Why don’t we obey all the rules of the Old Testament?

Question: I got asked a question from a coworker, and had no idea how to answer it. Why don’t Christian’s follow all the rules in the old testament? There were rules on how to treat slaves. Taking a wife from a captured nation. Stoning. Not allowed to eat pork, or bottom dwellers. So because of Jesus Christ death, none of those rules are relevant today? My co-worker said ” wouldn’t that make God fallible, or the person who wrote the old testament.” Which would make the Bible fallible.

Answer:  I don’t know if you are a parent, but as parents raising kids we impose rules that change over time.  We haven’t changed as parents, we aren’t being fallible, but are keeping to our main purpose of raising independent adults.  We have made changes as needed to accommodate that singular purpose.  Here are some examples:

When our child is just a toddler…	When our child is a pre-teen…	When our child is an adult…
Don’t touch the blu-ray machine	Show me how to use the blu-ray	They have their own blu-ray
Love your brother and sister	Love your brother and sister	Love your brother and sister
Hold my hand when you cross the street	Hold your brother’s hand when we cross the street	Hold my hand when we cross the street
Take a nap	You can date when you’re 16	Give me grandkids

You can see that some rules remain the same, some new ones are added, and others change or go away as the child develops into adulthood.  Paul tells us that the Law served as “our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:24-26).  The Law of Moses was there only for the time of the world’s development up until Christ’s coming.

And remember, the Law was for a particular nation, Israel, and the people of God now includes Jews and Gentiles, not one nation but many nations.  Many of the laws for Israel were nationally oriented (laws of punishment for certain crimes, national observances of religious festivals, treatment of slaves, etc.).  But believers live under the laws of many different nations around the world.  God was using also using Israel as a witness to the world of their unique relationship to God, and so some of the laws were designed to set Israel apart from other nations (circumcision required for all males, clean and unclean foods designated, forms of dress, etc.).  Believers today cannot be set aside in the same way.  We give witness to our relationship to God through our moral character, especially our love.

So at this time in our “development” as a race we are under a new law, the law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21).  It contains many of the same moral requirements as the Law of Moses (at least nine of the ten commandments, the Sabbath law being altered some), but because of what Christ has accomplished by his sacrifice, all of the sacrificial system of the Law of Moses is no longer pertinent.  Christ’s sacrifice has made all the previous sacrificing obsolete.  He is the fulfillment of all those sacrifices.  And the laws about diet and slavery and so on are also obsolete.

So now we might diagram things this way:

The nation Israel	The Church	The Kingdom
Law of Moses	Law of Christ (1 Cor 9)	Law of the kingdom?
Clean/unclean foods	All foods clean	All foods clean
Scripture to guide	Scripture to guide	No Scripture needed
Love your neighbor	Love your neighbor	Love your neighbor
Sabbath on Saturday	Sabbath on any day (Ro 14)	Perpetual Sabbath?

There will yet be another development in the way we are governed in the kingdom, when Jesus returns.

See what your co-worker thinks of this.  Ask him if he has been a fallible parent if he has changed any of his rules for his kids.