Ten Commandments - God's Law Handed Down?

Q:  Are the ten commandments Gods Law handed down? Are they never changing? Do they still apply to this day and age?

A: Please consider these points:

1. Today, we are not directly under the authority of the Old Testament law and that includes the Ten Commandments.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Galatians 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

2. However, there is a higher law of God. It is the law which served as the basis of the Old Testament law and it is the absolute truth of God. We are still under this law.

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1Corinthians 9:21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. 

3. This law works through the operation of grace. Therefore, we are motivated to obey it by love and not by fear.

Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.  14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

4. Also, the power to keep this law does not come from our own strength. It comes through the power of the Spirit working in us.

Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Galatians 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Notice especially the teaching of Romans 8:4. The righteousness of the law is to be fulfilled in us. This is the law of God that transcends the written law of Moses. This is the righteousness of God as seen throughout the Bible and especially in the New Testament epistles. It is higher than the Ten Commandments. It is the law to which we are still subject.

Till He comes,

Pastor David Reagan