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.
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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Lamb's book of life
56-0603 §23
And you know that still exists today? There's people today who tries to keep the law of the Old Testament, and still be Christian, when one is very contrary to the other. If you do one part of the law, you have to do it all. "You're a debtor," says the Bible, "to do all the law," if you do part of it. And then if you keep the law, as the sacrifice, and Sabbath, and obligations, and eatings and washings, and so forth, under the law. But we're not under law now, we're under grace. And Paul is trying to show where the...
The Church choosing Law for Grace
61-0316 §12
Now, you that keep down, usually, Scriptures, I'll ask you tonight to turn to the book of Deuteronomy, and the 2nd chapter and the 3rd verse for the text: Ye have been on this mountain long enough: turn you northward. I like to teach from the Old Testament, because the Old Testament is a type of the New. As we approach this most solemn, sacred text tonight---like all of his Word is solemn and sacred---I wish to set up a parallel of the Old and New Testament of days gone by, and days that now is.
Why are people so tossed about?
56-0101 §53
In Ezekiel, in the old times, when the laws were put into the Tabernacle in the ark---the laws of God---Ezekiel spoke of another time. Now, the people... There's two classes of people today: them same classes that's trying to do something to save themselves. Each one says, "I'll go to church every Sunday." That's very good. "I want to be religious." That's very good. That's still under the law. But when the other, by going to church and being good is not something that you do yourself, it's something in you doing i...
The waters of separation
55-0606 §4
...ght sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, "The washing of the water by the Word." The subject is: The Waters Of Separation. Going back into the Old Testament, where our brother just read the Scripture lesson tonight, to teach a little bit from the Word, the Lord willing. Now, tomorrow... The Old Testament: Many people just discard that old book when it's really the... It's the shadow of the new. The only way that I can feel like I get half-way lined up is to look back in the Old Testame...
A Hidden Life
55-1006A §14
Now, God has made it so wonderful that in the Old Testament, where usually I go to for refuge for a text once in a while... He's made the Old Testament in parables and in symbolic forms to express Himself and His doings, that the simple-minded might be able to have a conception of His will and what He's done. Many times in the Old Testament, how I have went back to find the Old typing the New. Always, God did and what He's doing now in the New Testament, He foreshadowed it in the Old Testament. And all of those who...