Did Jesus Abolish the Law of Moses or Not?

Michie · Jan 12, 2024

Jesus' words give us the new law that will both fulfill and supersede (or abolish) the Old Law.

Catholics will often take for granted the answer to this question: did Christ abolish the law or not? The Catechism of the Council of Trent, in its section entitled “The Third Commandment,” answers just how it is that Christ abrogated the Law of Moses in the context of explaining why Christians no longer observe the Sabbath.

The other commandments of the Decalogue [other than the day on which the faithful are to worship] are precepts of the natural law, obligatory at all times and unalterable. Hence, after the abrogation of the Law of Moses, all the commandments contained in the two tables are observed by Christians, not indeed because their observance is commanded by Moses, but because they are in conformity with nature which dictates obedience to them.

That’s all well and good. But it doesn’t answer the question often posed by skeptics:

Jesus seems clear in Matthew 5:17 that he did not abolish the law when he said, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” And yet, what do we find in Ephesians 2:14-15? “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances” (cf. Rom. 7:1-4, Heb. 10:9-16).

Continued below.