Are the Ten Commandments still
law for Christians?
Many Christians give a negative answer to
this question. They believe that the Ten
Commandments, like the ceremonial laws,
were abolished at the Cross. They apply the
New Testament passages that speak of the
ceremonial laws being done away at the
Cross to the moral law of Ten
Commandments. They reason that, because
Moses gave all these laws to the Jews, they
were intended only for the nation Israel
before the death of Jesus. Now we follow
the teachings of Jesus and not the
requirements that were specifically intended
for Jews only.
Some dispensationalists go a step further.
They reason that before the Cross salvation
was by obedience to law. Since then it has
been by grace alone.(1) We are living in the
dispensation of grace, while the Jews were
living in the dispensation of law. Thus God
used a different means of saving humanity
before the Cross than He uses for us today.
(2) If we try to live by the laws of the Old
Testament, we become legalists and cannot
be saved by grace.
Some interpreters take the view that,
although the Ten Commandments were
done away at the Cross, nine of them were
reinstituted by Christ and His apostles. They
think it possible to discover all the
commandments restated in the New
Testament except the fourth, the Sabbath
command.(3) People who reason this way
reveal their true motive for arguing that the
Ten Commandments were abolished at the
Cross. They are not opposed to nine of those
commands, but they are opposed to the
Sabbath. Because they can find nine of the
Ten Commandments restated in the New
Testament, they have no burden to oppose
them. But since they think the Sabbath
command is not repeated in the New
Testament, they oppose it strenuously. Their
dispensationalist theology provides a very
handy method of doing away with the
weekly seventh-day Sabbath.
Opposition to keeping God's law is called
antinomianism (anti = against; nomos =
law). The idea that salvation by grace alone
rules out the importance of obeying the law
of God fails to recognize the principle that
Christ's gift of salvation is designed to bring
us into accord with God's will. Of course, it is
not true that salvation is by law keeping. We
receive saving grace from God when, by
faith, we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord (Eph. 2:8, 9). But such faith always
results in conformity to the will of God as
expressed in His law (verse 10). Paul wrote
that Christ died "so that the just requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4).(4) If we are not
obeying the law of God, we cannot claim
that its righteousness is fulfilled in us.
Legalism is not obedience to God's law; it is
the attempt to obey His law without first
having received the gift of His grace.
Legalism is the attempt to save oneself by
law keeping, instead of allowing Christ to
save by crediting His righteousness to us
and bestowing His righteousness upon us
by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once having
received Christ's divine saving presence in
the life, it is inevitable that the believer will
want to follow all of Christ's commands.
Grace is the means; obedience is the result.
Obedience to the law of God is the sure
consequence of the genuine new birth
experience.
Let us turn now to the Scriptures and see
what was done away at the Cross and what
still applies for Christian believers today