Why Are Some Old Testament Laws Followed Today While Others Are Ignored?
1) Direct Answer
Because Jesus fulfilled the Law and brought in the New Covenant. The parts of the Old Testament that were shadows and rituals for Israel’s worship ended at the Cross, but the moral righteousness of God remains and is written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So we don’t “pick and choose”—we follow what the Bible itself carries forward in the New Testament and what it says has been fulfilled.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Think not that I am come to destroy the law… I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
- “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us… nailing it to his cross… Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday… or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:14-17).
- “The law having a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1).
- “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24).
- The New Testament repeats God’s moral commands: “Thou shalt not commit adultery… kill… steal… bear false witness… covet… and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying… Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Romans 13:9).
- Concerning food laws: Jesus declared what enters the man does not defile him (Mark 7:18-19), and “every creature of God is good… sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
- Concerning sabbath days and feast days, the Scripture calls them “a shadow,” and says not to be judged in them (Colossians 2:16-17). Our true rest is entering into Christ (Hebrews 4:9-10; Matthew 11:28-29).
- Concerning circumcision: “He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29; see also Colossians 2:11).
- The apostles, by the Holy Ghost, laid only necessary things on Gentile believers (Acts 15:28-29), showing that the Mosaic ritual was not binding on the church.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
Now notice how the Bible itself makes the line clear:
- Temple/ceremonial laws (sacrifices, priesthood, feast days, dietary and purity rituals) were shadows pointing to Christ. When the Lamb of God came and shed His blood, the sacrifices and priestly system reached their fulfillment (Hebrews 10:1-14). To keep the shadow after the substance has arrived would deny the very fulfillment.
- Civil/national laws (land rules, penalties, kingship statutes) governed Israel as a nation. The church is not a political nation; our Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). We submit to civil authorities where we live (Romans 13:1-7), but the church does not enforce Israel’s state penalties.
- Moral law (God’s holy character—no idolatry, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, truthfulness, purity, love) never expires. The New Testament reaffirms and even lifts it higher—anger judged as murder in the heart, lust as adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:21-30). Under grace, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:4). God writes His law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).
You see, it’s not three Gods and it’s not two Bibles. It’s one God unfolding His covenant. The shadow gives way to the substance, but the holy nature of God remains the same. That’s why we still reject sin but we don’t keep animal sacrifices, temple rituals, or feast-day obligations. Christ fulfilled them.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So the reason some Old Testament laws are kept and others are not is simple: the Bible says the shadows ended in Christ, and the New Testament repeats and deepens the moral commands. We’re not under the letter that kills, but under the Spirit who writes the law within and leads us to live holy.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-23
Now modern theologians won't agree with me for here is what was written in a great Christian magazine. "That teaching (on the Trinity) is at the very heart and core of the Old Testament. It is every whit as much at the heart and core of the New Testament. The New Testament is just as much opposed as the Old Testament is to the thought that there are more Gods than one. Yet the New Testament with equal clearness teaches that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and that these three are...
Why are people so tossed about?
56-0101 §38
Now, we want to try to get this to a place where we can see exactly what God is doing. So, let's go back now to the Old Testament to get a view of this, and we'll take it by the children of Israel. When they were crossing the Red Sea, and come over into the Promised Land, God, by sovereign grace, each night, rained down manna out of heaven. And the people would go and take this manna and make it into bread, or cakes, or something, and would eat this bread which sustained their life in the journey. And we find out t...
The Church choosing Law for Grace
61-0316 §14
Now that's a solemn thing. We should think on it for a little while. Little did they believe that there was the waters of Marah laid before them, or the Wilderness of Sin, or the Mount Sinai, or the Kadesh-barnea, where they totally failed God---when from Kadesh there was only eleven days to the crossing. They couldn't believe it, because they had already seen so many great things done. They were sure that they were in the will of God, just as our fathers was a few years ago. And they were. But there's where they m...
He swore by Himself
54-1212 §17
Now, there is some of the folks sitting here, three or four of them, that's been here since the church has, I suppose, twenty something years, when I was first ordained. And then, all along, I've always tried to watch the types. In other words, if I never did see the sun, and I seen what the moon did, throwed light on the earth, and so forth like that, and it shined down from the heavens, I'd have some conception of what the sun would be when it did go to shining, because I've looked at the moon; it's a reflection...
A Paradox
65-0117 §21
...aw is the policeman that puts you in jail, but redemption is the one who come paid your fine. And out of, and into, into grace, the Ephesus. Now we find the same thing. The Old Testament... I think this book of Joshua, a fitting word for it would be, the book of Ephesus of the Old Testament. The book of Ephesians of the Old Testament would be a good thing to title this book of Joshua, because it's certainly fitting to this.