One of the arguments against Christians is that we claim
that the Bible is God’s Word, and yet we don’t follow all of it. Most often it
is in reference to the Old Testament, and even more often the punishments are
pointed out. Children stoned for disobedience, adulterers stoned, and so on.
Often those in the debate are put on their heels when someone brings up the Old
Testament punishments. I don’t see a problem with believing that the Moral Law
still holds while the punishment for disobeying that Law doesn’t. We do it all
the time even today in America. It used to be that the punishment for
premeditated murder was death. Over time we have changed the punishment for
murder, but we haven’t changed the belief that murder is wrong.
That is the exact teaching of Scripture to Christians about
the Law. We are no longer held under the punishments of the Law, but we are
still held to the morality of the Law. It is still a sin to disobey your
parents, or to commit adultery, or to have sex outside of marriage, or to have
homosexual sex. The fact that we no longer hold the same punishments for those
sins doesn’t mean they are no longer sins. Christ came to fulfill the Law, not
remove it. Without the Law, it becomes difficult to delineate right and wrong.
We can see that clearly in our society today. We want to redefine right and
wrong so that we can do what we want to do. The Law says that homosexual
activity is a sin, but since there are those among us that want to participate
in homosexual activity, we must redefine the Law, and since we no longer punish
homosexuals with death, then it must be alright, right?
