One law requires sacrifices. The other law is the Ten Commandments. These can be referred to as the Ceremonial Law and the Moral Law. If these were one and the same, the Sabbath would have been abolished at the same time as the sacrifices. Also the Sabbath commandment is not one ceremonial precept among nine other moral precepts, as some would argue.
The Ten Commandments are written out clearly, and God said equally clearly,
These words the Lord spake … and he added no more.’ Deuteronomy 5:22.
This is simple to understand, and differentiates from the very many ceremonial requirements – for sin, for uncleanness, for dedication, and a multitude of other occasions. Leviticus has 27 chapters containing detailed instructions for the rites and sacrifices connected with the sanctuary services. The Ten Commandments are found in just 15 verses in Exodus.
The law of the Ten Commandments.
In the New Testament we find that something is definitely abolished, but it must be precisely decided what was abolished. Which law was no longer needed? We have already discovered that the Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God on tables of stone and placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. The others were written in a book by Moses and placed ‘in the side of’ the ark, not ‘inside’ it. The book written by the hand of Moses was never placed inside the ark, under the mercy seat between the two cherubim. A difference is immediately seen.
When King Solomon dedicated the new Temple in Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant was brought in and it is recorded that
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb. 1 Kings 8:9.
Deuteronomy 4:13 states
He declared unto you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments, and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.
The Ten Commandments are certainly one of the laws of the Old Testament. This is the law of God which was permanent and unchanging, It is the rule of life that defines and shows us our sin. It is this law which shows us our need of a Saviour. Jesus came to die for us because we had sinned, and this sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, not the breaking of the Ceremonial Law. In Revelation 22:14 it says
Blessed are they that do His commandment that they may have right to the tree of life.