Consider that there are two parts to the 10 Commandments; three and seven Commandments. If you were to summarize the first three Commandments, you could quote Deuteronomy and Christ; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearth, and with all you soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30). The other seven could be summarized as “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That is the whole Law and it is the Law of God summarized. We, as God’s people still obey (1 John 5:1-6).
The problem that most people fall into is a failure to recognize that there are two sets of laws for the Israelites. God’s Law was given to them directly by God Himself and is the 10 Commandments. When the Israelites failed to keep the covenant with God, God commanded Moses to give the Israelites the “Second Law” or “Deuteronomy” or “Law of Moses”. This was a yoke placed on a “stiff-necked people.” Without this understanding of two laws, it is easy to make Scripture sound schizophrenic in that the Law has been fulfilled and yet the Law will never pass away.
The yoke has been lifted. We are no longer bound by the Law of Moses. However, the Law of God remains... unless you think you would bear no blame for breaking any of the 10 Commandments. They are our code of conduct... of negative things we "shall not" do... summarized in the two things we "shall" do; love God and neighbor.
Yes indeed, agreed
You did a most masterful job of explaining this, thank you.
The second command of the decalogue is???
Jesus said a lot of thing before the cross. In the Sermon on the Mount, He even made the law harder than what the Pharisees thought they could do. God's law isn't hard, it's IMPOSSIBLE. Why did God give the law than? Galatians tells us: it is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Christ kept the law because we couldn't and he bore all of our past, present, and future sins because we can't.
The cross of Christ changed everything in time and eternity. Full forgiveness to those that believe is the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ as embodied in the New Covenant in His blood (Heb 8:10, 10:16-17, 13:20).
The New Testament calls the Ten Commandments "the ministry of death [and] condemnation" superseded by the "ministry of the spirit [and] righteousness" which "gives life" and is by grace (2 Cor 3:6-9).
unless you think you would bear no blame for breaking any of the 10 Commandments
Jesus bore all the blame 2000 years ago. That's what the New Testament means by we are no longer under the law, we are under grace (Rom 6:15).
The law actually activates sin in us (Rom 7:8-13), whereas grace activates HIS righteousness as a gift to us (Rom 5:17). The strength of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56).
When the Son of Man arrived, he wasn't a detail kinda guy, but rather spoke in parables fulfilling prophesy.
From a practical point of view, He condensed the Big Ten into just two commandments, but those two contain not just the Big Ten but even more left unspoken but clearly understood by the eyes that do see and the ears that do hear.
From my own point of view, the rules, the Ten Commandments, didn't change at all and we break any of them at our peril and must repent and seek forgiveness in this time of Grace.
"Trust only motion" is a phrase I like as it speaks to, and can be used to reveal, a person's truth.
In other words, actions speak louder than words, they say, and by their fruits we shall know them, as will the angels when it's their time to separate the weeds from the wheat.
The Ten Commandments are what the Big Boss expects from His own and we would do well to suck up to the Boss and follow His Rules.
The Ten Commandments? It's the Law. Learn it. Know it. Live it.