As Christians, Are We Still Bound By The Old Testament Law?

      Before we start, one note.  Scripture quoted in this and other posts is from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.

      I've recently had several people (both believers and non-believers) ask me if we are still bound by the Old Testament law.  Others simply quote half-remembered rules from the Old Testament without really taking time to discern whether they still apply.

     This post will be the first in what I hope/intend to be a series of at least a few posts.   How long the series becomes remains to be determined, mostly by the response/interest I receive.

   Exodus 19:5 states that the Israelites were God's chosen people:

"Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine"

As does 2 Samuel 7:23:
"And who is like your people Israel--the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt?"

These are but two of a plethora of verses in the Old Testament establishing Israel as God's chosen people, with the caveat that they needed to obey God.  But why was the Law given in the first place?  Galatians 3:19 tells us:

"Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator."


The above means that we are a sinful people.  God gave the Israelites the law until such time as Jesus came.  This verse also tells us that the law would be superseded by Jesus.


Back in Genesis we see as part of God's covenant with Abraham God tells Abraham about Jesus in Genesis 22:18:

"and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Note that God tells Abraham that because Abraham obeyed God, all nations will be blessed, not just the Israelites.  That is different from what we see in Exodus and the other books in the Pentateuch.  

So, if  Israelites are God's chosen,  since we were born thousands of years later, and not Jewish, how could we possibly be bound by the Old Testament Law (given in the form of the covenants) without converting to Judaism? This question of course presumes that Jesus wasn't who he and the Bible says he was.  If you believe that Jesus was the Savior, then this argument is somewhat moot.   We already see God's assurance to Abraham that all nations would be blessed. 

Matthew 1:1 confirms this assurance:

"This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:"


So we can see that even from the beginning with the covenant with Abraham, God was working to send us a Redeemer.  In the verse from Exodus above, God tells the Israelites that so long as they obey Him,  they will be his chosen.  This changed when Jesus died on the cross for us.

Jesus says in John 14:6

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

We can no longer be redeemed through our works.  God sent Jesus to be our savior and it is only through Him that we find redemption.

Paul tells us in Romans 7:4-6 that we are no longer bound by the Old Testament (meaning we can't save ourselves through our own works). 

"4.  Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."

    All throughout his writings Paul expresses the same sentiment.  2 Colossians 14-17, 2 Corinthians 3 5-6 and Hebrews 7:11 asks:

"If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood--and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood--why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?"


So, we have seen that  part of God's covenant to Abraham  was the promise of a blessing to all nations.  We see in the first verse of the New Testament that God did send the blessing, his name was Jesus.  Both Jesus and Paul are clear that we can no longer save ourselves simply by our own works.  

 The next post we will examine what Jesus meant by the word 'law' in Matthew 5:18.  It was not simply the 250-odd rules God gave the Israelites.   People often quote that verse to prove that we are still bound by the Old Testament, but I hope to show that the verse is being misunderstood.