What is the role of the law for Christians today?
Question 11089
The question of what role the Mosaic law plays in the life of a Christian is not a new one. Paul spent considerable effort addressing it in his letters to Rome and Galatia, and the confusion has not diminished since. Christians who grew up in traditions that emphasise law-keeping and Christians who react against any talk of moral demand can both end up in error, often in opposite directions.
What the Law Was
The starting point is recognising what the Mosaic law actually was: a covenant given to the nation of Israel at Sinai, governing their national life under God as a theocratic people in a specific period of redemptive history. It was never given to the Gentiles. Paul is explicit in Romans 2:14 that the Gentiles “do not have the law.” They have the work of the law written on their hearts, which is a different matter altogether. The law was Israel’s covenant charter, not a universal moral code handed to all humanity for all time.
What Changed at the Cross
Paul’s answer in Romans 10:4 is that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” The Greek word telos can mean both “end” and “goal,” and in this context it carries both senses. Jesus brought the Mosaic economy to its intended fulfilment and conclusion. The law pointed forward to Him; now that He has come, died, and risen, the arrangement it governed is no longer operative as a covenant for the people of God.
This is why Paul argues so forcefully in Galatians that a return to law-keeping as the basis for standing before God is not merely unnecessary but a betrayal of the gospel. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). The believer’s relationship with God is now governed not by the Mosaic covenant but by the new covenant established in Christ’s blood (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 8:13).
Not Lawless, but Under the Law of Christ
This does not mean that nothing in the Mosaic law has any bearing on the Christian life. The law reflects the moral character of God, and God’s character does not change. What changes is the framework within which moral obligations are understood. Paul introduces the concept of the “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21) as the operative principle for believers in this age. This is not identical to the Mosaic law, though there is significant overlap, particularly in the moral commands that reflect God’s unchanging nature.
A useful distinction that has historical standing is between the ceremonial, civil, and moral dimensions of the Mosaic law. The ceremonial law, covering sacrifices, feast days, and purity regulations, was typological, pointing forward to Christ. Hebrews makes this point extensively: the old system was a shadow; Christ is the substance (Hebrews 10:1). The civil law governed Israel as a theocratic nation, and since that theocratic arrangement no longer exists, those civil provisions do not translate directly to modern states or to the church. The moral dimension, the commands reflecting God’s holiness and His expectations for human behaviour, continues to have relevance, not because Christians are under the Mosaic covenant but because these commands express the character of the God they serve and are reaffirmed throughout the teaching of Christ and the apostles.
The moral content of the Ten Commandments, for example, is substantially reaffirmed in apostolic instruction. Nine of the ten appear explicitly in the New Testament letters. The Sabbath command is the exception, and the New Testament’s treatment of it in Colossians 2:16–17 and Romans 14:5–6 suggests it belongs to the typological dimension that has been fulfilled in Christ rather than to a perpetually binding moral obligation.
The Law’s Ongoing Accusing Function
The law also retains what theologians have called its accusing function. It reveals sin for what it is. Paul writes in Romans 7:7 that he would not have known covetousness was sin apart from the law saying “you shall not covet.” This convicting work of the law remains operative in evangelism, not because believers are under it, but because the moral standard it articulates diagnoses the condition of every human heart before God.
So, now what?
Christians are not under the Mosaic law as a covenant, but they are not lawless. They live under the law of Christ, empowered by the Spirit who now writes the law’s moral demands on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33; Romans 8:4). The goal is not rule-keeping imposed from the outside but transformation from within, producing from genuine love for God the same holiness that the law could only demand but never produce.
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2