Excerpts taken from The Gospel 33 AD by Paul Lehr.
At the core of the need for the gospel message is a simple legal argument and matter. God made this very clear from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden. Listen and obey God’s directions. “Eat all you want except for one.” There are consequences. Some consequences are good and some are bad.
Genesis 2:16-17 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
As time progressed, Moses was given the Law for the nation of Israel on Mount Sinai. God communicated His Law to Moses approximately 3,600 years ago. These directions were given to Moses approximately 1,600 years before Christ. In total, there were 613 laws given. This number includes the Ten Commandments. Jews have even broken down the number of negative and positive commands. 365 are negative commands and 248 are positive commands. Read the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) of the Bible for these laws or mitzvoth (Hebrew term).
As far as God is concerned, there is no separation of moral and legal code. Culturally and legally the United States is different. We have a separation of church and state. That is not the intended case with God and His nation Israel.
Well so what if we break God’s Law? What is the big deal? Sin is a big deal to God. It does not matter the offense. If you break the law, the punishment is death. It does not matter if one steals, lies, commits murder or adultery, covets, or whatever. There are no “shades of grey” when it comes to sin. There is not a sliding scale for sin. One sin is not more condemning than another. If you break one, you break them all. That is God’s standard.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death…
1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law…
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The critic often says, “Well, the Ten Commandments are in the Old Testament and we live during the church age in the New Testament. Jesus took care of the Law.”
A message for the critic, the Mosaic Law is still present whether you believe it or not. The issue is whether or not you have Jesus to cover your mess. The Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments have not gone away. Jesus Himself made this very clear.
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”