One of the most catastrophic errors of "Christianity" that Satan has foisted upon this world is the teaching that Jesus Christ abolished the law of God.

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Even though Christ specifically stated "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matt 5:17), theologians argue that Christ kept the law on man's behalf, died on the cross in fulfilment of His mission, and thereby did away with the law.

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People argue that God's law was temporarily instituted as part of the Old Covenant made between God and the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. From the time of Christ and the New Covenant, its purpose was supposedly superseded by the notion that only faith in Christ is required in obedience to our Maker.

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Nothing could be further from the truth.

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In the Scriptural account, the Ten Commandments are given a special place. God thundered out these laws from Mt Sinai to all Israel, and then wrote them with His own finger on two tablets of stone. No other laws got this special treatment. There is of course a saying that if something is written in stone, it is considered permanent.

 

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Prior to Mt Sinai

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​​​And indeed, the Word of God shows that the Ten Commandments did not originate at Sinai. Rather they were already in place from Creation week. Near the very beginning of the Biblical narrative we read that the first humans, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and sinned. In I Tim 2:14 we are told how this began: "the woman being deceived, fell into transgression". In I John 3:4 we read that "sin is the transgression of the law", or simply "sin is lawlessness". Therefore laws had to have been given to Adam and Eve for there to be transgression on their part, because "where there is no law there is no transgression" (Rom 4:15).

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When God made His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, He added to the code of law that man had been given up to that point. We read in Gal 3:19 "What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come". A whole legal administration was added to regulate the nation of Israel, including regular animal sacrifices, but this was, as stated, "because of transgressions". Therefore, Sinai can't have been the origin of the fundamental laws God gave to man, because what law had then been transgressed prior to that time?

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It is true that when Christ ("the Seed") established the New Covenant there was a "change in the law" (Heb 7:12), but these changes involved the laws that had been added because of transgression, not the core Ten Commandments that had regulated life on Earth since Creation.

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Lets briefly look at some examples that show that the Ten Commandments were given to man from the beginning of his existence.

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Genesis 2:2-3 states "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it". To sanctify something means to set it aside as holy. So we see here that on the seventh day of Creation God made the Sabbath, by keeping it. When the fourth commandment therefore states "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy", it is referring to something that already existed. We also see this in Exodus 16, where we read of God testing Israel regarding their obedience to this commandment, before He spoke the Ten Commandments from the mountain, as recorded four chapters later.

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In Gen 3:2-4 we find Satan calling God's instructions to Adam and Eve into question by saying to Eve "Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?". Satan then proceeded to contradict God's words by stating to Eve "You will not surely die", when God had said the opposite. In doing these two things he first misused God's name, thereby breaking the third commandment "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain", and then lied, breaking the ninth commandment "You shall not bear false witness".

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In Gen 3:6 we read of Adam and Eve's first sin, i.e. being complicit with Satan's transgression of the third and ninth commandment, and taking of the fruit that had been forbidden to them by God. As such they also transgressed the eighth commandment "you shall not steal", as well as the tenth commandment "you shall not covet".

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In Gen 4:8-9 we read about the first murder, when Cain murdered his brother Abel. In doing this Cain transgressed the sixth commandment "you shall not murder".

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In Gen 9:20-24 we read an account about the sons of Noah, one transgressing and the other two keeping the fifth commandment "you shall honour your father and your mother".

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In Genesis 13:13 we read that "the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful", and chapter 19 relates the grave sexual sin that was among them, clearly breaching God's instructions. For when on the sixth day of Creation God had made Adam and Eve, notably male and female, He told them to "be fruitful and multiply", revealing the God-intended design of sexual intercourse.

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​On the same topic, in Gen 20:3-9 we read that God prevented Abimelech from sleeping with Abraham's wife Sarah, which would have been, as verse 9 states, "a great sin". These two cases show that the seventh commandment "you shall not commit adultery", confining sexual intercourse to a man and a woman, within marriage, was already in place well before Sinai.

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Genesis 31:30-35 gives us the account of Rachel, one of the wives of Jacob, hiding "household idols" in her tent. From Gen 35:2-3 we can surmise that these objects were contrary to the second commandment "You shall not make unto you any graven image".

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In Josh 24:2 we read concerning the ancestors of Israel "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods". This was exactly what God had called Abraham to get away from, being in violation of the first commandment "You shall have no other gods before me".

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Many more examples could be given to show that all ten commandments that God gave to Israel at Mt Sinai were already in effect prior to that time. What God in reality did at Sinai was remind Israel of the code of conduct He had made for man from the beginning of man's creation.

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From Mt Sinai to the time of Christ

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At Sinai, as part of the covenant God intended to make with Israel, He spoke the Ten Commandments (lit. "ten words"), here listed in an abbreviated form:

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1) I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me

2) You shall not make for yourself a carved image; you shall not bow down to them

3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God

5) Honour your father and your mother

6) You shall not murder

7) You shall not commit adultery

8) You shall not steal

9) You shall not bear false witness

10) You shall not covet

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These commandments were the foundational laws that God gave to Israel to govern their nation, and as we have seen, they were a re-statement of already existing laws. In regard to the laws Israel was given, Dt 4:6 says "Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people'". Verse 8 adds that people will say "And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?".

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After making His covenant with Israel at Sinai, God, through His many prophets, consistently speaks very highly of the commandments it contained. Time and again God would send prophets who would bring His rebuke for Israel's transgression of His law, and the exhortation to repent and return to the law. We consistently see an obedient attitude towards God's law in all the people who found God's favour in Old Testament times.

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In Deut 7:9 Moses equates loving God with keeping His commandments "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments".

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In Psalm 1 we find its author praising God's law: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord" (Ps 1:1-2). The second half of verse 2 is very revealing "And in His law he meditates day and night". This clearly alludes that there is a level of understanding of God's law that goes way beyond the letter of what is stated, and requires deep, life-long contemplation. Whoever composed this psalm no doubt understood this.

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Psalm 119 contains 176 verses that from beginning to end praise God and His law, which were no doubt intrinsically linked in the mind of the deeply converted writer of this psalm, whose words have been forever canonised in Scripture. 

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Christ's teachings

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The New Testament teachings of Christ constitute a magnification of the law of God, as had been predicted by the prophet Isaiah "He will exalt the law and make it honorable" (Isa 42:21). Christ repeatedly taught the need to look beyond the letter of the law, and to consider the spirit of the law.

 

Look at Christ's teaching about murder in Matt 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment".

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Likewise His teachings on adultery in Matt 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart".

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These are not the words of someone who has in mind the abolition of the Ten Commandments. Quite the contrary.

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Consider also His Sabbath activities. He kept the Sabbath as His custom (Lk 4:16), and taught on the Sabbath, but again He went well beyond the letter of the law. Christ knew well that the seventh day of the week foreshadowed His millennial reign, i.e. that the seventh day of the week pictured the seventh millennium of man's time on Earth, the time of His Kingdom rule. Therefore Christ's Sabbaths were filled with healings, like restoring sight to the blind, restoring hearing to the deaf, making the lame walk, and the driving out of demons, as all these were types of what His millennial reign will accomplish: all people will be made to see God as He is, hear His true message and to walk in His ways, while Satan and his demons will be removed from man's presence and held in restraint.

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A man once asked Christ, as recorded in Matt 19:16 "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Christ answered "if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments". The man then asked "Which ones?". Christ responded by listing five of the Ten Commandment "​​You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother’" and, quoting Lev 19:18, added ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’".

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It would be foolish to argue that Christ meant that now only five of the Ten Commandments needed to be kept. That would mean that man would now be free to worship other gods and bow down to idols. Christ Himself thundered all ten laws from M​t Sinai and wrote all ten with His own finger on stone tablets. Clearly He knew they were one body made up of ten laws. Mark 10:19 adds to the above discourse the fact that Christ, before listing the five commandments mentioned, stated "You know the commandments". Obviously the man knew that were ten in total. The man stated that he had kept all these from his youth, and he wouldn't have been taught only five commandments from his youth.

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The addition of Lev 19:18 must be seen as pointing to the principle that Christ was preaching, i.e. that we must go beyond the letter of the law, and consider also the spirit of the law.

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The Apostles' teachings

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The keeping of the Ten Commandments is taught throughout the apostolic writings. Here is one example for each of them, in their order, but many more Scriptures could be referred to:

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1) In Acts 14:8-15 we find Paul and Barnabas preaching to Greeks, who upon witnessing a miracle begin to worship Paul and Barnabas as if they were gods. The two apostles immediately put a stop to this, making very clear to these people that they should instead worship "the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them".

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2) In Acts 17:16 Paul is in Athens and encounters the many idols in the city: "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols". He proceeds to instruct the Gentiles of that city in no uncertain terms "Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:29-30).

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3) In Revelation 13 and 17 the apostle John is shown a "beast", which is a symbol of the long history of Gentile nations, hostile to God, that conquered God's Holy City and persecuted His people: "So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns". These Gentile nations have in common that they all worship false gods and are therefore guilty of "blasphemy", i.e. taking God's name in vain.

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4) The author of the book of Hebrews states unequivocally "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest (His Kingdom) also rests from their works, just as God did from his (on the seventh day of Creation) (NIV)".

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5) In Ephesians 6:1-2 Paul states "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”, which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth".

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6) In I John 3:15 the apostle John says "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him".

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7) In I Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul clearly upholds four of the commandments, including the prohibition of adultery, and adds that the keeping of these commandments is required to receive eternal life: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God".​

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8) In Ephesians 4:28 Paul teaches about the eighth commandment "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need".

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9) In Revelation 21:8 the apostle John writes in regard to four of the commandments, including the prohibition of bearing false witness: "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death".

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10) In Ephesians 5:3-5 Paul writes regarding covetousness, among other sins: "But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God".

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So we see that all Ten Commandments are taught as a given in the New Testament. In Rom 13:9 Paul mentions five of them in one verse. Revelation 14:12 describes God's true "saints" as "those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus". 

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Paul shows the importance of God's commandments in Rom 7:7-12: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet”. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived (sprung up) and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good". Note that the commandments are "to bring life".

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Paul also makes clear in Romans 3 that faith in the sacrifice of Christ is required for salvation, but that this does not do away with the need to keep God's commandments: "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law" (Rom 3:31).

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Traditional Christianity claims that Christ abolished the need to keep God's commandments, and will point to Scriptures like "But now we have been delivered from the law" (Rom 7:6), "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom 6:14), and "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10:4) to make their point.

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However, what they fail to see is that Christ delivered man not from the law, but from the penalty of the law, i.e. the death penalty. It is for this reason that we are no longer under the law, with the law stand over us claiming its penalty. They also fail to see that Christ is not the end of the law, but rather the end of the law for righteousness, i.e. the end of seeking to obtain righteousness by one's own keeping of the law.

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 Paul answers these objections after stating in Rom 6:14 that we are not under law but under grace: "What then? Shall we sin (transgress God's commandments) because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! (Rom 6:15).

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As another example of Scriptures supposedly doing away with God's commandments people will point to Eph 2:14-15 "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both (Jews and Gentiles) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 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".

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However, what they usually don't see is that this speaks of the enmity being done away with, not the law. Verse 12 states that prior to Christ the Gentiles were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise", as God's Old Covenant and legal framework was tied to the physical people of Israel. Now, under the New Covenant, all people, regardless of ethnicity, can be "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph 2:19). 

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An example of legal differentiation between Israelites and Gentiles under the Old Covenant is that of slavery. Exodus 21:2 states "If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free". However, Gentile slaves could be kept for life and even be passed down as an inheritance: "Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor" (Lev 25:45-46).

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Another law that displays this differentiation is Deut 14:21 "You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God".

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We see that all people were not equal under the Old Covenant, but rather God showed that those called by Him to obedience were separate from those who were not called to that relationship with Him at that time. However, since Christ established the New Covenant, this "wall of separation" between Israelite and non-Israelite, on a physical level, no longer exists.

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 The Kingdom of God

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Although in this world we only "know in part" (I Cor 13:12), we are given quite some insight into what Christ's rule in His millennial Kingdom will be like. This includes the law that will be taught.

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The Kingdom of God is called the Kingdom of Heaven in the gospel of Matthew. In Mt 5:19 Christ states "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven". If keeping God's commandments is required to be highly regarded in God's Kingdom, how could the standards of conduct be any different once that Kingdom is operational?  

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The New Covenant that Christ initiated at His first coming will remain the covenant by which people will live and be judged. This is the only means by which a person may "enter into life", which Christ states requires a person to "keep the commandments" (Mt 19:17).

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In the final chapter of Isaiah we read that under the New Covenant "from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord" (Isa 66:23).

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In the very last chapter of the Scriptures, when God's 7000 year plan with mankind is pictured coming to a conclusion, we are told "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city" (Rev 22:14). The "tree of life" is symbolic of eternal life. The "city" is the New Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God.

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