How many rules and regulations had the law become by the time of Christ?
By the time of Christ, the law had become a compilation of 613 rules and regulations. It was the law as practiced then, a degenerated body of ordinances. Scripture calls it the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and contrary to us, which was taken out of the way and nailed to the cross.
Les explains that the law being practiced at the time of Christ was a compilation of 613 rules and regulations, and that this is what the law had become as it was degenerated. He points to Colossians 2:14, where Paul speaks of the work of the cross blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Les identifies that handwriting as the law, all the ordinances that were against us and contrary to us. Because the law was contrary to human nature, it was taken out of the way and nailed to His cross. Les then connects this to Galatians 2, where Paul helped believing Jews like himself see that the old economy had been totally done away with. Paul says that if he rebuilt what he had destroyed, he would be building again that which he had destroyed.