The Ten Commandments

Are they still valid?(Jeremiah 31:31-34, Matthew 5:17-20)

Should they be relegated to a museum of the ancient Near East?

1. We link commandments with legalism

Orthodox Jews

Scottish Presbyterians

‘Ms. Burney, do we have anything on right and wrong?’

2. We think love is better than law

3. We think Christ has abolished the law

‘Christ is the end (telos) of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.’ (Romans 10:4)

‘Christ ends the law’ (New English Bible)‘The law has come to an end with

Christ’ (Jerusalem Bible)‘Christ has brought the law to an end’

(Good News Bible)

Faith does not ‘nullify’ but ‘upholds’ the law (Romans 3:31)‘Christ is the goal to which all along the law has been directed.’ (Charles Cranfield)‘The goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts.’ (Complete Jewish Bible)

Jesus fulfilled the law

The law remains in effect

‘The requirements of the law are written on our hearts, our consciences also bearing witness’ (Romans 2:15).In Romans 1 Paul says that we human beings typically ‘try to suppress the truth’ and pretend to ourselves that we don’t know what’s right or wrong, when in fact we do…whether it is awareness of God’s existence (Romans 1:18-19), or of what is natural and appropriate in sexual relations (Romans 1:24-27).

The law is to become our delight

The commandments set forth God’s will and intention for human life.God’s promise was not to abolish the moral law, but to ‘put his law in our minds and write it on our hearts’ (Jeremiah 31:33-34).The law is no longer an external duty which we struggle to obey, but an inward expression of God’s will that we desire to keep.