WHAT DOES JEHOVAH ASK OF US TODAY?

"A voice out of the cloud [said]: 'This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved; listen to him.' " -MATTHEW  17:5.

JEHOVAH gave the nation of Israel the Law, with its many features. Regarding them, the apostle Paul wrote:  "They were legal requirements pertaining to  the flesh and were imposed until the appointed time to set things straight."  (Hebrews 9:10)  When the Law led a remnant of Israelites to accept Jesus as the Messiah, or Christ, it had fulfilled its purposes.  Thus Paul declared:  "Christ is the end of the Law." -Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:19-25; 3:3, 4, 5.

Does this mean that the Law is not binding upon us today? Actually, the vast majority of humankind never were under the Law, as the psalmist explained: "[Jehovah]is telling his word to Jacob, his regulations and his judicial decisions to Israel.  He has not done that way to any other nation; and as for his judicial decisions, they have not known them." (Psalm 147:19, 20)  When God established the new covenant on the basis of  Jesus' sacrifice, even the nation of Israel was no longer under obligation to obey the Law.  (Galatians 3;13; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:13, 14, 16)  If, then, the Law is no longer binding, what does Jehovah asks of those who desire to serve him today? 

Next time: What Jehovah Asks

From the Watchtower magazine, 1999