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THE SABBATH ANO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
ls the Sabbath commandment sti/1 a part of the Decalogue? Or is it the only one of the Ten
Commandments that is now obsolete?
N
owhere in the NewTestament
a re the Ten Commandments
listed in order from one to ten.
owhere in the NewTestament is the
Sabbath command repeated verba–
tim. Without the Old Testament we
would not know the exact const ruc–
tion of God's basic Jaw. Without the
Old Testament we would not even
know that the exact number of com–
mands is ten. These are startling facts
that many ofus have neverstopped to
consider.
What about it? ls there any logi–
cal biblical reason why we should
keep the Sabbath today? Should we
now keep all ten of the Ten Com–
mandments- or only those points
that pertain to our neighbor?
Should we love God only in a very
general manner?
Old Testament Background
By way of a brief background, the
first Sabbath day foUowed th e six
working days of creation (Gen. 2: 1-
3). A command to remember this
first Sabbath day was later
in–
culcated into ancient lsrael's basic
constitutional law listed in Exodus
20 and Deuteronomy
5
(see accom–
panying box on next page). These
fundamental decrees were the only
ones spoken and written by the Cre–
ator Himself. AU other codified
laws, statutes, judgments and ordi–
nances were relayed to Moses
through angelic mediation.
Moses later summarized God's
personal role as Lawgiver in the
book of Deuteronomy : "At that
time the Lord said to me, ' Hew two
tables of stone like the first, and
come up to me on the mountain,
and make an ark of wood. And
1
will write on the tables the words that
were on the first tables which you
20
by
John
R.
Schroeder
broke, and you shall put them in
t~e
ark.' So 1made an a rk ofacacia wood,
and hewed two tables ofstone Jike the
first, and went up the mountain with
the two tables in my hand. And he
[God ) wrote on the tables, as at the
first writing,
the 1en commandments
which the Lord had spoken to you on
the mountain out of the midst of the
tire on the day of thc assembly; and
the Lord gavc them to me" (Deut.
10: 1-4, RSV).
Another summary account is also
well worth quoting. It shows the vital
significance that God attributes to
His basic moral law: " ... The Lord
said tome, 'Gather th e people tome,
that
1
may let them
hear my words
[personally and directly- not through
either Mosesorangelic mediation],so
that they may learn to fear me all the
days that they live upon the earth, and
that they may teach theirchildren so.'
And you carne near and stood at tbe
foot of the mountain .... Then the
Lord spoke to you.... And he de-
clared to you his covenant,
which he
commanded you
to perform, that is,
the ten commandments ... "
(Deut.
4: 10-13).
New Testament Appllcation
James, leading apost le of the Jerusa–
lem Church of God, referred to the
whole Decalogue in his general
epistle to the twelve tribes of Israel.
He wrote: " If you really fulfil
the
royallaw,
according to the scripture,
'You shall !ove your neigh bor as
yourself,' you do well. But if you
show partiality, you commit sin. and
are convicted by the law as trans–
gressors [sin is the transgression of
the law; see
1
John 3:4]. For who–
ever keeps
the whole law
but fails in
one point
has become guilty of all of
it. For he [remember this is God]
who said, ' Do not commit adultery.'
said also, 'Do not kili.' lf you do not
commit adult.ery but do kili, you
have become a transgressor of the
law. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged under the law
of liberty" (James 2:8-12).
James, here, establishes severa!
significant facts:
1) The royal law is summarized
by the Old Testament command to
!ove your neighbor as yourself (see
Lev. 19 : 18).
2) The royal law has distinct
points.
3) Two of those points include
the sixth and seventh command–
ments as listed in the Decalogue.
4) Transgression of any of these
points is sin.
5) Failure to keep one point is
considered, spiritually, as breaking
them all.
6) This royal law is also termed
the " law ofliberty."
7) Christians are to be judged by
this royal law ofliberty.
A few questions should be asked
at this juncture. Do the points James
mentions exclude the first four com–
mandments defining man's relation–
ship with his God? Or do they refer
to
al/
ten as duly delineated in Ex–
odus 20 and Deuteronomy 5? Are
Ch ristians only required to
specifi–
ca/ly keep
the last six command–
ments defining man 's proper
association with his neighbor, whilc
observing the first four only in some
sort of an ethereal sense?
Let us withhold judgment until
we have examined a few more of
the New Testament documents.
Jesus and the Ten Commandments
A rich young ruler once came to
Jesus and asked Him a vitally im-
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1978