Now, to be sure, I have difficulty with applying much of the Old Testament to my modern day experience. This often happens when Christians discuss subjects like  the death penalty. In the Old Testament, there were directives for execution.

Ex 22:18-19

18 "You shall not allow a sorceress to live .

19 "Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.

Ex 21:12-17

12 "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death . 13 But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God  let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.

14 If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.

15 "And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death .

16 "And he who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death .

17 And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death .

Now obviously, there cannot be anything immoral about executing people for crimes that God instituted the death penalty for, otherwise, God has instructed His people to sin, and you know, that is not something God does. So, obviously today, we are not executing homosexuals, witches, or someone who strikes a parent. Should we be? The New Testament says, we are not under law, we are under grace. Does the fact that we have a New Covenant, mean that the Old Testament is null and void, obsolete?

The Old Testament, is a name man has given to a collection of God inspired writings, the whole thing is not a testament or covenant, in it is poetry, history, laws, guidelines, prophecy, and many things, including covenants or agreements, what we would call, in our age, contracts.

So, we cannot take the whole old testament and treat it as though, it is one thing that we have either the choice to obey, or to ignore. It is our job to look at the context of a passage, and determine what is being said, and to whom. I bring this up, because I have heard it said, that the Old Testament is not for today, otherwise we would have to abstain from eating pork, abstain from working on Saturday etc. People who say things like this, are lazy and immature in the faith, not having been diligent to study the Bible as God wants us to, unless, for some reason, they are unable to. No wonder, there is so much confusion and debate. We act like fools, arguing about things, which we have not made an effort to understand.

Case in point, let's look at the topic of the Sabbath. It is obvious, from reading scripture, that God made the earth in six days and ceased His creative labor:

Gen 1:31-2:3

31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day .

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

2 And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

We see, that this early in man's history, god set aside one day out of seven. So, can we assume that Adam was supposed to rest on the Sabbath, the seventh day? What would warrant such a conclusion. God never said as much, so why would we assume so? Adam's life, was uncomplicated by rules and laws. God gave him only one law:

Gen 2:15-17

15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;

17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. "

The law in the garden: "Don't eat that fruit Adam!

Now, regarding the Sabbath Law, we know that it wasn’t given to Adam, or, if it was, we are not made aware of it. So where did it come from? It was given to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. This is also emphasized later in versed like:

Lev 24:8

8 Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the LORD continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel.

So, that dispels the argument that it was nullified in the New Testament. Two things to notice:

1. It was given for the sons of Israel, not ever said to be for gentile.

2. It was said to be everlasting - that seems to me to indicate that it did not become and void after Jesus.

However, I am willing to entertain the notion, that this was symbolic as well, that Jesus, having made the once for all sacrifice, has become our rest, our Sabbath. That is another topic, another discussion, another day. Back to Adam:

Now, as we know, Adam disobeyed. What was the consequence:

Gen 3:7

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

After eating that fruit, Adam and Eve had an awareness, that they did not have before. What were they aware of? Verse 22 has the answer:

22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;

The mans nakedness, is symbolic of our sin, and making the garment of leaves, is symbolic of mans attempt to cover his sin by good works. God finds these works inadequate, and so, God supplies a better covering, one made of animal skins. To get the skins, blood had to be shed. This is symbolic of the innocent dying for the sake of the guilty - Jesus, giving His life for us.

Basically we see here, an awareness of right from wrong. God gave only one law to Adam, so Adam could choose to honor and love God by his obedience Apparently, concerning other forms of right and wrong, God was not so much concerned much with whether Adam did right or wrong, so long as he was not aware of his wrong doing. Why would that be?

God, is concerned about our inside, our spirit, our heart. This is why we conclude that little babies, in spite of their apparent selfish outbursts of murderous anger (you may object to that characterization, but you know you have witnessed it), they are not held accountable, because they just do not know any better. Their lack of understanding, renders them innocent.

Now that we have a knowledge of right and wrong, have developed a conscious etc. we train our children, we make rules, we make laws.

Cain killed Able, and God punished Him. Had God ever told Cain that he should not kill his brother. As far as we know, no. If Cain did not know it was wrong, how could God punish him?

The answer lies here:

Rom 2:14-15

14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,  

15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them

In other words, we have a common instinct that some things are wrong. Looking around the societies of the world across time, we see how common though shalt not murder, and though shalt not steal are. It is hardwired into us.

In the Romans passage above, we see a description of something we have all seen and done. We do things we know are wrong, and we are either convicted by our conscience, or we go into a state of denial about whether it is ACTUALLY wrong, we start trying to justify our behavior. There is a good chance, that if you are reading this, you have copied some form of intellectual property from the internet, perhaps, you have downloaded a copyrighted song, that you have not paid for, or copied a video or computer program from a friend, or even your own so use on multiple computers, even though you agreed not to, when you accepted the license term during installation. If you have, you are either feeling conviction that you stole that material (which is true) or you are justifying it to yourself  someway, because you want what you want, but you do not want to pay for it.

So, we know that we are aware of some basic rights and wrongs. Sometimes, we use the word "sin". What is sin exactly? Sin, means to miss the mark, to fall short of perfection. It is doing something, that is against the will of God.

Now, we are getting close to some of the underlying things that we need to know, to understand, whether the old testament is for today, or not. Observe the following dialogue between a man and Jesus:

Mark 10:17-22

"Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

19 "You know the commandments, 'Do not murder , Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'

"20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up."

21 And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

The man went away sad, because he had many possessions, and apparently, he valued them too much, to give them up to follow Jesus. This, is idolatry, putting more importance in something created, than in the creator. We all do that at times.

This is an illustration of how we all fall short, we miss the mark, we are unable to live the perfect life. This is, of course, why we need a savior. So, why have the law at all?

Gal 3:23-26

24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

How does the law do that? First, by making us aware, that we cannot live life at God’s standard, we are unable to earn our way into His presence, we desperately need a savior. Second, the prophecies there, both direct and in symbolism, show us who the Savior would be, so that those who are not depending on their good works, their heritage, or other things that do not impress God, can recognize Him, distinguish Him, from the rest of humanity.

So, now that the Savior has come, and fulfilled His mission, the law has served the purpose of making us aware of our sin, our need, and Who the solution to this problem is. Does that mean that we no longer have to concern ourselves with the law, is it outdated and obsolete?

Let’s look at a few passages, to see what the New Testament position is, on the law.

Jesus on the Law:

Matt 5:18-19

18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, if you think about that, I mean really think about that, that is really a huge statement. Consider:

If God said that we should execute killers, witches, homosexuals, parent abusers, and we say, “Let’s not do that anymore", how exactly does that square with Jesus’ statement? :

"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

You can wrestle with that in your own mind and conscience. I am willing to have mercy on those people, erring on the side of grace and mercy, because Jesus said, I will be called least, in the kingdom of heaven. I can handle that. So, I will not take it upon myself to kill people. But I cannot tell people, that capital punishment is wrong, because it is in the law of God, that Jesus said would not pass away, and that I should not annul it or teach others to do so.

Is there any other evidence? After all, why should we believe Jesus? (It’s a joke people!)

The early Christians, did not have a Bible like ours, they possessed no New Testament. So, it the following passage, Paul is referring to the Old Testament (and the N.T. that would follow, but at the time this was written, the O.T.):

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.