How many times have you heard someone say THAT in order to demonstrate that a particular law no longer has validity? A recent example in my experience is the argument by homosexuals that OT laws against homosexuality are no more valid and binding today than laws that prohibited the eating of pork or catfish. The reasoning goes like this: The vast majority of professing Christians eat foods that were once prohibited in the OT, and gays, likewise, practice homosexuality that was prohibited in the OT. Therefore, we are the same. We all pick and choose parts of the Bible that we want to follow, and we dismiss parts that we don't think are valid anymore.

The problem with this argumentation is that the New Testament (NT) gives us explicit reasons why the food laws have been abolished and NO reason to believe the laws against homosexuality have been abolished. Historically, OT law was divided into three categories. Ceremonial law, civil law and moral law.

The Ceremonial Law

The ceremonial law consisted of those forms of worship which prepared the nation of Israel for the coming of the Mesiah. Once the Messiah came, the preparatory laws were no longer needed.

The book of Hebrews provides a wealth of information on how Christ's life, death and resurrection has brought an end to the sacrificial aspects of the OT ceremonial law. In short, those sacrifices were a shadow of the ONE GREAT SACRIFICE of Christ. Once Christ came and bore the sins of all His people on the cross, there was no more need for preparatory animal sacrifices.

Likewise, Colossians 2:13-17 teaches us that Christ's death on the cross fulfills the festival days, holy days and food laws.

"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." (Col 2:13-17)

1 Corinthians 5:7 indicates that Christ is our Passover. "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed." Since Christ is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed, we do not need to continue to observe Passover and eat a sacrificed lamb. Christ's death on the cross was a perfect and sufficient sacrifice. Any further sacrifices are an insult to the finished work of Christ. They would imply that Christ's death was not enough to atone for sin.

Acts 10:9-16 records God's revelation to the apostle Peter that the food laws were no longer in force: "On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky."

The food laws served to separate the Jews from the Gentiles to keep them separate from the wicked practices of the Gentiles (See Lev. 20:25-26). But, once Christ had died and rose again, He commissioned His disciples to go into all nations and preach the gospel, even to Gentiles. The separation that God had commanded in the OT was now no longer in force. Since it was no longer in force, those laws which served to separate the two peoples were no longer needed. Peter and the other apostles didn't quite grasp this change. That is why God sent the vision to Peter and told him to eat the unclean animals. The rest of Acts 10 makes it clear that the unclean animals represent the unclean Gentiles. Peter is commanded to eat the unclean animals and then told to go visit and preach to the Gentile Cornelius. The two ideas are connected. If you are interested in a more thorough explanation of the food laws and the fulfillment of them, especially as it relates to nutrition concerns, I have a book availalbe on the sermon audio website. It is called "To Eat or Not to Eat? Examining Conventional Nutrition Wisom in the Light of Scripture."

The point is that we have good reason for eating pork and catfish and other foods that were prohibited in the OT. The reason is that the NT has specifically abrogated those OT laws. We eat those foods because the Great Lawgiver has now given us permission to do so.

The Civil Law

The civil law refers to judicial law. Namely, how Israel punished violations of God's Law in the OT. There is no nation on earth today quite like OT Israel and so adjustments have to be made to account for those differences. Nevertheless, every nation has to develop laws, or they will face total chaos. They have to determine what behaviors are criminal and they have to determine how to punish those behaviors. All governments would do well to study the OT to see what God considers criminal and how to punish those crimes. Can they do better than God did? Are they wiser than God? Should they be more humane than God? Certainly, each government should not legislate OT ceremonial law and punish the violations of those laws, since, as I have already shown, ceremonial law is fulfilled and no longer in force. There are complexities to work through with OT civil law and applying that to our modern governments. Even so, we should not be afraid to study OT law and learn from it and apply what we can. Churches have not been given the sword for punishment. They have been given church discipline -- the power to expel professing Christians who live unrepentantly (see Matthew 18:15-18 and 1 Cor. 5).

Moral Law

The moral law consists of those laws that are timeless. They transcend culture. They have nothing to do with being Jewish. They are God's laws for humanity. They are not strictly preparatory. They consist of God's unchanging standards of what is right and wrong. These laws are unchanging because God's character is unchanging. These laws reflect the perfect character of God. And since God is and always has been perfect, He never changes. If you are perfect, there is only one way to change -- become imperfect! God will never do that. He is committed to His own perfections. The ten commandments are a summary of God's moral law and they are timeless. Idolatry is always wrong, whether we are in the OT or NT. Graven images are always wrong, because the glory of God can and should never be reduced to some image of an earthly object. To take God's name in vain is always wrong. To neglect God's appoint day of rest and worship each week is always wrong. God deserves this day, and we need it. Murder has been and always will be wrong. Adultery, stealing, lying and coveting have always been wrong and they always will be wrong. Though the ten commandments are a summary of God's moral law, they are not an exhaustive list of all the moral laws that God has given and imposes on the human race.

Now we come back to homosexuality. The law against homosexuality is found in Lev. 18:22: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." and Lev. 20:13: "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them."

The law against homosexuality is moral and timeless in nature. It reflects God's perfect standard of morality. Homosexuality is a violation of God's created order.

"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." (Gen 2:21-24)

God created Adam and then he made Eve out of Adam. He gave the man a woman (not another man) as someone to cleave to and someone to procreate with. This is His order and design. Homosexuality is a vile perversion of His created order. There is nothing about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that has brought an end to the law against homosexuality. Just as Christ did not bring an end to any of the ten commandments, neither did the cross bring an end to all the moral laws in the OT. Christ obeyed all the moral law perfectly (as well as the cermonial and civil laws) and earned a perfect righteousness to give to all believers. By this perfect righteousness, believers are justified and accepted by God. But having a perfect righteousness does not exempt Christians from requirements, such as, "Do not murder," "Do not steal," Do not take God's name in vain", etc. Likewise, unbelievers have no permission slip to disobey God's moral law, just because Jesus died on the cross.

What we see with respect to homosexuality is a consistency between OT and NT.

"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper ..." (Rom 1:26-28)

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." (1Co 6:9-10)

"But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching ..." (1 Tim. 1:8-10)

Conclusion