applicability of various biblical laws to today

There is no degree of sin, any sin carries the same penalty; which is death!

Sin is disobedience of God, The sin that Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden was in doing what God had forbid them to do and he even gave them the penalty for disobeying him.

All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Genesis 2:16 and 17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

The penalty was for disobeying God not for having the knowledge of good and evil, after all when Jesus walked upon the Earth he had the knowledge of good and evil, otherwise how would he be able to call the Pharisees hypocrites.

Now that you have the bad news here is the Good News!

Jesus fulfilled the law.

Matthew 5:17 and 18 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

But that fulfillment has a few conditions attached to it:

Mat 5:19 and 20 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

However that only applies to those who are eligible to be in Heaven. Or in other words Christians. God will forgive our sins and we can become eligible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but that again has some conditions attached to it:

John 14:1 through 6 KJV Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

So if we are to go to Heaven there is only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ. But then again that is not just believing that Jesus existed it is more than that. in that you must believe that his death and resurrection paid your sin debt in full.

So now that we have escaped the penalty of death does that mean we are free to just sin all we want with no consequences? Not by along shot!

First of all think back to Matthew 5:19 and 20, where he says anyone who relaxes one of the least of these commandments, That means we are still bound by those commandments, and remember that they are all the same in God's eyes, and so we cannot intentionally break any of those commandments and if your child learns from you that they can get by with doing that, God will frown on you.

When we sin whether intentionally or unintentionally those are our sins and if Jesus death and resurrection is going to pay for them then we have to give them to him. So after we qualify to enter Heaven what about those sins we commit after that. Those sins also have to be given to Christ and we must ask God to forgive them just the same as we did when we first gave our past sins to Jesus and asked God to forgive us based on Jesus sacrifice, and until you do that through prayer and confession they are still your sins, and will not be covered by Jesus death and resurrection.

Any law that God endorsed would be already contained in the laws enumerated in the Bible. Any law not based on Scripture is not a law, as far as God is concerned.

Hope this helps.