While, however, we maintain our vantage ground, and contend that nothing less than a plain declaration in the New Testament to that effect, can or ought to satisfy us, that the decalogue is annulled, we do not despair of being able to satisfy any candid mind, by an appeal to the New Testament, that we are as much bound by the ten commandments as are the Jews, to whom they were originally given.
No one can say, that there is an express declaration in the New Testament, to the effect, that the decalogue is set aside under the present dispensation. Those who arrive at the conclusion, must confess, that it is merely inferential. In this respect, then, both parties stand on equal ground. Neither our opponents nor ourselves can adduce an undoubted and positive declaration. But we ask which have the greatest need of such a declaration—they who assert that the moral law, written and pronounced by God himself, has been abrogated, or they who affirm that it is still in force? On which side lies the greater probability, and with whom rests the greater responsibility? No very serious harm can result from the error (if such it be) of maintaining the perpetual authority of the moral law, but the most disastrous consequences may flow from the rejection of its claims. And surely it is more likely that God would continue his own law in force without a direct renewal of it, than that he would abrogate it without a plain announcement to that effect. In the absence then of positive evidence, the probability lies on the side of its retention.
Now, this probability advances a step towards certainty, when it is remembered, that Judaism is not formally abrogated in the New Testament—that in fact Christianity is not a new religion, but the extension and expansion of the moral and spiritual part of the Mosaic dispensation—believing Jews still remaining on their own stock, and believing Gentiles being scions grafted into the Jewish olive tree. The religion of Jesus is in reality the perfection of the religion of Moses. But where would be its superiority in a moral point of view, if the authority of the very standard of morality were taken from it? At any rate, if such were the case, some express intimation to that effect is to be expected.
This argument is still further strengthened by the fact, that the spirit and essential requirements of Judaism and Christianity are identical. It has indeed been asserted that the morality of the Old Testament was one of legal enactment; whereas that of the New Testament is one of motives and principles. But our Lord teaches a very different doctrine. He tells us that love was the essence and sum of all the requirements of the Old Testament, even as love is the fulfilling of the law under the present dispensation. [27] Christianity presents a new and powerful motive for obedience—namely gratitude for the incarnation and death of the Son of God; but this neither changes the nature of man’s moral obligation, nor removes the necessity of a positive enactment to guide him in his obedience, and enforce conformity to God’s will. If then in spirit and essence the moral requirements of the law and of the gospel were the same, what reason should there be for setting aside the decalogue, and what authority have we to ignore it without an express command from God?
The probability that the moral law remains in force under the present dispensation, is still further strengthened by the use which is made of it by the inspired writers of the New Testament. St. Paul indeed speaks of the law as the “ministry of condemnation,” in opposition to the gospel, which is the “ministry of righteousness,” or justification—the one dispensation bearing on its front the justice of God, the other, his mercy.
He tells us plainly that the law can only condemn, while the gospel alone has power to justify. He assures us that in this respect—in its condemning power—it is “done away” to the believer, while the free grace of the gospel alone “remains.” But when he speaks of the moral requirements of Christianity, while he tells us that (as in the religion of Moses) love is the essence and sum of all, he nevertheless sends us to the commandments of the second table, to learn how love is to be exhibited, or rather perhaps to shew us, that the moral requirements of the two dispensations were essentially the same. [28a] What an extraordinary use to make of the law, if the decalogue be part of “the weak and beggarly elements” abolished by Christianity. St. John tells us that to love God is to keep his commandments. But we know not which of his commandments we are bound to keep, if we reject those which he wrote with his own finger, and pronounced with his own voice. St. James refers to the moral law as if recognising its obligation. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 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.” [28b] It may be objected, that this reference to the law is merely for the purpose of illustration. But surely if the violation of one precept involves the guilt of breaking the whole law, the whole law must still be in force. For if the enactment has been repealed, there is no law; and if there is no law, there can be no transgression; and if there is no transgression, there can be no guilt. How strange, too, is this appeal to the law by the Apostle Paul, if the law has been annulled: “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 that thou mayest live long on the earth.” [28c] We thus approach very near the establishment of our position, that there is evidence in the New Testament, that the moral law is still binding on men.
It may indeed be objected, that in the scriptures quoted or alluded to, the reference is chiefly, if not exclusively, to the second table of the decalogue. But we think few will venture to deny, (especially after the assertion of St. James, that the violation of one precept is the violation of the whole law) that if the part which regulates our duty to man is in force, the part which teaches our duty to God must be equally in force. Besides, if love is the fulfilling of the law, and the love of God is keeping his commandments, how can we express our love to him, if we reject that part of the law, which especially guides us in the proper manner of shewing our love directly to him?
But there is one passage of the New Testament, which, in the absence of a positive enunciation to the contrary, to our mind, of itself establishes the permanent authority of the decalogue, and which, when added to what has already been said, more than completes the proof that has been demanded of us. We allude to our Lord’s declaration: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. 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.” [29a] There can scarcely be a doubt to what the Redeemer refers when he speaks of “the law and the prophets.” He could not intend the ceremonial law, because the breaking of its least commands would not make a man “least in the kingdom of heaven.” Neither was it true that he did not come to put an end to its observance. It is the moral law, and those instructions of the prophets which flow from it—it is “the law and the prophets” as embraced in the precept, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself,” which our Lord evidently meant. The entire discourse to which this declaration forms the introduction, is of a moral character; and whatever meanings may have been put upon our Lord’s language, we think any unbiased mind, on reading the whole discourse, will come to the conclusion, that the moral law was chiefly and prominently in the Saviour’s mind, when he employed the language above quoted. [29b] But if one jot or tittle cannot pass away from the law, how should the entire law be abrogated? We conclude, therefore, that there is satisfactory evidence in the New Testament, that the decalogue is still in force in the Christian church—not so indeed that obedience to it forms the ground of the believer’s justification, or that want of perfect conformity to its requirements brings him under condemnation (this was not the case under the Jewish dispensation), but as the standard of right and wrong, as the infallible regulator of conscience, as that perfect rule of moral obligation, by seeking conformity to which we honour our Creator and Redeemer, perform the duties of this present life, and become fitted for the presence of God and the inheritance of the saints in light. To the believer the moral law has always been “the law of liberty,” because, it being “written in his heart,” he has “delighted in it after the inner man,” and kept its precepts from a principle of love.
THE END.