Many Christians today say things like “we are New Testament people,” “the cross ended the law,” or “the law of God is no longer binding.” The morning session answers this from Matthew 5:17-18: Jesus came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them, and not one letter of it will pass away. Working through 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and a string of Old Testament types fulfilled in Christ, it shows that the ceremonial and sacrificial law finds its end in the cross, while the law’s moral substance continues to shape faith and obedience – Jesus condemned the Pharisees not for keeping the law but for neglecting its weightier matters of justice and mercy.
The afternoon session continues directly into the Ten Commandments, distinguishing the law’s abiding moral principles from its case-law applications, and takes the first commandment – “You shall have no other gods before Me” – as the worked example. Following Luther’s catechism, it explains this as fearing, loving, and trusting God above everything else, and ties that undivided trust to Jesus’ warning against anxious, divided hearts in Matthew 6 and to believers like Perpetua and Felicitas who kept their loyalty to Christ even to death.