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The Law and the Christian Holy, Just, and Good Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and
just, and good. David Rice When Moses received the Law from God, he received a treasure from the Divine Courts. It has provided a standard of conduct that has enlightened civilized peoples for millennia. Its principles have permeated our culture, even though, sadly, the modern world sometimes turns away from acknowledging its debt to it. There are lessons in the Law for the New Creation also. Our Lord said the Law was embodied in two great commandments. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40; compare Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18). A law of this grandeur is worthy of our focused attention. The principles of the Law—the Spirit of the Law—apply to us. “The righteousness of the law [is] fulfilled in us, who walk … after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). God has graciously “made us able ministers … of the spirit [and] the spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:5,6). By this means we may “serve him [God] without fear, in holiness and righteousness … all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74, 75). The Ten Commandments The essence of the Law was given to Israel briefly in the Ten Commandments. These were inscribed by the finger of God on tablets of stone, and later inscribed a second time by Moses, on a new set of tablets prepared by Moses at God’s direction (Exodus 31:18; 32:16; 34:1,28). The first inscribing may represent the giving of the Law by God during the Jewish age. Those tablets were broken because of Israel’s rebellion, representing that Israel failed to keep the law properly; so this arrangement was “broken” at the end of the Jewish Age. The second inscribing may represent the work of Christ during the Gospel Age, writing the law within our hearts, preparatory to our administering its principles to mankind during the Millennium, after the present age closes. But before these commandments were written even the first time, Israel heard them audibly from a booming voice emanating from heaven. (Compare Exodus 19:25, 20:1, 19, Deuteronomy 5:4, 22.) The occasion was so imposing and awesome the people subsequently asked Moses to intervene for them, receive the words of God himself, and then communicate the precepts of God to them. So as we approach our Heavenly Father, we perceive an imposing wonder and awe and grandeur that we feel we cannot comprehend or properly respond to. But our Lord Jesus is appointed to teach us, instruct us, and plant the precepts of God within us, so that we can receive them, apply them, and be transformed by them, “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). The Arrangement of the Commandments There are two recitations of the Ten Commandments, one in Exodus 20 that records the original episode, another in Deuteronomy 5 which is Moses’ later recollection of the experience while addressing the Israelites near the end of the forty years in the wilderness. We will follow the Exodus account. There is a reasonable order in the sequence of the commandments which is part of what Divine Wisdom committed to us through the Israelites. The first five commandments pertain to our worship and duties to God, the second set of five are specific prohibitions of sins against our fellows. That there were two tablets used to record the Law, in itself highlights this topical segregation of the commandments into two parts. If it has been some time since one has read through the account, we recommend reading it from the Scriptures again. It is remarkably brief for such riveting content, a mere seventeen verses, opening the twentieth chapter of Exodus. It is simple, elegant, and the loftier for its brevity. Yet it still makes room for some lovely nuances, and even a welcome promise attached to the fifth command in particular. Below is a brief summary in list form to make it easy to remember the commands in sequence. Some bemoan the fact that even such a list is not generally memorized by people today. We agree, and encourage all to put these brief commands, in sequence, into memory.
The sequence within the second set is most reasonable; these five prohibitions of conduct against our neighbor are ranked according to the seriousness of the offense. They are stated so succinctly in Scripture that we can easily quote the passage “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house,” wife, servants, animals, “nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Exodus 20:13-17). All of God’s people, without exception, observe these commands. Even if by fault or slip they are transgressed, the conscience of the brother or sister overtaken in the fault would surely drive them to the throne of grace. They should also make amends for the misdeeds, and to “make straight paths for [their] feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but … it rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:13). At least so with the gross sins heading this second portion. But what about the sin of coveting? This goes to the mind where transgressions are not so visible. Here a Christian recognizes a greater challenge on the battlefield of experience. Then we turn to the words of our Lord, and recognize that even the grosser sins have subtler forms that the more readily can ensnare us. Might we think ill of our brother and speak unjustly against him, slaying his reputation or stealing his honor? (Matthew 5:22) Might our gaze and thought fix upon a pleasant subject and engender an impure thought? (Matthew 5:28) We then have cause for appreciating the counsel of James: “The wisdom that is from above is … pure … peaceable … gentle … easy to be intreated … full of mercy … without partiality [or] hypocrisy” (James 3:17). The First Set The first set of five have priority since they pertain to our worship of God; they are given at substantially greater length and comment than the latter five. The first two seem straight forward: no false gods and no idol worship even if the idol is supposed to represent Jehovah (such as the golden calf). Imagine if Israel had observed these two simple but fundamental rules through the centuries, how much heartache, anguish, and destruction they would have avoided—from the apostasy of Jeroboam, to the treachery of Jezebel, to the burning of Jewish babies to an idol of Molech, to escaping the ravages of plunder, captivity, and death brought by heathen armies. What sweet counsel are the words of the psalmist: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom … to him belongs eternal praise” (Psalm 111:10, NIV). And the words of the aged apostle, closing out his first epistle: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). “Do not take the name of God in vain.” This was an injunction against solemn oaths deceitfully engaged, a crime against God whose name was thus defamed. Probably few today take oaths in the name of Jehovah that they intend to break. In this respect, the command is probably seldom infracted in modern society. But the weaker sister to this sin—the profane use of “God”—is so prolific and mindless it swells to the most frequent, pervasive (and repugnant) on the list. Let none of the brethren who live to honor God so degrade the holy name as to use it for a casual exclamation! The fourth command respects the worship of Jehovah. The purpose of the Sabbath was to set aside one day out of seven for holy things by refusing to engage in secular work: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). As God sanctified the seventh day, so Israel was to respect that example (verses 10, 11). In the Christian era the day of public worship and cessation of mundane enterprise is Sunday, in honor of our Lord’s resurrection. There is a tendency to violate the spirit of this blessed command by declining the advantage peculiar to this custom. Instead of infringing upon the spiritual, by the forces of common gain, let us rather expand our use of Sunday gatherings, fellowship, study, visiting, exhortation, reading, and rejoicing in the spirit. Let us circumspectly guard the privilege. (See the mellifluous counsel on this point in Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 6, pp. 388-390.) “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12). As Paul observes, this is the first commandment with a promise attached: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:1-3). Parents represent God’s authority in the family. Thus this command is appropriate to the first set of commands respecting our worship and respect to God. Let our honor of those whose lives have been mortgaged for our interests, be not of constraint, but from appreciative and loving hearts. The older we grow, the more mellow with appreciation should we be, the more so as we learn by life’s experience the value and cost expended upon us in our youth. The principle can extend also to our spiritual fathers (1 Timothy 1:2; 5:17), but not at the expense of the former. Pleasant Requirements Are these commands not wonderfully pure, noble, and good? Is there anything here at all onerous? Is there any reason to shrink from the blessed directives that Divine Wisdom provided so long ago? “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). We can “be called great in the kingdom of heaven” by observing such pleasant requirements. What a proposal to rejoice a holy heart! |