What does the Bible say about old testament law?
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The Bible teaches that God’s law is holy and good, revealing his righteous character, exposing human sin, and directing believers toward love and obedience, yet it cannot justify sinners apart from Christ. Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, and not one part of God’s word fails (Matthew 5:17-18). Jeremiah 31:31-34 promises the new covenant, in which God writes his law on his people’s hearts and forgives their sins. Hebrews 8:13 and Romans 7:6 teach that the old covenant administration has become obsolete and believers now serve in the new way of the Spirit. Christ is the end, or goal, of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4), and love fulfills its moral demand (Galatians 5:14).
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- Hebrews 8:13
In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.
- Romans 7:6
But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
- Matthew 5:17-18
[17] "Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. [18] For most assuredly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.
- Matthew 5:17
"Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill.
- Jeremiah 31:31-34
[31] Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: [32] not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. [33] But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: [34] and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
- Galatians 5:14
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
- Romans 10:4
For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn't have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn't have known coveting, unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."
- 1 John 2:3-6
[3] This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. [4] One who says, "I know him," and doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn't in him. [5] But whoever keeps his word, God's love has most assuredly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him: [6] he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
- James 2:10
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he has become guilty of all.
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