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Does love replace the Ten Commandments?
One objection I sometimes hear from those who do not want to obey God’s Ten Commandment Law is that the two great love commandments of the New Covenant have replaced it. In answer to the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus answers:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment, and the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12:30,31).
Many people conclude that these two greatest commandments have replaced the Ten Commandments. We should remember that Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament. He quoted the first commandment from Deuteronomy 6:5. This was known to the Hebrews as the Shemá, which became the Jewish confession of faith and was recited by pious Jews every morning and evening. To this day it begins every synagogue service. The second commandment was quoted from Leviticus 19:18. Please notice that the Hebrews were also required to obey the Ten Commandments, which are in the Old Testament in Exodus 20. Disobedience carried the death penalty.
If the two greatest commandments did not replace the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, why should we assume they replaced them in the New Testament? Jesus ended His answer with the statement, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets” (Mt. 22:40). He did not say these two commandments replaced the law and the prophets, did He?
How can these two commandments replace the Ten Commandments, which are described as being eternal? “...all his Commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:7,8). The Ten Commandments are also described as being perfect: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Ps. 19:7). If something is perfect, can it be improved? Paul said, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). In context, Paul is talking about the Ten Commandment Law. He went on to say, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12). It sounds like Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying the Law is very much alive and well, doesn’t it? Jesus said:
“Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 5:17-19).
If fulfill means the same as destroy, then Jesus contradicted Himself in the same sentence, didn’t He? Could the love commandments be a summary of the Ten Commandment Law? Could the first love commandment be a summary of the first four Commandments, and the second be a summary of the last six? Also, let’s see how God defines love:
“If ye love Me, keep My Commandments” (Jhn. 14:15). “He that hath My Commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him” (Jhn. 14:21). “By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His Commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep His Commandments, and His Commandments are not grievous” (1 Jhn. 5:2,3). “And this is love: that we walk after His [the Father’s] Commandments” (2 Jhn. 1:6).
Are we able to obey God’s Law?
It sounds like God is defining love as keeping His Ten Commandment Law, doesn’t it? Notice also, that He says keeping His Commandments is not grievous. Most unredeemed people protest that no one can keep the Ten Commandment Law. It seems they disagree with God, doesn’t it? Is it reasonable to believe God would give us Ten Commandments, knowing we cannot obey them, and then tell us that if we do not obey them He will kill us? That does not sound like the God who reveals Himself in the pages of Scripture, does it? He goes on to explain why His Commandments are not grievous: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world; even our faith” (1 Jhn. 5:4).
Even though it is true that “...the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7), it is also true that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phlp. 4:13). Do you suppose “all things” could include His Ten Commandment Law? What, then, shall we conclude? I believe all this is telling us that since God Himself is love (1 Jhn. 4:8), then the foundation for everything is love, including His Ten Commandment Law. In His love for us He has given us a short list of things we are to avoid doing (which includes the commandment to honor our parents, which is a positive way of saying not to dishonor them). If He had detailed everything we are allowed to do, the list would just about be infinite, wouldn’t it? In the two love commandments we are being told that the way we are to express the two love commandments is by obeying the Ten Commandment Law. It may be helpful to picture the two greatest love commandments as two arms, and the Ten Commandments as the fingers on the end of those arms.
Why do I focus on just one of the Ten Commandments—the Sabbath? God says we must obey them all, and if we disobey just one, we are transgressors of the Law (Jms. 2:10). It seems to me that the Sabbath commandment is the one that is universally disobeyed, even by Sabbatarians who know it must be obeyed, but do not obey it God’s way. If God commands us to do something, and tells us how He wants it done, and we proceed to obey Him our way instead of His, we aren’t really obeying Him, are we? We are replacing our will for His will, which has been our problem from the beginning. Does this sound too extreme? Think it through. Even though salvation is a gift, it is not given unless we repent of breaking God’s Ten Commandment Law (Acts 2:38). That means obeying them God's way, not ours. Christ cannot be our Savior until He is our Lord. This means we must submit to Him as our Lord in repentance and obedience to His Ten Commandment Law.
Will any day do?
Occasionally someone will claim the Bible does not teach that we should keep holy any particular day, only that we observe one day out of six. This seems to me to be so totally at odds with what God commands, that it hardy deserves a reply. Nevertheless, (sigh) let’s review what God said:
“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:2,3).
God did not rest on any day, but the seventh day, after six days of creation. Not only that, He blessed that day, and sanctified it. The Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week. That twenty-four hour day is holy time. In the Ten Commandment Law, God repeats this fact: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:8-11). How anyone can conclude any day will do in spite of all God says here and elsewhere throughout Scripture is beyond my ability to understand. I guess this is just another example of our ability to see only what we want to see despite the facts.
Has time been lost?
Another excuse I hear for not obeying God’s Sabbath Commandment is that time has been lost and no one knows when the original seventh day of creation is. These same people claim they do know when Sunday, the first day of the week, is. In a seven day week, if we know when the first day is, surly we know when the seventh day is, don’t we? (Perhaps this is an example of a joke I recently heard: There are three kinds of people in the world; those who can count, and those who can’t!). Also, Jesus kept the Sabbath day holy. Surly He knew He kept the right day, didn’t He? After all, it was He who created the Sabbath day. In the wilderness, the Hebrews received manna from Heaven every day—except on the Sabbath day—for forty years. On the sixth day, they received a double portion, which lasted them over the Sabbath day. After forty years, there was no doubt which day was the Sabbath day. To this day, Jews all over the world keep the Sabbath day holy, and they all know which day it is.
But hasn’t the calendar been changed? Yes, it has. Let’s take a look at that change and see what affect it had on the Sabbath day. In 45 B.C., during the reign of Julius Caesar, the Julian calendar was created and was used until A.D. 1582, when it was discovered the calendar had an annual error of 12 minutes and 14 seconds, which, over the centuries caused it to be off by ten days. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 740, article “Chronology,” we find:
“It is to be noted that in the Christian period, the order of days in the week has never been interrupted. Thus, when Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582, Thursday, 4 October was followed by Friday, 15 October. So in England, in 1752, Wednesday, 2 September, was followed by Thursday, 14 September.”
England was a little slow in making the correction, but the result was the same: The sequence of days remained undisturbed.
Lost believers
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you! Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Mt. 7:21-23).
It seems to me that this statement by Jesus, coming at the end of His Sermon on the Mount, is a concise and profound summery of just what we must do to receive eternal life with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. In verse 21, He tells us that believing in Him is not sufficient. After all, if people call Him Lord, they must believe in Him. People who do not believe in Him are not going to call Him Lord, are they? He is saying that even believers will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven if they do not do His Father’s will.
The question is, what is His Father’s will in this context? God’s will is expressed in many ways. What specific way is Jesus referring to here? He answers this in verses 22 and 23. These believers are bragging about all the good works they have done in His name—prophesying, casting out demons, and performing many miracles. Then Jesus tells them He never knew them and He orders them to depart from Him. Why? Because they “work iniquity.” This means they are practicing lawlessness! So the expression of His Father’s will that He is talking about here is His Ten Commandment Law.
There are many who claim that since Jesus told these people, “I never knew you,” that means they weren’t really believers. If that is true, then Jesus made a false statement, because He said these people called Him Lord, a title only believers will use. Paul tells us that “…no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 12:3). Unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit, do they? They also did many good works in His name, which is something unbelievers will not do. When He said He never knew them, I believe it was in the sense that He did not have an intimate, loving relation with them because they did not obey His Father’s Ten Commandment Law. After all, Jesus is God our creator and He knows everyone better than they know themselves, doesn’t He?
Salvation by faith, works, or…
One of the most popular beliefs about salvation is that we don’t have to do anything to be saved because salvation is free. If we try to do anything, we are neutralizing the gift of salvation. If this belief is true, then it seems to me everyone is saved from the moment of his conception in his mother’s womb, and nothing we think, say, or do will change that fact. Their answer to that is we do have to accept Christ’s salvation, or believe He died for our sins, or trust in Him, or something; which contradicts their original statement.
I believe Scripture does teach us that we cannot earn salvation because it is a gift (Eph. 2:8,9). But Scripture also teaches that before we can receive that gift we must meet God’s condition, which is to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord in repentance and obedience to His Ten Commandment Law (Acts 2:38; 3:19; Mt. 7:21-23; 19:17; Heb. 5:9; Rom. 10:3; Jms. 4:7). After writing at length about how we do not earn salvation by our works, Paul, probably anticipating being charged with being against obeying the Ten Commandments, wrote: “Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the Law” (Rom. 3:31).
I have been accused of trying to work my way into heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. Which commandment is work? All but one tell us not to do something. One tells us to honor our parents. Is honoring our parents work? The Sabbath commandment specifically tells us not to work, and yet this is the one universally ignored. In Ephesians 2:8,9 we are told; “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” I don’t deny that we cannot earn salvation by our works. They usually fail to quote verse 10 though: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Suppose my rich uncle says he will give me $1,000,000 if I will quit smoking. I am not earning that money; it’s a gift if I meet the condition and stop smoking. In the same way, we do not earn salvation by meeting God’s condition for eternal life by submitting to Him as Lord in repentance and obedience to His Ten Commandment Law (Mt. 19:17; 7:21-23). God’s condition for salvation is repentance: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Jesus warns, “…except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3,5).
Unless we have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to Him (Rom. 8:9). If we do not belong to Christ, we are not Christians, are we? The way we receive the Spirit of Christ is to “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). The context of Romans 8:9 reveals that the “Spirit of Christ” is the Holy Spirit (Ghost).
All through Scripture, those who submit to Christ/God as Lord in repentance and obedience to His Ten Commandment Law are called Saints. For example:
Ø “For the LORD loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints. They are preserved for ever but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off” (Ps. 37:28).
Ø “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him” (Ps. 89:7).
Ø “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil. He preserveth the souls of His saints. He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked” (Ps. 97:10).
Ø “But the saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever; even for ever and ever” (Dan. 7:18).
Ø “Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem” (Acts (9:13).
Ø “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints...” (Rom. 1:7).
In Revelation where everything is coming to a conclusion, and God is wrapping everything up in preparation for the establishment of His Kingdom of Heaven on the earth, we find a couple of interesting verses:
Ø “And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).
Ø “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).
These two verses in the last book of the Bible define Christians as those who keep the Commandments of God and submit to Jesus as their Lord. This also applies to those saints in the Old Testament since Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. But, some may ask, when did the saints of the Old Testament submit to Jesus as their Lord since Jesus doesn’t appear until the New Testament? Good question. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, therefore, the saints who submitted to the God of the Old Testament were in fact submitting to Jesus.
“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: Fear God, and keep His Commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc. 12:13).
[From “Reincarnation in the Bible?” http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-12387-2]
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