p. 11 | The Ten Commandments Still Binding by K. C. RUSSELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1908

The Ten Commandments Still Binding

By K. C. RUSSELL

K. C. RUSSELL

“The ten commandments are as binding to-day as when they were given to Moses on tables of stone.” So said Dr. C. W. A. Veditz, at a meeting of the Twentieth Century Club recently held in Washington, D. C., at the Y. M. C. A. headquarters.

Such a statement as the foregoing is refreshing indeed, in these days when the spirit of antinomianism is prevailing to such an alarming extent. The words should be written in letters of gold, and loudly proclaimed to all the people.

It is a common thing in these times for those who believe in the binding claims of God’s law to be accused of “being under the old covenant,” “under the law,” “Jewish,” etc., when the very fact that they are keeping the law of God is an evidence that they are not under the old covenant or law.

It is true that if one were attempting to keep the law of God as a means of salvation, he could truly be regarded as being “under the law,” inasmuch as his certain failure would insure his condemnation, but if he has been justified by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ, he thus receives power from the Lord for keeping the law. The apostle Paul very pertinently asks, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” There is nothing more thoroughly emphasized in the Bible than the perpetuity of God’s law. In Ps. 111:7, 8, we read: “All his [God’s] commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever.”

In Matt. 5:17, 18, the Saviour says: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” And in James 2:10 the Lord says: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” These Scripture quotations are sufficient to demonstrate to all that “the ten commandments are binding.”

Those who have been deceived with the idea that Christ came to abolish the law of God, will find that he came to accomplish the very reverse, as is manifest from the words of inspiration spoken by the apostle Paul: “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4. Let it be noted that it was Christ’s mission to enable those who will yield to him to have the law fulfilled in their lives. Christ knew the inability of humanity to keep his law, hence he came for the express purpose of enabling us to do this. How foreign this is to the idea that Christ came to abolish God’s law.

There is no command so difficult that man can not keep it by the strength which the Lord will gladly impart to his believing children.

Takoma Park, D. C.