A basic understanding of some of the differences between the Ten Commandments and all the other requirements, statutes and judgments (the 603) is needed in order to understand what was done away with at the cross.
1A. The Ten Commandments were spoken by God.
Exodus 20:1
"Then God spoke all these words, saying . . . "
Exodus 20:22
"GOD said to Moses, "Give this Message to the People of Israel: "You've experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from Heaven."
This is the only instance in the Pentateuch in which God directly proclaims a law to His people without the mediation of Moses. This to me says quite a lot about this particular law. How many times throughout the Bible does God speak audibly so that more than one person can hear Him? I can only thing of a couple of times. He spoke at the baptism of His son, Jesus. He also spoke at the transfiguration of Jesus.
Deuteronomy 4:12-13
“Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which He commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.”
1B. Statutes spoken by Moses
Exodus 24:3
“So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has said we will do.’"
2A. Ten Commandments engraved on tablets of stone by God Himself
Exodus 31:18
“And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”
What significance might there be to the fact that God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments. Not only once did He write them, but twice (see Deuteronomy 10:1-4). Why wouldn’t God entrust Moses to write them down either time?
Exodus 34:28
"And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments."
Here we see that the Ten Commandments are indeed a covenant, but how many commandments are in this particular covenant?
Deuteronomy 5:22
"These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to [Moses]."
Obviously if you lump all the requirements, statutes and laws together you would have more than ten. The number ten clearly limits the total. And if God ADDED NO MORE, how can man? The Ten Commandments are also a complete covenant. God did not say “part of a covenant.” He also did not say they were an installment. They are complete.
2B. Statutes written by Moses in a book (called the BOOK of the COVENANT).
Exodus 24:4, 7
“And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he took the BOOK OF THE COVENANT and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.’"
Is there a covenant mentioned here? Here also is a promise, albeit a faulty one--by the people.
Deuteronomy 31:24
"So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished..."
3A. The Ten Commandments were placed inside the ark of the covenant.
Deuteronomy 10:5
“Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and PUT THE TABLETS IN THE ARK which I had made; and there they are, just as the LORD commanded me.”
3B. Statutes deposited by the Levites “by the side of the ark.” A.R.V.
Deuteronomy 31:26
“Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.”
Why did Moses have to place the BOOK OF THE COVENANT "beside the ark of the covenant"? Wasn't there enough room to put it in with the TEN commandments? And if God gives us so many clues as to the enduring nature of the ten commandments, shouldn't we take heed? If you were going to make a distinction between two sets of laws how would you propose to do any better than what God did?
Now, here’s the good part!
Colossians 2:14, 16-17
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
Wow! Did you get that? The reason why we no longer observe the Passover, Jewish feasts and offer animal sacrifices is because all of these were a part of the handwriting of ordinances which were a shadow pointing forward to the cross. Once Jesus died, offering an animal sacrifice would be denying His sacrifice. The Sabbath of the Ten Commandments cannot be included in this text for many reasons, but mainly because it was a memorial of something that took place in the past (Exodus 20:11)--it wasn’t pointing forward to the cross. The Sabbath is a memorial of God’s creative power. His creative act is why He is deserving of our worship and praise (see Revelation 14:7)! The Sabbath is the day God rested from His creating and then He blessed, sanctified and made the seventh day holy.
Now if the Ten Commandments are still in existence the following texts will make more sense.
Romans 7:7, 12-13
“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.’ Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good... Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
What law is being quoted from here? The ten commandments right? My Bible’s center column chain reference throws me back to Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21, the Ten Commandments. Is this saying that only the tenth command of the Ten Commandments is holy, just and good? Obviously not!
James 2:9-12
“But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ’do not commit adultery,’ also said, ’do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
The Ten Commandments are not a method of salvation. They are our mirror whereby we see that we are sinners in need of a Savior. If there is no law, then there is no sin. If there is no sin, then there is no need of a Savior.
At this point I’d just like to say I appreciate current dilemma of the critics. Most churches that lay hold on the name Jesus Christ are not teaching that the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments is of any significance. But I ask you, is the majority always right? If so, then the church organization with the most members should be the one that should have all the truth. The Catholic church has the largest membership, but it is also what spawned the name Protestant. The Catholic church was not following the Bible and the Bible only (sola scriptura) and for this reason great reformers such as John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Huss, and many others, suffered incredible persecution to bring the truth of the Bible to light. The Catholic church lays claim to the fact that it is the one responsible for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It also significantly altered the Ten Commandments, dropping out the command not to have graven images and splitting in two one of the other nine in order to maintain the number ten. If indeed the commandments were changed by the Catholic church, could it be that traditions of man have been kept, even in many Protestant denominations? This would have some very negative repercussions because in Mark 7:7-9 Jesus says, “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." Furthermore He said, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘
honor your father and your mother ...’”
Again please note that Christ refers to a command from the Decalogue. What does He say of the worship that is done by those who lay aside the commandment of God? He says “in vain do they worship me” (see also Acts 5:29 and Colossians 2:8). It doesn’t matter whether you are sincere in your belief. You can be sincerely wrong.
The Sabbath is a special test command placed in the heart of the Ten. It is for us the same as the tree of knowledge of good and evil was for Adam and Eve. It’s not a difficult command, and in fact it was made for our benefit. Mark 2:27 says “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath:” There is a spiritual benefit to be attained by keeping the Bible Sabbath.
The Sabbath is holy. What does it mean for something to be “holy”? When Moses approached the burning bush, God spoke to him and told him to remove his sandals. Why? Because the place where he was standing was holy ground. What made the ground holy? It was God’s presence in the ground that made it holy, right? In a similar way, that we as finite beings may not fully understand, the seventh day Sabbath is imbued with the presence of God! There is a special blessing to be attained by worshipping on the day which God rested, the day He blessed and made holy. No other day can lay hold of these special claims because God never applied these characteristics to any other day.
I pray this helps.
But for the grace of God go I,cyspark
JUMP STATION
