Answer: What you are describing is the prevailing
attitude among most people who call themselves Christian. The
general approach is to consider the Bible to be two totally different
segments—the Old Testament that has a harsh God (the Father)
who dealt with people one way and the New Testament, which has
a loving God (Jesus the Son) who deals with people in a totally
new and different manner. Many problems come from such an artificial
dissection of God's Word.
Some want to argue that Jesus only kept the Commandments and
upheld them because He came as a Jew and had to keep them until
He died. They then claim that the apostle Paul did away with the
Commandments of God and only focused on love and mercy. However,
Paul told the Corinthian church that the Commandments were what
really mattered in life (1 Corinthians 7:19). This was written
around A.D. 55, which is 24 years after Christ died. That doesn't
sound like the Commandments ended at His death! In addition, somewhere
around A.D. 90 the apostle John wrote that the way we know we
love God is if we keep His Commandments, and if we don't keep
them, we don't have God's love in us (1 John 2:3-6). You might
also notice this passage ends with the statement that we should
walk as Jesus walked—meaning, live like He did.
It's obvious that the law that is to be "written in our
hearts" is the law of God, summarized by the Ten Commandments.
If you wish to read more about them you can read our booklet on
the Ten
Commandments online at http://www.ucg.org/booklets/TC/.
