THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #129 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #110
Lesson 3814
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #129
THE LIFE OF MOSES #110
MOSES AND MT.SINAI #9
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ( Part 4)
Q. Are the Ten Commandments part of the Law of Moses,? If so why should we obey them as we are no longer under Law but Grace?
A. A careful examination of the use of the word “Law” demonstrates the answer.
1. Certain laws that dealt with Old Testament ceremonial life (“Ceremonial Laws”) were fulfilled in Christ.
2. Other laws, relating to the time of Moses, when Israel had no king but God, have been called, “Civil Laws” (or, sometimes, “Theocratic Laws;” because Israel was a theocracy, with God as head of the human government).
3. The other category of “law” in the Bible is that critical code of living that is before us in this article: the Ten Commandments.
Those commandments form a “Moral Law” that continues to this day.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), one of the most concise, authoritative doctrinal statements in Church history (Reformed, Protestant), summarizes the matter in its Chapter 19:
I. God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him, and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it; and endued him with power and ability to keep.
II. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments, and written in two tables; the first four commandments containing our duty towards God, and the other six our duty to man.
III. Besides this law, commonly called Moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances; partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the New Testament.
IV. To them also, as a body politic, he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any other now, farther than the general equity thereof may require.
V. The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.
It’s instructive for us that when Jesus has to reach for a convenient summary of obedience to God, He goes to the Ten Commandments.
We see similar things from the Apostle Paul.
So we certainly don’t want to set aside the Ten Commandments. Jesus didn’t set them aside; he fulfilled them.
Jesus said He didn’t come “to destroy the Law or the Prophets,” what we call the Old Testament today (Matthew 5:17-19). He didn’t annul the 10 Commandments. He taught their deeper, spiritual application.
When asked which commandment was the greatest, He summarized the 10 Commandments and the whole Bible this way: “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Jesus showed the spiritual intent of the 10 Commandments. The first four show how to love God the way He wants to be loved. The last six show how to love our neighbors.
Jesus also said, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). When asked which commandments, He listed five of the 10 Commandments, the commands to not murder, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness, along with the command to honor father and mother. He also added the summary statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (verses 18-19).
The apostle Paul said, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. … For we know that the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:12, 14).
How can the natural, fleshly man learn and obey this holy, spiritual law? Paul showed that this is made possible through Jesus Christ and by being led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 7:25; 8:7-9, 14).
Jesus Christ not only paid the death penalty for our sins (Romans 5:9; 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:18-19), He showed the way and will provide us help to follow God’s good and beneficial way of life—the way of love.
We must seek to change, to walk as He walks and to love as He loves (1 John 2:6; John 13:34).
Paul shows that the law is designed to teach us how to love (Romans 13:9-10). Love is the spiritual intent of the law.
The problem is not the law, but our weak flesh. But through the Holy Spirit God helps us overcome that obstacle by writing the law in our hearts and minds as we diligently study and seek to obey His law (Hebrews 8:8-10). This is the heart of the New Covenant.
As Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount, James also expands on the spiritual intent of the 10 Commandments. He called God’s law the royal law (James 2:8). How is it a “royal law”? It is the law of the Kingdom of God, and Jesus Christ will return as King of Kings in that Kingdom (Revelation 19:16).
James also called it the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25; 2:12). James compares the law with a mirror (1:23-25). Just looking in the mirror—just knowing the perfect law of God—is not enough. We must use God’s help to make the changes in ourselves and show the love to others and God that the law shows us.
Some have looked at God’s law as bondage—as a heavy burden they feel God eventually sent Jesus to remove from us.
But the Bible clearly shows the perfect, eternal, spiritual law of God is a law of liberty. Consider these biblical passages:
John said, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
The psalmist wrote, “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments” (Psalm 112:1).
Paul wrote, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (1 Corinthians 7:19).
And so each of the Ten Commandments now finds a fuller fulfillment in Christ. They don’t become less than what they were, but now with the advent of Christ, they become much more in how we fulfill them and how we obey them.
