One of the most misunderstood subjects in Christianity is the relationship between the old covenant law and the new covenant in Christ.
Many Christians will say that the law we are supposed to live by is:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But that command did not originate with Jesus.
It came from the Law of Moses.
Leviticus 19:18 says:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus quoted it in Matthew 22:39.
Paul quoted it in Romans 13:9.
James called it the “royal law” in James 2:8.
So when Jesus came, He did not introduce “love your neighbor as yourself” as a new law. He uses it to summarize the Law’s entire demand toward one’s fellow human beings, alongside love for God.
Something deeper happened in Christ.
The old covenant was fulfilled.
And to understand what that means, we have to understand what the Law was actually doing.
The Law Was Giving Israel the Way
The Hebrew word Torah carries the idea of instruction or teaching. The individual commandments were commands and precepts given by God.
Think of the Law as a divinely given route.
God was establishing a covenant with Israel and telling them how they were to walk before Him.
Do this.
Do not do that.
Remember this day.
Keep this feast.
Bring this sacrifice.
Do not eat this.
Do not touch that.
Wash here.
Separate this.
Love your neighbor.
Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not commit adultery.
Honor your father and mother.
The Law contained commandments concerning worship, sacrifice, priesthood, purity, food, festivals, Sabbath, property, justice, relationships, marriage, punishment and countless other matters.
It was not merely a list of abstract moral principles.
It was a covenantal system of instruction.
Israel was being shown how to walk.
And this is why Paul describes the Law as a “tutor” or guardian leading toward Christ.
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Galatians 3:24
Notice the direction of movement.
The Law was leading somewhere.
It was not the destination.
The Law Was Pointing Beyond Itself
This becomes especially obvious when we look at the sacrifices.
Every time an Israelite brought an animal sacrifice, something was being communicated.
Sin produces death.
A life is given.
Blood is shed.
The priest ministers.
The sacrifice is offered.
But Hebrews tells us something extraordinary:
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.”
Hebrews 10:4
The sacrifices were therefore not the final destination.
They were pointing beyond themselves.
Hebrews continues:
“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things…”
Hebrews 10:1
A shadow tells you something is coming.
The shadow is real.
But the shadow is not the person casting it.
When the reality arrives, you do not continue chasing the shadow as though the person has not appeared.
Christ is that reality.
The sacrifices pointed to Him.
The priesthood pointed to Him.
The tabernacle pointed to Him.
The feasts pointed to Him.
The Sabbath pointed to Him.
The promises pointed to Him.
The Law was not ultimately saying, “Look at me forever.”
It was saying, “Look where I am taking you.”
Then Christ Arrived
This is where the words of Jesus become enormous:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6
The Law gave Israel a covenantal way of walking before God.
Christ says:
I am the Way.
That changes everything.
Imagine following a route on a map to a destination.
The route exists because you have not yet arrived.
You follow the instructions because they are taking you somewhere.
But when you arrive, you have not violated the route by stopping.
You have fulfilled it.
The purpose of the route has been accomplished.
You do not arrive at the destination and then say:
“Now I must go back to the beginning so that I can start following the route again.”
That would misunderstand the purpose of the route.
This is something like what happened with the Law.
Christ did not destroy the route.
He completed the journey to which the route was pointing.
That is what Jesus meant when He said:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”
Matthew 5:17
The Greek word translated “fulfill” is plēroō, meaning to fill, make full, complete or bring to its intended fullness.
The Law was not defective.
The Law was incomplete in the sense that it was awaiting its fulfillment.
And Christ is that fulfillment.
The Law Had an Appointment With Christ
Jesus repeatedly demonstrated this.
After His resurrection, He encountered two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Luke says:
“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Luke 24:27
Later Jesus said:
“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
Luke 24:44
The Law was therefore not merely a collection of rules.
It was part of a prophetic story.
The story was moving toward Christ.
Christ Fulfilled the Sabbath
The Sabbath was commanded under the Mosaic covenant.
Yet Paul says:
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come,
The Destination Has Arrived
This is what it means for Christ to fulfill the Law.
The Law was not evil.
The Law was not a mistake.
The Law was not abolished because God suddenly changed His mind about righteousness.
The Law was doing exactly what God intended it to do.
It revealed sin.
It established God’s standards.
It instructed Israel.
It exposed humanity’s inability to attain righteousness through commandments.
It contained shadows of things to come.
And ultimately, it pointed toward Christ.
Paul says:
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Galatians 3:24
The tutor had a purpose.
The shadow had a purpose.
The route had a purpose.
And when Christ arrived, that purpose reached its fulfillment.
This is why Hebrews says:
“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things…”
Hebrews 10:1
The shadow was pointing toward something.
And that something is Christ.
From “Love Your Neighbor” to “Love as I Have Loved You”
This brings us back to the commandment that many Christians call “the Christian law”:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
But that command belongs to the old Law.
Jesus did not introduce it as a new commandment.
He explained that the Law and the Prophets hang upon two commandments:
Love God with everything.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37–40.
Paul says the same thing:
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Galatians 5:14.
That is the summary of the Law.
But then Jesus gives His disciples something new:
“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.”
John 13:34.
Look carefully at the difference.
The old command says:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus says:
Love as I have loved you.
The measure is no longer yourself.
The measure is Christ.
And Christ demonstrated that love by giving Himself.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13.
The new covenant therefore does not simply give humanity another list of demands.
It gives us Christ.
And Christ gives us His Spirit.
The Law Moves From Stone to the Heart
Under the old covenant, God’s commandments were written on tablets of stone.
But the prophets spoke of something greater that was coming.
God said:
“I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.”
Jeremiah 31:33.
And Ezekiel explains:
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.”
Ezekiel 36:27.
This is an extraordinary difference.
The old covenant says:
Here is the command. Walk in it.
The new covenant says:
I will change your heart. I will put My Spirit within you. I will cause you to walk.
The command is no longer merely something external that stands over you.
God’s work moves inward.
The Christian does not merely learn what love is.
He is being transformed into someone who loves.
Paul therefore says:
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Galatians 5:18.
And immediately afterward he describes the fruit of the Spirit:
“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Galatians 5:22–23.
Notice what comes first.
Love.
The Spirit produces what the Law demanded.
The Law of Christ
This does not mean that the Christian has no law.
Paul actually uses a remarkable expression:
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Galatians 6:2.
There is a law of Christ.
And Christ’s command is:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
This is why Christianity is not simply about becoming someone who knows a longer list of rules.
It is about becoming like Christ.
The old covenant could tell a man:
Do not murder.
Christ takes the matter deeper.
What is happening in your heart toward your brother?
The old covenant says:
Do not commit adultery.
Christ takes the matter deeper.
What is happening in your heart?
The old covenant says:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Christ takes it further:
Love your enemies.
Matthew 5:44.
The new covenant reaches into the heart because that is where the transformation must happen.
What About the Curse?
This is also why the statement about Christ being “hung on a tree” is so significant.
Deuteronomy 21:22–23 says that a person who was executed and hung on a tree was under God’s curse:
“He who is hanged is accursed of God.”
Paul deliberately connects this to Christ:
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).”
Galatians 3:13.
Christ did not merely fulfill the Law’s positive requirements.
He also bore the curse that stood against those who violated it.
He entered into the place of condemnation.
He bore the curse.
He died.
And He rose again.
Therefore Paul can say:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:1.
The Law demanded.
Christ fulfilled.
The Law condemned.
Christ bore the condemnation.
The Law pointed forward.
Christ arrived.
The Law was written on stone.
The new covenant writes God’s law on the heart.
The Route Disappears Because You Have Arrived
Think again about a navigation route.
You enter a destination.
The map gives you instructions.
Turn here.
Continue straight.
Take this road.
Make the next turn.
Every instruction exists because you are still travelling.
Then suddenly you arrive.
You do not say:
“I have violated the route because I stopped following the directions.”
No.
You stopped following the directions because the purpose of the directions has been accomplished.
You arrived.
This is something like the relationship between the Law and Christ.
Paul says:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:4.
The word “end” carries the sense of goal, culmination or intended endpoint.
Christ is where the Law was going.
And so going back to the beginning and placing oneself under the Mosaic covenant again is like arriving at the destination and reopening the navigation app to discover how to get there.
The journey has already reached its goal.
But Love Remains
And here is the beautiful part.
When the route disappears, the destination does not disappear.
When the shadow disappears, the reality remains.
When the commandment written on stone is no longer the covenant governing you, righteousness does not disappear.
Love does not disappear.
Holiness does not disappear.
Obedience does not disappear.
Instead, they move from the outside to the inside.
That is the miracle of the new covenant.
We are not saved by becoming experts at following the old route.
We are brought to the Father through Christ.
Jesus said:
“I am the way.”
John 14:6.
And once we are in Christ, His Spirit begins producing in us the very life toward which the Law was pointing.
This is why Paul can say:
“For the love of Christ compels us.”
2 Corinthians 5:14.
Not merely the command.
Not merely the threat.
Not merely the stone.
The love of Christ.
The Christian life therefore is not a return to Sinai.
It is life in Christ.
Not commandments engraved externally and followed merely because they threaten punishment, but God’s will written within the heart.
Not merely:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
But:
“Love as Christ loved you.”
Not merely knowing the route.
Knowing the Way.
And the Way is Christ.
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