Old Testament law is one of the parts of the Bible Christians often find hardest to read well.

Many of us know the Ten Commandments. We may know the command to love our neighbour. But then we get to laws about sacrifices, skin disease, tassels, food, festivals, slavery, debt, purity, mildew and land boundaries, and we are not always sure what to do with them.

Some Christians respond by quietly skipping those sections. Others treat the Old Testament law as though it applies directly unless the New Testament specifically cancels it. Others say, “That was the Old Testament,” and move on too quickly. Each response has a problem. The law is Scripture, so Christians should not ignore it. But the law was also given within a particular covenant, to a particular people, in a particular time and place, so Christians should not apply it as though nothing changed with Christ.

This article is a starting point. It is not a complete theology of the law. My aim is to suggest a way of reading Old Testament law that takes the text seriously, honours its place in the Bible and recognises that Christians read it through Jesus.

Start with what the law was

The first mistake is to treat Old Testament law as a random collection of religious rules. In the Bible, the law is part of God’s covenant relationship with Israel.

God did not give Israel the law so they could earn rescue from Egypt. God rescued them first. The commandments came after redemption. That order matters. Exodus moves from liberation to covenant, from grace to instruction. The law was given to a redeemed people so they could live as God’s covenant people in the land.

That means the law was not merely legal material. It shaped worship, justice, community life, land use, family responsibility, economic practice and Israel’s witness among the nations. It taught Israel what holiness looked like in everyday life. It also marked Israel out as a people belonging to the Lord.

So when Christians read Old Testament law, we are not reading an abstract moral code floating above history. We are reading covenant instruction given to Israel as part of the story that leads to Christ.

Do not flatten all laws into one category

Another common mistake is to speak of “the law” as though every command works in the same way.

Christians have often divided the law into moral, ceremonial and civil categories. That distinction can be useful, especially because it recognises that some commands express enduring moral truth while others relate more directly to Israel’s worship or national life. But the Bible itself does not present the law in neat modern categories. Many commands overlap. A law about sacrifice is ceremonial, but it also teaches about sin, holiness and reconciliation. A law about land is civil, but it may also reveal God’s concern for justice, family inheritance and economic mercy.

So the categories can help, but they should not do all the work. Instead of asking only, “Is this moral, civil or ceremonial?”, it is better to ask several questions:

  • What did this law mean for Israel?
  • What did it reveal about God?
  • What did it teach about worship, justice, mercy, holiness or community?
  • How does the New Testament treat this issue?
  • How is this fulfilled, transformed or reaffirmed in Christ?

Those questions help us avoid two extremes: ignoring the law because we are not ancient Israel, or applying it woodenly because it is in the Bible.

Read the law in light of the whole story

The Old Testament law sits inside the larger biblical story. Creation comes before Sinai. Abraham comes before Moses. The prophets come after the law. Jesus fulfils the law. The Spirit forms the church. The story ends not with Israel under Torah in the land, but with renewed creation and the people of God gathered from every nation.

That does not make the law irrelevant. It places the law within the movement of Scripture.

For example, the food laws marked Israel as a distinct people. They trained Israel in separation, holiness and obedience. But in the New Testament, Jesus declares all foods clean, and Peter’s vision in Acts 10 becomes part of the church’s recognition that Gentiles are not to be treated as unclean. The deeper issue is not that holiness disappears. The issue is that holiness is now formed around Christ and the Spirit, not around Israel’s food boundary markers.

The sacrificial system is similar. Christians do not offer animal sacrifices, not because sacrifice was meaningless, but because Hebrews presents Christ as the once-for-all sacrifice to which the earlier system pointed. The law is not discarded as useless. It is fulfilled in a way that changes how it applies.

This is why Christians read Old Testament law canonically. We read it as part of the whole Bible, not as isolated commands.

Jesus fulfils the law

Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 are central: he did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them. Fulfilment does not mean the Old Testament was wrong. It means the law reaches its goal in him.

This matters because Christians are not under the Mosaic covenant in the same way Israel was. The New Testament can speak of believers not being “under law” while still calling them to obedience. Paul can reject circumcision as a requirement for Gentile believers while also insisting that love fulfils the law. James can speak of the “royal law” and the “law of liberty.” Jesus can intensify commands about murder and adultery by taking them to the level of anger, lust and the heart.

So Christian freedom is not lawlessness. It is life in Christ, by the Spirit, shaped by love of God and neighbour.

The question is not, “Do Christians need to obey God?” Of course we do. The better question is, “How does this command come to us now that Christ has come?”

Love is not a shortcut that empties the law

Jesus summarised the law with love for God and love for neighbour. Paul similarly says that love fulfils the law. But this does not mean love is vague sentiment replacing commandment.

Love gives the law its proper centre. It reveals what God was always aiming at: faithful relationship with God and just, merciful relationships with others. When Christians read Old Testament law, we should ask how a law trains us to love rightly.

Consider laws about gleaning. Israel was commanded not to harvest fields to the very edges, but to leave some for the poor and the foreigner. Christians are not ancient Israelite landholders living under that covenant structure. But the command still reveals something about God’s concern for the vulnerable, the dignity of work, economic restraint and community responsibility. A Christian cannot simply say, “That law does not apply,” and move on. We need to ask what generosity, justice and neighbour-love look like in our own setting.

The same is true of Sabbath. Christians disagree about how Sabbath applies today. But at the very least, Sabbath laws reveal that human beings are not machines, workers are not tools, animals are not mere production units, and time itself belongs to God. Even where application differs, the theological witness remains powerful.

Some laws reveal God’s heart by limiting harm

Some Old Testament laws make modern readers uncomfortable, and rightly so. Laws about slavery, warfare, patriarchy, divorce and punishment can raise serious moral questions.

One important principle is that not every law describes God’s ideal world. Some laws regulate life in a fallen, ancient society. They may limit harm, restrain abuse or create order within cultural realities that Scripture as a whole moves beyond.

Jesus himself points in this direction when he discusses divorce. He says Moses permitted divorce because of hardness of heart, but that it was not this way from the beginning. That is a crucial interpretive clue. Some laws respond to human sinfulness rather than expressing the fullness of creation’s ideal.

This does not solve every difficulty. It does, however, warn us against treating every law as a direct statement of the best possible moral arrangement. Sometimes the law works within a broken world while still pointing beyond it.

The law teaches wisdom, not just rules

Old Testament law should also be read as wisdom-forming instruction.

Modern readers often want a direct yes-or-no answer: “Does this law apply to me?” But biblical law often trains moral imagination. It teaches us what God values. It shows patterns of justice, mercy, holiness, restitution, worship, truth-telling and community responsibility.

Take the law about building a parapet around the roof of a house. Most of us do not use flat roofs as living spaces in the same way ancient Israelites did. But the law teaches responsibility for preventable harm. It says, in effect, “Do not build your life in a way that needlessly endangers others.” That principle can speak to workplace safety, disability access, child protection, road behaviour, church policies and public responsibility.

This is one reason Old Testament law remains valuable for Christian ethics. We are not simply copying ancient Israel. We are learning to think with Scripture.

The New Testament sometimes reaffirms, sometimes transforms

Christians also need to notice how the New Testament uses the law.

Some commands are reaffirmed directly. The command not to murder, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness clearly continues in Christian moral teaching. The command to love neighbour becomes central. The call to care for the poor remains strong.

Other commands are transformed. Sacrifice is fulfilled in Christ. Circumcision is no longer required as a covenant marker. Food laws do not function as before. Temple worship is reframed around Christ, the Spirit and the people of God.

Other laws are not directly reapplied, but still teach theological and moral wisdom. Laws about land, debt release and gleaning may not transfer directly to modern nation-states or churches, but they still challenge greed, permanent poverty and indifference to the vulnerable.

So the New Testament does not give us a simple delete-or-keep list. It gives us Christ, the Spirit, apostolic teaching and a way of reading the Old Testament within the fulfilled story of God.

A practical reading process

When reading an Old Testament law, I find this sequence helpful.

First, read the law in context. Where does it appear? Is it in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy? What is happening in Israel’s story?

Second, ask what problem the law addresses. Is it about worship, justice, purity, economic life, family order, violence, land, leadership or community identity?

Third, ask what it reveals about God. Does it show God’s holiness, mercy, justice, concern for the weak, seriousness about sin or desire to dwell with his people?

Fourth, ask how it relates to creation and wisdom. Does it connect to human dignity, rest, work, marriage, justice, stewardship or community life?

Fifth, ask how it is fulfilled, reaffirmed or transformed in Christ and the New Testament.

Sixth, ask what faithful Christian practice might look like now. Not, “How do I copy ancient Israel?” but, “How does this Scripture train me to love God and neighbour as someone who belongs to Christ?”

This process does not make every passage easy. But it gives us a faithful starting point.

Why this matters pastorally

How we read Old Testament law affects how we present God.

If we treat the law as a harsh rulebook that Jesus rescues us from, we may imply that the God of the Old Testament is unlike the Father of Jesus Christ. That is not Christian faith. The God who gives the law is the same God revealed in Christ.

If we apply the law without attention to covenant, fulfilment and context, we may bind people where the New Testament does not. That can lead to confusion, fear or legalism.

If we ignore the law altogether, we lose a major part of Scripture’s witness to justice, holiness, worship and community life.

A better path is to read the law as Christian Scripture, fulfilled in Christ and still profitable for teaching, correction and formation. It does not all apply in the same way. But it all matters.

Where I currently stand

I do not think Christians should read Old Testament law as a flat list of rules where each command either applies unchanged or is cancelled. That approach is too blunt.

I also do not think we should treat the law as irrelevant because we are under the new covenant. That approach cuts us off from too much of Scripture.

The better approach is to read Old Testament law through covenant, canon and Christ. The law was given to Israel, but it remains Scripture for the church. Its sacrifices, priesthood, purity markers and national structures are fulfilled and transformed in Christ. Its moral and theological witness continues to teach us how to think about God, neighbour, holiness, justice, mercy and community life.

So when I read Old Testament law, I try to ask not only, “Does this apply?” but, “What does this reveal, how is it fulfilled and what kind of people is God forming through this Scripture?”

That question does not make the law simple. But it does make it worth reading.

Sources and Further Reading

This article is written as a plain-language guide rather than an academic paper. The following sources have shaped the discussion and are useful starting points for readers who want to go deeper.

  • Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament.
  • Christopher J. H. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God.
  • Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.
  • Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
  • Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament.
  • Thomas R. Schreiner, 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law.
  • Greg L. Bahnsen, Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Douglas J. Moo, Wayne G. Strickland and Willem A. VanGemeren, Five Views on Law and Gospel.
  • John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton, The Lost World of the Torah.
  • J. Daniel Hays, “Applying the Old Testament Law Today,” Bibliotheca Sacra 158, no. 629 (2001): 21–35.