This new covenant abolished the part of the Law dealing with ceremony and sacrifice, but it did not do away with the part of the Law that reveals God’s standard of Righteousness for it is by this Law becoming apparent to our hearts contrasted with our utter lack of righteousness that God uses to draw us into repentance and belief.

4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; Romans 10:4-9 (NASB) 

I grew up as a Southern Baptist in Oklahoma. Even before I was saved in 1986 I had heard from teachers and preachers that Christians are under a dispensation of Grace while Old Testament believers were under a dispensation of the Law. The work Christ did on the cross did away with any need to be concerned about keeping the Law. Now, while that statement, in a sense, is true it is not true in another sense. What am I talking about? As we study the Law of God in the Old Testament we find two distinct sections of the Law. There is the ceremonial Law that includes the very complex system of festivals or feasts and a very detailed system of sacrifices. All of the ceremonial law was intended to be a type or picture of Christ and His work of atonement on the cross. This is a very complex topic and out of topic for this post.  The other section of God’s Law contains the Ten Commandments and all other commands that reveal God’s standards about sin.

What I was taught growing up was that Christ’s birth, life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension fulfilled the Law and did away with it by establishing a new covenant. As I said earlier, this is partially true and partially false. Yes, Christ did come and establish a new covenant. This covenant is a blood covenant that was “cut” with the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. Believers partake of this covenant by dying and being Born Again at salvation.

This new covenant abolished the part of the Law dealing with ceremony and sacrifice, but it did not do away with the part of the Law that reveals God’s standard of Righteousness for it is by this Law becoming apparent to our hearts contrasted with our utter lack of righteousness that God uses to draw us into repentance and belief. So, in this sense, Christ did do away with that part of the Law that was completed in Him, but the Righteous Law is fulfilled in Him with the salvation of  each believer, as they are saved, being born anew unto perfect Righteousness being imputed to their account.

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