It’s good to love God with all our minds, and this topic will be an opportunity to do just that!
In deciding if Christians must keep the law, we should see a basic difference in Bible viewpoints. One group of Christians believe there is little difference between Israel and the Church; Israel is the Church in the Old Testament, they say, and the Church is now spiritual Israel (a phrase not found in the Bible). The other group sees that Israel, though presently set aside by the Lord during this Age of Grace, will yet be restored. The first group would like to blend the Old and New Covenants together. So when they speak about being justified, they speak of receiving the righteousness of Christ (again, not a biblical phrase). It is “the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ” we receive (Rom 3:22). Instead, they say the righteousness we receive is Christ’s righteousness which He acquired by keeping the law during His earthly life. Why make this change? So they can insist that the law is now also the “rule of life” for the believer. But what does Scripture say? “You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (7:4). “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (10:4). The principle of law is: command plus curse if it is broken, but no power to live it. Grace is: command plus power to live it, but no condemnation if we fail. “You are not under law but under grace…Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” (6:14-15). Grace has brought us to a much higher standard than the law could impose, but the life of Christ within us makes it possible to fulfill “the righteous requirement of the law” (8:4), not by submitting to the law but to Christ.