The Ten Commandments is a big clue to an anachronism... but that might just be me.
“The Ten Commandments is a big clue to an anachronism... but that might just be me.”
The Ten Commandments are reaffirmed in the New Testament for church-age believers. However, neither these nor the hundreds of other precepts of the Law are able to make sinners righteous, nor were they ever able to do so.
Even the principle of working 6 days and resting on the 7th is reaffirmed as a SPIRITUAL principle:
Hebrews 4:9-11
There remains therefore a [Sabbath] rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Hebrews was not written to advocate living under the Law—quite the opposite. But we see the proper application of the Law in it. In Christ, believers quit striving to do our own works and enter into His finished work. We also “labor while it is day”, looking forward to the ultimate rest we will enter into when Christ returns. (See 2 Thessalonians 1.) This principle is also the basis of the so-called “Protestant work ethic” upon which this nation was built.
Here are the Ten Commandments from Exodus:
Exodus 20:2a, 3-5a, 7-8 & 12-17
I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them...
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work...
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Again, all of these are reiterated in the New Testament. We can find numerous, specific examples of these same commandments there. Christ taught, and the apostles affirmed, that the Law is fulfilled by loving God first and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Remember that Christ said He came to fulfill the Law rather than to destroy it. (See Matthew 5.) It was also prophesied that the New Covenant would change the nature of our relationship to the Law:
Hebrews 10:16 (Quoting from Jeremiah)
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.
1 Timothy 1:8-10
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
Galatians 3:24
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
“The Ten Commandments is a big clue to an anachronism... but that might just be me.”
The Ten Commandments are reaffirmed in the New Testament for church-age believers. However, neither these nor the hundreds of other precepts of the Law are able to make sinners righteous, nor were they ever able to do so.
Even the principle of working 6 days and resting on the 7th is reaffirmed as a SPIRITUAL principle:
Hebrews 4:9-11
There remains therefore a [Sabbath] rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Hebrews was not written to advocate living under the Law—quite the opposite. But we see the proper application of the Law in it. In Christ, believers quit striving to do our own works and enter into His finished work. We also “labor while it is day”, looking forward to the ultimate rest we will enter into when Christ returns. (See 2 Thessalonians 1.) This principle is also the basis of the so-called “Protestant work ethic” upon which this nation was built.
Here are the Ten Commandments from Exodus:
Exodus 20:2a, 3-5a, 7-8 & 12-17
I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them...
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work...
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Again, all of these are reiterated in the New Testament. We can find numerous, specific examples of these same commandments there. Christ taught, and the apostles affirmed, that the Law is fulfilled by loving God first and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Remember that Christ said He came to fulfill the Law rather than to destroy it. (See Matthew 5.) It was also prophesied that the New Covenant would change the nature of our relationship to the Law:
Hebrews 10:16 (Quoting from Jeremiah)
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.
1 Timothy 1:8-10
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
Galatians 3:24
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.