The Law of Moses was never God’s first choice, it was Plan B

This was His plan A.

Exodus 19:3-6

And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

Notice he said obey my voice and keep my covenant, not my commandments. 

What covenant was God talking about? The covenant that he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was already in place and it was the very reason God had heard their cries in slavery and delivered them. 

A covenant is a relational agreement between two parties where both sides bring benefits to the other. Both sides have obligations to fulfill in the agreement, it is conditional on both sides keeping their agreement. But with Abraham God initiated the covenant, it was not up to Abraham to do anything, it was entered into by a promise of what God would do. This is the same covenant he was asking to children of Israel to enter into and keep.

He also said, if they kept his covenant, they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, sound familiar?

1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

This was the offer that was on the table for the nation of Israel when God called them to come to him at Mt. Sinai but they refused.

Exodus 20:18-21

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

The people rejected God’s offer, exit plan A!

This was plan B.

In rejecting the relational covenant and choosing instead to have a mediator (Moses and the priesthood) God then gave them the whole law. Since they would not listen to his voice and obey it they had to have a written law to follow. 

Paul said in Galatians 3:19

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed (Christ) should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

What was the transgression? Refusing his first offer!

Then Paul says “Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Galatians 3:23-25

So, Paul says that the law was added to guard us (enclose, shut in) and to tutor us until Christ would arrive but now, since Jesus has come, we are no longer under the tutor.

We are now back to plan A!

Now we hear his voice and obey. The only mediator is Jesus, not priests or pastors or anyone else, there is no one between us and our God. We enter into his covenant when we are in Christ, now the law is no longer necessary. We are a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Going back to the law is to return to plan B, with one BIG exception, plan B is not available anymore. The written code is still there but the atonement provided for under the law is no longer available.

Hebrews 10:26

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

To sin willfully is to return to the Law, it is to reject the offering of Christ and to go back to a system that is obsolete and has been removed.

In the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD every single vestige of the sacrificial system of atonement was destroyed. Not just the temple but all the instruments that went along with it. AND the lineage of the Levitical  priesthood that was required to prove the true priesthood. Regardless of what some people may think, there will never be a return to true Judaism. What is left is Rabbinical Judaism that has no atonement for sin.

That is why there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, that age is over and has been for almost 2000 years.

Thank God we have a better covenant based on better promises. 

Hebrews 10:12-14

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Blessings,

Jeff Martin