Let's stay away from the word abolished, it's a strawman. I think if you listen the concept articulate is consistent with fulfilled; it's the result of fulfilled that is understood differently. To one it means complete so that it never needs to be done again, to another, it means performed perfectly as a model of how we should do it. If it's an example of a bucket, one camp says look the bucket is full, its purpose is complete, the other camp says look that's how you fill a bucket let's fill ours the say way, but no one is kicking the bucket over. So please stop it with the abolished argument, it gets tired and no one is actually saying it and if you trap someone into saying it, that's on you. Also recognize that there are laws that we agree are fulfilled through Christ that carry a meaning of no longer in practice. In Mat 5 Christ spoke of the law and prophets as the context he does not signal out the 10.
The 10 may reveal God character but let's not pretend that they are broad strokes and more focused on what to avoid than what to do. Sure I can not murder my neighbour, that's actually not that hard to do, and that's all the commandment requires of me. But there is nothing about loving him. You can pile on lying, stealing, coveting, sleeping with his wife, etc... and I can do all of those things but still have no love so in the end profit nothing.
The same is with having no other gods, no graven images or not taking God's name in vain. Those things are not actually that hard to do, but they speak nothing about loving God. And then the Sabbath, the most unnatural of the 10 as you need to be told what to do in order to understand it's instructions, and it doesn't come naturally, sure rest comes naturally, but not the the requirement the 4th puts on it. Even then I may enter this ritial rest agreement and still have no love. The entire 10 may be kept to the letter but be void of love.
I do not deny the 10 shows the character of God but does circumcision do this no less? It's the blind men feeling an elephant where the 10 are only an aspect, but incomplete because alone it is a tree trunk, or a rope, a wall or snake, but you can't see the whole elephant from merely looking at the 10. But the 10 are not the elephant and I think that is a critical problem in these discussions, where often the 10 are presented as the goal. The 10 point to the goal, but they are not the goal itself. When we view the 10 isolated, it is just a severed part of an elephant with no context and we can get trapped into see whatever the blind men see.
If we critically look at these things, God has his immutable character, the law becomes a contextual example of that for place and time. It cannot be itself immutable, because it can never be a mirror of God's character (no words really can), this is the demand and point of the Spirit. Law written upon our hearts is not the 10 verbatim on our hearts, which would be a little silly (we already have the 10 widely available) what is written upon our hearts comes from the spirit and is living and dynamic, going well beyond the 10.
We can align ourselves to the 10, but it's severely limited and you'll just practice legalism because that's all the 10 teaches. To break free from the legalism, we need to view the 10 as a part of the plan instead of the plan itself. Understood under Christ we don't just avoid hurting each other but rather are actively pursing care for each other (rather than crossing the street to avoid it all together). This is captured in Christ's law, love for God and each other, and NT scripture reveals to all this keeps law. The issue is the ritual/ceremonial practices don't have a clear path in for this mechanism through love/goodness. We don't care about the sacrifice are things like circumcision, because they are widely considered complete through Christ (the "finished" fulfilled) but with Sabbath, it's rejected as a ritual and try and forced into moral practice. But the problem is Sabbath does not show us moral practice it shows us ritual practice. But how we define sabbath is not actually an issue, Christ tells us that goodness is lawful on the sabbath (mt 12:12) (regardless of the work involved) by doing so, he shows how sabbath law requirement is fulfilled through Christ's law. This is a rare example of a ritual practice shown as being fulfilled through goodness/love explicitly reconciled with Christ's law. The focus Christ has moves away from the ritual practice into a goodness/love practice and in doing so he shows us this is a better way of keeping law. So law is not broken, abolished, forgotten, done away with, or whatever other strawmen you throw in there. Law is kept completely through Christ's law.
The concept of "Christ's law," as it's often referred to, is ultimately untenable and represents another attempt by man to redefine or reinterpret the laws that God originally gave. Jesus Himself did not come to create a new law or to offer a completely different set of commandments. Rather, He clarified and fulfilled the true intent of God's law, drawing out the deeper principles of love and righteousness that were always embedded within it.
When Jesus speaks about loving God and loving others as the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40), He’s not proposing a new law but revealing the foundational heart of all the commandments. In this light, "Christ’s law" isn’t a separate or alternative legal code—it is the full expression of what the law was always meant to point to: love and selflessness.
To say that "Christ's law" replaces or overrides the original laws given in the Old Testament is to misunderstand both the purpose of the law and Christ's role. Jesus did not come to invalidate or replace God's commandments but to fulfill and deepen their meaning. Any attempt to reinterpret or alter the original commandments, including through a so-called "Christ law," risks distorting their true purpose and intent, which is to guide humanity toward God’s perfect character and the love He desires for His people.
Thus, the law is not to be redefined by man but understood through the fullness of God's revelation in Christ, who Himself perfectly embodied and fulfilled it.
The words of Jesus and the Old Testament are clear that the law, including the Ten Commandments, is not abolished but fulfilled in Christ. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the importance of love as the heart of God's law, fulfilling it in a way that goes beyond mere external compliance.
In Matthew 5, Jesus said He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He called for a deeper righteousness, one that transcends legalism. The law pointed to the character of God, but it could never fully capture His essence. As such, while the Ten Commandments reveal God’s nature, they are not the end goal. Jesus, through His life, taught that the law’s fulfillment is found in love: love for God and love for others (Matthew 22:37-40). This is the “law” written on our hearts, which the Holy Spirit enables us to live out.Thus, the law isn’t abolished, but its true purpose—rooted in love—becomes evident in Christ. He did not destroy the law but brought it to its intended fulfillment.
The sabbath, as originally given by God, was intended to be a day of rest, reflection, and relationship with Him—a day to
cease from labor and focus on spiritual renewal. However, over time, human traditions added a multitude of rules and regulations surrounding the Sabbath, burdening it with a legalistic framework that made it more about ritual compliance than the spirit of rest and devotion it was meant to represent.
Jesus, in Matthew 12:12, challenges this distortion of the Sabbath by emphasizing that acts of kindness and mercy are in alignment with the true purpose of the Sabbath. His actions on the Sabbath—healing the sick and doing good—show that the Sabbath is not merely about following a rigid set of rules, but about fulfilling God's deeper purpose of love and compassion.
The description of the Sabbath given in Isaiah 58:13, where the Lord speaks through the prophet, saying:
"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words..."
Isaiah describes the Sabbath as a day set apart for God’s purposes—one that is honorable and joyful, not a day for empty rituals or human-imposed burdens. The focus is on delighting in God, refraining from selfish pursuits, and honoring the day by aligning with God’s heart. It’s about a life that reflects God’s will, not simply avoiding work or adhering to a set of external rules.
In contrast to the heavy regulations added by men, Isaiah points to the Sabbath as a day that should reflect a heart of worship, joy, and compassion—not one burdened by human-made rules. Jesus, in his ministry, seeks to restore the true spirit of the Sabbath, moving beyond the legalistic interpretation that had grown over time, and showing that its true purpose is fulfilled in acts of love, mercy, and goodness. Thus, the Sabbath is not about adhering to human regulations, but about aligning with God’s heart and His deeper desires for His people. And yes the sabbath command is part of the Commandments written by God on tables of stone written with his own finger and called the Covenant. Who are we to contradict God and change what He ordained.
