Contra theologians such as Charles Ryrie, who said, “the law was never given to the Gentiles and is expressly done away for the Christian,” 1Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life, 88. – Christ did not come to abolish the law (Matthew 5:17). The law is a gift to all men who are in Christ though it was received first in the form of commandments by the ancient people of Israel.
If we take Jesus’ words seriously in Matthew 5:17-20, we must conclude that every law in the Old Testament remains valid until and unless God Himself cancels it. And the New Testament clearly indicates which kinds of laws no longer apply. The book of Hebrews, for example, expressly teaches that the ceremonial laws of sacrifice have been fulfilled because Jesus was the final sacrifice. But Scripture nowhere indicates that the moral law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, has been done away with. Jesus even said all the law and prophets hang on love of God and neighbor. This is a far cry from saying all the law and prophets are annulled. The sermon on the mount is the moral Law spoken and recapitulated by Christ.
The difference between the Old Covenant and New is not the essence or necessity of the law; the difference is that Christ has come and Jeremiah 31 is fulfilled in Him. In short, just as Old Covenant Saints obeyed the moral law through faith in God, so too those of us (including Gentile Saints) in the New Covenant era are capable of obeying the moral Law through faith in Christ- because we have passed from death to life. It is a faith that is given to us and strengthened in us by the Holy Spirit. Thus, as disciples, we obey Jesus’ commands in love for him (John 14:15);
The LAW is not abolished. Heaven forbid. The LAW is a teacher; an instructor who points to the holiness of God and the greatest revelation of that holiness in Jesus the Messiah. The LAW is picked up, as expressed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, as an act of worship by Christians. To obey his teaching (the new command of love on another) is to love him.
