“In the fourteenth day of the month, at even, ye shall keep it (the passover, gm) in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it” (Num. 9:3). There were ceremonies the Israelites were required to keep. Sometimes people in the religious world call the regulations pertaining to these ceremonies the “Ceremonial Law.” An effort is made to distinguish it from the rest of the OT, saying the Lord nailed the Ceremonial Law to the cross, but not the rest of the law. This is an effort to justify mechanical instruments of music in worship to God and other relics of the law.

The expression “ceremonial law” is not found in the word of God. The idea of a separate law pertaining the ceremonies is not there. The laws governing the ceremonies were a part of the law that is called the law of Moses in some passages and the law of the Lord in others.

Consider the following passages. “..Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests the Levites...to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses...” (II Ch. 23:18, emph. mine, gm). “To offer burnt offerings unto the Lord upon the altar of the burnt offering continually morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the law of the Lord, which he commanded Israel” (I Ch. 16:40, emph. mine, gm). “And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month” (Neh. 8:14, emph. mine, gm).

Now consider Luke 2:21-24, “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Lk. 2:21-24, emph. mine, gm).

From these passages it is easily determined that the ceremonies were a part of the law which God gave through Moses. So, whether it is called the law of Moses or the law of the Lord, the Holy Spirit was speaking of one and the same law. God’s law (OT) contained all of the instructions and regulations pertaining to the nation of Israel.