The New Covenant

WE will consider an important question. It is this: did the apostles in the new covenant, after the resurrection, teach and enforce the law of God and the seventh-day Sabbath the same as Christ had done during his ministry? Well, if they did not, then they certainly preached another gospel which Christ never preached, and by such a course they would have brought the curse of God upon them. Thus Paul says: "I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." Rom. 15:19. Again he says: "I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel." 2 Cor. 2:I2.

And so might be quoted numerous other texts stating that the apostles preached no new gospel but the same one Christ preached. He kept the Sabbath and taught it, and he enforced the law of God, as we have seen. Now notice how distinctly the apostle Paul follows the steps of the Saviour in this respect. Thus he says : "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." Rom. 3:31. What an emphatic denial this is of their setting aside God's law! Again he says, "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Chap. 7:12.

He must refer here to the ten commandments, for in verse 7 he quotes the tenth, "Thou shalt not covet." Now, he says that this law is holy, and just, and good. When did he say this?—A.D. 60, or thirty years after the resurrection. He does not say that this law used to be holy, once was holy, but he says it is holy, and just, and good, and more than that, he says that "we know that the law is spiritual." Verse 14. Once more: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." Romans 7:22. This does not sound like setting aside the ten commandments, and yet this letter was written to the Gentiles. Thus he says: "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office." Romans 11:13. Then again to the Corinthians, to men who were Gentiles, he says, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." 1 Cor. 7:19. In the most emphatic manner Paul endorses the commandments of God as binding upon Gentile Christians.

James also is very positive in asserting that all the commandments are binding upon Christians: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." Chap. 2:10, 11. There can be no mistake in this thing; for he quotes two of the ten commandments, and then says that this law must be kept, every precept of it, and certainly the Sabbath could not be excluded. Again, John states: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. So in the book of Revelation, in several instances the commandments of God, with the faith of Jesus, are distinctly enjoined upon Christians: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Chap. 14:12. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Chap. 22:14.

Thus we might multiply texts all the way through the New Testament, where, in the very plainest language, the law and the commandments of God are united with the gospel faith and teachings of Jesus Christ.