Amen
The key to understanding the relationship between the Christian and the Law is knowing that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel, not to Christians. Some of the laws were to reveal to the Israelites how to obey and please God (the Ten Commandments, for example). Some of the laws were to show the Israelites how to worship God and atone for sin (the sacrificial system). Some of the laws were intended to make the Israelites distinct from other nations (the food and clothing rules). None of the Old Testament law is binding on Christians today. When Jesus died on the cross, He put an end to the Old Testament law
In Matthew 4:15-23, Christ began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and the Mosaic Law was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Christ also set a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law and as his followers we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22) and that those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walked (1 John 2:6). So Christ spent his ministry teaching his followers to obey the Mosaic Law by word and by example and being a Christian is about being a follower of what Christ taught, not about refusing to follow him. Moreover, in Titus 2:14, it does not say that Jesus gave himself to free us from the Mosaic Law, but in order to free us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Mosaic Law is the way to believe in what Jesus spent his ministry teaching and in what he accomplished through the cross (Acts 21:20) while returning to the lawlessness that he gave himself to redeem us from is the way to reject everything that he accomplished.
This is in accordance with Jesus being sent in fulfillment of the promise to bless us by turning us from our wickedness (Acts 3:25-26), which is the opposite a putting an end the the Mosaic Law so that we can be free to do what it reveals to be wickedness. The Mosaic Law was given to Israel in order to equip them to be a light and a blessing to the nations by turning the nations from their wickedness and teaching them to obey it in accordance with inheriting the promise through faith and with spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom.
In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he and Israel might know Him, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart form him because he never knew them, so the goal of the law is to teaching us how to know God and Jesus, which is eternal life (John 17:3).
In Romans 9:30-10:4 the Israelites failed to attain righteousness because they misunderstood the goal of the law by pursing it as through righteousness were earn as the result of their obedience in order to establish their own instead of pursuing it as through righteousness were by faith in Christ, for knowing Christ is the goal of law for righteousness for everyone who has faith. In Romans 10:5-10, it refers to Deuteronomy 30 as the word of faith that we proclaim in regard to proclaiming that the Mosaic Law is not too difficult for us to obey, that obedience to it brings life, in regard to what we are agreeing to obey by confessing that Jesus is Lord, and in regard to the way to believe that God raised him from the dead. So nothing in the passage has anything to do with Christ ending God's law, but just the opposite, and it doesn't even make sense to think that God's word made flesh ended God's word.
God's law leads us to Christ because it teaches us how to know him, but does not lead us to him so that we can reject everything he taught and is and go back to our wickedness.
In Ephesians 2:12-19, Gentiles were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from Israel and the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, all of which is in accordance with Gentiles at one time not being doers of the Mosaic Law, but through faith in Christ all of that is no longer true in that Gentiles are no longer strangers of aliens, but are fellow citizens of Israel along with the saints in the household of God, all of which is in accordance with Gentiles becoming doers of the Mosaic Law. The Greek word "dogma" is not used by the Bible to refer to the Mosaic Law, so you are not correctly identifying what was being broken down.
In place of the Old Testament law, Christians are under the
law of Christ (
Galatians 6:2), which is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself” (
Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all that Christ requires of us: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (
Matthew 22:40). Now, this does not mean the Old Testament law is irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the categories of “loving God” and “loving your neighbor.” The Old Testament law can be a good guidepost for knowing how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbor. At the same time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Christians today is incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (
James 2:10). Either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, He fulfilled all of it.
The position that we should obey the greatest two commandments is also the position that we should obey all of the commandments that hang on them. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law in contrast with saying that he came not to abolish it and he warned against replacing the least part of it, so you should not interpret fulfilling the law to refer to relaxing the least part of it. Rather, "to fulfill the law" means "to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be" (NAS Greek Lexicon: pleroo), so Jesus fulfilled the law by spending his ministry teaching us how to correctly obey it by word and by example. In Galatians 6:2, fulfilling bearing one another's burdens fulfills the Law of Christ, so you should interpret that in the same way as you interpret fulfilling the Law of Moses.
“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (
1 John 5:3). The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law.
Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day). Obviously, if we are loving God, we will not be worshiping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we are loving our neighbors, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them.
In 1 John 5:3, it does not specify that it is speaking about just ten of God's commandments, but rather everything that God has commanded was specifically commanded to teach us how to love Him. Jesus would have still taught full obedience to the Mosaic Law by example even if no commandments had been repeated in the NT and we are called to follow his example. And obviously if we are loving God and our neighbor, then we won't commit rape, favoritism, kidnapping, and so forth for the rest of the Mosaic Law.
The purpose of the Old Testament law is to convict people of our inability to keep the law
Nowhere does the Bible say that, but rather that is denying what Romans 10:5-8 says is the word of faith that we proclaim. Moreover, there are many example of people who did keep the Mosaic Law, such as those in Joshua 22:1-3, Luke 1:5-6, Revelation 14:12, and Revelation 22:14.
and point us to our need for Jesus Christ as Savior (
Romans 7:7-9;
Galatians 3:24).
The Mosaic Law points us to Christ because it is God's instructions for how to know Him. Jesus saves us from our sin (Matthew 1:21) and it is by the Mosaic Law that we have knowledge of wha sin is (Romans 3:20), so Jesus teaching us to be a doer of the Mosaic Law is intrinsically the way that he is giving us his gift of saving us from not being a doer of the Mosaic Law.
The Old Testament law was never intended by God to be the universal law for all people for all of time. We are to love God and love our neighbors.
It is contradictory to want to follow God's command to love, but not His other commands for how to do that.