A student asked me about the Old Testament law and why there are parts of it that we no longer keep. Here's the response I gave.


That's a good question, and the answer is definitely NOT that we are a different culture...some laws (like against eating pork) have been over-ridden (see Acts 10:13-15). But mostly it is because in the NT we have a deeper understanding of the law. It is like the spirit of the law is more nuanced than the original law. You know, when you first learn to write, you are told always use this, never use that, but when you start reading great writers, they sometimes do the very thing you have been told not to do. But you learn that those are exceptions that are not contradictions, rather they are genius -- the great writer saw deeper than the rules...the OT law is the minimum requirement for faithfulness, but keeping that law is not impressive to God - He wants us to (in one sense) forget about trying to keep the law - He has a higher plan for us. Those who point to the law and say "see? I kept the law here and here and here..." are the dorks who don't get it. Sort of like a 1st grader who is proud of the fact that he can draw his numbers perfectly within the lines but knows nothing of what numbers really represent in physics or calculus. At one point in the life of the faithful, number-drawing is good, but as we grow we begin to see that learning to write numbers is only the barest beginning, and to perfect our drawing when we should be considering differential equations is goofy.

In the same way, God taught us laws that then we no longer needed -- what He always wants is faithfulness, not adherence to laws per se...the laws are not arbitrary, He really does want us to not lie, murder, worship idols, but the best way to stop doing that is to put our faith in His fulfillment of the law, and live "in Him" by that faith. Again, it is the faith in His person that fulfills the law for us. Once He came to earth and we heard Him speak, we (like Paul) realized that there is a lot more to real life than laws, but like the first-grader, we need the law first, then we can in a way surpass it. The law is a mountain that we need to climb, find we can't and then receive grace. But then, and only then, do we see the reality that the peak of the mountain is really only the starting point -- we (to borrow from Lewis) were meant to get to the top of the mountain so that we might sprout wings and fly.