On Mount Sinai, Moses received both law of God and a precise set of instructions for the sacrificial system. These were to form the basis of the religious ceremonies of the Israelites. Both sets of instructions were called the law, but they were different in that the law of Ten Commandments defined what sin was, whereas the ceremonial law contained the solution to the sin problem. God wrote the Ten Commandments, and Moses wrote the ceremonial law, or book of the law. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross (Colossians 2:14). Does this verse mean that we no longer need to follow the ceremonial law and the law of Ten Commandments?

1. July 25, 2013 WASN’T GODS LAW NAILED AT THE CROSS? RADIO 7 SURINAME MINISTRIES
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Wasn’t the Law Nailed to the Cross?
Professor Walter J. Veith, PhD
On Mount Sinai, Moses received both law of God and a precise set of instructions for the
sacrificial system. These were to form the basis of the religious ceremonies of the Israelites.
Both sets of instructions were called the law, but they were different in that the law of Ten
Commandments defined what sin was, whereas the ceremonial law contained the solution to
the sin problem. God wrote the Ten Commandments, and Moses wrote the ceremonial law,
or book of the law.
The Law of Ten Commandments
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an
end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two
tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with
the finger of God (Exodus 31:18).
And the tables were the work of God, and the
writing was the writing of God, graven upon the
tables (Exodus 32:16).
When Moses returned from meeting with God on Sinai
he found that the Israelites had made for themselves a
golden calf to worship. Moses was so angry that he
broke the tablets of stone. Then God said to him, “Hew
thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come
up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of
wood. And I will write on the tables the words that
were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou
shalt put them in the ark” (Deuteronomy 10:1-2).
When Moses broke the first tablets, it symbolized the law of God that had been broken by
God’s people when they served the golden calf. The law did not change as a result of the
people’s sin. Rather, God wrote the law again onto the new tables of stone that Moses
fashioned, symbolizing that we have to be co-workers together with God in upholding His
law. Only in God’s strength can we uphold the law, but we must cooperate with Him in this
regard.
The two tables of stone were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ceremonial Law
This law of types and ceremonies was written by Moses in the book of the law, and was
placed beside the Ark.
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law
in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare
the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this book of the law, and put
it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be
there for a witness against thee (Deuteronomy 31:24-26 emphasis added).

2. July 25, 2013 WASN’T GODS LAW NAILED AT THE CROSS? RADIO 7 SURINAME MINISTRIES
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These two sets of laws, the one moral and the other ceremonial, were thus entirely different
and served different purposes.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross (Colossians 2:14).
Does this verse mean that we no longer need to follow the ceremonial law and the law of
Ten Commandments? This verse refers to only one law: the law that was against us, that
showed us our transgressions. This was not the Ten Commandments, but the ceremonial
law. When Christ died, he satisfied the demands of justice in the law of ceremonies and
blotted it out.
Christ fulfilled the obligations
of the ceremonial law by
becoming the Lamb slain for
the sins of the world. He
fulfilled the obligation of the
law of Ten Commandments by
His perfect obedience to its
precepts. After His death, the
law of ceremonies was
discontinued because it
foreshadowed the cross, but
the law of Ten
Commandments did not
change, nor was it done away
with. The same law is still to
be found in the New
Testament and those who
follow Christ must continue to
live by this law.
The next article will show how the ceremonial law symbolized Jesus’ ministry.