Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
"How many kinds of laws did God give in the Old Testament? Three kinds: 1. The ceremonial church law; 2. The civil law; 3. The moral law. Which of these laws is still in force? The moral law, which is contained in the Ten Commandments. Cannot this law be abolished? No; because it is founded on God's holy and righteous nature." (Martin Luther) “This is a law which never can be broken...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 circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other." (John Wesley)
“God gave His law [of Commandments] to make men know that they are responsible and accountable to Him for all they are and do. The law did not commence with Moses but with God who gave it first, not to Moses, but to Adam. (“The substance of this law was given to Noah in the seven precepts preserved by the Jews…” etc.- Sutcliffe) This means that the law is not limited to the Jews. The fact that God gave into them in written form on Mount Sinai does not mean that no one else ever had the law. Paul tells us in Romans 2:15 that the Gentiles ‘shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.’ A fundaments truth lies on the surface of this text: no man— Jew or Gentile, Greek or barbarian, religious or infidel— can escape the authority of the Creator. The law clearly expresses the Lord’s right to command. When He gives His law He is saying in effect, ‘I am God. I am your supreme Creator and your constant Sustainer. The law I am, and because I am and because of my will and my work, you are. I am the Creator and you are the creature. I am the Sovereign, you are the subject.’ When God writes His law on the table of every man’s heart He is saying, ‘It is m right to command my creature.’” (”Chariots of God” by Alan Cairns)
“But since the fall, self-love biases the judgment, and inclines a man to interpret the law in his own favour; hence it became requisite to write it on stones, and support it by the divine sanction. The awful and terrific characters which God assumed on giving the law were wisely calculated to produce sanctity and obedience among the people. Who would dare to make an idol, when he saw no figure or likeness on the mount? Who would dare to swear by another, while the Lord pronounced himself the only God? Who would dare to profane the sabbath by common labour or sinful pleasures, while God hallowed it by his blessing, by resting from his works, and sending no manna on that day? Who would dare to he irreverent to parents, while the heavenly Father, so jealous of idols, requires homage to be paid to our parents? Who would dare to kill, while God extended his arm as the guardian of life; or violate marriage, while God proclaims it the first of covenants? Who, we may ask, in short, would dare to steal, to commit perjury, to seduce a woman, to steal a servant or a beast, while He who is a consuming fire, proclaims himself the avenger of the oppressed, and pronounces the guilty worthy of death?
BUT THE GRAND QUESTION is, whether this law be binding on Christians, seeing they are not under the law, but under grace? It is replied, that on sincere repentance, and believing in Christ with the heart unto righteousness, they are no longer under the curse of the law, for Christ was made a curse for us; nor are they at all under the ceremonial law, for He is the end of that law to every one that believeth. But if a man renounce righteousness, and become an apostate, God holds His perfect and unchangeable law in His hands, to enforce it in full penalty against him, for all his former sins.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
The Commandments are holy, just and good. (Rom 7:12) ”Strange that so few come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light – to see its perfect success.” (Henry David Thoreau) The FIRST table, tell us about God… and our duty to Him. "It was fit that those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love, before he had a neighbour to love.” (Mathew Henry) In fact, in Jesus, we are enable b the Spirit to love our fellow man. The SECOND table, "state our duty to ourselves and to one another, and explain the great commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, Luke 10:27. Godliness and honesty must go together.” (Matthew Henry) In our self-justification of comparing ourselves to one another, we must be reminded: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." (James 2:10)
Some people misinterpret Colossians 2:14 believing that the obligation was abolished at the cross, being nailed thereon. “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has [l]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.” (Colossians 2:14-19)
In Jesus, we are “circumcised with the circumcision made without hand”— that of the heart as in Deuteronomy 10:16; Leviticus 26:41; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 6:10, not by man but by God— “‘by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [we are] buried with Him in baptism,’— Alluding to the immersions practised in the case of adults, wherein the person appeared to be buried under the Water, as Christ was buried in the heart of the earth. — ’in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.’ His rising again the third day, and their emerging from the water, was an emblem of the resurrection of the body; and, in them, of a total change of life.” (Adam Clarke) —thus we are raised from eternal death to eternal life.— “‘And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.’ He further shows they had no need of circumcision in the flesh, Ephesians 2:11, having all in Christ for justification as well as sanctification, though they were by nature spiritually dead in sins, deprived of the life of grace, and separated from the life of glory.” (Matthew Poole—) “‘having wipes out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. “By the hand-writing of ordinances the apostle most evidently means the ceremonial law: this was against them, for they were bound to fulfill it; and it was contrary to them, as condemning them for their neglect and transgression of it. This law God himself has blotted out… ‘And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.’ When Christ was nailed to the cross, our obligation to fulfill these ordinances was done away.” (Adam Clarke)
“I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 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. 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. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20) “Without question, His meaning in this place is (consistently with all that goes before and follows after),--I am come to establish it in its fullness, in spite of all the glosses of men: I am come to place in a full and clear view whatsoever was dark or obscure therein: I am come to declare the true and full import of every part of it; to show the length and breadth, the entire extent, of every commandment contained therein, and the height and depth, the inconceivable purity and spirituality of it in all its branches." (Wesley) A lawyer asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ [first tablet] This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ˜You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [second tablet] On these two I commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40) Paul likewise spoke the Word of the second tablet: “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.“ (Romans 13:8-14)
The last book of the Bible declares: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12) “Charles failed to see the point of this verse, but G. R. Beasley-Murray wrote, ‘It is thoroughly in place here. It is the punch line for Revelation 14:9-11. If such be the fate of the followers of the beast, Christ's people must, at all costs, continue to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ ‘Keep the commandments of God’ ... The current fantasy that ‘believers’ are in some way saved without obedience should be reviewed in light of many such passages as this. Any ‘system’ of salvation that promises people eternal life upon any other premise than that of fidelity to God's commandments is false and should be identified with the second beast. Yes indeed; they must believe in Christ with all their hearts, but that is not all that is required. They must also [by His Spirit]: ‘Keep ... the faith of Jesus…’ As George Eldon Ladd said, ‘This faith is objective.’ It means keep the religion of Christ; accept and obey the tenets of true Christianity.” (Coffman Commentary) “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’” (Rev 14:13)
OTHER LINKS ON THE MATTER
(Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley and other articles and people))
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