Here’s a vital question. Our answer can make all the difference between success and failure.
There is a long-running dispute in Christian circles whether we should keep the law or not. The subject is fully discussed in the New Testament, especially in Romans and Galatians. First, we must define what is meant by the word “law” as used by those writers. Immediately we see a challenge. There are different shades of meaning for the word, even in one verse! For example, Romans 3:21, “the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.” Speaking of “the Law and the Prophets,” Paul means particular Old Testament books. But “the righteousness of God apart from the law” refers to the Mosaic law given at Sinai. Often the word means the moral law: “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom 7:14). Sometimes it means the ceremonial law, specific to Jews only, as when “the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law” (Lk 2:27), or when Paul discusses circumcision in passages like Romans 2:25. Are we keeping this straight? The Law encompasses the five books by Moses. Inside that is the Mosaic Law, all God told the people at Sinai. Inside that, there are three circles, slightly overlapping—the moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws (the law code for Israel regarding kings, etc.). Beyond this, we have the idea of “law” as a principle by which something works, like the law of gravity, like these two: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). So when we read an occurrence of the word “law,” we must select the right option as we examine the context. In the next lesson, we’ll do just that to answer the question, Should Christians keep the law?