The Law of God Which Binds All Men
When I was a Christian growing up, I don’t know what I really thought about “the Law of God” because I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I just loved God and loved my neighbor as myself.
But then in my late 30’s I started questioning why we, as Christians, weren’t abiding by the dietary laws written about in the Bible.
I mean, it was God who said that certain kinds of flesh (such as that of pork or shellfish) were not to be consumed, yet I was never taught as a Christian to avoid eating those things. Why was that?
When I posed that question to my pastor, he referred me to Mark 7:15 and Acts 10 and told me that for the New Testament believer, the Old Testament Law (to include the dietary law) was done away with.
I read the verses he pointed to, but I wasn’t satisfied with his explanation, so I persisted with my line of questioning. However, I turned directly to the Bible instead of other men and diligently sought out the answers for myself in there.
Matthew 5:17 stuck out to me because Jesus said he didn’t come to destroy the law, or the prophets, but rather to fill them up.
I then asked, if Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, and it was my understanding that he himself obeyed the law, then why was it being taught in church that we, as Christians, weren’t expected to obey it?
Verse 18 in that same chapter states Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” And as far as I could tell at that point “heaven and earth” had not passed, so wouldn’t the law still be in effect? (I have since learned differently.)
Clearly the sacrificial laws were no longer in effect, but what about the other laws? Where was the line of demarcation as to what we, as Christians, were expected to obey?
Thus began my deep dive into the Bible.
One question led to another, and then to another, and to another. And because I sincerely wanted to understand, I maintained my Biblical pursuit for answers to them all.
The Meaning of “Law”
I quickly discovered that the Hebrew word for “law” in the Old Testament was “torah”, and it meant “teachings & instructions”, not “law” in the sense of being a binding or enforceable custom.
It became clear to me that the teachings & instructions given in the days of Moses were to the people who were gathered in his presence in the wilderness. They were bound to keep them because of the covenant they made with God. To them it was the Law of God, which bound them.
According to the Old Testament that covenant expanded to include the physical offspring of the children of Israel and those who joined themselves to that people (& thereby that covenant) via circumcision.
I was not a part of that. So, to me, those teachings (rules & guidelines) were simply that which I could learn about and learn lessons from.
The New Covenant = The Old Covenant Renewed?
At some point, I started to think that the “new” covenant spoken of by Jesus at his last supper with his disciples was a renewal of the covenant made between God and the children of Israel. And that covenant somehow expanded to include me.
While I personally didn’t feel obligated to obey what Moses taught. I did desire to do so, because I thought what God had instructed was beneficial and could somehow be beneficial to me.
Later I came to realize that I had been improperly inserting myself into the story of the Bible.
The Bible’s Story Is Not About Me
For all my life I had thought we were living in the “last days” now and Jesus was coming back (somehow), because that is what I was taught as a Christian.
But then I came to understand that the “last days” spoken of in the New Testament were referring to the days leading up to the destruction of the temple and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
The story of the Bible ended in the first century.
Given all of this, it’s impossible for any of us now to be a part of that story. We’re simply readers of that story. And I’m a student of the book that tells that story.
So, where does that leave us when it comes to “the Law of God” and what we are bound to keep?
As I’ve mentioned before, I see two portrayals of “God”:
- The “God” that is portrayed in the Bible who has been identified as the “Maker of Heaven and Earth”.
- The self-evident Maker of Heaven & Earth (aka the Creator), who I deem to be “god/God” (adjective/noun) — The Almighty, Supreme Being.
The first portrayal puts forth what I consider to be wise sayings and a wise message. That is not “the Law” I or anyone else in the modern age are bound to follow. That is simply a body of teachings & instructions from which we can all learn, if we so choose.
The second portrayal established a Natural Law at the time of His creation that is universal by which all of mankind for all of time are bound to abide by. That is what I consider to be the Law of God, which binds all men.
[This page was last revised on 11/9/25.]