Why did God give Israel the Law if no one can be saved by keeping it? The order in Exodus helps me answer that question. God delivered Israel before bringing the nation to Sinai. He then gave a covenant that governed their worship and life together, exposed their sin, and prepared them for Christ. We should not make that covenant a way to earn salvation or treat its instruction as worthless now that Jesus has come.
Redemption Came Before the Covenant at Sinai
God made the Mosaic Covenant with Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, after delivering the people from Egypt. He judged Egypt, brought Israel through the sea, and led them to the mountain. He did not tell slaves to earn their escape by keeping commandments. He gave His commands to a people He had already brought out of bondage.
That national deliverance did not mean every Israelite had a believing heart. The people could see God’s power and enjoy the privileges of belonging to Israel while still rebelling against Him. Being told what was right could not by itself change their sinful hearts. The Law would expose their need for mercy even as it ordered their life before God.
God did not give every covenant to the same people. His covenant with Noah extended to all nations, while Sinai addressed the house of Jacob and the children of Israel. He had remembered His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and delivered their descendants. The new obligations at Sinai did not cancel His earlier promise to Abraham. They established the terms under which Israel was to live as His nation.
Before setting out those obligations, God reminded Israel that He had carried them on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself. Their calling followed what He had done for them.
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
The words “if you will indeed obey” introduce a real condition. Israel’s enjoyment of covenant blessing in the land depended on obedience, and rebellion would bring the curses God announced. His ultimate commitment to Abraham rested on His own oath and faithfulness, but the covenant at Sinai placed national obligations on Abraham’s descendants. We should not confuse those two arrangements or assume that conditions meant God had ceased to show mercy.
As His special treasure, Israel was to be a holy nation, set apart for Him among the peoples. Their worship was to make Him known, and their conduct was to reflect His righteousness. Priesthood, sacrifices, feasts, and purity regulations taught them how to approach Him and distinguished their life from the idolatry around them.
The Law Revealed Holiness and Exposed Sin
The Hebrew word תּוֹרָה (torah) can mean law, instruction, or teaching. God was instructing Israel in worship, justice, and daily conduct. I should not dismiss that instruction as cold legalism, as though God’s commands were the problem. The fault was in the people who broke them.
Even the Ten Commandments begin by identifying the God who had delivered Israel. Before commanding, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” He reminded them of His work on their behalf.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
Obedience was to follow deliverance, rather than purchase it. Israel was to worship the LORD alone, honor His name, respect parents, and treat neighbors righteously. The commands addressed murder, adultery, theft, and false witness. They also reached into desires by forbidding coveting. A person could not meet God’s standard merely by maintaining a respectable public appearance while cultivating a desire for what belonged to someone else.
The Law can expose conduct I would rather excuse, even when I agree that its commands are good. It identifies sin precisely. It cannot, however, erase the guilt of the person it exposes or give spiritual life to sinful flesh.
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
To be justified is to be declared righteous before God. Paul says sinners cannot earn that verdict by performing the deeds of the Law; through the Law we learn what sin is. He also describes its place in directing Israel toward Christ.
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
A tutor in that setting was a guardian responsible for a child’s care and discipline until the appointed time. The Law guarded and directed Israel, showing what holiness required and exposing transgressions. Its sacrifices and other shadows also prepared the nation for the Messiah. Now that Christ has come, we should not place ourselves under the covenant that prepared Israel to receive Him.
Christians often distinguish moral, civil, and ceremonial requirements within the Law. Moral commands express God’s righteous standards. Civil statutes governed Israel’s courts, penalties, and restitution, while ceremonial instructions concerned priesthood, sacrifices, purity, feasts, and tabernacle worship. These categories describe the range of the Law; God did not make three separate covenants at Sinai. He ordered the nation’s life in its courts and homes as well as its sanctuary.
The church is not Israel under that national covenant. We do not offer animals through its priesthood or enforce its civil code. Yet God’s moral righteousness has not changed. Idolatry, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting remain sins under the New Covenant. Freedom from Sinai cannot make those things acceptable to Christ. A Complete Bible Study on the Law considers these distinctions more fully.
Our pursuit of holiness grows from union with Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Love fulfills the Law because it does no harm to a neighbor, not because affection makes obedience unnecessary. If I cheat someone and then insist that I love him, the claim does not excuse the wrong. Biblical love requires me to treat him as God commands.
Blood, Priesthood, and Sacrifice Pointed Beyond Sinai
Exodus 24 describes Israel’s formal entrance into the covenant. Moses had recorded the LORD’s words and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. After burnt offerings and peace offerings were made, he put half the blood in basins and sprinkled half on the altar. He then read the Book of the Covenant to the people.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.”
And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”
The people pledged obedience, and Moses sprinkled the blood on them as the blood of the covenant. This was a solemn commitment to the words they had heard. The blood of the sacrificed animals also taught them that approaching God involved a life being given. Sin brings death, and the life of His creatures belongs to Him.
God supplied a priesthood and a tabernacle as well as commands. He required holiness, but He also provided for sinful people to confess their sin and receive the cleansing He prescribed. Sacrifices and the Day of Atonement taught them that they needed a mediator, someone who stands between God and His people. Their sin had to be dealt with before a holy God. In the instructions for sacrifice, He explained why blood belonged on the altar.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Atonement deals with sin so that the guilty can be reconciled to God. The sacrificial blood represented a life given in the sinner’s place. Those offerings supplied cleansing within the covenant and taught Israel the seriousness of sin, but they could not finally remove sin or perfect the conscience. Paul explains their limitation in Hebrews.
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
God appointed these sacrifices for Israel’s worship and cleansing. Their repetition showed that they had not accomplished the final redemption sinners needed. Christ is both the greater Priest and the perfect sacrifice. He provided that redemption by giving Himself, rather than by bringing the blood of bulls and goats. See A Complete Bible Study on the Blood of Christ for Salvation for more on His saving work.
The Sabbath, Blessings, and Curses Marked Israel’s Covenant
The Sabbath was another part of Israel’s covenant life. Exodus 31 identifies it as a sign between the LORD and the nation He had set apart.
“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.'”
The word translated sign is אוֹת (oth), a sign, token, or marker. The same word describes the rainbow and circumcision, but a shared word does not make the signs identical in purpose or scope. Here God names Israel as the people receiving the sign. The Sabbath expressed rest and also identified their covenant relationship with Him.
Christians are not under the Mosaic Covenant and should not be bound to its Sabbath requirements. Colossians 2:16-17 tells believers not to let anyone judge them over festivals, new moons, or sabbaths, which it describes as shadows whose substance belongs to Christ. We should value rest, worship, and gathering with other believers, but we do not need to return to Sinai to do so. Jesus gives rest to those who come to Him, and Hebrews 4 describes entering God’s rest through faith.
The covenant also specified what obedience and rebellion would bring to Israel in the land. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 promised rain, harvest, peace, and protection when the nation obeyed. Rebellion would bring discipline through disease, famine, defeat, and eventually exile. These were the terms of Israel’s national covenant. Through Jeremiah, God warned that He would enforce those consequences.
“Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.”
Exile did not prove that God had failed to keep His word. Israel broke the covenant and received consequences He had announced. The prophets also promised a New Covenant bringing forgiveness and inward transformation. The people needed more than another declaration of the commandments they had already disobeyed; they needed God to deal with their guilt and change their hearts.
Christ Fulfilled the Law and Established the New Covenant
Paul explains that the Law did not displace God’s promise to Abraham. It was added because of transgressions and had an appointed role until the coming of the promised Seed, Christ.
What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not destroy them (Matthew 5:17). He obeyed perfectly and accomplished what the sacrifices, priesthood, and sanctuary anticipated. He is the greater Priest and the true sacrifice, and in Him God dwells among His people. As Mediator of the New Covenant, He provides what Israel’s old covenant could not. Paul explains how His death redeems people from the Law’s curse.
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.”
Paul connects Christ’s becoming a curse for us with His death on a tree, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23. Jesus willingly endured the shame and death of that execution while remaining innocent. He bore our sins in His body and redeemed us from the Law’s curse through His sacrifice. I do not understand this to mean that He became sinful or that the Father turned against Him. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Wicked people inflicted the bodily suffering and death He willingly endured for us.
At the supper before His crucifixion, Jesus spoke of the New Covenant as He gave His disciples the cup. His shed blood would establish that covenant.
Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
The New Covenant does not send us back to the terms of Sinai. Neither covenant offers sinners a way to earn righteousness. Forgiveness rests on Christ’s completed work as its Mediator. We receive Him by faith, and obedience follows from the new life He gives. A Complete Bible Study on The New Covenant examines that provision more fully.
This does not leave believers free to live in sin. Romans 8 explains that the Law could not overcome the weakness of sinful flesh. God acted through His Son to make it possible for the Law’s righteous requirement to be fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit. We depend on His Spirit for a changed life, rather than boast that our own performance made us righteous.
The Mosaic Covenant Leads Us to the Gospel
The Law tells the truth about our need. Its commands expose our sin, its sacrifices show that forgiveness requires more than overlooking guilt, and its priesthood teaches why we need someone to bring us to God. I cannot solve those problems by promising to try harder next time. I need the Savior to whom the covenant pointed.
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became fully man without ceasing to be fully God. He lived without sin under the Law and willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men mocked Him, beat and scourged Him, and nailed Him to the cross. He endured the suffering they inflicted on His innocent body and shed His blood when He died for our sins. His saving sacrifice was complete when He died. He was then buried and rose bodily on the third day. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Him.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Repent and believe in the crucified and risen Lord. Keeping a set of rules cannot replace Him, and neither can religious heritage or participation in ceremonies. The Law exposes the sin we need Him to forgive. A Complete Bible Study on The Gospel explains salvation through Christ more fully.
Receiving that mercy gives me reason to obey Him. If I lie to protect my reputation or take what belongs to someone else, I cannot excuse it by announcing that Christians are not under the Law. I need to confess the wrong, turn from it, and treat the person I harmed righteously. The Spirit’s presence gives believers a new life in which obedience grows. Our conduct should reflect the grace we have received, without becoming a claim that we have earned it.
My Final Thoughts
I want to read the Mosaic Covenant with gratitude for what it reveals about God’s holiness and honesty about the sin it reveals in us. He delivered Israel before Sinai and gave the nation instruction that exposed its need for mercy. Its promises, warnings, priesthood, and sacrifices prepared for Christ. We should not return to that covenant as though the Savior had not come. We should trust the One who fulfilled its purpose and depend on His Spirit for the obedience that follows salvation.