Chapter Six: Are the Ten Commandments Immutable?

There is a teaching in Adventism that alleges that the Ten Commandments are eternal and unchanging. We were taught, “they are a transcript of God’s character.” And since God never changes this law can never change. Even speaking those words seems to carry with them the weight of cannon truth. The difficulty comes when one tries to find that teaching in the Bible.  In fact it teaches just the opposite.  It’s hard to wash those words out of your thinking when they were spoken as if from the very mouth of God. But let’s look at the words that we know did come from the mouth of God in the Bible.

“Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.” Ezek 16:60 (NIV) In context this is referring to the New Covenant.

"’The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant…’”Jer 31:31-32 (NIV). Even the prophets of the Old Testament were told that the Old Covenant was not permanent and that it would be replaced with a covenant that was not like the one they had.

“What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” Gal 3:19 (NIV) Something added certainly could not have existed from the creation of the world nor would it exist after the Seed had come.

“For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.”

Heb 7:12 (NIV) God didn’t change.  He never intended the covenant He made on Mount Sinai to be everlasting.  It was a temporary measure from the first and was changed to the New Covenant when the Savior had come. When Jesus had the disciples prepare for the Last Supper they went in to celebrate the Passover and left having made the transition into the New Covenant. It was there that Jesus announced the change from the Old to the New figuratively on His way to the cross.  Instead of celebrating the Passover, they celebrated the first communion and sign of the New Covenant.

“Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made).  “Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’  He sets aside the first to establish the second.” Heb 10:8-9 (NIV) He sets it aside, does away with it, replaces it with something better. Don’t let anyone confuse you that the New Covenant is a rehash or renewal of the Old Covenant.  That is a trap and a deception that cannot stand against the weight of scripture.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Matt 5:17-18 (NIV).

“It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." Luke 22:37 (NIV)

 So, when it was accomplished it would pass away. And when did the shadows of the law become substance?

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" John 19:28 (NKJV)

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.” Heb 10:1 (NIV). The Sabbath was the shadow; Jesus is the substance. So, continuing to keep the Sabbath is like continuing to participate in a weekly re-enactment of the Civil War but not living in the time of civil rights every day.

“Christ is the end (telos) of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4 (NIV)

The Greek for used for “end” is Telos.  It has these meanings: “1a) termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time, 1b) the end 1b1) the last in any succession or series, 1b2) eternally terminated, 1c) that by which a thing is finished, its close…1d) the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose” —Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionary (Bible Explorer)

The following scriptures show that the apostles understood that after Christ had come, the law came to an end.  “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Gal 3:24-25 (NIV)

The writer of Hebrews says it this way: “By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” Heb 8:13 (NIV) An obsolete computer is virtually useless and is cast off.

“The former regulation is set aside (not re-newed) because it was weak and useless...” Heb 7:18-19 (NIV) These are strong and even insulting words to describe the law if it was a glorious eternal transcript of God’s character.

“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” Heb 8:7 (NIV).  Again, if the law was to be honored and obeyed for all time the writer of Hebrews was being very disrespectful to say that there was something wrong with it. And he does not suggest that the first covenant was kept and revamped, repackaging it by now writing the “weak and useless” covenant on our hearts.

Chapter 6 Summary

1)      The Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches that the Ten Commandments are the “transcript” of God’s character and therefore unchanging.

2)      God didn’t change. The Old Covenant was a temporary measure from the beginning for the purpose of pointing forward to Christ. 

3)      When Christ had come there was no longer any purpose for the shadows.  The Son was here.

4)      The writers of the Bible both in the Old and New Testament affirm that the Law came to an end when the New Covenant came into being in Christ.

5)      The words used by the New Testament writers (weak, useless, ministry of death, something wrong with it, schoolmaster, a shadow, obsolete) could not be describing an eternal, glorious transcript of the character of God.

In Chapter Seven we will look at the Sabbath and the seventh day of creation.