Jesus brought to us a New Covenant with his birth, life, death and resurrection. For example, Matthew 26
"Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
This was predicted- for example Jeremiah 31:31-34 and explained in various verses in the New Testament - Hebrews and elsewhere.
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus declared that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil them. Having fulfilled certain Laws laid down in the Old Testament, Christians are no longer required to obey them. For example, Jesus, directly in Mark Chapter 7, made reference to declaring all food clean in verse 19 which rebuts the attempted parallel with food. Paul in Galatians says that the law is fulfilled in the one command- "Love your neighbour as yourself "(Galatians 5:14). Please read on however before progressives get excited because he says that it is only living by the Spirit does one not come under law and that there are obvious fruits of the way of both the 'flesh' (which includes sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery) and of the Spirit (love...kindless...self-control).
Broadly, the laws can be categorised as moral, ceremonial and civil. This has exisited in the early Church. Jesus has fulfilled some of the requirements of the Law but he has confirmed the law against adultery (John 8:12 "...sin no more")
To conclude then, we do not have to delve into considering the deep issues of what the relationship of the Law is regards to the Gospel for Christians, since we have New Testament assertions about sexual morality. Did I hear counter arguments- we only obey Jesus' words ( or what can be attributed to Him ) only and assert that the words of the bible are culture only related and do nto apply today? maybe more on this later...
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