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The Historic Protestant Position

The most widely accepted position on the Ten Commandments is reflected in the following selections from an introductory article in a popular Bible produced for Sears, Roebuck and Company by The National Bible Press, Philadelphia, 1958:

  • “The enduring stone on which it was written is a clear symbol that His law is permanent and eternal.”
  • “What Moses received was the Word of God, which had, and still has the force of law.”
  • “They have been written out so that they may ever be before us, and we may become doers, as well as hearers of God’s law. (Rom. 2:12-15).”
  • “It is through His love for us that He has brought these rules together so that we may be better prepared to face life.”

But some people claim that God has withdrawn His great moral standard, the Ten Commandments, so that we are no longer under obligation to obey His law. This teaching represents a radical departure from the historic Protestant position. Never in the history of Christianity have churchmen spoken so openly against God’s law as they do today.

Considering Jude’s admonition to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” let us review what our forefathers taught regarding the unchanging, eternally-binding nature of the moral law of God. Here are a few quotations from various individuals and groups.

John Calvin

“We must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law: for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must, therefore, be as unchangeable, as the justice of God, which it embraced, is constant and uniform.” –John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, trans. by William Pringle (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1949), Vol. 1, p. 277, comment on Matt. 5:17.

“The law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience.” –John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, bk. 2, chap. 7, sec. 15, trans. by John Allen (7th American ed., rev.; Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1936), Vol. 1, p. 392.

Martin Luther

“But how does it follow from this that on this account the law should be done away? Such a conclusion I cannot find in my dialectics; besides, I should like to see and hear the master who could prove it. . . . He was stricken for our sin—is the law thereby discarded?. . . . Can anyone suppose that sin exists where there is no law? Whoever puts away the law must also put away sin.” –Martin Luther, “Wider die Antinomer” (Against the Antinomians) in Sammtliche Schriften, ed. by Joh[ann] Georg Walch, Vol. 20 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1890), cols. 1613, 1614.

Samuel Mather

“The laws . . . delivered by Moses, were of three kinds—moral, ceremonial, and judicial. . . . The first, or moral law, being the law of universal or unalterable right, is binding upon all men, and is still in force.” –Samuel Mather, The Gospel of the Old Testament (London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1834), Vol. 1, p. 210.

Dwight L. Moody

“The commandments of God given to Moses in the mount at Horeb are as binding today as ever they have been since the time when they were proclaimed in the hearing of the people. . . . The people must be made to understand that the ten commandments are still binding, and that there is a penalty attached to their violation. . . . Paul said: ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law.’ But does this mean that the detailed precepts of the decalogue are superseded, and have become back numbers? Does a father cease to give children rules to obey because they love him? Does a nation burn its statute books because the people have become patriotic? Not at all. And yet people speak as if the commandments do not hold for Christians because they have come to love God. . . . Let us get alone with God and read His law—read it carefully and prayerfully, and ask Him to show us our sins and what He would have us to do.” –D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, Addresses on the Ten Commandments, (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1898), pp. 10-17.

Charles H. Spurgeon

“He [Christ] took care to revise and reform the laws of men; but the law of God he established and confirmed. . . . Our King has not come to abrogate the law, but to confirm and reassert it. . . . The Lord Jesus does not set up a milder law, nor will he allow any one of his servants to presume to do so. Our King fulfills the ancient law, and his Spirit works in us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure as set forth in the immutable statutes of righteousness.” –Charles H. Spurgeon, The Gospel of the Kingdom, comment on Matt. 5:17-20 (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893), pp. 47, 48.

“The law is one of the most sublime of God’s works. There is not a commandment too many; there is not one too few.” –C. H. Spurgeon, Sermons, 2d series (New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., 1857), sermon 18, p. 280.

John Wesley

“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ, are they who . . . teach men to break . . . all the commandments at a stroke; who teach, . . . ‘There is but one duty, which is that of believing.’ . . . It is no other than betraying him with a kiss, to . . . set light by any part of his law, under pretense of advancing his gospel.” –John Wesley, Works, Sermon 25 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan [reprint of 1872 ed.]), Vol. 5, pp.317.

“The ritual or ceremonial law, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel, . . . our Lord did indeed come to destroy. . . . But the moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven.’ . . . Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstance liable to change.” –John Wesley, Sermon 25, “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,” Sermons on Several Occasions, Vol. 1 (New York: B. Waugh and T. Mason, 1836), pp.221, 222.

Baptist

“Thus it is, by disowning the law, men utterly subvert the gospel. Believers, therefore, instead of being freed from obligation to obey it, are under greater obligation to do so than any men in the world.” –Baptist Publication Society, Tract 64.

“We believe that the Law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; and that the inability which the Scriptures ascribe to fallen men to fulfill its precepts arises entirely from their love of sin; to deliver them from which, and to restore them through a Mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy Law, is one great end of the Gospel, and of the means of grace.” –New Hampshire Confession, article 12 [According to Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, (New York: Harper, 1919), Vol. 3, p. 746.]

Church of England, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist

“No Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called Moral.” –Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, [Schaff, pp. 491, 808, 816.]

Lutheran

“The Son of God redeemed them for the very reason that they might meditate on the Law of God day and night, and continually exercise themselves in the keeping thereof.” –Formula of Concord, article 6 [According to Schaff, p. 131.]

Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist

“The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation.” –Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19; Savoy Declaration; Philadelphia Confession [Schaff, pp. 641, 718, 738]

Southern Baptist

“Not only is it unchangeable with respect to places and races, to days and seasons, to conditions and circumstances, but also to ages. It has been unchangeable. It will be unchangeable. This rule is unchangeable because it is in harmony with the unchangeable nature of God.” –O. C. S. Wallace, What Baptists Believe, p. 81. Copyright 1934 by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville.

“Jesus did not give a new code, but he also did not say that the moral teachings of the Old Testament were suspended. The ceremonial and ritualistic laws of the Old Testament are abrogated for the Christian, but not the Ten Commandments.” –J. Philip Hyatt, “God’s Decrees for Moral Living.” The Teacher, 57 (Oct., 1943), 5. Copyright, Sunday School Board of the So. Baptist Convention.