Did the Apostles Preach the Law to the Gentiles? by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 5, 1871

Did the Apostles Preach the Law to the Gentiles?

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Those who claim that the law of God, the ten commandments, was abolished at the cross, often and loudly assert that the apostles were not required by their commission to preach the law to the Gentiles. In proof of this, the great commission of Matt. 28:19, 20, is quoted: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Or, as Mark says, “Preach the gospel to every creature.” Here, it is asserted, they were commissioned to preach the gospel, but nothing was said about their preaching the law. But let us look a little closer. How particular is this commission? “Go and teach all nations.” This certainly includes the Gentiles, so that whatever is in this commission must apply to the Gentiles. Notice still farther: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” What were they to teach? All things that he had commanded them.

In the early part of his ministry Christ chose his twelve apostles, keeping them with him during his whole ministry, carefully instructing them and preparing them to go out on their great mission of teaching the nations. He showed them how to preach, and what to preach, and what not to teach. In Matt. 5:1, 2, we read as follows: “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain; and when he was set, his disciples came unto him; and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying.” Here are Peter, James, John, &c., seated around him; and the Master now proceeds to teach them what they shall teach others as they go out with the gospel. Says he, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.” “Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.” Verses 3, 4, 7. These are good observations, and we find the apostles in their ministry everywhere teaching them. He continues: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Verse 17. Now says he: James and John, do not get a wrong idea of my mission, I have not come to destroy the law of God, nor the prophets, but to fulfil them, that is, to do what they require. To fulfil a law, means to obey it, as may be seen by Gal. 6:2: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ;” that is, do what the law requires. Now he proceeds to tell them why he did not come to destroy the law. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Verse 18. That is, not one jot or tittle should pass from the law till all the law and all the prophets were fulfilled; for these are the things of which he was speaking. All the prophets will not be fulfilled

till after heaven and earth pass; so the law will stand till that time.

He continues: “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.” Verse 19. Now, John, as you are going out to teach others, be careful to keep every one of these commandments yourself, and then teach others to do it; for whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven. Nothing could be plainer than that.

And now to farther prepare them to properly keep and teach this law, he takes up two of the commandments to illustrate what he means: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment; verses 21, 23; that is, the Pharisees had taught that, in order to break this commandment, Thou shalt not kill, they must actually take life; but Christ shows them that if they even have anger in their hearts, they have violated the commandment. Then he takes up another commandment, verses 27, 28, Thou shalt not commit adultery; and says that it may be broken by an impure desire of the heart. When the young man came to him to inquire what he should do to have eternal life, Jesus said to him in the presence of his disciples: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17. Thus he always taught them, during his whole ministry of several years. In his last great charge to them he carefully admonishes them to go and teach all things that he had taught them.

Now let us follow them in their ministry, and see if they did teach the law of God as he did. James was one of those disciples who sat at his feet and learned of him. About thirty years after this, he wrote an epistle to his Christian brethren scattered abroad. In chap. 2:8 he says to them: “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.” He has the same subject up that his Master did—the law. He commences just as Jesus did. Christ said, I have come to fulfil the law. Now James says, If ye fulfil the law ye do well. Thus far he is in perfect harmony with his Master.

He proceeds: “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Verses 9, 10. Here again he reiterates almost the very words of Jesus. Christ had said if a man should break one of the least commandments he should be least in the kingdom of Heaven. James says, “Whosoever shall offend in one point is guilty of all.” How exactly he followed his instructions.

But he proceeds: “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” Verse 11. To illustrate his meaning, he takes up the two commandments, Thou shalt not kill, and Thou shalt not commit adultery, and shows that, if you break any one of the commandments, you have broken the law. Here again he carefully follows the lesson he learned of his Master in Matt. 5.

Who can look these through and not plainly see that James is simply reiterating what Christ taught with regard to the law, in his sermon on the mountain. This shows that he did teach the ten commandments to the Gentiles.

Notice John, another apostle who learned of Jesus. He also went forth under the great commission to preach to the Gentiles. In his first epistle to the church, chap. 5:2, 3, he says: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” This was written sixty years after the death of Christ, and was addressed to the Gentiles. Does he instruct them to keep the commandments of God, or does he not? Most emphatically he does. He says, “This is the love of God that we keep his commandments.” But how do we know that these are God’s commandments? Because, first, it is not the law of Christ, but the commandments of God, that he is enforcing; second, the ceremonial law was abolished at the cross, sixty years before this. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” Eph. 2:15. So this leaves only the law of ten commandments.

Take another minister, the apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Gentile church at Corinth. He says, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19. How exactly this harmonizes with what Christ said to the young man, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” But it is in the book of Romans that we have the clearest evidence on this point. This book was written by the great apostle Paul. He was a Christian minister, and wrote in the Christian dispensation to the Christians. He penned this letter nearly thirty years after the death of Christ; hence as many years down in the Christian dispensation. It was addressed to the church at Rome, which was mostly composed of Gentile converts. That this letter was written to the Gentiles is unquestionable, as will be seen by the following quotations:

“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you (but was let hitherto), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” Rom. 1:13–15.

“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.” Rom. 11:13.

Not only was this letter written to the Gentiles, but the chief subject under consideration is the law of God and its relation to faith in Christ. In the first chapter, Paul shows how the heathen world once had the knowledge of the true God, and how God gave them over to ignorance on account of their wickedness, so that now they are inexcusable. Chap. 2:1. In chapter two he goes on to say that every man will be judged according to the light he has. He tells the Jew that the simple fact of his having the law, and reading it, and teaching it to others, will not save him unless he keeps that law. Then he declares that the Jew breaks that very law in which they trust, that this makes their circumcision and all their professions null and void, and that really they are no better than the Gentiles, because they do not keep the law; but that if the Gentiles will keep that law they shall be accepted, even though they be not circumcised. “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.” “And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?” Verses 25, 27.

Here are some important facts: 1. Circumcision amounts to nothing unless it leads them to keep the law. 2. If those who are uncircumcised, that is, the Gentiles, will keep that law, they shall be accounted the same as if they were circumcised, that is, they shall be accepted as the people of God. 3. If the uncircumcised keep that law, they will condemn the Jews who do not keep it. In no stronger terms could the apostle exalt the law of God, before his Gentile converts than in this language. He teaches them the same as he did the Gentiles at Corinth that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 1 Cor. 7:19. 4. It shows the falsity of the position always taken by opponents of the law; viz., that none could keep the law of God unless they were circumcised.

Having taken this position, the question with which he opens chapter 3 naturally arises; viz., “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?” Verse 1. Other translations say because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. An oracle is that spoken by the living voice. The oracles of God were the ten commandments, which he spoke with his own voice. The great advantage, then, which the Jews had, consisted in the fact that God intrusted his holy law unto them. But now, as they had all betrayed that trust, despised his law and broken his commandments, it brings the Jews down on a level with the Gentile world, both sinners together in the sight of God. Thus he says, in verse 9: “We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” The Jew is a sinner, and the Gentile is a sinner; or as he says again in verse 23: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Hence in verse 19 he draws the sad picture of the whole world, both Jew and Gentile, standing before God, condemned by his holy law. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to those who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Hence in the next verse he draws this legitimate conclusion: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Verse 20. Why can no man be justified by the law? Answer. Because all have transgressed that law; and a law once broken can never justify the transgressor.

To illustrate: A. kills B., but the crime is not discovered. He lives on in the same community for fifteen years, and never breaks the law again. Then his crime being discovered, he is arrested and found guilty; but he pleads that, after breaking the law in that one instance, he carefully kept it ever afterward, and intends never to break it again. Would the judge therefore acquit him? No, indeed; he might keep the law in every particular, till his head was gray, and yet the law would condemn him for that single transgression. So it is with the law of God. After we once transgress it, we can never be justified by it, however strictly we keep it afterward.

But all have violated the law of God. There is not a man but what has broken it, whether Jew or Gentile. This is Paul’s argument. Now what use does he make of it? A very important one indeed. He shows by this that all men are in great need of a Saviour to atone for their past sins, and thus save them from the penalty of God’s violated law. Then he brings forward Christ, and says that he has died for that very purpose, so that through him all men may have forgiveness for their past sins. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Verses 24, 25. Then the inquiry naturally arises, If we are justified through Christ, and not by the deeds of the law, is not the law then set aside, abolished, and are we under no further obligation to keep it? Paul, with a zealous care for the holy law of God, anticipates this conclusion and meets it thus: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Verse 31. How emphatically he denies this doctrine of faith in Christ making void the law of God. Not only does he deny this, but he says that he establishes the law, confirms it, strengthens it, makes it stand. Remember this is what he says to the Gentiles. How can a man with these facts, and this language before him, state that Paul never preached this law to the Gentiles?

In chapter 7 he shows the important part which the law performs in every man’s conversion. In conclusion, he says on that subject: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Verses 12, 14, 22.

This, dear reader, is but a small part, a mere sample, of what all the apostles taught the Gentiles respecting the law of God, as they went out under the great commission to preach the gospel to all nations, to teach them as they themselves had been taught by the great Teacher. We therefore conclude that good ministers of Jesus Christ in preaching the gospel will follow the example of the apostles, and teach the Gentiles to keep the whole law of God, the Sabbath not excepted. D. M. CANRIGHT.