It is possible that I ruffled a few feathers by saying we should not keep the law. A lot of people seem to have been irked by it. Alright, I’ll just dial down a bit. So, okay, okay, alright, let’s just keep the law, right? Let’s keep it. Let’s see how far we can go with this. So, you who say you keep the law, let me ask you, how is it going for you? What part of the law are you actually keeping? When the Bible talks about the law, it refers to 613 laws.
You can find the complete list of 613 laws here.
So, are you keeping 613 of those laws?
Are you really keeping the law?
Most of the Christians that I’ve seen who say that they keep the law, and I’ve never seen them NOT going anywhere on a Sabbath day. And, you send emails on a Sabbath day. You do your work on a Sabbath day. I’m pretty sure you brush your teeth on a Sabbath day. Right? I don’t see them staying at home either on Sabbath day. All those things, you do work on Saturday. So, you’re not keeping the Sabbath.
Either all or nothing
Most of the Christians who say that they keep the law, they cherry pick the laws. If you’re going to keep the law, you have to keep the entire 613 laws. You cannot cherry pick one.
I think that’s fair to say. Because in James 2:10 it says, “For whoever keeps the law and yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of all.” So that means, if you’re going to keep the law, you have to keep the whole law.
The Bible doesn’t divide law into Ceremonial and Moral laws
A lot of people will say, “Oh no Prince, I’m talking about the ceremonial laws we don’t have to keep because Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law and he did not fulfill the moral laws and thus we need to keep the moral law.”
See that’s a problem here because firstly, throughout the New Testament we don’t see the law being divided into the ceremonial law or the moral law. It just says The Law and the Prophets. It includes the entire 613 of those laws.
Secondly, when people say about the moral law, it usually refers to the Ten Commandments. Right? Not convinced? List out all the moral laws, and match them with the ten commandments and you will see that the moral laws are often the 10 commandments in disguise. They’re saying we don’t have to fulfill the 613 laws completely, but the Ten Commandments are pretty important for us. And that means, if you keep those Ten Commandments, then we’re all good. Right? That we have to keep those Ten Commandments.
Like I said earlier, there’s one commandment: “You shall honor the Sabbath,” which most of you are not doing. So with that, what does it mean? It’s basically nine commandments, right?
Proof from Romans
Was Paul talking about just the moral laws or ceremonial laws or was he talking about the entire law? So in Romans 7:7, it says, “I would not have come to know the sin except through the law.” And he’s talking about law in general. He doesn’t say moral law. What is he referring to, in context? Let’s read: “For I would have not known about coveting if law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.” See, that’s what we call the moral law. That’s part of the Ten Commandments, and Paul is calling it the law. Paul makes no such distinction. The Bible doesn’t say to continue keeping the moral law and ignore the ceremonial law.
So, he’s referring to the moral law and the ceremonial law when he says we are not under the law. You see?
Proof from Galatians
Also, when you read Galatians 5:14, Paul says:
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Obviously, loving covers the moral laws, and Paul includes them all in the Law.
For those still not convinced
So, okay, go ahead, keep the law. But make sure that you do the 613 because, you know, if you stumble in one, then you’re done for. Then you have stumbled into everything. Alright, don’t forget about the clothing law where it’s written that you cannot mix wool and nylon Don’t forget about many of the laws. I’ve never seen you asking, “Okay, is it wool combined with this?” Alright, many of the Christians are just being hypocritical by cherry-picking the laws. And they say, “Okay, we have to keep the law.” And what law are they referring to? “Do not have a tattoo.” Because the ones who are actually saying this, “Do not have a tattoo.” Then, they’re okay with the Sabbath law.
A person, a Phil, probably has 29 laws perfected according to him. And he might be saying, “Okay, we need to keep the 29 laws.” Because he’s trying his best in those 29 laws. Because he feels that he can do it. Then comes Mr. Joe. So, Mr. Joe is keeping 35 laws, and he looks down at Mr. Phil, and he says, “Uh, come on, you are not keeping those six laws, and how dare you? God’s wrath shall come upon you.” Little do they know that Jesus has fulfilled the law. You cannot cherry-pick what you want to do. If you’re going to keep the law, you have to keep the entire 613, and good luck with it.
Choose ministry of life
So, if you’re still not convinced that it is the law, the entire law, which Paul was talking about, let’s see. In 2 Corinthians 3:7, Paul makes a contrast between the ministry of life and the ministry of death. Wow. Ministry of death. And we all know that he is calling the old covenant or the 613 laws, the laws as the ministry of death. So, in verse 7, let’s read. “But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory,” wait a minute, we know the ministry of death is actually referring to the 613 laws. How many of them were written on stones? It was basically the Ten Commandments, right? So those who say that Paul is only talking about the ceremonial laws that we don’t have to do, he’s talking about the Ten Commandments, too.
Please understand that you cannot keep the law. If you have to keep the law, you have to keep 613 of those. Otherwise, if you’re going with your own righteousness, Paul says in Galatians 3:10 that cursed is anyone who tries to keep the law. So, let’s not fool ourselves and be a hypocrite by saying that we have to keep the entire law. If you’re gonna do it, good. Go ahead. Do the 613.
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