The Law of Moses

I. A Lesser Law for a Hard-Hearted People

The Law of Moses was never the gospel in its fulness. It was a schoolmaster [Galatians 3:24] — a structured curriculum of types, shadows, and ordinances designed to bring Israel to Christ by teaching them, through daily and annual repetition, what the Messiah would accomplish. Paul is explicit that the Law could not save: "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" [Galatians 3:21]. It could not. What it could do was prefigure Christ and restrain a generation unable to bear the higher law.

Moses himself had received the higher law at Sinai during his first ascent — but JST Exodus 34:1–2 and D&C 84:19–25 record what happened next:

“For this Melchizedek Priesthood… was taken away out of their midst… Therefore he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also; and the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel.”

The Law of Moses as we have it in the Pentateuch is the Lord’s accommodation to a people who rejected the fulness. It is the preparatory gospel — sufficient to save those who lived in its day with humble hearts, but always pointing beyond itself to the Redeemer who would fulfill it.

II. Types and Shadows — Every Jot and Tittle Pointing to Christ

The Book of Mormon prophets understood the Law of Moses better than most Christian theologians have. They kept it — not because they needed its ordinances for salvation, but because every detail pointed them to the Christ they already worshipped:

“And notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith.”

“Behold, I say unto you that it is expedient that ye should keep the law of Moses as yet; but I say unto you, that the time shall come when it shall no more be expedient to keep the law of Moses. And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone… But behold, it was all fulfilled by the coming of Christ. Behold, he is the law, and all things which are in the law — that it was given unto them that thereby they might look forward unto him.”

Abinadi’s teaching is the definitive Restoration summary: the Law was given that Israel might look forward unto Christ. Every sacrifice was a type of the Atonement. Every priest a type of the Great High Priest. Every temple article a type of Christ’s person or work.

• The lamb of the sacrifice — "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" [John 1:29]
• The High Priest entering the Holy of Holies with blood — Christ entering heaven with His own blood [Hebrews 9:11–12]
• The Passover lamb whose blood marks the doorposts — Christ’s blood marking those who receive Him [1 Corinthians 5:7]
• The manna from heaven in the wilderness — "I am the bread of life… I am the living bread which came down from heaven" [John 6:35, 51]
• The brazen serpent lifted up in the wilderness — "so must the Son of man be lifted up" [John 3:14–15]
• The rock struck in Horeb from which water flowed — "that Rock was Christ" [1 Corinthians 10:4]
• The scapegoat of Yom Kippur bearing the sins into the wilderness — Christ bearing the sins of the world [Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9]

III. What Was Fulfilled at Calvary

The blood sacrifices of the Law were fulfilled — the Greek word Christ uses in "It is finished" [John 19:30] is tetelestai, "paid in full." The ongoing Levitical sacrificial system had reached its telos, the end it was created for:

“Behold, I do not destroy the prophets, for as many as have not been fulfilled in me, verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled. And because I said unto you that old things have passed away, I do not destroy that which hath been spoken concerning things which are to come. For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled; but the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in me.”

“And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”

Christ at Bountiful is explicit: the blood sacrifices are done. The sacrifice now required is a broken heart and a contrite spirit — internal, not external. Paul reaches the same point in Hebrews 10:1–14: the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never take away sin; Christ by one offering perfected forever them that are sanctified.

IV. What Continues — The Moedim and the Moral Law

Not every element of the Law was fulfilled and discontinued at Calvary. The careful reader distinguishes:

• The sacrificial system — fulfilled and done away [3 Nephi 9:19–20; Hebrews 10]
• The ceremonial cleanliness and dietary codes — largely released for the Gentiles [Acts 15; Acts 10:10–16; Colossians 2:16–17]
• The moedim (appointed times / feasts of Leviticus 23) — Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles — a prophetic calendar whose first four feasts Christ fulfilled at His first coming and whose last three still await fulfillment at His return
• The moral law of the Ten Commandments — never abrogated; reaffirmed and deepened by Christ [Matthew 5–7]
• The principle of tithing — pre-Mosaic (Abraham paid Melchizedek long before Sinai [Genesis 14:20; Alma 13:15]) and continued under the new and everlasting covenant [D&C 119]
• The Sabbath principle — rooted in creation itself [Genesis 2:2–3]; observed on the first day among the early Christians in memory of the resurrection [Acts 20:7]

The moedim especially repay careful study. Passover points to the crucifixion. Unleavened Bread points to Christ’s sinless body in the tomb. Firstfruits points to the resurrection. Pentecost points to the outpouring of the Spirit on the Church at its birth. Trumpets points to the day when the Lord returns with the sound of a trumpet. The Day of Atonement points to the day of judgment. Tabernacles points to the Lord dwelling with His gathered people in the Millennium. Four fulfilled; three still future.

V. Hebrews — The Great Typological Unveiling

The Epistle to the Hebrews is the New Testament’s sustained treatise on how the Law typifies Christ. Its climactic argument is that the entire Levitical system was "a figure for the time then present… the example and shadow of heavenly things" [Hebrews 8:5; 9:9]. The tabernacle itself was a pattern shown to Moses on the mount — a model of heavenly realities.

“The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect… But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.”

The Law is the shadow; Christ is the substance. A shadow is real — it has shape and edge and information — but it is not the thing that casts it. The Law is real and full of information about Christ, but Christ is the reality the Law was built to describe.

VI. The New Covenant — The Law Written on the Heart

Jeremiah foresaw the move from external code to internal law:

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

The covenant Christ institutes is the same law in substance, delivered through a different means. No longer stone tablets kept in an external ark; now the Spirit of the Lord writing righteousness into the inner man. The disciple under the new covenant is not free from law — he is indwelt by the lawgiver.