The belief that Christians are required to obey the Old Testament laws regarding sacrifice, clothing, and diet would be a direct result from poor hermeneutics. This can easily be refuted if the interpreter used scripture to interpret scripture, and understood that there are three types of laws in the Old Testament. There are moral laws like that of the Ten Commandments, ceremonial laws which gave structure to a specific culture bringing clarity to the identity of Israel as a nation, and finally civil laws which would obviously not pertain to modern Christians and existing governments.
First, considering the rule of allowing scripture to interpret scripture, we must pay close attention to what the New Testament includes and excludes from its text. Hebrews 7:18, 19 states, “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.” If we choose to wear only one blend of fabric per outfit (Lev 19:19) because we believe it to be mandatory, then we open the door to rules of slavery that apply in Leviticus 19:20 which most Christians would agree to be absurd, especially in our culture. The ceremonial and civil laws of the Old Testament were in place to provide the nation of Israel a temporary method of keeping the peace, health, and overall well-being of the nation in an orderly fashion. The interpreter that believes sacrifices are still mandatory is rejecting the sacrifice of Christ, whom appeared once for all sins as the only true and acceptable atonement. (Heb. 9:26)
In order to have a full understanding of the Old Testament scriptures that entail rules regarding clothing, sacrifices, and diet we must first realize they are obsolete in direct application to the modern believer. The reading of these passages are no less important to the believer than any other portion of the scriptures as these ceremonial and civil laws are part of the bigger picture of God’s plan of salvation and redemption starting with Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
