Is the Law of Moses in force today?
Obviously, Jesus himself nullified all of the laws of animal sacrifice (which could not forgive sins, only push them back until Jesus could atone for them) by being the sacrificial atonement for sin. In Acts, Peter was given the vision of unclean animals, a revelation that we believe took away the dietary laws of the old Law. Jesus, in the Book of Matthew, not only reinforced the validity of the Ten Commandments, but He also showed the error in believing oneself capable of keeping them.
Jesus did this to illustrate our need for a Savior; we need Him worse than we think we do. His defining of the Ten Commandments shows that before salvation, we are farther from God than we think we are. Israel looked at the Law as "a line in the sand," meaning that we should stay on God's side of the Law but when we break that Law, we are in sin. Jesus sums up the entire Law with "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind� and �Love your neighbor as yourself." This covers the whole law.
In short, we are not to look for what we can get away with; we are to simply look to Jesus. If we fix our eyes on Jesus and begin to see things and people through His eyes, we will fulfill His Law, which is the Law of Moses, wrapped in a smaller, more understandable package.
To understand the relevance of the Mosaic law for Christians, please refer to the following passage of Scripture from the book of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews wrote to Jewish Christians; a people who at one time lived their lives under the laws of Moses. The author of Hebrews looks at the various facets of the Mosaic covenant and compares them to the new dispensation (house rules) that govern our relationship with Jesus, the Christ and Messiah. Note as you read the following Scripture from Hebrews that Jesus is our high priest and that he entered the Holy of Holies with His own blood. When a Jewish man was selected to serve as the high priest, he had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sins. In other words, he had to first deal with his own sin before he could represent Israel and intercede on their behalf (sacrificing for their sins).
"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:11-28)
Jesus Christ is our high priest and since he is sitting at the right hand of God the Father, His priesthood is still in effect; thus we living today are no longer under the laws of Moses. To learn more about the sacrifices performed under the Mosaic covenant, read Leviticus 16 and then read Hebrews chapter 9 & 10. We are so blessed to be under the dispensation of grace. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
