This statement sounds like heresy to some. How can we call into question what God provided in stone to Moses? How can we ignore these basic biblical truths?
My answer is that I'm not calling them into question or ignoring them. Rather, what I'm saying is that they do not apply to those of the New Covenant.
The New Testament is clear that salvation comes through faith, not through law keeping. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law; we do not have to. The NT writers are united in their call to repent and believe, not repent and keep the law.
The 10 Commandments are part of the OT law. In fact, they are right at the heart of it. God's covenant with the nation of Israel at Sinai has the 10 Commandments at the center. When Jesus came and ushered in the New Covenant, the law no longer had any hold upon his followers. This logically includes the 10 Commandments.
The interesting thing in all this is that if we follow Jesus' teachings, we will end up keeping nine of the ten commandments. It is only the command to keep the Sabbath that we no longer have to follow (we actually keep a different kind of Sabbath - 24/7 rest in Jesus who is our Sabbath). The difference is that we do not obey Jesus' teachings in order to gain his approval. We already have his approval through faith. Rather, we keep them out of hearts full of joy in Christ. We keep them because we want to.
Jesus came to earth for numerous reasons, all of which were part of his mission of salvation. One aspect of this was perfectly fulfilling the OT law. This Christ did - the entire law. Because of this, none of the law's requirements rest upon us. This includes the 10 Commandments.
Our Lord has freed us to live by faith!
2 comments:
Since realizing that the truth of Christ fulfilling scripture, it was apparent that what you say has to be true.
Tom,
Thanks!
Post a Comment