It is true that the law of Moses is truth because it was a law given for a time from God – Psalm 86:11:

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

It was also the way the people of Israel (pre-Christ) were instructed to walk in.  Paul tells us in Romans 10:5:

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

However, although the law was from God and  was holy just and good, people are  sinners and cannot keep the law and are therefore condemned by the law.

A law which cannot give life, is very inferior to a saviour who gives life to those who have faith in him.  That is why the law ended.  The law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.  The law shows us how bad sin is.  It shows us our desperate need of a saviour.  Paul says in Galatians 3:21-26:

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was 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.

So the law is “considered bondage”, because all who serve under the law of Moses are bound to keep the whole law.  This is impossible.  God always planned that the law of Moses would be a means to an end, not an end in itself.   Jesus is the end, the plan, the purpose.  He is the one that saves the faithful people who lived under the law given through Moses, and the faithful people who came later.  Romans 10:4:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

The law is considered fulfilled, because Jesus is the end of the law.  He doesn’t abolish the law, but fulfils the law.  The law is still very useful to help us understand ourselves and our desperate need of Jesus, but we are no longer required to follow it as a body of law.

The law is impossible to keep, because we are sinners.  If one sins, he breaks the law and is cursed by the law.  Galatians 3:10:

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

Even Jesus was cursed by the law. Galatians 3:13-14:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree“– so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Today, we are privileged and blessed to be able to live and serve under the law of liberty.  Romans 8:2-4:

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 

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2 Responses to If the law of Moses is truth, the way, life, the light, the path, perfect and liberty why is it considered bondage, fulfilled, old, a yoke, impossible to keep and irrelevant for today?

  1. Caleb says:

    Jesus disagrees with you. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20

    • Jonathan Morgan says:

      So when do you think the Law is fulfilled?
      Clearly this answer considers Jesus’ life to fulfill the law (which seems reasonable to me).

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