, and such, we cannot appeal to the Law of Moses, the Old Testament, for authority in matters of doctrine. Christ has set it aside. We live under His new covenant instead. How God wants us to live today is given in the New Testament, the gospel, the law of liberty (James 1:25) that Christ established through His death. It is through obedience to the gospel of Christ, the new covenant, that which Christ has established and is recorded in the New Testament, that we are acceptable before God, not through obedience to the Law of Moses. Paul makes this clear again in his letter to the Galatians. “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4). He also writes in Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20).
The Law of Moses played an important part in God’s plan to bring Christ into the world for our salvation. But it has been fulfilled and is no longer binding on us. We must follow the will of God in Christ to be acceptable before God today. Just as we would reject offering the blood of animals for our atonement today, we must not go to the Old Testament for any other doctrinal practice. As God spoke from the cloud to Peter, James, and John when Jesus was transfigured, we must listen to Him (Matthew 17:5).
