Christian and the Law

"The entire law is still applicable because the entire law reflects God’s unchanging character (compare Matt. 22:37-40). Nevertheless, the way in which we are to obey the law has changed signficantly due to the coming of Christ and changes in other historical circumstances. For example, the sacrificial laws still apply because God still demands an adequate sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 9:26; 10:12,26; 1 John 2:1-2). Nevertheless, we observe those laws today not by offering animals according to the Mosaic system, but by trusting Christ as our sufficient sacrifice (1 Cor. 5:7; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:26; 10:12; 1 John 2:1-2) — Christ’s one sacrifice for all time continues to satisfy the requirements of actual sacrifice. Similarly, just as Israel was to render civil obedience to laws pertaining to Israel’s theocracy, we are now to render obedience to Jesus the king, the ruler of our Christian theocracy. The principles of God’s character that the Old Testament laws reflected have not changed, but the ways in which we are to act in accordance with his character have changed. We must interpret all the Old Testament laws in light of changes that have taken place in the history of redemption (Christ has come), differences between our culture/society and that of the original audience, and personal differences between each of us as individuals. This is not to say that truth is relative, but rather that application of truth must take into account many things which are not made explicit in the law itself." Richard Pratt

To be Christians under the law of grace does not mean to wander unbridled outside the law, but to be engrafted in Christ, by whose grace we are free from the curse of the law, and by whose Spirit we have the law engraved upon our hearts.
~ John Calvin

“Under the law, in Adam, one is trapped in the cycle of sin and death, resentment and despair, self-righteousness and self-condemnation. Yet under grace, in Christ, one is not only justified apart from the law but is able for the first time to respond to that law of love that calls from the deepest recesses of our being as covenantally constituted creatures. It is not the law itself that changes, but our relation to it, and that makes all the difference.”
Michael Horton’s chapter “Obedience Is Better than Sacrifice” in the book The Law Is Not Of Faith: (334)

"The regenerate person loves the law, not as a savior, but because it perfectly reflects the heart of the Savior." -JWH

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." -Psalm 119:97