The Ceremonial Laws and the Moral Law

The ceremonial laws given by God to Moses, and more accurately, by Christ (per 1 Corinthians, chapter 10), had a very important place in salvation, not for Israel alone, but for the whole world that the Israelites were to evangelize. Certainly, they must not be confused with the Moral Law, those principles written in stone. The ceremonial laws were subordinated to the Ten Commandments as was taught to Israel by their placement in the holy sanctuary. The two tablets of Ten Commandments were placed in direct relationship to the “Mercy seat,” undergirding the throne of God, who was King not only among the tribes of Israel, but throughout the families of heaven and Earth. That holy standard was the transcript of the King’s character. He is holy, period. By association, His people must be holy also. But His holiness does not dispense with mercy; quite the contrary, mercy embellishes His throne. Justice and correction undergird mercy and patience; gentleness and joy beautify and ennoble the strength of truth and judgment.

But beyond the wonders of divine mercy and justice, a second law was given to Israel, and through them to the world. This law, placed to the side of the mercy seat, was implemented to bring the people into appreciation of the mercy and truth that built up the throne of God. His people’s hearts were hardened by generations of abusive control received in Egypt. The children of Israel had no capacity to accept the mercy of God, let alone His justice and discipline. Thus, in His mercy, God would, through their senses, lead them to understand their need of Him. Through the work of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, feeling, and action, they could be taught the mysteries of self-sufficiency and pride, in other words, the mystery of sin and their need for righteousness.

Nothing like death and loss of treasure, has greater affect to sober us up and awaken a sense of responsibility. In the death of a toddler lamb or kid goat lie a gentle shock treatment that had the potential to break the human heart of its stubbornness and resistance against the truth of sin. Still today we need this. The world is suffering from pervasive lack of sorrow for sin. When Christ finally came as the innocent ewe Lamb of God, He fulfilled, yes exceeded, all that the ceremonial law could accomplish for fallen man. In all His life, and especially during His 3 ½ year ministry of love, He qualified Himself as our friend, the most candid but gentle of friends, which is the best kind of friend. In all that He did, it was for us. Self never entered into anything. And when He was then murdered at our ignorant hand, He was found forgiving and interceding to God for us till His very last breath. There, with arms pinned open widely enough to accept anyone, even the whole world, His feet unable to budge from His mighty work, and raised up for all to see, we are also converted if we look. No ceremonial law, however holy, can exceed the work of His sacrifice; those laws were merely shadows in comparison to the real, live Act of the ages.

The Law of God must still stand. It is even magnified by the life which Christ taught and lived. But when the brilliant light from the Law became abundant through the life of the world’s Messiah, His mercy and grace became much more abundant also. Neither the ceremonial law nor the sacrifice of Christ played down the precepts of His Father’s Law. And when we allow the death of God’s dear Son to reconcile us to Him, we find we are reconciled to His moral Law also. Even more powerful for transformation than the ceremonial system of the Old Testament, the great work of Christ’s sacrifice results in our being dead to sin and alive to righteousness, establishing our Father’s Law and becoming His witnesses.