What Specific Laws Continue and What Specific Laws Ceased?¶

A Plain-English Summary of the Biblical Evidence

The New Testament contains passages that affirm God's law and passages that declare certain regulations abolished. This has produced a longstanding debate: Did the coming of Christ end the entire Old Testament law, or did it end only a specific portion? This study set out to answer that question by cataloguing every relevant New Testament passage, identifying which specific laws each passage names as continuing and which specific laws each passage names as ceased. The goal was not to argue from theological tradition, but to let the text itself show the pattern.

What emerged was remarkably consistent. When the New Testament affirms the law, it names moral content -- the Ten Commandments. When the New Testament declares something abolished, it names ceremonial content -- sacrifices, priesthood regulations, circumcision, feast-day ordinances, and ritual washings. This pattern holds across multiple authors, multiple books, and multiple decades of New Testament writing.

Jesus on the Permanence of the Law¶

Jesus made sweeping statements about the law's endurance. In the Sermon on the Mount, He addressed any suggestion that His mission involved dismantling what God had given:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17-18)

He reinforced this in Luke's Gospel:

"It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." (Luke 16:17)

When a man asked what he must do to enter life, Jesus pointed directly to the Ten Commandments:

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments... Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother." (Matthew 19:17-19)

Jesus did not point him to the sacrificial system or to circumcision. He named specific moral commandments from the Decalogue and called them "the commandments" without qualification.

Paul's Distinction Within a Single Verse¶

One of the most important passages in this discussion comes from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, where he draws a clear line between two categories of law in a single sentence:

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." (1 Corinthians 7:19)

Circumcision -- the ceremonial rite -- is dismissed as "nothing." But the commandments of God are affirmed as what matters. Paul does not treat all law as a single, indivisible block. He distinguishes between what has passed and what remains, right within the same verse.

Paul made the same point in Romans:

"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." (Romans 3:31)

And again:

"The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." (Romans 7:12)

"The law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7:14)

Paul also listed specific commandments -- no adultery, no murder, no theft, no false witness, no coveting -- and identified them as the content that love fulfills (Romans 13:8-10). He cited the fifth commandment as still binding for believers (Ephesians 6:2-3). He affirmed that the law is good when used properly and listed sins that correspond to the commandments (1 Timothy 1:8-10).

What the New Testament Says Was Abolished¶

When the New Testament speaks of laws that have ended, it consistently names ceremonial regulations -- never the Ten Commandments. The key passages use a distinct set of terms.

In Colossians, Paul wrote:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross... Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come." (Colossians 2:14, 16-17)

The content listed -- dietary regulations, feast days, new moons, and ceremonial sabbaths -- is ceremonial. The phrase "handwriting of ordinances" uses a Greek word meaning "hand-written document," which contrasts with the Ten Commandments, described in Exodus and Deuteronomy as "written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10).

The book of Hebrews identifies what ceased with equal precision:

"Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9:10)

"The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." (Hebrews 10:1)

"Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." (Hebrews 10:18)

The Levitical priesthood succession law also changed:

"The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." (Hebrews 7:12)

But the same book of Hebrews, in the same discussion, affirms that God's own laws continue under the new covenant:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." (Hebrews 8:10)

The new covenant does not replace God's laws with different ones. It places the same laws -- "my laws," God says -- in a new location: the mind and heart.

The Greek Vocabulary Pattern¶

One of the most striking findings of this study is how consistently the New Testament's own vocabulary separates moral from ceremonial law. When New Testament authors affirm the law, they use the Greek word "entole" (commandment) without any limiting qualifier, and the content they name is always from the Ten Commandments. In all identifiable instances across the New Testament -- forty-three of them -- this pattern holds without exception.

When New Testament authors speak of laws that ended, they use different vocabulary: "dogma" (ordinance, decree), "cheirographon" (handwriting), "dikaiomata sarkos" (carnal ordinances), and "skia" (shadow). The word "dogma" is never used to refer to the Ten Commandments in any of its five New Testament occurrences.

This is not a theological framework imposed from outside. It is a pattern observable in the text itself.

The Sabbath Question¶

Some have argued that Colossians 2:16-17 abolishes the weekly seventh-day Sabbath along with the ceremonial sabbaths. The study found that the passage's context -- "handwriting of ordinances" and the sequence of "holyday, new moon, sabbath days," which matches Old Testament patterns for annual, monthly, and ceremonial observances -- points to ceremonial sabbaths rather than the weekly Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

Several other passages speak directly to the Sabbath's continuation. After the crucifixion, the women who followed Jesus "rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke 23:56). The book of Hebrews states that "there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9), using the Greek word "sabbatismos" -- a Sabbath-keeping. Jesus Himself declared that "the sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27), grounding it in creation rather than in the Mosaic ceremony. And the fourth commandment itself bases the Sabbath on the creation week (Exodus 20:8-11), placing its origin before the ceremonial system existed.

Clean and Unclean Foods¶

A common objection asks: If the moral law continues, what about the clean and unclean food distinctions? Were those not abolished?

The study found that the passages commonly cited do not directly address Levitical food categories. Romans 14 uses the Greek word "koinos" (common), not the Levitical term for unclean, and its context concerns vegetarianism (Romans 14:2), not the clean/unclean animal distinction. First Timothy 4:3-5 addresses ascetic false teachings that forbid marriage and command abstaining from foods "which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving," and adds that food is "sanctified by the word of God" -- meaning the Word of God remains the standard for what qualifies as food. Peter's vision in Acts 10 is interpreted by Peter himself as being about people, not food: "God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean" (Acts 10:28).

Furthermore, the clean/unclean animal distinction predates the Mosaic law entirely. God told Noah to take clean animals by sevens and unclean by twos (Genesis 7:2), using the same Hebrew vocabulary that Leviticus later uses. This places the distinction in creation's order, not merely in the ceremonial system.

Tithing¶

A similar question arises about tithing: Does it continue, or was it purely Levitical? The study found that tithing also predates the Mosaic system. Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20) -- a priest who was not from the tribe of Levi. The book of Hebrews discusses this at length and uses present-tense language: "Here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth" (Hebrews 7:8).

Most significantly, Jesus explicitly affirmed tithing:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." (Matthew 23:23)

"These ought ye to have done" -- tithing -- "and not to leave the other undone" -- the weightier matters. Jesus affirms both, while prioritizing the weightier matters. He does not dismiss tithing; He insists on it alongside justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

The Law in the Last Days¶

The book of Revelation identifies God's end-time people by two marks: commandment-keeping and faith in Jesus.

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12)

"The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 12:17)

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life." (Revelation 22:14)

The same word -- "entole," commandments -- that the rest of the New Testament uses for the moral law appears here at the close of Scripture. The standard has not changed.

What the Bible Does NOT Say¶

Honest study requires acknowledging what the text does not explicitly state, even when the overall pattern is clear:

No single verse states in so many words, "The Ten Commandments are abolished" or "The Sabbath commandment is no longer binding." But neither does any single verse say in a formulaic way, "All ten commandments remain individually binding."
No verse explicitly states, "All law is one indivisible unit with no categories or distinctions." The text itself uses different vocabulary, different storage locations (ark vs. beside the ark), and different authorship (finger of God vs. hand of Moses) for different parts of the law -- but it does not use the formal phrase "moral, ceremonial, and civil" as a three-part taxonomy.
No verse explicitly states, "The clean/unclean food distinction is hereby abolished." The passages commonly cited address vegetarianism, ascetic heresies, and the inclusion of Gentile people.
No verse explicitly states, "Tithing is no longer obligatory under the new covenant." Jesus affirms it, Hebrews discusses it in present-tense language, and its pre-Mosaic origin places it outside the purely Levitical system -- but a direct new-covenant command to tithe is not present in those words.
The definition of sin as law-breaking (1 John 3:4) remains in force, but the New Testament does not provide a single comprehensive list specifying every individual law that continues.

Conclusion¶

The New Testament draws a consistent line between the moral law and the ceremonial system. When it affirms the law's continuation, it names the Ten Commandments. When it declares laws abolished, it names sacrifices, priesthood regulations, circumcision, feast-day ordinances, and ritual washings. This pattern is not imposed by any external system -- it is built into the vocabulary, the grammar, and the content of the New Testament text itself.

No New Testament passage names a specific commandment from the Decalogue as abolished. No New Testament passage names a specific ceremonial regulation as continuing. The clean/unclean food distinction and tithing, often raised as counterexamples, both predate the Mosaic system and are not abrogated by the passages commonly cited against them. The new covenant does not replace God's law -- it writes the same law on the heart. And at the close of Scripture, the people of God are still identified by the commandments they keep and the faith they hold.

Based on the full technical study completed 2026-02-26

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The Final Fate of the Wicked	A 21-study investigation examining every major text, word, and argument bearing on the final fate of the wicked. 632 evidence items classified.
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