History of the “Law”

Now we need to realize that law did not originate with the Law of Moses. Law was first introduced to Adam when God said, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”(Gen. 2:17)

So law was there in the Garden—just not “the Law” as it was later given. And sin was also around from the very beginning. But the thing we must understand is that law had to be in place for punishment to be meted out, since sin cannot be charged unless law exists to identify it.(Romans 5:13-14)

We Christians claim—and rightly so—that in Christ we are now free from the Law. But by this do we mean the Law of Moses only, or all law. Well, most of us would be quick to say that we’ve merely been freed from the Law of Moses. But doesn’t this raise another question? Doesn’t Old Testament law contain many commandments which are still pertinent today?

How about the Ten Commandments, for example? Which one of these laws would we be comfortable with breaking? Which one of them might we violate without any thought of consequences?

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

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