Morality is universal and timeless (for all people at all times) because all moral virtues emanate from God. Peter said, “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). We are to be holy simply because God is holy. The scriptures say, “God, who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), and “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). Lying is a sin and always has been a sin because it is contrary to the nature of God. Therefore, when the Law was given to Israel through Moses around 2500 years after creation, moral virtues did not come into existence at that time. It didn't become wrong at that time to lie, steal, and murder while it had been perfectly fine to do those things before the Law. No, the Law simply stated these prohibitions clearly. Before the Law was given, murder was already sinful (Gen. 4:1-15); homosexuality was already sinful (Gen. 19:4-7); adultery was already sinful (Gen. 39:7-9). But along with the stating of timeless and universal moral laws, God also gave to Israel some non-moral laws such as keeping the Sabbath day (Ex. 20:8-11), not eating certain animals (Lev. 11), and the keeping certain feasts and festivals (Lev. 23). It now became sinful for Jews to violate these non-moral laws even though it was not sinful for Gentiles nor had it been sinful before.
But when Christ died on the cross, the Old Covenant (including the Law of Moses) passed away by being superseded with the New Covenant (2 Cor. 3:7-11; Eph. 2:15; Heb. 8:7-13). So when the New Covenant replaced the Old, the timeless and universal moral laws did not pass away because they never did originate with the Law of Moses to begin with. They have always emanated from God and they still do. The Law of Moses passing away means that the non-moral laws passed. The apostle Paul writing to Gentile Christians said, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col. 2:16, 17). He was saying that Christians are not bound to these non-moral laws because their purpose all along was to be a shadow or symbolism of the true reality which was fulfilled in Christ. For example: the Passover was a feast the Jews were commanded to keep (Ex. 12:1-28) yet we are told; “For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). In other words, the keeping of this sacrificial feast every year by the Jews symbolized the true sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sins. Paul told the Gentile Christians in Galatia: “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). The Law was never intended and never could save anyone. God meant for it to be an instructor or tutor to teach Israel what to look for in their Messiah Jesus who was to come. Therefore keeping the Passover feast had no saving power but taught them about the real Passover Lamb Jesus Christ.
The non-moral law prohibiting Jews from eating certain animals was also given for instructional purposes. In Acts chapter 10, God showed the apostle Peter a vision of unclean animals and told him to kill and eat them. Peter’s protest against doing this was answered with “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (Acts 10:15). God then led Peter to a Gentile’s house to preach the gospel—this was the beginning of evangelism to Gentiles. There never has been
anything morally wrong with eating certain animals. It was a regulation given to teach the spiritual truth that salvation is for all people. Gentiles were represented by the unclean animals. As God’s people, Jews were to remain separate from Gentiles until the salvation of the world was accomplished in Christ and avoiding unclean animals symbolized this. But really God’s people
are whoever puts their faith in Christ whether they are Jew or Gentile. God saved all people through Christ and the gospel is to go out to all.
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