David Butterfield, of davidjbutterfield.blogspot.com (This site has since been removed), challenges us: “Can you find a single instance in Scripture where Jesus or even just one of the Apostles commanded Christians to keep the Old Testament law?”
We answer:
“Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40 MKJV).
The last sentence tells us that the Lord has indeed not done away with the Law (just as He said He had not come to do -see below), but that the way of fulfilling it was not found in the legalistic spirit and approach of the Pharisees. Nevertheless, the Law is good, Paul writes, if a man uses it lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8). It is still required of those that name His Name to fulfill the Law:
“Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17 MKJV).
So now you have two confirming instances of where Jesus said that those who follow Him are required to fulfill the OLD TESTAMENT LAW, apart from the ceremonial and sacrificial (and seconded by the apostle Paul). Did not Jesus say your righteousness would have to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in their keeping of the Old Testament Law (Matthew 5:20)? There, you have three.
There are many more such Scriptures, this is but a sample. For more teaching on this matter, go to Law and Grace.
– Paul Cohen (February 9, 2008)
Related posts:
The Second Commandment is fulfilled because the First Commandment has been fulfilled. After all, doesn’t everything hinge on loving God with all our hearts and having no other gods before Him?
There’s a religious fad sweeping nominal Christianity, that of indulging in Jewish worship practices and traditions. Many searchers have determined there are precious truths to be discovered in types and shadows, with great and rare blessings. Seekers are flocking to this thinking because they are empty spiritually. They’re unfulfilled in their churches and their systems of belief and worship; they’re unfulfilled within because in unbelief.
While God prohibits making or having images in a context of worship, cults, as those who do their own thing outside of Him, often make or have them. Whereas these things are seen by man as godly, and indicative of piety, they are a sure sign of false religion and a continuation of pagan traditions and practices dressed up as “Christian.” These are the very things the children of Israel were told to completely destroy, a command that is indicative of how truly odious to God, and dangerous to man, these things are.