Importance Of The Old Testament Law

2. THE OLD TESTAMENT LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO CHRISTIANS There is a lot of confusion and much debate about the relevance of the Old Testament law and how or if it should apply to believers in the Church today. Although some try, there is no one denomination of community of believers who are upholding all the Old Testament law in its entirety. Most believers observe aspects of the law in differing grades, with some Christians holding to the view that the Old Testament law has been done away with completely and is no longer binding to Christians today.

2.1. Only some of the Old Testament law are applicable today

Some theological scholars today would say that some of the Old Testament law is still in effect, while others no longer apply. They would consider the three categories of law - moral law; ceremonial law and civil or judicial law (Bayes 2012:3), to also be an indication of which laws are applicable to Christians today. According to this view, moral law is universal throughout all time as it is based on God’s character. Ceremonial law, because it concerns the sacrificial system and includes the calendar years became obsolete with Christ and some general aspects of the civil law remain while most of it no longer applies because there are no true theocracies in existence in the world today.

According to this view, God no longer requires obedience to all that he commanded in the Old Testament (Morrison 2002:10). Christians today are to accept the teaching of the New Testament