The modern world often attempts to cast the law of God into the shadows of antiquity, suggesting that grace has somehow rendered the Ten Commandments a relic of a bygone era. Yet, a forensic examination of the New Testament reveals not a dismissal of the law, but a profound deepening of its demands. To suggest the law is abolished is to misunderstand the very nature of the King’s decree. The moral law—the Ten Commandments—is the reflection of God’s own character; for the law to change, God Himself would have to change, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come to dilute the standards of Sinai; He came to unveil their true weight. He warned, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). To fulfill is not to terminate, but to bring to full fruition. The law is the schoolmaster that points us to our need for a Savior, yet once we are found in Him, the law remains the perfect standard of righteousness that the Spirit of God enables the believer to walk in.
The Ten Commandments are woven throughout the fabric of the New Testament. When the rich young ruler asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, Christ pointed him directly back to the commandments. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, explicitly lists the commandments against adultery, killing, stealing, and false witness, concluding that they are briefly comprehended in the saying, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Romans 13:9). The law is not a burden to be cast off, but a boundary that defines the path of the redeemed.
This brings us to the pivotal moment in the Gospel of Matthew where the Pharisees, seeking to entangle Him, asked which was the great commandment in the law. Jesus replied with a clarity that binds the Old and New Testaments together in an unbreakable seal:
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
The word hang is of paramount importance. In the original sense, it suggests that these two commandments are the Great Pegs upon which the entire weight of the law is suspended. If you remove the pegs, the law falls into chaos; if you remove the law, the pegs have no purpose. Love does not abolish the Ten Commandments; love is the power that fulfills them. You cannot love God with all your heart while bowing to idols, nor can you love your neighbor as yourself while bearing false witness against him. The two commandments are the summary and the heartbeat of the ten. They are the spirit and the letter joined in a holy union that no man can put asunder.