"Whoso loveth instruction loveth
knowledge; but he that hateth reproof is
brutish."
There is great confusion among Christians when it comes to God's law. The great majority of them don't realize that the Bible talks about two sets of laws: a) the ritual, or ceremonial laws, that were nailed to the cross as Saint Paul said; and, b) the behavioral laws which, as the Lord Jesus Christ said in Mathew 5:17-19, would not pass away until Heaven and Earth would pass away.
“17
Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to
destroy, but to
fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto
you:
Till heaven and Earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled.
19
Whosoever therefore shall break one
of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
the least in the
The danger of believing that the behavioral norms are obsolete rides in that they leave a Christian without a moral anchor, without a guide for his life. If the behavioral laws were obsolete, a Christian would have to follow the customs in his society, or the traditions of his sect. How would he know he can't marry his sister or his niece? How would he know that he should tithe, or that he should not worship graven images or invoke the dead?
What is God's law? God's law are those norms that God considered convenient to teach us humans so we can walk in as much righteousness as possible during our pilgrimage through this world.
Let's not confuse God's laws with the norms imposed by religious, social or political leaders. Let's not confuse either the divine laws with the rules of the culture or civilization in which we live, nor with the traditions of the race, nation or sect that we belong to.
Unfortunately most people, without excluding Christians, admit, as behavioral norms, those imposed on the conglomerates by the society or the culture we live in. In other words, “if everyone does it, why can't I?”
What God's laws are for? God's laws are good to let us know what things we should do, which we should not, and to guide us in the daily decisions.
God's law was never good to save anyone. The law never saved anyone, due to the fact that no one could obey it during his entire life, from the cradle to the tomb. Besides, the law is scripture, it cannot save any one, it has no intellect nor feelings. Jesus Christ can save any one who desires it.
The law never served for salvation, only as a guide to know what to do and what not to do. There are those who believe that "before" people saved them by obeying the law. False, that has never been possible.
People before, just like people now, were saved by faith in the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The difference between those before Christ and those after Christ is that we already know that the lamb is called Jesus Christ, while before they only knew there would be one sent to take away our sins. We put our faith in the Lamb that was already slain; they put their faith in the lamb they sacrificed, and that represented he who one day would take our sins upon himself.
It is a big mistake to think that "before" people were saved one way, and today they are saved another. There are even those who think that in the future, during the Great Tribulation, people will be saved still by a third method. All that is a heretic and abominable error. The method of salvation has always been and will always be the same: the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.