The Difference Between the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ

What's the difference between the law of Moses and the law of Christ? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi there. Welcome to the program. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

This is the show where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now. We'll be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number and jot them in. Put this down for future reference. It's 833-THECORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites or email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Jeremy calling in from Montana. Jeremy, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, Adriel.

Hey, Bill. Good to have you. First of all, I really appreciate you guys, just how you handle questions. I'm currently discipling a guy right now, and I use your guys' methods because it's so just loving and encouraging.

I love it. My question is just—I'll make sure I put it in the best way, most clerical way possible—is what's the difference between Sheol and hell, and not to argue for, but why did Jesus go to the Abraham side instead of the Hades side if He bore our sins and therefore, you know, has the punishment of sin? Thank you.

Hey, Jeremy. Thank you, and appreciate the encouragement there, and may God bless you as you continue to encourage others and disciple others, and I just love to hear that you're doing that. And so, with regard to, you know, you asked the question, what's the difference between Sheol and hell? Oftentimes, that language of Sheol is coming from the Old Testament, thinking of the grave or death, and that's often, you know, how it's used in the context of the Old Testament. And of course, Jesus in the Gospels, when He talks about hell, or Gehenna, you know, He refers to the Valley of Hinnom, this place of really terrible suffering, but also judgment, you know, and He draws correlations between that and the place of perdition, this place of everlasting suffering. And why is it that Jesus, while He was in the tomb, and, you know, sometimes in the Apostles' Creed, for example, say that He descended into hell, well, why don't we teach that Jesus suffered, that, you know, He went to the cross? I mean, we do teach that He suffered on the cross, but what about for those three days prior to His resurrection? Was He suffering there?

And if He wasn't, well, shouldn't He have been? Because He was bearing our sins. So it's important there to distinguish, you know, when the Creed, the Apostles' Creed, for example, talks about the descent of Christ, it's not to suggest that He was suffering in Hades, but it's the idea of vindication, of Christ conquering the grave and proclaiming His victory. And I think you see this in places like 1 Peter 3. But the answer to your question is, you know, why wasn't He continuing to experience suffering in this kind of sense of judgment or perdition?

Like, for example, you know, the rich man in the story that Jesus tells, the rich man in Lazarus in Luke 16. And the reason is because he exhausted the judgment that was due to us on the cross. It's what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 24. And you almost quoted this verse, actually, in your question.

And you may have been, actually. He says, In other words, the suffering that Christ experienced, in which Peter is actually going to talk about in the very next chapter, that suffering, the judgment, the wrath of God, we might say, was exhausted on the cross as Jesus bore the weight of our sins for our salvation. Just later, I mentioned in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, For Christ also suffered, and there, I think, referring back to what He had just talked about in verse 24 of chapter 2, once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, made alive in the Spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. There, again, we have this idea of His descent, going and proclaiming His victory to those in the grave.

And so there's this sense of vindication, there's this sense of triumph leading into His resurrection from the grave. And so I appreciate, again, your question, and may the Lord bless you as you continue to dig into His word. Thanks, Jeremy. Appreciate you listening to CORE Christianity there in Montana. We'd love to hear from you if you are listening anywhere in the country right now or overseas. We actually have international listeners listening online, which we love. Here's the phone number. You can call us at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also leave a voicemail at that number 24 hours a day. And here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners earlier this week. Hello, Pastor Adrian.

I've been listening to your broadcast, and it's been really great. I had a question. So I grew up in an Asian Pentecostal house, and even though when I grew up, I heard questions, I've been hearing teachings about Christ's return and Him taking the church before the tribulations, or pastors talking about that Jesus wouldn't let His church go through severe tribulations. But according to Revelation chapter 14, it talks about the dragon, and also by the end of that chapter, it talks about how the dragon makes war against those who are through with the testimony of Christ.

So I would like to know what your thoughts on that are. So when we were talking here about the study of the last things and the nature of the church's existence, this side of the second coming, are we going to experience persecution and tribulation, even great tribulation? There are some who identify the great tribulation with a period of seven years, some point in the future, and so what you heard essentially was kind of the premillennial dispensational view of the last things, this idea that Christ is going to, one, rapture His church first, that is that true believers are going to be snatched away in the blink of an eye, and then what you're going to have is basically mayhem on earth leading into the second coming, but there's going to be a period of great tribulation that the church is not going to be a part of, and then Jesus is going to return, and that's the second coming, with the church in judgment.

Now that view, I know it's a very popular view, especially in the United States, and popularized through a number of books in particular, you think of the Left Behind series, it's a view that's, I think, permissible, I mean, you know, people who love the word of God and who want to take the Bible seriously, it's a view that they hold, but that's not the view that everybody holds, it's not the view that I hold, per se. It seems to me like a lot of the passages that people will point to when they're talking about the rapture of the church actually refer to just the second coming, so it's not like Jesus raptures His church first and then comes again, but that those texts, in particular in places like 2 Thessalonians and elsewhere, I mean, sometimes people will appeal to verses in the Gospels, those passages are referring to the one singular second coming of Christ, and in this age, we, the church, do experience tribulation. You think of what Jesus said to His disciples in John chapter 16, in this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And so, you know, that tribulation that we experience in this age, this suffering that we experience in this age as the pilgrim people of God, doesn't snatch us out of the hands of the Lord, and of course, I think what you were referring to was actually Revelation chapter 12, that vision that John has, the woman and the dragon, and Satan making war against the church, a really amazing picture, but one of the things you see there is God caring for and sustaining His people, even in the midst of persecution. And one of the things we often miss about the book of Revelation is, really, that gets to the heart of what the book is communicating. It's written to the first century church, suffering intense persecution, both at the hands of the Jews and also at the hands of the Romans, especially with some of the later persecutions that were coming. And so it's Jesus' word to His suffering people, and call to persevere. He's calling them to remain faithful, not to give in to the idolatry of the world, but to remain faithful to Him in the midst of the sufferings that they're experiencing, knowing that He's going to keep them and preserve them by His grace. And brothers and sisters, we need to hear that word today. This is why the book of Revelation is so important today, because it speaks a word of comfort and encouragement to those who suffer, to those who experience tribulation, to those who need a word from Christ in the midst of difficulty.

And so, again, the text you were bringing up, Revelation 12, the church does experience the attack of the evil one in this age, but we know ultimately who has the victory, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him we have the victory too. Amen. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I want to tell you about a great resource we have available. It's a free resource, and it actually has to do with the topic of marital sex. Yeah, the resource is called Seven Truths About Marital Sex, and we've been talking about offering this resource in light of Valentine's Day, which is coming up, which, by the way, don't forget, right?

I mean, important time to make sure you buy flowers or chocolates, or maybe share this resource with your spouse. And I think that it's going to encourage you. It's going to help you to think about intimacy within the context of marriage in a biblical way, in a way that hopefully leads to more flourishing and a closeness in your relationship. And so get ahold of this resource over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. By the way, when you're at our website, check out some of our other great resources, including our core guides, our core questions, and our awesome core Bible studies, many of which Adriel had a hand in writing.

So check those out at corechristianity.com. Well, here's our phone number. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, maybe something going on at your church and you're kind of confused about a church government issue or something happening there that you're in the church life that you'd like to know about, like to ask Adriel about, here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave a voicemail at that number anytime.

And here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named Donna. My question is, are we under the law of Moses? Are we under the law of Christ? And can you distinguish between these two?

Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you very much for that question and a really excellent question. I think in terms of distinguishing between the two, the best place to go would be the book of Galatians because I think there the apostle Paul does sort of draw some distinction between the idea of the law of Moses and the law of Christ. And so as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not under the law of Moses as this works-based covenant. Like the people of Israel were under the old covenant. That law, the Mosaic covenant, has been set aside in place of a better covenant, a new covenant, as the author of the Hebrews talks about in places like Hebrews 8. And it's not that the Mosaic law was or the Mosaic covenant was bad. No, the law of God is good. The problem is we're bad.

We don't faithfully keep the law. We've fallen short of God's glory. And so as a result, there was this new promise, this new covenant as prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31, so that we who are in Christ, having fulfilled the law, and so far as Jesus fulfilled it perfectly for our sake, now by the Spirit also get to walk in the truth of God's Word and in obedience and love to the commandments of the Lord.

Of course, nobody can do that perfectly. But as those who are in Christ united to Him by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they begin slowly, little by little, day by day, to be conformed more and more into the image of Christ and to love Him and to follow Him and to love one another as the people of God. And so you get the language of the law of Christ in places like Galatians 6, verses 1 and 2. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. You know, sometimes this is the language that's used as the law of liberty, the royal law.

James uses that language. Really summarized ultimately in the call to love God and to love our neighbor, as Jesus highlights in places like the Sermon on the Mount or in Matthew chapter 22. And so, again, we're not under the Mosaic law as this covenant. We're not in that anymore. We're not bound by the ceremonies of the Old Testament or the civil law that was given to Israel as a political body. But we are under the moral law. And sometimes we think of that being summarized in the Ten Commandments.

So we do have a relationship to that, but we're not, again, under it as this sort of workspace covenant. And the Apostle Paul actually really highlights that in particular in places like Romans chapters 6 through 8. And especially in chapter 7, he talks about how we've died to the law in that sense so that we might be raised again to new life.

And so, you know, there's a lot going on here, but my encouragement to you as you think about this particular question is to recognize two things. One, none of us can be saved or justified on the basis of law keeping. This is, you know, what you see again and again in the New Testament, Romans chapter 3, verses 21 and following. It's not a righteousness based on the law, but a righteousness based on faith in Jesus Christ. And so we're not justified by the law, but having been justified by grace through faith, we are set free by the grace of the Holy Spirit to live in light of God's commandments. They're a map, a guide, if you will, for how we should live our lives as Christians. And so let the Word of God shape how you think about the world, how you live your life every single day, and the Spirit of God give you strength to love the Lord and to love your neighbor as yourself.

God bless. Just a follow-up question for you on that, Adriel. Sometimes we get calls from individuals, from listeners, who are involved in some kind of faith tradition that focuses a lot on Old Testament customs or festivals or procedures that we see that God prescribed to the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, and their churches are still involved in those things.

And I'm wondering how you would respond to that. Well, you know, I've seen this, Bill, and one concern that I have with that, and this happens a lot of times in some of the sort of messianic Christian circles where people will say, oh, well, we want to have these or celebrate these festivals like the Passover and whatnot, and they can begin to have these sort of religious observances that I think actually diminish the significance of what happened when Jesus came. You know, Paul in Colossians 2 talks about not judging anyone with regard to these things because the substance, Jesus, is here. All of those festivals in the Old Testament pointed forward to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so since Christ has come, we don't go back to those ceremonies, those festivals, as a sort of religious act of worship, and to do so, I think, can actually be quite dangerous. This is why you have books like the book of Galatians that were written where you had a group of people that were saying, we need to go back to the Mosaic laws and ceremonies, things like circumcision, in order to be justified, in order to be right before God.

And Paul says, and the whole church, really, in the Jerusalem Council of Acts chapter 15, they all said, no, that's actually not right. We're adding to the gospel if that's what we're trying to do. And so, you know, when I hear about people doing this, I mean, typically it seems to me like, you know, they're wanting to have this kind of historical experience. So they're not trying to say, oh, you know, we're all bound to these things religiously.

But we do start to muddy the waters, and I think it can be dangerous to begin to, you know, go back to those things. So I'm concerned with that practice in particular. Thanks for that clarification.

Appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are still open. We're taking calls for the next five minutes or so if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also email us anytime. Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com.

Here's an email from Shelly. She says, I grew up in a Christian family, and until recently, I didn't wonder when baptism with water began. I've always heard it's a sign and seal to show that the recipient is a child of God and belongs to him and is done in place of circumcision. Scripture tells us that John and Jesus' disciples were baptizing before Jesus' death and resurrection.

This has brought up several questions for me. When did baptism with water begin and why? And was John the Baptist the first one to baptize with water? There's evidence that, you know, the Essenes, this group that many people think John the Baptist came from, out in the wilderness, you know, apocalyptic preachers, if you will, wanting to be pure and holy, that they would practice these ritual baptisms. And so you did have this kind of ritual baptism prior to or around the time of John and then certainly prior to the baptism of Christ, or you think of the apostles as well. You also have the Old Testament types of baptism. So, for example, crossing through the Red Sea, that's depicted as a type of baptism. Even the flood of Genesis 6, right, that's referred to as a kind of baptism. And so you have these Old Testament types of the New Testament reality that was coming.

And ultimately, what does that reality depict or convey? It's this picture of salvation through judgment. Certainly the flood is a really clear example of this, right? You have Noah and his family saved through the waters of the deluge, but then you also have all of these people who rejected the word of the gospel, we might say, the truth that was being proclaimed at that time. And the same flood waters that saved Noah and his family became waters of judgment for them. And you see this also with, you know, crossing through the Red Sea, the Israelites baptized through the water there, as Paul talks about in places like 1 Corinthians.

But those waters also being the waters of judgment for the Egyptians who were chasing them down. And so, you know, when Jesus shows up, he talks about his own suffering and death in the context of a baptism. He says, I have a baptism to undergo. And he was referring there to his cross, the suffering that he would experience. And in baptism now, as Christians, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism is this picture of identification with Christ in his death and resurrection. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter six.

But it does have that long Old Testament background, that history that helps us to understand its significance for us, even as believers today. So great question, Shelley. Thanks, and thanks for that historical context, Adriel, very helpful. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Eric calling in from Missouri. Eric, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey, nice speaking to you all, guys. My question is, I always have questions about, is it wrong to get tattoos? And I usually say that, basically, it's the markings of the heathen, and that I would not do it. And then I also go a little further saying, like, what tattoo parlor have you went to that was godly or anything that represented Christ? I said, God is enough.

Your body already is a masterpiece. Why throw paint over it, you know? But I just want to know if you could elaborate a little more on that. I had another question, but I know time is upon us.

Yeah. Eric, thanks for the question, brother. And yeah, I mean, there are some people that are going to say, well, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You know, how could you tattoo your body? And certainly in places like Leviticus, in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 28, it talks about, you know, no cuttings or markings for the dead.

Don't tattoo your body there in particular. That was given to the people of God entering into the land of Canaan. And it was a call to be distinct from the peoples of the world. There, I think, especially the idea of tattooing had these sort of pagan ritual association, false worship. And so I don't think it's the same exact thing that people do today when they get, you know, an anchor tattooed on their arm or, you know, a heart or whatever it is. So I would say, Eric, that this is one of those matters of Christian liberty. Certainly I think that there are things that would be wrong to tattoo on your body that aren't honoring to the Lord.

But then I think there are other instances where it's, you know, it's a matter of wisdom. I think some of the questions we need to ask ourselves when we think about tattoos or just our physical appearances, you know, are we being vain? You know, we're always focusing on drawing attention to ourselves and not considering the importance of the inner heart before the Lord.

Where is our priority? But even with those kinds of questions, I think that this is a matter of Christian liberty and Christian freedom. So if a believer were to get a tattoo, you know, I wouldn't look at them and say, oh, you know, you're engaging in pagan worship or you must not be a Christian or you are sinning. That is sin. I don't think that we could go that far and draw that conclusion. But as I said, there are certainly things that would be dishonoring to the Lord to tattoo on your body.

And so we have to use wisdom. And Bill, do you have any tattoos? Just the Taylor Swift tattoo on my bicep. That's all. Okay. Well, we all know that Bill doesn't have any tattoos.

He's not, he's not cool. Thanks a lot. But brothers and sisters, once again, appreciate you listening to the broadcast today and may God bless you as you go out seeking to honor him, to serve him each and every day with the life that he's given to you. God bless. Thank you.