ARE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ABOLISHED?
By C. H. Bliss
THIS may seem like a strange question. Yet there are some who answer it in the affirmative. The writer has often been referred to 2 Cor. 3:7 as proof that the law is abolished. But before examining this text let us notice what this position involves. 1. If the Ten-Commandment law is done away, we are under no obligation to observe any commandment of the law until such commandment is re-enacted. If “Thou shalt not kill” has always been obligatory upon man, it has never been done away, or abolished. But if the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross, and thus done away, there must have been a time when even this precept, the sixth of the Decalogue, could have been violated with impunity. But such a proposition is too absurd to be argued. In Rom. 3:31 we read, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid.” To “make void” (καταργέω) is to do away, abolish. See Eph. 2:15, where the same word is applied to the law of ceremonies or ordinances. Thus Rom. 3:31 is a plain statement that the law is not done away. That this refers to the Ten Commandments is shown by Rom. 2:21, 22; but it does not include circumcision or the law of ceremonies. Verse 25; see also Rom. 7:7, where reference is made to the Ten Commandments. This law is called “holy,” “just,” “spiritual,” “good.” Verses 12, 14. Paul delighted in this law, and God sent His Son that its righteous precepts might be fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:3, 4. But does 2 Cor. 3:7 teach that the Ten Commandments are done away? In verse 3 we are told that the law written on stone is now by the Spirit of God written on the heart. Now the letter of a law written on stone, or in a book, or taught by a priest, has no power in it to impart life to the one who reads or hears. At the best it can only tell what ought to be done; and if we have failed, it speaks to us in words of condemnation. Thus it condemns, or kills, the transgressor. “But the Spirit giveth life.” Verse 6. In John 8 we have the record of one brought to Christ condemned by the law. A company of Jews were prepared to execute the penalty, death. Our Saviour removed the condemnation (not the law) by extending pardon, and exhorting the sinner to “go, and sin no more.” But whence comes this power to overcome evil habits, to “go, and sin no more”? “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” John 1:12. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” “For He shall save His people from their sins.” “Sin is the transgression of the law.” “He was manifested to take away our sins.” “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” Thus through Christ the Spirit ministers pardon and peace; and with this pardon there comes power to obey. It is thus that the Spirit gives life. But what is meant in verse 7 by the ministration of death written on stone? “Ministration” is from the Greek διακονία, service. The office of a diakonas (from dia and konas, a servant), one who is dusty from running; a minister of a church. Liddell and Scott. See also Groves Greek and English Concordance. That the Ten Commandments only were written on stone see Deut. 10:4. How, then, could the ministration of death (service of the minister) be written on stone? The law was what caused that service; and the service of the minister was the administering of the law, which, when separated from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, carries with it only condemnation and death. A similar expression is found in 2 Kings 4:40. “There is death in the pot.” Here the effect is used for the cause. But the ministration of the Spirit, the new covenant, is life and peace. Under it the law is removed from stone, and written in the heart. See Heb. 8:10. With it there comes spiritual life, which ministers power to the believer to obey its spiritual precepts. Thus we are freed from bondage, from condemnation, and brought into the glorious liberty of the laws of God. This is freedom from sin (the transgression of the law) both past and present.