The “Law of Moses” ended with the coming of Christ and His death on the cross. John 1:17 says, “For THE LAW was given through Moses, but GRACE and truth came through Jesus Christ” (NKJV). The “Law of Moses” had a definite purpose which was to “show men that they were sinners and under the curse of God.” We see this in the following passages:

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN….For as many as are of the works of the law are UNDER THE CURSE; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them (Romans 3:19-20; Galatians 3:10).

Many people believe God gave the law of Moses to the world to show them they could be saved if they obey the Ten Commandments. These verses show us no one could obey the law perfectly so instead of saving them, it curses (condemns) them. Technically, it was only the nation of Israel who was “under the law” but by God testing Israel by the law He proved that none could keep the law and thus the whole world is GUILTY BEFORE GOD and UNDER THE CURSE. Later in Galatians 3:19-25 we see that the law serves to convict the sinner of this truth and “to bring us to Christ, that we might be JUSTIFIED BY FAITH” (verse 24). Verse 25 then teaches us, “But after faith has come, WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER A TUTOR,” which means the law has ended for the believer. Romans 10:4 puts it this way, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

This is why Christ came. He came to fulfill the law by taking man’s place on the cross and to bear the curse we deserved. We see this in Galatians 3:13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Curse is everyone who hangs on a tree’). Sin has a two-fold penalty: DEATH and JUDGMENT (Romans 6:23 & Hebrews 9:27). He bore the wrath of God first for our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6, 10; 2 Corinthains 5:21; and 1 Peter 3:18) and then He died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 19:30). His cry of victory “It is finished” means He “paid the debt of sin” and the believer is no longer under the curse! The LAW has been replaced by GRACE; the believer is now free from the law and is “under grace.” Romans 6:14 declares, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” GRACE has been called, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” We are indeed (spiritually) RICH because of what Christ went through for us on the cross. We see this blessed truth in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become RICH.”

You mentioned in your question “the new law of Christ.” We have just seen that the believer is, by grace, JUSTIFIED through faith in Christ. This means “there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). But this does not mean we are “lawless and can do whatever we want.” In 1 Corinthians 9:20 Paul spoke of the Jews as “those who are under the law” but he went on to say of himself in verse 21, “not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ.” He was teaching us that even though the believer is “under grace” we still acknowledge that we “are not free to do whatever we want.” Rather, we are now free to obey the commandments that the Lord Jesus has given us, not because we HAVE TO, but because we WANT TO. We love the Lord Jesus; we want to obey Him and bring glory to His Name. We “love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and thus the “law of Christ” is the “law of love” and we gladly obey His commandments because of what His grace has accomplished for us. See Matthew 11:28-30 with 1 John 5:1-3.  (DO)  (666.1)