Churches of Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 20th century
The Bible speaks of the law which God gave to the Jews in the wilderness
in the singular, as one law, not two laws. Such expressions as “the book
of the law of Moses,” “the law,” “the book of the law,” and “the law of
God” are used interchangeably in the Bible to designate all of the
Jewish law (See Nehemiah 8:1, 2, 3, 8). They are never used to
distinguish one part of it from another part. “The law of Moses” and
“the law of the Lord” are used interchangeably in Luke 2:21-24. All of
it is called “the law of God” because God was the author of all of it.
It is called “the law of Moses” because it was all given through Moses
as a mediator (Gal. 3:19; John 1:17; Deut. 5:5). It was all written by
Moses (Exod. 31:24-27). Exodus 20:2-17 was originally written by the
finger of God on tables of stone but those tables were destroyed (Exod.
32:19) and it was written the second time by Moses himself (Exod. 34:27,
28). The only thing we know about that law today is what Moses wrote in
the first five books of the Bible. It was all given at the same time,
through the same mediator, to the same people, by the same authority,
for the same purpose, and was all taken “out of the way” at the cross
(Col. 2:14-16).
In an effort to make it appear that God gave two laws (one “ceremonial,”
the other “moral,” one eternal and the other temporal) to the Jews at
Sinai, this pamphlet has arranged, in parallel columns. Scriptures that
apparently do not apply to the same law. This is well designed to
confuse or mislead the untaught; but, in fact, it proves absolutely
nothing. The Bible speaks of many other laws in addition to the one God
gave to the Jews in the wilderness. For instance, “the law of Christ”
(Gal. 6:2); “the law of the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 6:8); “the law of
my mind” and “the law of sin” (Rom. 7:23); “the law of works”; “the law
of faith” (Rom. 3:27); “the law of liberty” (Jas. 2:12); “the royal law”
(Jas. 2:8); etc., etc. In addition to all this, there are the laws or
commandments that God gave to Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, et al.
With the Bible speaking of so many different laws, it is not surprising
that you can find references that apparently do not apply to the same
law. It would be surprising if you couldn’t. In order to harmonize such
texts it certainly is not necessary to apply them to two imaginary laws
that are not even named in the word of God. The law of faith was
_established_ at the cross; the law God gave to the Jews was _abolished_
at the cross (Eph. 2:10-22). The law of Christ is written on the hearts
of Christians; the law of Moses was written, in part, on tablets of
stone (Heb. 8:8-11). The author of the pamphlet places three references
from Romans, chapter 7, in his “moral” column. Even if he were correct
in doing this, his theory would still be ruined, for verse 6 of that
same chapter says, “But now we have been discharged from the law ...”
(ARV).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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