Do I have to keep all the laws?

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Question:

This guy said that there’s much more to the law than the 10 commandments. He said that if you’re going to follow the law, you have to also follow the laws that are written in Deuteronomy. And he said that you’re breaking one of the laws in Deuteronomy. What do you think about this ? I don’t have any issues with you. I just want to know your thoughts on what I just mentioned.

Answer:

God’s Ten Commandments, and the Law of Moses, were not the same, and did not have the same value, so I do not agree with that statement. God’s Ten Commandments are given to us in the book of Exodus, and are His rules for living to us. These laws are different from all others, because God Himself wrote these words with His finger on stone. 

Exodus 31:18   And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.  

Exodus 32     15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing

was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

The first four of the Commandments, give us what the relationship between us and God should be like. The fifth one gives us what the relationship between us and our parents should be like. And the last five give us what the relationship between us and every other human being should be like. Here they are:

Exodus 20     And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“You shall have no other gods before Me. (Number 1)

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but

showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Number 2)

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him

guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Number 3)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Number 4)

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the

Lord your God is giving you. (Number 5)

13 “You shall not murder. (Number 6)

14 “You shall not commit adultery. (Number 7)

15 “You shall not steal. (Number 8)

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Number 9)

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Number 10)

Most people look at this, and see it as a great restriction on their personal lives, but God gave these commandments as a safeguard for our lives. Think of the chaos on our roads if there were no traffic laws! In the same way, God gives us these rules to make our relationships with Him and others, safe. When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the most important, He broke them into two sections. The first four was summarized as love to God, and the rest as love to man.

Matthew 22     37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Ten Commandments can therefore be summarized in one word, LOVE. Love to God and love to every human being. If we have God’s love within us, keeping God’s Law will come automatically, but of course we cannot keep them by ourselves, in our own strength. The only way we can keep it perfectly, is to have a close, personal relationship with God, so close that His love becomes ours, and we live our lives with love to Him, and to those around us. This is only possible if we daily spend time opening our hearts to Him in prayer, and reading His messages to us in His Word, the Bible.

Now to your question. The other laws were called the Law of Moses. While the Ten Command-ments were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, the Law of Moses was kept next to the Ark, written on a scroll. 

Exodus 40:20   He took the Testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.

1 Kings 8:9   Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 31     24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 26 “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God …”

The Law of Moses consisted of civil laws, health laws, and the laws concerning everything to do with the Tabernacle, or Sanctuary, including the Jewish feast days. Everything in the sanctuary system, pointed forward to the Messiah that would come to save us from sin. When Jesus died on the cross, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom, signifying that the whole sanctuary system, including all the sacrificial laws, had come to an end, as the Lamb of God had offered Himself on the cross, for the sins of the world.

When we say that something is to last forever, we say it is written in stone. God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments on stone, with His own finger, yet some people insist that it is no longer valid. They will have to face God’s judgment. Look what Jesus had to say about God’s Law.

Matthew 5     17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

I trust that you will come to realise how important God’s Ten Commandment Law is, and that it will stand forever. God bless as you study this answer!

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Exodus 31:18

And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.  

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