Has God’s Law Been “Done Away”?
To understand the real story of God’s law, it’s best to start at the beginning. How did disobedience start and misunderstanding spread? Part 1 of a seven-part series.
How did this begin?
How did all this begin? Where did it get its start?
To find out, we have to go back to Adam and Eve, who chose to disobey God. The Creator had put them in the beautiful Garden of Eden and told them they could eat of anything in that garden except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “For in the day that you eat of it,” He said, “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Instead of obeying God, Adam and Eve chose to obey the one who said, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:1-6). As a result, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and eventually died. From that day forward, their descendants have made that same deadly decision to disobey God.
Nowhere is that choice more evident than when it comes to keeping God’s law. “Oh,” many people claim, “the law has been done away. We don’t have to keep it anymore.” And so they figuratively sew fig leaves together for themselves to cover their spiritual nakedness as the world goes down the primrose path of death and destruction.
Twisting the Scriptures
Throughout history, some have eaten the forbidden fruit and twisted the Scriptures to their own advantage to gain followers (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13-15; 2 Peter 2:12-22; 3:16; Jude 1:4).
It should not come as a surprise, then, that religious leaders have continued to interpret God’s Word to suit themselves. Nowhere is that more apparent than with the scriptures regarding God’s law and the claim that the law has been “done away.”
The apostle Peter understood how human beings in general refuse to pay heed to the Word of God. As a result, he knew we needed to be reminded “that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). Yet men have been putting their own interpretation on the Scriptures for centuries.
Those Scriptures tell us that an all-wise Creator God has put laws into effect that we transgress at our peril, but in supposedly Christian societies those laws have been ignored. Instead, every man seems to be a law unto himself. Therefore, as a result of disobeying these rules of life, this world has come to a state of chaos and confusion. And God most certainly is not “the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
God’s perspective
Look at this situation from His perspective. He gave His beneficial laws to ancient Israel, telling them that that if they obeyed they would be a “special treasure” to Him (Exodus 19:5). And since God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34), everyone will have that same opportunity.
If He were to have since changed His mind and no longer require people to obey His law, imagine the confusion that would exist when Christ returns! It would be no better at that future time than it is now, for there would be at least two contesting parties vying for power and producing a contention that would only spread.
God will not allow that to happen, for His law is just as binding today as it ever was.
In this series of posts we are going to examine how the law of God is still in full force and effect today, and how it is more than just the 10 Commandments. We will also examine many of the misunderstandings about the law. In addition, we will see that there were changes in the law, but that they were administrative in nature, and that they relate to three primary areas: circumcision, civil regulations and temple sacrifices and rituals.
Now, if there have been changes in the law, who has the authority to make changes in God’s law?
This is the first in a seven part series on God's Law. For part 2 in this series, see “Who Has Authority to Change God's Law?”
Date Posted: May 31, 2013
