You've Been Told to Keep the Law, But Can You?
As Christians, we continually hear about the need for us to follow the law and we also hear that Christ fulfilled the law. Does that sound like a contradiction? It should!
More often than not, we're told that we need to try to keep the law, but don't worry, because when we fail we can ask God to forgive us. This cycle of failing and asking for God's forgiveness has become a way of life for most of us. Jesus' words from the cross "It is finished!" were meant to break that religious cycle.
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (Galatians 3:23-25)
Both of these Scriptures state that coming to faith in Jesus Christ ends the need for the law. We no longer need to compare our goodness to God's commandments. We've been humbled and have seen our unrighteous, unholy selves for what we were --dead and in need of His grace and mercy so that we could receive eternal life through His Son.
The Law Is Only a Shadow of Something Better
Like the parables, the true meaning of the law is hidden. Obviously, the law describes the strict requirements for a person to live a perfect life and it also describes the penalty of death for not doing so. Yet the law uses pictures to tell us about Jesus' perfect life and about His death for our sins!
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. (Hebrews 10:1)
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. (Colossians 2:17)
The entire system of sacrifices showed that if we wanted to live, we needed to find one who is perfect to take our place with the executioner. And the order of the priesthood showed that someone needed to stand between us and God. That high priest had to be someone that knew what it was like to be a man and also someone righteous enough to stand before God. These were foreshadowings of what Jesus was coming to fulfill.
Are You Living Under Law or Grace?
Whenever the statement is made that the law's only purpose is to lead us to Jesus, the response is nearly always the same. "Well then, if the law doesn't apply to us any more, then we have a license to sin --right?" (As if we ever needed a license to sin!) That conversation must have been one that even Paul heard because he recorded that question and his response in Romans chapter 6!
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:14-15)
Nearly every one of Paul's letters reveals a continual battle that plagued him wherever he ministered. He taught about the grace of God and following right behind him came teachers of the law. He taught about the freedom we have by living in a trust-faith relationship with God --we are holy and righteous because of Jesus' sacrifice for us. They --the teachers of the law-- taught that after salvation, a Christian remains holy and righteous by following the law.
He Didn't Come to Abolish It, or Did He?
There's nearly always another discussion following the one about having a license to sin. It goes something like this: "You say that the law came to an end for believers --that it doesn't apply to us anymore. But didn't Jesus say that He didn't come to abolish the law? And didn't He also say that the law would never disappear? If He abolished the law like you say, then how do you explain Jesus' words?"
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)
Did you notice that He said that the law wouldn't disappear "until everything is accomplished"? The solution to this dilemma is found by understanding what it was that Jesus came to accomplish. His purpose was to be the Father's first-hand witness about the plan for mankind. God wants us all to live eternally with Him. Yet in order to do this, it requires living a perfectly sinless life --or finding someone who is sinless that can qualify as our substitute. It's one or the other.
Are You Sure It's Abolished?
Jesus lived the perfectly sinless life that we can't so that He could become the perfect sacrifice in our place. Now, because of what He did, the law can disappear since He has accomplished His purpose! He fulfilled the law. "It is finished!"
This passage in Ephesians should settle the matter about whether Jesus abolished the law or not:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16)
Some might say: What about Romans 3:31 (Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law)? The response is this: We can only "uphold" (fulfill) the law through faith in Christ Jesus' sacrifice, burial and resurrection --never by any works of our own.
At the Cross, the Law Was Canceled, Taken Away, Replaced ...
Take a close look at what was accomplished for all mankind when Jesus died on that cross.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)
He disarmed the powers and authorities --that's the Devil and all of his helpers-- by nailing the law to the cross --canceling it and replacing it with a new and better guide to life: God's love! We were forgiven at the cross. We were made alive --"It is finished!"