Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

Jesus and the Law

What is the office of the moral law? BR-ASI9 276.11

“By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20. BR-ASI9 276.12

Note.—If the moral law were abolished, there would be no sin. But Christ always kept the Ten Commandments, and by His death established the moral law forever. (See Romans 3:31; 8:1-3.) BR-ASI9 277.1

What did Christ say of the law and the prophets? BR-ASI9 278.1

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matthew 5:17. BR-ASI9 278.2

Note.—“The ritual or ceremonial law, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel, containing all the injunctions and ordinances which related to the old sacrifices and service of the Temple, our Lord indeed did come to destroy. . . . But the moral law, contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the Prophets, he did not take away.” BR-ASI9 278.3

“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ, are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself, and ‘speak evil of the law’; who teach men to break . . . all the commandments at a stroke; who teach, without any cover, in so many words,—What did our Lord do with the law? He abolished it. There is but one duty, which is that of believing. All commands are unfit for our times. . . . ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!’ ”—John Wesley, “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,” Discourse 5, in Works, vol. 5 (1829 ed.), pp. 311, 317. BR-ASI9 278.4