Dorawen wrote:
From what I've seen, the OT has two sets of laws: the Ten Commandments (which are still binding, as Jesus kept them and never mentioned them disappearing), and the rest (which, although the principles behind them are still sound, the actual laws were designed for the culture and place that the Israelites were, and no longer apply to us today).
Separating the Ten Commandments from the rest of the Mosaic law isn't proper. You can say that they provide a general overview of the intent of the Mosaic law, or that they're an introduction to the law, that they give us a hint of what's in God's mind and heart, or that they're excellent moral principles to live by. But to state that they are separate entities is incorrect. The Jews of Jesus' day didn't do that, and there's no indication that the writer of Exodus intended that they be separate.
While it's true that Jesus never "turned off" the Ten Commandments, it isn't true that they are binding to us today in the sense that we have to live by them or get punished by God or by civil authorities in this life. They are, however, still binding in the sense that they are moral guideposts for us, signs to point us in the direction we're all supposed to live.
And it is also true that we are not responsible today to fulfill the law of Moses in its entirety, even assuming (as Dorawen correctly pointed out) that there was a Temple at which we could perform those mandated sacrifices. The other point I would like to make is that the Lord gave the law of Moses to Israel to follow, not to all mankind in general. Which means that, in order to live a righteous life, we must individually follow Jesus and discover what He wants each of us to do (beyond that which is revealed in the Bible, of course).
