Are Christians Today Required to Keep the Law of Moses?

[dwight92070]

The answer to this is "No". First of all, the Law of Moses was ONLY given to the Jewish nation of Israel, so Gentiles were never commanded to keep the Law, unless they wanted to become a proselyte, i.e. to convert to Judaism.

The Law of Moses, also called the Old Covenant, ended, when Christ brought in the New Covenant, which was in the first century A.D., so really no one has been required to keep the Law of Moses since then - not Jews, not Gentiles, not Christians and not non-Christians.

God gave all those who were or are interested a strong "hint" that He was done with the Law of Moses, when Jesus was crucified, which was about 30 A.D. Right after He died, the Scripture tells us that the curtain in the temple in Jerusalem, between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies - was supernaturally torn in two, from top to bottom. God was indicating that when Christ died, He "opened up the door" into the very presence of God, which is the actual Holy of Holies in heaven, for all who by faith in His shed blood and resurrection, have received His forgiveness of sins and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

No longer was it necessary to offer temple sacrifices, or to even use the temple at all. Nonetheless, it appears that the Jews who rejected Christ, most likely repaired the curtain, hardly even phased by the miracle of it being torn supernaturally, and went right back to their sacrifices.

Then, forty years later, in 70 A.D., God gave an even stronger hint - He had the Romans totally destroy the temple and the city of Jerusalem. A huge part of keeping the Law of Moses had to do with animal sacrifices and other sacrifices in the temple, so it was impossible to continue obeying that part of the Law of Moses.

Since Christ came, He requires those who wish to follow Him - Christians - to keep His commandments, which Paul called the Law of Christ. There are several laws in the Law of Moses, which were also given in the New Covenant. For example, 9 of the 10 commandments were repeated in the New Covenant - only the 4th commandment, keeping the Sabbath day was not repeated Why? Because it was a ceremonial law, not a moral law. The other 9 law were moral laws, which do not change. The Sabbath Day law is considered a ceremonial law, not a moral law. Moral laws originate from the moral character of God.

The laws in the Law of Christ are to be kept by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith, unlike the Law of Moses, which was often only obeyed by their own will power. However, many Jews realized that if they put their faith in God, even though they did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, they were still enabled to keep the Law more completely, than without faith in God.

So faith was exercised in both the Old Covenant and now in the New Covenant.

 

[dwight92070]

Of course the idea of faith in God was known to godly Jews even before the Law of Moses was given. Their father, Abraham, was and still is, the father of faith. Romans 4:11-12 He believed God, and God reckoned it (his faith) to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6) When the Law of Moses came, godly Jews accepted it, but they did not reject their faith which they already had before the Law came. After Abraham showed God that he was willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, God promised Abraham that through his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Genesis 22:18

Paul gave us further understanding of the word "seed" in Genesis. He says that it is singular, not plural, and that the singular "seed" refers directly to Christ. Galatians 3:16 So God is really telling Abraham that through Christ, the Messiah, all the families of the earth would be blessed. This is confirmed in several other places. Mary prophesied about it in Luke 1:55; Paul mentions it again in Romans 4:13 and 16. Peter mentions it in his second sermon in Acts 3:25.

But Abraham and his descendants didn't have to wait until Christ came - to be blessed. If they exercised faith in God, as their father Abraham had done, they too would be counted as righteous, and therefore would enjoy the blessings of Christ - long before Christ was born. God knew that Abraham would be a man of faith in Him, even before Abraham offered up Isaac, so God's original promise to him, when He first spoke to Abraham when he was 75 years old, is found in Genesis 12:1-3:

"Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

Many Christians say that this promise was made to the nation Israel, but Israel was not even a nation when God gave Abraham this promise. But we learn from the New Covenant, especially Paul's writings, that the blessing of God in Genesis 12:1-3 was really a blessing on all those who had faith in Him, and when Jesus was born, God expected all men to put their faith in Jesus- whether they were Jews or Gentiles. Remember, even Moses, through whom God's Law came, told the nation of Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him. Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Peter also spoke of this same passage in his second sermon in Acts 3:22-23.

In the Old Testament, those Jews who put their faith in God were called the remnant of Israel. Those Jews who did not have faith in God were not part of the remnant of Israel. Since Israel became a nation, when they came out of Egypt, God's promises have always been for the remnant of Israel - not for those Jews who were unfaithful and disobedient. Even Gentiles, who believed in the God of Israel, could become a part of the remnant of Israel, and share God's blessings with them.

So it is today. Jews who reject Jesus, their Messiah, are not part of the Israel of God, as Paul put it in Galatians 6:16. And Gentiles, who love Jesus and have put their faith in Him - are part of the Israel of God.

Paul said: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." Romans 2:28-29

Sadly, many Jews today - are not really Jews at all - because they do not love God and they reject Jesus. On the other hand, many Jews today are also Jews inwardly - they love God and they love Jesus, their Messiah. They are part of the body of Christ, along with believing Gentiles.

 

[jeremiah1five]

The first "Christians" were those Hebrews that looked forward to the coming of Messiah. David would be a Christian because he anticipated the coming of Messiah (translated "Christ.")
Then, after Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended the Holy Spirit of Promise arrived on the day of the Jewish Feast of Harvest and three thousand Jews were born-again thus initiating the beginning of the New Covenant era. Acts 2:47 says, Jesus added to His Church daily such as should be saved."
Imagine hundreds to thousands of Jews everyday becoming born-again. And that's what happened. One passage states that 5,000 Jews came to the Lord, so how can you take the position that the Jews "rejected" their Messiah and King? While there were several hundred thousand of Jews who lived in and around Israel, the majority of Jews lived in Assyria, Babylon, and in Gentile lands throughout Mesopotamia and in places in-between. Besides this, these Jews who lived in Gentile lands knew nothing of Jesus birth, death, or His resurrection. Would God judge these people guilty of rejecting Jesus, would God judge them guilty for the act of several thousand Jews who witnessed the crucifixion and called out for His death? Are millions of ignorant Jews living in Gentile lands guilty even if they never heard of Jesus? No, they are not guilty. The New Covenant states that God will forgive the Jews - all Jews - and remember their sin no more:

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour (member of a different tribe), and every man his brother (member of the same tribe), saying,
Know the LORD:
For they shall all know me,
From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:
For I will forgive their iniquity,
And I will remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:34.

According to the other verses of this prophecy the Jews are not judged guilty of anything at all but are found "Not Guilty!" by God and they have been forgiven and have been atoned by God. According to Scripture the Church Jesus promised to build was populated by Jews. Thousands and thousands of Jews every day were being born-again and their sins- all of them - have been atoned.
Justified.
Case closed.