Paul’s appeal to the truth that law has dominion over man as long as he lives was illustrated by “the law of the husband,” then application was made to the two laws Jewish brethren were familiar with. In his illustration of the “law of the husband,” his point was that a woman could not be married to a second husband while her first husband was alive. Were she to do that, she would be an adulteress. The object of this illustration was to make Jewish Christians aware that neither could they be alive to the law of Moses and at the same time be “married” to Christ. Were the law still alive, the Jew who became a Christian would be guilty of spiritual adultery! So he wrote, “Wherefore my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be joined to another, even to him that hath been raised from the dead” (Rom. 7:4).
No passages found in the sacred text are any clearer in showing that the law has been removed. It is one among many similar passages. In Galatians 3:24-25, Paul wrote, “So that the law is become a tutor to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor.” The Ephesian letter tells that Christ “in his flesh abolished in the flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph. 2:15). The Colossian epistle tells that Christ “blotted out the bond written in ordinances which was against us, and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). The Hebrew writer says, “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9). Nevertheless, despite these clear passages, some insist the law still remains; that man is bound to keep the ten commandments.
Those who so contend are forced to admit that some law was removed. Still, they are not willing to acknowledge that that law included the ten commandments. And so they tell us that the law of Moses was divided into two kinds, ceremonial law and moral law. They insist that the moral law (ten commandments, including sabbath keeping) yet is bound; that it was only the “ceremonial law” Christ nailed to his cross.
Alas, for them, Paul’s clear teaching that we cannot be married to Christ unless we are dead to the law, identified the law to which we are dead to, to be the ten commandments! After telling the Romans, “We are dead to the law,” he asks, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit I had not known sin, except through the law; for I had not known coveting except the law had said, thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 2:7). What could be plainer? We are dead to the law which said, “Thou shalt not covet.”
“Thou shalt not covet” is one of the ten commandments. Therefore, we are dead to the ten commandments.
The usual response to the forceful, appropriate conclusion which must be drawn from Romans 7:1-5 is “Well, if the ten commandments has been removed, is it right to kill, steal, lie, commit adultery?” No, it is not right. It is wrong to commit adultery, to steal, to lie, to kill. Christ prohibited all these things in His new law. ALL, except for one thing: he did not include Sabbath keeping in his new law! He left it out. He gave us a new day, the first day of the week. Christ has all authority in heaven and earth (Mt. 28:18). Man has no authority. Since Christ left out Sabbath keeping from his new covenant, neither I, nor any other man has the right to bind Sabbath keeping today! NEXT: “The Sinful Passions Through The Law.”
Jim McDonald
