Do Christians have to keep the Old Testament law?

What the Bible says

First, the New Testament does not speak of the law as a bad thing.

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Rom 7:12

The problem is the attempt to be saved by the law, not the law. Paul writes that "no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law" (Rom 3:20). The law is like a mirror: it shows us what we are but cannot change us, so it leads us to Christ.

So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Gal 3:24

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:

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.

Matt 5:17

Jesus opened up the law's inner meaning, reaching hatred of the heart as well as murder. He also summed up all the commandments in two: love God and love your neighbor (Matt 22:37-40). Paul agrees: "he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:8).

The early church met this question in real life. Some men came from Judea teaching, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). At the Jerusalem council Peter replied:

Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?

Acts 15:10

The council decided not to lay circumcision and the law of Moses on Gentile believers, asking only that they avoid food offered to idols, blood, the meat of strangled animals, and sexual immorality (Acts 15:28-29). The basis was that salvation comes "through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 15:11).

On food, Mark comments that Jesus declared "all foods are clean" (Mark 7:19); on festivals, Paul writes:

Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.

Col 2:16-17

Sacrifices, purity rules, and festivals were shadows pointing to Christ, and the Old Testament itself foretold a new covenant (Jer 31:31).

The church's witness

The church has spoken of the law as both set aside and fulfilled. Chrysostom says Christ fulfilled the Law "first, by transgressing none of its precepts; secondly, by justifying by faith, which the Law could not do by the letter" Chrysostom. Augustine says:

In the Old Testament were figure of things to come, which, when the things themselves were brought in by Christ, ought to have been taken away

Augustine

For Augustine that very taking away is how the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled.

Reformers such as Melanchthon and Calvin taught that the law has three uses: to show our sin as a mirror, to restrain evil, and to guide believers in what pleases God Calvin, Institutes 2.7. Lutherans especially stress the distinction between law and gospel: the law shows what God demands and drives us to Christ; the gospel gives freely what the law requires. Matthew Henry, on Galatians 3:24, describes that third use: "the law, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, becomes his loved rule of duty, and his standard for daily self-examination" Matthew Henry. On Colossians he writes, "When the substance was come, the shadows fled" Matthew Henry. Of the ban on blood in Acts 15 he says that "the reason has long ceased" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The Hebrew word torah (תּוֹרָה) means "instruction" or "teaching." Torah is more than legal clauses; it can name the whole story of how God called Israel. The Greek translators rendered it nomos (νόμος), which carried into the New Testament. "Law" can mean the five books of Moses, its ritual rules, or the principle of earning favor by works, so context matters.

The word in Matthew 5:17 translated "fulfill" is plēroō (πληρόω), "to fill up, to bring to completion." It is used of prophecy fulfilled and of words reaching their full meaning. Jesus neither abolished the law nor left it as it was, but filled it with what it pointed to.

In Romans 10:4 "end" is telos (τέλος). It can mean "termination" or "goal," and many readers think Paul has both in view.

Common objections

"So which laws do you keep and which do you drop? That is picking and choosing." This objection deserves a serious answer, since Scripture never labels parts of the law and Israel received it as one whole. One classic answer divides it into moral, ceremonial and civil law. Thomas Aquinas set this out systematically, and the Reformed tradition, as in the Westminster Confession, adopted it: the moral law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, reflects God's unchanging character and remains in force; the ceremonial law of sacrifice and purity was fulfilled in Christ; the civil law expired with ancient Israel, though its underlying justice still teaches. Defenders note that Jesus himself spoke of "the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness" (Matt 23:23). Others, as in New Covenant theology, hold that the law of Moses was fulfilled as a whole in Christ and that believers now live under "the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2), led by love and the Spirit. The results are not far apart: the New Testament repeats most of the Old Testament's moral teaching, both views hold that the law's moral demand is met in love (Rom 8:3-4), and both ask how the New Testament itself handles each command.

"Jesus said not a stroke of the law will disappear. So we should keep the Sabbath and the food laws." Jesus did say this (Matt 5:18). Some therefore still keep Torah, and the New Testament allows Jewish believers to live by their heritage; Paul himself wrote, "To the Jews I became like a Jew" (1 Cor 9:20). But the same verse ends "until everything is accomplished." Christians believe that what the law pointed to has been accomplished in Christ, which is the reasoning of Acts 15 and Colossians 2. Paul was firm that Gentiles should not be pressed into circumcision, warning that anyone who submits is "obligated to obey the whole law" (Gal 5:3). On the Sabbath, believers differ. Many churches hold that its principle of setting time apart for God continues on the Lord's Day; others, that rest in Christ has fulfilled it so that no fixed day is required; some keep the seventh day. Romans 14:5 says on such matters, "Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind."

"If we do not have to keep the law, why bother with morality at all?" Paul anticipated the question. "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law" (Rom 3:31). Freedom from the law is not a license to sin. Salvation is a gift of grace, not the wages of obedience, yet that grace produces a life of love. John writes, "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5:3). The justice, mercy, and faithfulness the law taught remain, and the Spirit gives believers the desire to live them out.

Going further

The law is nothing to fear and nothing to worship. It shows that God is holy, tells us we cannot save ourselves, and sheds light on what Christ has done. If the psalmist could say, "Oh, how I love Your law!" (Ps 119:97), a believer can read the Old Testament with love.

You might ask yourself: Am I trying to win God's approval by what I do? When the law shows me my sin, do I run to Christ or hide? When I meet an Old Testament command, have I read how the New Testament handles it?

To read further, see What did Jesus teach?, Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New? and Why should we rest?.