"God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." (Exodus 20:1,2) Although this statement does not constitute an integral part of the law of the Ten Commandments, its importance is emphasized by the fact that it is the preface or prologue to the great fundamental rule of life for all men in all ages. It indicates, first of all, that the ten precepts about to be proclaimed are applicable to all mankind. The reason is then given as to why they should be received and obeyed by the Israelites, to whom they were directly proclaimed.
The Speaker and Lawgiver was the One who had so mightily and miraculously delivered them from the power of Pharaoh and the bondage of Egypt. He had abundantly demonstrated His unlimited power and sovereign authority over the greatest nation on earth and His superiority over the gods of the Egyptians. The ten plagues followed by the mighty deliverance had proved that "the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods"; "the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens." (Psalms 95:3; 96:4,5)
In the giving of the decalogue, the Creator, the God who "made the heavens," was speaking. He was also their Redeemer who had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, which was typical of the far greater deliverance from the slavery of sin and its author, Satan. The same law applies with equal force to all who are delivered by the gospel from the darkness and bondage of spiritual Egypt down through all ages and dispensations. This prologue to the law is beautifully paraphrased by Isaac Watts:
'I am the Lord; 'tis I proclaim
That glorious and that fearful name,
Thy God and King; 'twas I that broke
Thy bondage, and the Egyptian yoke;
Mine is the right to speak My will;
And your the duty to fulfill."
Universal Sovereignty
"I am the Lord thy God" is a declaration of divine sovereignty, an assertion of supreme and everlasting dominion and ruler ship. This declaration or its equivalent is the preamble to every divine promise, warning, precept, and proclamation recorded in Holy Writ. Because He is the Lord of all, He has a right to command and to require obedience of all His creatures. "Thy God" indicates that obedience is an individual responsibility. It cannot be done by proxy. The moral law summons each person individually to the judgment bar of God. The obedience of one can never atone for the disobedience of another.
The Ruler of the universe prefaced the giving of His law with a series of mighty miracles to effect the emancipation of His people from a cruel slavery that was both physical and spiritual, and to bring punishment upon their oppressors. After making them free, He gave them "the perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25; 2:12) that they might remain free. "I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts" (Psalms 119:45), declared the psalmist, and a well-known maxim of the modern world is, "Obedience to law is liberty." Herbert Hoover recently declared that "liberty lives by law." Law is absolutely necessary to freedom and civilization.
A noted Jewish scholar declared that the decalogue was proclaimed at Mount Sinai rather than in Palestine to indicate that it was given, not for the Jews alone, but for all peoples and races in all ages. For the giving of the law the Lord chose a time which precluded any thought of its having a human origin. Such a code of morals could not have possibly come out of Egyptian civilization, saturated with gross idolatry, nor from a race of Hebrew slaves who had mingled with the Egyptians.
The decalogue bears the stamp of divine origin and authorship. The impressive and spectacular manner in which the law was given was for the purpose of emphasizing this great fact. (See Exodus 19:1-19) The voice of God was loud and distinct, not alone for the benefit of the hosts of Israel on the plain below the seven-thousand-foot granite peak from which He spoke, but also for the benefit of all mankind as it would go rolling down through the ages.
The Lawgiver
The spelling of the word "LORD" in capital letters identifies the lawgiver as Jehovah, as it is translated in the American Revised Version. Jehovah is a combination of three Hebrew words indicating the eternal, ever-living, self-existent God. "I am the Eternal," is the James Moffatt translation, and "I am your ever-living God," is the rendering by Ferrar Fenton. He is the great "I AW who was, and is, and is to come. He is "the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity." (Isaiah 57:15) "Lord and "Jehovah" indicate the Redeemer as well as the Creator; the One with the power to make and remake, create and recreate. Christ is therefore identified as the lawgiver, as He is declared to be in Isaiah 33:22 and James 4:12.
That Christ is the Creator is evident from many texts. (See John 1:14; Ephesians 3: 9; Colossians 1:13-19; Hebrews 1:12; Revelation 3:14) Only the Creator can redeem or re-create. Both require the same omnipotent power. Likewise, only the Lawgiver can redeem from the curse, penalty, or condemnation of the law. A well-known writer said:
"Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness,--the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host,--but it was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father's law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone.--Mrs. E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 366.
That Christ was the divine leader of ancient Israel during their journey from Egypt to Canaan is clearly stated in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.
The law is a revelation of the very nature of the Lawgiver, a transcript of His character. The same expressions are used throughout the Scriptures in describing God and His law, showing that they are inseparable in character. Both are declared to be perfect, holy, righteous, good, just, eternal, and unchangeable. The decalogue is therefore the expression of the eternal and unchangeable principles of right inherent in the very nature or character of God. Since the principles of right can never change, the moral law that proclaims them can never change or become obsolete.
The holiness, justice, perfection, and righteousness that belong to the law, belong also to the Lawgiver. The decalogue is organic, fundamental, and constitutional. It is the foundation of the throne and government of God. Being an expression of the nature and character of God, the law must be as perpetual as God Himself, for the nature of God never changes.
Law of Principles
To "fear God, and keep His commandments" is declared to be "the whole duty of man" in Ecclesiastes 12:13, or "the duty of all men" in the margin of the Revised Version. This is because the law constitutes a summary of all right principles. The first table with its four commandments reveals in brief man's whole duty to His Maker, and the second table with its six precepts sets forth man's whole duty to his fellow men. Jesus declared that on these two tables, defining our love to God and man, "hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40) The entire Bible is therefore an unabridged edition of the decalogue, and the law is a summary of the Scriptures. The psalmist said, "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." (Psalms 119: 96)
This law of God's nature was implanted in the nature of man at his creation when he was "made in the image of God." When Adam was created, the first table of the law began to operate and regulate his duty toward his Creator. When Eve was created, another relationship, which must be defined by law, sprang into existence between creatures, and the second table automatically began to apply. Both tables must continue in force as long as the Creator and any of His creatures exist. For this reason the law was in existence before man was created, to regulate the duties of angels and the inhabitants of other worlds, and it must continue through all eternity.
The requirements of love and the regulations of duty are as perpetual as the necessity for them. The Lord wrote the principles of His moral law in the mind and upon the fleshy tables of man's heart at creation, and before sin came into the world they operated as naturally and spontaneously as the laws of nature do in the physical world. It was as natural for man to do the will of God as for the birds to fly, the trees to grow, and the flowers to blossom. Although sin has changed man's nature, the law of God has not been entirely erased. This is evident from Romans 2:14-16: "When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another."
This scripture declares that even the heathen have in their hearts and consciences a sense of right and wrong which if followed will bring salvation. Those whose characters have been changed by the power of God have His image restored in them and under the new covenant experience the law is again written in the mind and upon the fleshy tables of the heart, so that they "do by nature the things contained in the law." It again becomes natural to obey God and unnatural to disobey.
Righteousness is first of all right being, which is far more fundamental and important than right doing. Right doing is the fruit of right being. We must be good before we can do good. If we are right we will do right. We can then say with Christ, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart." (Psalms 40:8) The apostle declared, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:1) One writer has beautifully set forth the results of love-obedience:
'All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses."--Mrs. E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 668.
This is genuine Christianity. A religion that is considered a sacrifice or burden is spurious. The gospel is good news and glad tidings. It brings joy and peace, hope and contentment.
A Reign of Law
The entire physical universe is under the dominion of law. Everywhere unseen and intangible forces are operating in the control and direction of all things. There is nothing anywhere that is not governed by law unless it be sinful and rebellious man. The casting aside of law would soon bring chaos and ruin to all things, animate and inanimate, organic and inorganic.
All law is the expression of the will and a manifestation of the character of the Lawgiver. Natural law is the operation of principles which the Creator implanted in all His creatures, according to the nature and purpose of each. God is the author of all these laws, and from Him they derive the impelling power that makes them operate.
The moral law was in the same way divinely implanted in the nature of man at creation. At Sinai this law was put in written form. Paul declared that "it was added because of transgression." (Galatians 3:19) It was not the institution of a new law but the proclaiming of the original law of man's being in a new and permanent form because of the increase of sin or lawlessness. All laws carry a penalty for the transgressors, whether they be natural or moral. The man who puts his hand in the fire or steps off a precipice must suffer the penalty of natural law. The same is true when we transgress the laws of our being in eating and drinking. Moral law must also be obeyed or the penalties endured. There is no escape, even though the day of reckoning is often delayed. The penalty is always sure in the end. The wages of sin must be fully paid by someone--if not by the transgressor, by a Substitute, who meets the demands of the law in his stead. Justice must be satisfied.
A Perfect Law
Since none of God's laws are arbitrary enactments, but are rather enunciations of eternal principles of right which grow out of the very nature of that which is governed, they are therefore as perfect and eternal as the character of the Creator and Lawgiver. The psalmist said of the law, "I have seen an end of all perfection." (Psalms 119:96) He also said, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." (Psalms 19:7) This latter statement doubtless applies to the laws of nature as well as to the moral law. The psalmist had just been describing the movements of the heavenly bodies in obedience to natural law. Since the moral law is based on the nature of God, it is of necessity perfect and eternal. God never changes, and therefore His laws can never change.
It is estimated that man has enacted more than thirty-two million laws in an effort to regulate human conduct, but he has never yet caught up with the decalogue. The laws of man must be constantly changed, amended, or abrogated to keep legislation up to date. Thirty thousand new laws are enacted each year in the Federal and State legislatures of the United States. In one bill Congress repealed more than one thousand old and out-of-date laws, and the State of New jersey eliminated twelve hundred obsolete laws at one time. The decalogue is both brief and comprehensive, and was given in its written form thirty-five hundred years ago; yet it has never needed to be altered or even amended in the least particular. It is just as up to date and applicable to the needs of mankind today as when it came from the mouth and the hand of the Eternal. This alone is enough to prove its divine origin.
An Eternal Law
The psalmist said of the Lord, "The works of His hand are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." (Psalms 111:7,8) In the 119th Psalm of twenty-two sections of eight verses each, the word "commandments" is used twenty-two times. Read it through carefully and notice how he exalts and even revels in the commandments of God. The statement of the wise man applies with special force to the perpetuity of the law of God: 'I know that whatsoever God does, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God does it, that men should fear before Him." (Ecclesiastes 3:14)
An infidel once read the books of Moses in order to prove them untrue. After reading the Ten Commandments, he made this confession:
'I have been looking into the nature of that law. I have been trying to see whether I could add anything to it, or take anything from it, so as to make it better. Sir, 1 cannot! It is perfect! ... Where did Moses obtain that law, which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived at a period comparatively barbarous; but he has given a lam, in which the learning and sagacity of all subsequent time can detect no flaw. Where did he obtain it? He could not have soared so far above his age as to have devised it himself. I am satisfied where he obtained it. It came down from heaven. It has convinced me of the truth of the religion of the Bible.'--D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, pp. 13, 14.
Moody himself said of the law:
"Men may cavil as much as they like about other parts of the Bible, but I have never met an honest man that found fault with the Ten Commandments. Infidels may mock the Lawgiver and reject Him who has delivered us from the curse of the law, but they can't help admitting that the commandments are right." "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."--Id., pp. 11, 15.
Let us notice some other striking testimonies in regard to the decalogue:
"The Ten Commandments persist because they are moral axioms as fundamental in social order as are the axioms of mathematics in the physical sciences. ... The Ten Commandments are practical, adequate, and binding today. They are all we need for modem morality. All our ills and evils are ultimately the price the modern man pays for denying and defying them.'--J. B. Rounds, The Ten Commandments for Today, p. 5.
"But these commandments, as I have already reminded you; hold a conspicuous position in that prolonged revelation of Himself, of His character, His will, and His relations to mankind, which God made to the Jewish people. They can, therefore, never become obsolete. The changing circumstances of the human race cannot destroy the significance and worth of any institutions or facts which reveal the life of God."--R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, p. 5.
"Next to the revelation of divine love in Palestine, the declaration of divine will in Egypt is the greatest event which the world has seen, the most powerful moral force in history. ... No moral system ever humanly formulated before or since, ... can approach, much less equal, or excel, these ten words of God. For all time, human duty is condensed and declared with an authority which, in its divinity, can be neither surpassed nor superseded." "God and man, religion and morality, the sum of divine and human relationships, what God requires of man, what man owes to God, are all included. However much the revelation of God's will way be amplified, however far the righteousness of man's walk may be advanced, the range of the moral law will never be surpassed."--John Bupr, Studies on the Ten Commandments, pp. 1, 11.
"The highest civilization the world has yet reached has not gone beyond, has not even attained to the carrying out of these principles. No reason has been discovered for setting aside a single command as unworthy of God or man. Neither is there any prospect that man will ever become conscious, during this earthly stage of his existence, of a principle of his being which is not covered by the law of God, nor of a 'fitness of things' not provided for, nor of a way of securing happiness other than obedience to it."--Ferdinand S. Schenck, The Ten Commandments, p. 8.
Of this "perfect law of liberty" we can truly say that "higher has the human thought not yet reached." Let us notice one more testimony written by a well known modern historian:
"In reviewing the Mosaic legislation, we notice both those ordinances which are based on immutable truth for the rule of all nations to the end of time, and those prescribed for the peculiar situation and exigencies of the Jews as a theocratic state, isolated from other nations.
"The moral code of Moses, by far the most important and universally accepted, rests on the fundamental principles of theology and morality. How lofty, how impressive, how solemn this code! How it appeals at once to the consciousness of all minds in every age and nation, producing convictions that no sophistry can weaken, binding the conscience with irresistible and terrific bonds--those immortal Ten Commandments, engraved on the two tables of stone, and preserved in the innermost sanctuary of the Jews, yet reappearing in all their literature, accepted and reaffirmed by Christ, entering into the religious system of every nation that has received them, and forming the cardinal principles of all theological belief!
"All Christian nations have accepted these Ten Commandments, even Mohammedan nations, as appealing to the universal conscience--not a mere Jewish code, but a primary law, susceptible of boundless obligation, never to be abrogated; a direct injunction of the Almighty to the end of time. ... They seem to be designed not merely for Jews, but for Gentiles also, since there is no escape from their obligation. They may seem severe in some of their applications, but never unjust; and as long as the world endures, the relations between man and man are to be settled on lofty moral grounds."--John Lord, Beacon Lights of History, Vol. II, pp. 107-110.
Purpose of the Law
That the law plays an important part in conversion is evident from the statement of the psalmist, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The law is the weapon, or instrument, in the hands of the Holy Spirit by which men are convicted of sin. Sin is divinely declared to be "the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4) Paul declared that "where there is no law, there is no transgression," and that "sin is not imputed when there is no law." (Romans 4:15; 5:13) The purpose of the law, therefore, is to define sin and convince sinners of its exceeding sinfulness. The apostle says: "Now we know that what things so ever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:19,20)
The law and the gospel work hand in hand in the redemption of sinful man. The law cannot take away sin. That was the purpose of the coming of the Savior, who "was manifested to take away our sins." (1 John 3:5) Jesus did not come to take away the law, bur rather the transgressions of the law. All the law can do is to convince a guilty sinner that he is under the penalty of eternal death. Pardon and cleansing must come through Christ and the gospel. Before a sick man will apply the remedy of the physician, he must be convinced that he is sick. Before a man can realize his need of a Savior, he must be made to realize that he is a sinner, and that is the purpose of the law.
For this reason the law and the gospel cannot be enemies. Salvation and righteousness by law are an impossibility. If it were possible the tragedy of Calvary would have been unnecessary. Paul's epistles to the Romans and the Galatians are commentaries on the relationship between the law and the gospel, showing that both are necessary in the plan of redemption. This relationship is beautifully set forth in Romans 7:7-14; 8:1-14.
Charles Wesley gave the law its proper place in his preaching. He said that he first gathered his congregations at the foot of the mount of the law to hear the divine standard of righteousness and be placed under the conviction of sin and the condemnation of eternal death. He brought them to the place of hopelessness expressed by the apostle Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans, and in the following poem:
"My sins appeared but small before,
Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just and pure, Was Your eternal law.
Then felt my soul the heavy load,
My sins revived again;
I had provoked a dreadful God,
And all my hopes were slain."
In this hopeless and undone condition Wesley led his congregation to the mount of Calvary and revealed to them the way of escape. He gave them the remedy for the terrible disease of sin. He showed them the "fountain opened to the house of David ... for sin and uncleanness," in which a man can plunge and be cleansed from all his guilty stains. Under deep conviction of sin his hearers were ready to hear the good news of salvation through faith in the atoning blood of Immanuel, the God-man.
This method of preaching the gospel is still orthodox. It is not out of date and never will be. A balanced presentation of the law and the gospel will lighten the earth with the glory of God when "the everlasting gospel" is proclaimed to the ends of the earth under the latter rain of pentecostal power, when the Lord will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." (Romans 9:28)