Some men will try to tell us that we are still under the ten commandments (the very foundation of old covenant law) even though we are not under the law.  This gives them more laws to judge others by.  These theologians are doing exactly the same things as the Pharisees were doing, when Christ called them "sons of hell"!  They are forcing believers to follow man made rules, as if that is what makes us righteous in God's sight!

 

We already know, that "we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”  (Gal 3:25)  And Scripture clearly tells us that the "Ten Commandments" are the law.

 

The ‘ten commandments’ are the very foundation of the old covenant law and no man will be declared ‘innocent’ by them.  If you are under the law, you will be condemned by the law! This includes the ‘ten commandments’, as is demonstrated in the following scriptures.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, Do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.  Love does no harm to it’s neighbour.  Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10).  Paul quotes the commandments here, and calls them “the law”.  

   

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  For He who said ‘Do not commit adultery’ also said,  ‘Do not murder’.  If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a law-breaker.”  (James 2:10 - 11)  Once again, ‘the ten commandments’ are called “the law” and we are told that if we break the law at one point, we are guilty of breaking the whole law.  

 

Consider the following passage:

“He has made us competent as 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 that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily on the face of Moses because of it’s glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?”  (2 Cor. 3:6-8). 

 

The ten commandments are described in this passage, as "the letter" of the law.  Then we are told, "the letter kills".  It clearly tells us, the 'Ten Commandments' are “the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone”.  

This is a direct reference to Exodus chapter 34, where Moses met with God on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights to receive the laws which Israel was to live by. 

 

In vs. 27-28 we read- “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel’.  Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or  drinking water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments”

 

“He took the tablets of the covenant law and placed them in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it.  Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the covenant law, as the Lord commanded him.” (Exodus 40:20-21) 

 

The ten commandments are clearly called “the covenant law”. God said “for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”  The ten commandments were the old covenant! The ark was referred to as “the ark of the covenant law”, because it contained  “the covenant law” (the ten commandments).

 

Moses recounts this event in Deuteronomy-

“At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.  I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.

So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.  The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.” (Deut. 10:1-5)

 

We are told at great length throughout the book of Hebrews, about the difference between the old covenant and the new - “Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.  A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place.  Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place,  which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant.  This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.” (Heb. 9: 1-4)

The stone tablets, with the ten commandments written on them, are the old covenant law!  We are warned at length in the letter to the Hebrews, about the dangers of falling back towards old covenant teachings. 

Starting with God’s promise to Abraham in chapter six and continuing through to chapter 12, we are shown the difference between old covenant rituals and acts of faith.  We are shown many examples of faith in action and encouraged to imitate them.  We are never encouraged to preach or live by the ten commandments. 

 

In Numbers 15, we can read an example of just how difficult it was to live under this old covenant.

 

“While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.  Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.  Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.’   So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.” (Numbers 15:32) 

 

He simply gathered some wood on the Sabbath, thereby breaking the fourth commandment, and was stoned to death. That is the consequence of being under the ten commandments - “the ministry that brought death”.

 

Can any of us survive under such law?  Yet this is the punishment for those under the ten commandments. Anyone who tries to teach us that we are still under the ten commandments is simply lying.  

“They want to be teachers of the law but they do not know what they are talking about” (1Tim. 1:7). They do not understand the new covenant, so they go about forcing people to follow laws, just like the old ‘teachers of the law’ did.