Saturday, July 29, 2017

The Old Covenant, the Decalogue, and the Rule of Life...

"The covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai is abolished by Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 8: 8, 9, 13). And the Ten Commandments do not bind us as they were words of that covenant (Exod. 34: 28). I mean, they do not bind us as conditions of that covenant, except we seek to be justified by works. For the law, as a covenant, still stands in force enough to curse those that seek salvation by their own works (Gal. 3: 10) and, if abolished, it is only to those that are in Christ by faith (Gal. 2: 16, 20; Acts 3: 22-25; 15: 10, 11). But the Ten Commandments bind us still, as they were then given to a people that were at that time under the covenant of grace made with Abraham, to show them what duties are holy, just and good, well-pleasing to God, and to be a rule for their conversation. The result of all is that we must still practice moral duties as commanded by Moses, but we must not seek to be justified by our practice. If we use them as a rule of life, not as conditions of justification, they can be no ministration of death, or killing letter to us. Their perfection indeed makes them to be harder terms to procure life by, but a better rule to discover all imperfections, and to guide us to that perfection which we should aim at. And it will be our wisdom not to part with the authority of the decalogue of Moses..."
Walter Marshall. The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, p 85

1 comment:

  1. Lee Irons–The nomos from which we have been delivered is not to be equated with the imperatives and commands of God’s Word. Indeed, this mistaken equation would bring Paul into direct contradiction with Jesus, who insisted on keeping even “the least of these commandments” (Matt. 5:19). Jesus commissioned the apostles to teach the nations to “observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Jesus requires us to love him and to express that love by keeping his commandments (John 14:15, 20-21), especially the new commandment to love one another as Christ loved us (John 13:34)

    .... …God’s moral will must not be equated with the Decalogue, neither the Mosaic law nor the law of Christ can be defanged into a list of bare non-covenantal commands –as in the phrase “the moral law not as covenant of works ..."

    http://www.upper-register.com/papers/not_under_law.pdf

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