By Wes Garland
People in the
world today believe that we are to live under the 10 commandments today. Is
this true or is this a false statement? The way that we are going to evaluate
this question is by looking at where the 10 commandments are stated, who was
the spokesman of these commandments, and to whom it was stated. In evaluating
this question in this way, it should clear up any question if we are under
these commandments or not.
Let’s begin by
looking at where these 10 commandments are stated. These 10 commandments are
found in Exodus 20:3-17. Moses is the spokesman when writing these statements
and is on Mt. Sinai receiving these laws. The uniqueness of these commandments
is that these laws were instituted 1500 years before the coming of Christ. This
is important to notice because if we notice that he wrote and commanded this
before Christ came then it was present BEFORE Christ. This is important because
we know that Moses stated in Deuteronomy 18:15 and also verses 18-19, “15 The
Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from
your brethren. Him you shall hear,…18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like
you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall
speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not
hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.” All of
this refers to Christ. We also see in Matthew 17:1-5 where Jesus was on the
Mount of Transfiguration and we see Moses, Elijah, and Jesus present. During
this, the Lord overshadowed Moses and Elijah and revealed Jesus only and said
“…This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” God was telling
Peter, James, and John that they needed to listen to Jesus and not to Moses, or
the prophets. We have to realize that when Jesus came on the scene, the focus
was now on JESUS and NOT MOSES.
Now let’s look at
another thing: to whom it was stated. In Deuteronomy 5:1-5, we see that Moses
states that the Law that was given on the Mountain was for Israel and Israel
only. Now we know that throughout the Bible, you see 2 different statuses of
people: Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were the people of Israel while the Gentiles
were anyone else NOT Jewish. So, we can all simply understand that if we are
not of the descent of Israel, WE WERE NEVER UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES, TO BEGIN
WITH! But, let’s say that they are of that lineage, does it still mean that we
are under that law today? NO. Because again, the Lord Jesus Christ, came and
OVERTOOK and ESTABLISHED the NEW law. When Jesus died on the cross, He nailed
the OLD TESTAMENT (Law of Moses included) to it. We see this in Ephesians 2:15,
“having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two,
thus making peace,”. We also see this in Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren,
you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may
be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear
fruit to God.” Now how do we know that this is the law that he is speaking of?
Romans 7:7 quotes the law “You shall not covet.” So that law was put to death
through the body of Christ and therefore is not governing us today.
But I notice that
there are 9 out of the 10 commandments found in the New Testament. Christ has
every right to bring over and instruct us in whatever way He desires. He brings
these 9 over for the fact that they are eternal principles. No matter what law
you lived under, these would govern God’s people. By the way, when Christ
stated these to be followed in the New Testament, was it enforced from the
mouth of Moses or Christ? Christ! It is not the Law of Moses, but yet NOW the
Law of Christ. Nothing in the Old Testament is binding on us today, but we are
to learn from it and take heed to its warnings and exhortation (Rom. 15:4).
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