Why Did God Remove the Law of Moses?

            God tore the veil that separated the holy from the most holy place within the temple, when Jesus died upon the cross (Matt. 27:51).  This remarkable event signified that God had removed the Law of Moses, the Old Testament.  Why do people who live today not serve under the laws of the Old Testament?  Why did God remove it?  

            God removed the old covenant because we needed a better covenant to overcome sin and death.  Hebrews tells us, “For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins (Heb 10:4).”  The Old Testament was good for its purpose, which was to bring us to Christ.  Accordingly, Paul wrote, “For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believes (Rom 10:4).”  Paul also described the purpose of the law as a tutor, “So that the law is become our tutor (to bring us) unto Christ (Gal 3:24).”  Christ taught, “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt 5:17).” 

            With the death of Christ, God removed the old covenant.  The Hebrew writer said, “He is the mediator of a new covenant that . . . they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:15).”  Hebrews shows how this new covenant is better than the old covenant: “But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises (Heb 8:6).”  The fault of the first covenant was its inability to redeem us from our sins:  “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second (Heb.8:7).”

            With the death of Christ, God changed the priesthood and that change necessitated a change in the law: “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law (Heb. 7:12).”  The Old Testament law with its priesthood could not overcome sin and death, and therefore, God gave us a better priest, better promises, and a better law.  Heb. 9:11-12 teaches: “But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,  nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”

            God promised: “This is the covenant that I will make with them.  And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  . . . where remission . . . is, there is no more offering for sin (Heb 10:16-17)."