Why Are Nine Commandments In the New Testament?
Greetings, I hope this mail finds you well.
Please help; I’ve been confused about the covenants and the law. If the Ten Commandments of the old covenant were temporary and lasted until the seed came, how come, then, that in the new covenant there are still nine of the same commandments mentioned there?
And what exactly is the hand writing of ordinances that was nailed to the cross? Because if it means the entire law as a whole, then how come parts of the same law are mentioned in the new testament? It’s really confusing, because it’s as if there is a contradiction, because they were nailed to the cross.
According to the covenants I do understand that the old has become obsolete and is of lesser glory, but then the very same laws of the Ten Commandments are still repeated in the new covenant. Please help. Thank you so much for assistance.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I understand your question and the confusion you feel.
Here is my favorite illustration: The United States has laws agains treason, murder, theft, embezzlement, and all sorts of moral failures. The law of Great Britain also has similar laws. Both have consequences for breaking those laws—but those laws do not apply to the same people. If I break a law of the United States, I am not condemned by the law of Great Britain. In fact, I am not tried by them nor considered a law-breaker according to the laws of Great Britain because I am an American. Only the laws of the United States apply to United States citizens, and only the laws of Britain apply to British citizens.
Yet these two laws contain similar prohibitions because they are patterned after a common historic set of laws and requirements. Nevertheless, these two laws are NOT related nor do they apply to the same people. Furthermore, in spite of their similarities, they are not identical laws. In addition to their similar moral injunctions, they have many other requirements which do not overlap.
The situation is similar with the Law in the Old Testament and the Law of Christ in the New. Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Covenant law—including all ten of the Commandments. He gave us a new law—the law of Christ—which He introduced in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7. For example, He reminded them that “You have heard it said…” that thou shalt not commit adultery. But, He said, if you look at a woman with lust you have already committed adultery in your heart. He did the same with murder and with other Old Testament injunctions. Yet these applications were NOT made in the law. They were new laws given by Jesus, and they were for the citizens of His Kingdom.
The fact that the New Testament contains all of the laws (except Sabbath) contained in the Ten Commandments does not mean the Ten have been brought forward into the New. It merely means that the Old Covenant and the New Covenant have the same AUTHOR. The moral requirements for humanity have always flowed from the righteousness of God Himself; the Ten Commandments were never the source of righteous commands. They were merely ONE EXPRESSION of right doing, and they were for a specific people for a specific time. God is our Source of righteousness.
We answer to God, not to the Law. The idea of an eternal law is not in Scripture, but the fact of our eternal God IS in Scripture. He alone is our source of wisdom, knowledge, and righteousness (see 1 Cor 1:30, 31).
God IS the author and giver of righteousness to those who believe. The Law of Christ of course contains many of the same laws as the Old Covenant, but that is not because the Old has entered the New. It is because GOD HIMSELF in the person of our Lord Jesus is IN us who believe, and He also gave Israel the Ten Commandments. His law is far deeper and more demanding than the Old Covenant law! Only those who are born again are subject to the Law of Christ, because only they are IN Christ. And only those who are IN Christ have any hope of living as He wishes.
I Need Help for the Two Law Argument
Hello. I’m sure you’ve heard the “two laws” argument that the Adventists push, saying that the Ten Commandments and the so-called ceremonial law are distinct, separate, and independent of each other, that the law that was “nailed to the cross” was, in fact the “ceremonial law” while the Ten Commandments still stand.
There is Scripture that is contrary to that assumption, but they won’t listen to that nor will they answer why the “two laws” are regarded to be one-and-the-same in James 2:10-11. What they will listen to, however, is to the way their preachers and their prophet interpret said Scripture.
I need help for how to build a strong defense against this argument. I would also appreciate your insight on the topic, and I’m wondering if you have covered this subject.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing. Yes, we understand those Adventist arguments well, and they do misuse Scripture to uphold their Sabbath.
The secret to understanding the truth about Sabbath is found in understanding the biblical covenants. We actually do have quite a lot of material about this that will be helpful to you.
I am going to give you some links, both to articles and to online videos:
Articles:
- The Covenants: Continental Divide of Bible Interpretation
- We Are Ministers of a New Covenant
- Was Sabbath Created?
- Jesus Is Not An Old Covenant Priest
- The Unity Of the Law
Videos:
- Does The Sabbath Continue In The New Covenant?
- Why Is Jesus The Lord Of the Sabbath
- Sabbath Arguments and Answers
- The Covenant of the Pure Gospel
- Foundation: The Sabbath
- What Happened To the Law?
Isn’t There Good In Everyone?
You know, I always believed that people are good, that there is good in every man and woman. Once, many years ago, I read in the Sabbath School quarterly lesson that MAN IS GOOD BECAUSE GOD IS GOOD. I am disturbed in my spirit when I think about the depravity of mankind. Isn’t there some goodness in all of us, even in those who are unconverted? For example, there is the natural, earthly love that even the heathens have for their family and friends, and the kindness and decency in people. There is the capacity for courage and self-sacrifice on the battlefield, and so forth. Does God see our good attributes as well as our flaws and weaknesses? Or does He see us as depraved creatures with nothing good? I want so much to believe that He sees our good points, too.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Of course, because humans are part of God’s creation—and especially because we are created in His image—humanity is “good”. But this “goodness” is not referring to moral “goodness”, or righteousness. It is referring to the fact that, as Romans 1:18–20 explains, the divine nature and eternal power of God are plainly seen in what has been made. Humanity, like all of creation, reveals God’s eternal, divine attributes so that “all are without excuse”.
Yet this “goodness” does not mean we have innate righteousness or moral credit. Romans 1 continues into Romans 2 and the first part of Romans 3 to explain that all humanity is spiritually condemned naturally. This spiritual condemnation is not part of God’s original creation—Adam and Eve were not created condemned—but they literally died spiritually the day they ate the forbidden fruit. God said they would, and they did. Their immaterial selves were separated from the life of God, and they immediately experienced the condemnation of death. They did not possess innately the eternal life of God. That was gone.
God, however, loved them and came to them and covered their shame and nakedness and promised that Eve’s Seed would crush the head of the serpent even though he would bruise her Seed’s heel. He promised redemption. He loved them—but this love for His own creatures did not equal “goodness” in a moral sense. Adam and Eve’s value was entirely God’s love for them, His creation of them in His image. He chose to save them.
Romans 5 explains, as does 1 Corinthians 15:20–22, that Adam’s spiritual death became our natural inheritance from him. From the birth of Cain onward, every human ever born (except Jesus) has been born spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1–3 explains this fact and states that we are “by nature children of wrath”. Jesus Himself said that those who have not believed in Him “are condemned already” because they have not believed (Jn. 3:18). John tells us in John 3:36 that for those who have not believed, the “wrath of God remains on them”. So, we are by nature “children of wrath”, and that wrath of God remains on all people until they believe. Then they are born again.
Adventism taught us that sinners are bad and the obedient are good. The great goal of us as Adventists was to become “good” so Jesus would love us. We were also taught that we are born with some goodness in us. Yet we are neither “good” nor “partly good” by nature.
Of course, many people are born with kind hearts and natural compassion responses to people’s needs, yet these gracious characteristics do not make us “good”. They simply reflect that God’s grace falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. All of our attributes are from Him—but these things do not make us “good” or worthy of God’s salvation or reward. These are His gracious gifts to us as part of His creation that still reflects Him as the Creator. The fact is that, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:1–3, we are all born dead in sin, under the influence of the prince of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the children of disobedience. We are born into the “domain of darkness” (Col 1:13). We are unable to seek God, to please Him, to do good, or in any way to recommend ourselves to Him (Rom. 3:9–18). The good and compassionate impulses of all mankind are the things that Paul called “filthy rags” in Philippians 3. He was as good as it was possible to be, and he zealously tried to serve God. Yet he did not serve God the way God asked him to serve. He served God the way he thought he should—and all that zeal was filthy rags. All his perfect law-keeping which he describes was NOT good. It was nothing. What he needed was God’s righteousness.
When we trust Jesus and His finished work, His death for our sin, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day according to Scripture, when we repent and admit we need a Savior because we cannot serve or please God on our own, we are born again and sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14). We pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24)—and that is the key detail. Our problem is not that we need to be good. God does not credit us with good ideas or deeds if we are not spiritually alive. We can give our bodies to be burned and cast out demons in His name, but unless we KNOW Him—unless He KNOWS us—we are condemned (Mt. 7:22,23).
Our need is not for bad people to become good. Our true need as humans is for dead people to become alive, and we only become alive—Adam’s curse is reversed in us—only when we trust Jesus alone. He literally brings our dead-in-sin spirits to life, and then our lives reflect the fruit of His Spirit. Then our deeds reflect Him. But the issue is not “good” or “bad”. It is “dead” or “alive”. We only know him—or, as Paul says, are known by Him—when we are born of God through believing in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
Here is an article that I think will help explain this spiritual reality: He Was Raised So You Will Never Die.
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