Legalistic Christians who feel our message of free and unlimited grace is considered erroneous and hyper, will argue that all of the top ten commandments are found in the New Testament. They'll reason that this means they are meant to be included as a part of the New Covenant. Jesus stated one of the greatest commandments was to love your neighbor as yourself, which is not one of the Ten. So just exactly how many of the 613 laws within the law are we supposed to abide by? This week, we'll take a look at some of the context surrounding the references to these commands found in new covenant writings and reveal the true intent of the entire law.
Traditional Bible teaching has led Christians to believe the Ten Commandments were separate from the rest of the Mosaic Law given to Israel. Some will even declare they were not part of the Old Covenant, and since they were letters engraved on stones, they were meant to be applied forever. Yet scripture clearly states they were considered part of the law and were called tablets of the covenant.
It’s a man-made doctrine that says that the Law is broken up into sections (moral, civil, ceremonial, etc.), and that part of it was done away with but yet in the New Covenant we’re supposed to keep a certain part of it. The scriptures do not declare such a separation or distinction in the law of God. The Law of God is a package deal. The Apostle Paul called the law the ministry of death that brought condemnation. Paul also explained why they no longer have glory and came to an end, to be replaced with a more glorious and permanent ministry of the Spirit.
There’s a classic scene in The Simpsons where 8-year-old Lisa is offered a large check. Monty Burns has made a $120 million from an idea that Lisa gave him and he wishes to give her a ten percent share. But the money represents ill-gotten gains from harvesting the sea, so Lisa says no. Lisa later […]
Some time ago I published a list of the top 12 verses on the new covenant. It seems only fair that I also give some air-time to the number one verse on the old covenant. Here it is: “It is finished” (Joh 19:30). What is finished? That old rule-keeping order that demanded perfection from you without […]