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Deuteronomy 31:24-29 says, “When Moses
had finished writing the words of this law
in a book to the very end, Moses
commanded the Levites who carried the ark of
the covenant of the LORD, “Take this Book
of the Law and put it by the side of the ark
of the covenant of the LORD your God, that
it may be there for a witness against you.
For I know how rebellious and stubborn you
are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive
with you, you have been rebellious against
the LORD. How much more after my death!
Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes
and your officers, that I may speak these
words in their ears and call heaven and
earth to witness against them. For I know
that after my death you will surely act
corruptly and turn aside from the way that I
have commanded you. And in the days to come
evil will befall you, because you will do
what is evil in the sight of the LORD,
provoking him to anger through the work of
your hands.”
What was the
Book of the Law?
The Book of the
Law was one of the titles given to the
Pentateuch in the rest of the Old Testament. It was to
be placed beside the ark, not in it. The
tablets containing the Ten Commandments were
the only laws placed inside the
ark because they were the actual words of
the covenant (Exod. 25:16; 31:18; 1 Kings 8:9).
Some theologians believe the Book of
the Law was just the book of Deuteronomy but
it was most likely all five books of Moses
and had two written copies of the Ten
Commandments (Exod. 20:2-17; Deut. 5:6-21),
alone with all of the rest of the 613 Laws
of Moses to be read publicly every seven
years (Deut. 31:9-15). I believe all five
books of Moses were included because the
Book of the Law was one of the titles given
to the Pentateuch in the rest of the Old
Testament (Deut. 28:60-61; 31:24-26; Josh. 1:8; 8:34
cf. 1 Kings 8:9; 2 Kings 22:8-11; 2 Chron. 34:14-15).
Shortly before his death, Moses made arrangements to make sure
the people did not forget their covenant
obligations.
First, he commanded the priests
and leaders to make sure that the entire law
was read publicly every seven years (Deut. 31:9-15). He also put his own written record
of the law beside the ark as a witness
against Israel for when they would turn away
from the covenant. It contained all of the
613 laws of the covenant including the Ten
Commandments. It was the legal code that
governed every aspect of Hebrew life (Deut. 31:24-29). It had two complete copies of the
Ten Commandments to be read to the people
every seven years (Exod. 20:2-17; Deut. 5:6-21).
The Old
Covenant was made between God and Israel
alone.
The Mosaic Law (the Old
Covenant), was given specifically to the
nation of Israel (Exod. 19; Lev. 26:46; Rom. 9:4). It was made up of three
parts: the Ten Commandments, the ordinances,
and the Levitical system of worship, which included
the priesthood, the tabernacle, the
offerings, and the festivals (Exod. 20-40;
Lev. 1-7; 23).
The Ten
Commandments form the basis for the rest of
the laws in the Old Covenant (Exod. 34:28;
Deut. 4:13). As part of the Old Covenant,
the people agreed to obey all the laws in
Exodus 20-24. God gave Israel additional
laws and regulations in the books of
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The
book of Deuteronomy contains laws regarding
how they should conduct themselves in the
Promised land. The name “Deuteronomy” is
derived from the Greek and it means a “copy,” or a
“repetition” of the law, rather
than it being a second law
(see: Deut. 4:44-46; 5:1-5; 6:20-25).
“Deuteronomy 31:9 says,
“Moses wrote down
this law and gave it to the priests.” Ancient
treaties specified that a copy of the treaty
was to be placed before the gods at the
religious centers of the nations involved.
For Israel, that meant to place it in the
ark of the covenant (see: Deut. 31:26; 33:9;
Exod. 16:34; 31:18).”
[1]
The
Sabbath was placed in the middle of the
legal document as a witness for the parties
involved as a covenant sign.
“It was customary
among the peoples of the ancient Near East
that when an overlord made a covenant or
contract with those he conquered, a copy of
the written agreement was kept in the
sanctuary of the ruling party and another in
the sanctuary of the ruled party. A typical
feature of such covenants was that the seal,
or sign, was placed at or near the center of
the treaty document. This is similar to
contracts of today. If one acquires a loan
from a bank or makes some kind of other
financial deal with another, it is common
that the parties involved receive a copy of
the agreement stipulating the benefits,
obligations, and penalties if the contract
is broken. These contracts, or agreements,
come into effect once the appropriate
signatures are in place. But in the case of
the covenant made between God and Israel,
both copies (the two tablets) were placed in
one sanctuary, since God was both the ruling
party and Israel’s God. And the signature of
this contract was observance of the Sabbath
command, which was placed near the center of
the tablets of the covenant.”
[2]
The Ten
Commandments were the actual words of the
covenant.
Exodus 34:27-28
says, “And the LORD said to Moses, “Write
these words, for in accordance with these
words I have made a covenant with you and
with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the
LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither
ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on
the tablets the words of the covenant, the
Ten Commandments.”
Deuteronomy 4:13 says,
“And he declared to you his covenant, which
he commanded you to perform, that is, the
Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two
tablets of stone.”
One of the most
distinguishing features of the Ten Words is
that they are the only laws ever
specifically referred to as “the covenant”
(Exod. 34:28). That is why they were among
the items placed inside the Ark of the
Covenant.
The Law
was a unit. The Ten
Commandments were never separate from the
rest of the laws of the covenant, they served as the
framework, or outline for the rest of the 613
laws of the Mosaic Covenant.
Nehemiah 10:29
says, ... “to walk in God’s Law that was
given by Moses the servant of God, and to
observe and do all the commandments of the
LORD our Lord and his rules and his
statutes.”
2 Chronicles 34:31 says,
“And the king stood in his place and made a
covenant before the LORD, to walk after the
LORD and to keep his commandments and his
testimonies and his statutes, with all his
heart and all his soul, to perform the words
of the covenant that were written in this
book.”
All of the laws of the Torah
were given to set Israel apart from the
other nations, including the Ten
Commandments (Exod. 19:5).
There is
no difference between the Law of God, and
the Law of Moses. They were the same law.
The
Old Testament used different terms to
describe the 613 laws of the Mosaic
Covenant. It is called “the law ” (Hebrew
“Torah” Deut. 17:18-19; 27:3, 8;
Ne. 8:14-18), “the Law of Moses” (1 Kings 2:3;
2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2), “the Law of God”
(Ne. 8:8-9). As a written code it is called
the “book of the law of Moses” (2 Kings 14:6; Isa. 8:20;
Ne. 8:3), and the
“book of
the law of God” (Josh. 24:26; Ne. 8:1). The
Bible tells us that God gave the Law of
Moses (Ezra 7:6; Ne. 8:1), and Moses gave
the Law of God (Ne. 10:29; 2 Chron. 34:14).
All those expressions were simply different
ways of describing the very same law.
The covenant that God made with
Israel was a legal contract made up of 613
laws represented by the Ten Commandments,
written on stone tablets, and placed inside
the ark of the covenant. The Mosaic Covenant
served as Israel’s national constitution
with God as their ruler and King.
The New
Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 8:6-7 says, “But as
it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that
is as much more excellent than the old as
the covenant he mediates is better, since it
is enacted on better promises. For if that
first covenant had been faultless, there
would have been no occasion to look for a
second.”
And 2 Corinthians 3:6-11
says, “who has made us sufficient to be
ministers of a new covenant, not of the
letter but of the Spirit. For the letter
kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the
ministry of death, carved in letters on
stone, came with such glory that the
Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face
because of its glory, which was being
brought to an end, will not the ministry of
the Spirit have even more glory? For if
there was glory in the ministry of
condemnation, the ministry of righteousness
must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this
case, what once had glory has come to have
no glory at all, because of the glory that
surpasses it. For if what was being brought
to an end came with glory, much more will
what is permanent have glory.”
The Ten Commandments are the
obsolete Old Covenant.
Hebrews 8:13; 9:4
says, “When He said, “A new covenant,” He
has made the first obsolete. But whatever is
becoming obsolete and growing old is ready
to disappear… having the golden altar of
incense and the ark of the covenant covered
on all sides with gold, in which was a
golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s
staff that budded, and the tablets of the
covenant.”
All of the
commandments, statutes, and ordinances, were
made obsolete because we live under a
totally different covenant than Israel lived
under.
For the Jews, the
Ten sayings are the ten categories for the
Law which are mixed in with the rest of the
laws given to the nation of Israel at Mount
Sinai.
The false two-law
theory:
The Seventh-day
Adventist Church, along with some of the
other Sabbatarian groups teach a false,
“two law” theory. They believe that there
were two separate laws, or covenants, that
God gave to Moses for the nation of Israel
to keep. They say the Ten Commandments and
the ceremonial laws were two separate and
distinct laws or legal agreements.
Romans 7:1-6 says, “Or do you not know,
brothers—for I am speaking to those who know
the law—that the law is binding on a person
only as long as he lives? For a married
woman is bound by law to her husband while
he lives, but if her husband dies she is
released from the law of marriage.
Accordingly, she will be called an
adulteress if she lives with another man
while her husband is alive. But if her
husband dies, she is free from that law, and
if she marries another man she is not an
adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also
have died to the law through the body of
Christ, so that you may belong to another,
to him who has been raised from the dead, in
order that we may bear fruit for God. For
while we were living in the flesh, our
sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at
work in our members to bear fruit for death.
But now we are released from the law, having
died to that which held us captive, so that
we serve in the new way of the Spirit and
not in the old way of the written code.”
According to Romans 7:1-6, the law is no longer binding
on us, “having died to that which held us
captive, so that we serve in the new way of
the Spirit and not in the old way of the
written code.”
At conversion, believers die to
the law (Rom. 7:4), with the result that
they are then able to serve in newness of
life (Rom. 6:4). They have a new life in the
Holy Spirit, not in the old way of the
letter, the old way of trying to gain life
by means of law-keeping.
The passage
plainly says that we no longer live by the
“written code.” Romans 7:7 says the law of
the written code was the law that said, “You
shall not covet” from Exodus 20:17 and
Deuteronomy 5:21.
According to Romans 7:1-7,
there can be no mistaking that the
law Christians are to die to, the law of the
written code (2 Cor. 3:2-11), is the Ten
Commandments along with all of the other Old
Covenant laws. Romans 7:6 is perfectly
clear, “we are released from the law, having
died to that which held us captive, so that
we can serve in the new way of the Spirit
and not in the old way of the written code.”
Christ
has ended our slavery to the Law.
Galatians 3:19 says, “Why
then the law? It was added because of
transgressions, until the offspring should
come to whom the promise had been made, and
it was put in place through angels by an
intermediary.”
Galatians 3:23-25
says, “Now before faith came, we were held
captive under the law, imprisoned until the
coming faith would be revealed. So then,
the law was our guardian until Christ came,
in order that we might be justified by
faith. But now that faith has come, we
are no longer under a guardian,”
And
Galatians 4:4-7 says, “But when the fullness
of time had come, God sent forth his Son,
born of woman, born under the law, to
redeem those who were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons. And
because you are sons, God has sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,
“Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a
slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir
through God.”
The purpose for
giving the law in the first place was to demonstrate
man’s
inability to fulfill God’s standards of
righteousness (see: Rom. 3:20; 5:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:19; 3:24; 1 Tim. 1:9).
False teachers preach Old
Covenant law-keeping.
Galatians 4:10-11 says, “You observe days
and months and seasons and years! I am
afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
Seventh-day
Adventists are like the Galatians who Paul
had to warn about the dangers of legalism. Keeping
certain days has nothing to do with our
salvation, including the weekly Sabbath. In
fact, Paul says those people who teach that
we must keep the Sabbath and the Holy days
of Judaism, “labor in vain”.
The
Apostle Paul could have just as well been
speaking to our Seventh-day Adventist
friends today. The Sabbath has become an
idol for them. For them, the gospel is all
about keeping the Sabbath, and not eating
flesh meats. They are focused on keeping Old
Covenant requirements that the New Covenant
says were made obsolete when Christ died for
us on the cross.
Those
people who make an artificial distinction
between the Law of God (the Ten
Commandments), and the Law of Moses are
simply wrong. They are one and the same law!
They were the Old “Mosaic” Covenant that was
made obsolete by the New Covenant of Jesus
Christ.
The New Testament
makes many changes from the Old Covenant. It
is a totally new covenant. We have a new
legal contract that is based on the law of
Christ, or the law of the Spirit of life
(Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Rom. 8:1-11). Jesus fulfilled and brought the Old
Covenant to an end. The New Covenant is the
only covenant God’s children live under
today.
Trying to
keep the Old Covenant law is an impossible
standard to try to live by.
Deuteronomy 27:26
says, “Cursed is the man who
does not uphold the words of this law by
carrying them out.” Then all the people
shall say, “Amen!” (NIV)
Leviticus 18:4-5
says, “You must obey my laws and be
careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD
your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for
the man who obeys them will live by them. I
am the LORD.” (NIV)
James 2:10 says,
“For
whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become accountable for all of it.”
Galatians 3:10-12
says, “For all who rely on
works of the law are under a curse; for it
is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not
abide by all things written in the Book of
the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident
that no one is justified before God by the
law, for “The righteous shall live by
faith.” But the law is not of faith,
rather “The one who does them shall live by
them.”
The law was a unit. The Mosaic
Covenant was made up of 613 laws that
covered every area of Hebrew life. If you
broke one command you broke the whole
covenant. Both Paul and James quoted from
Deuteronomy 27:26 to show that everyone who
tries to keep the law comes under the curse.
Paul and James were in complete agreement
that breaking even one of the commandments
brings a person under the law’s
condemnation, and since everyone has broken
the law, everyone is under the curse (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).
We have to understand
that salvation is by grace through faith
in Jesus Christ alone!
Galatians 4:4-5
says, “But when the fullness of time had
come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who
were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.”
John 1:17 says, “For
the law was given through Moses; grace and
truth came through Jesus Christ.”
John 1:12-13
says, “But to all who did receive
Him, who believed in His name, He gave the
right to become children of God, who were
born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life.”
And John 14:6-7 says,
“Jesus
said to him, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.”
People who
believe in the two-law theory will often
ask, “If the Ten Commandments are obsolete,
is it okay to commit murder, or steal?”
If you have to ask those questions it’s
pretty clear that you haven’t read the terms
of the New Covenant to get your answers.
We are under the New Covenant today, not
the old. Nine of the Ten Commandments are
included in, and even enlarged upon in the
New Covenant. They apply to Christians, not
because they were in the Old Covenant, but
because they are commanded of us in the new!
The only
commandment from the Decalogue that was not
repeated in the New Covenant was the Sabbath
command (Exod. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15). The
New Covenant explicitly teaches us that the
Sabbath command was not made a requirement
for the Christian Church.
New converts were never required to keep it.
In fact, there is no command for Christians
to keep any day of the week holy in the New
Covenant (Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8; Acts 15:1-20;
Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18;
2 Cor. 3:3-11; Heb. 3:7-4:13; 8:6-9:4; 10:23-25)..
The New Covenant is not
without laws. In fact, we live by a
higher law, the law of Christ. The moral
obligations of the New Covenant are superior
to the Old Covenant in every way.
1 John 3:15 says, “Everyone who hates his
brother is a murderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”
John’s teachings agree with Jesus’
teaching in Matthew 5:22-28 that outward
conformity to God’s commandment “You shall
not murder” in Exodus 20:13 is not nearly
enough. What matters is our hearts! When you
hate someone it violates the command not to
murder just as if you had already committed
murder.
How
do we know which of the Old Covenant laws
apply to us today?
The Old Covenant
was a legal agreement made with the nation
of Israel
alone on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19; Lev. 26:46; Rom. 9:4; Eph. 2:11-16).
The New Covenant is a new legal
agreement made with everyone who follows
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior
(Titus 2:11; Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:17; 1 Tim. 2:4;
Rom. 2:28-29; 9:7; 10:12-13; Col. 3:11).
Converts to
Christianity were expected to follow the
moral teachings of Christ and His apostles,
but if the Sabbath was a New Covenant
requirement then why aren’t we commanded to
keep it anywhere in the New Covenant
scriptures? The only laws Christians are
required to keep are the laws given in the
New Covenant, not a mixture of laws from
the Old and the New Covenants like our
Sabbatarian friends falsely teach.
No one is saying
there is no covenant anymore; what we are
saying is that we are under a totally new,
and different covenant from the covenant
that Israel was required to keep.
The New Covenant tells us exactly
how Christians are supposed to live their
lives, all we have to do is take the time to
read it.
Remember what
2 Corinthians 3:4-6 says, “Such is the
confidence that we have through Christ
toward God. Not that we are sufficient in
ourselves to claim anything as coming from
us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has
made us sufficient to be ministers of a new
covenant, not of the letter but of the
Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life.”
We have been set
free from the condemnation of the Law to
live by Christ’s Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4). It’s
time we enjoy the freedom Christ has given
us.
References:
1. see: The NIV
Study Bible: Deuteronomy 31:24.
2. see:
Meredith G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical
Authority. Grand Rapids, Mich. Eerdmans;
1975, 1972; p. 18, 59.
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