Objection:
Luke 16:16 proves that Christians have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments.
Answer:
Luke 16:16 reads as follows: “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” Place beside this the parallel passage in Matthew 11:13: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”
The word “were” in Luke 16:16 is a supplied word. Luke wrote: “The law and the prophets, until John.” If the translators had compared his words with those of Matthew, they would have seen that Luke did not mean that the law and the prophets ended in John’s day, but that they “prophesied” until that day. The difference is very significant and provides the key to the meaning of the passage under discussion.
The phrase “the prophets and the law,” or more commonly, “the law and the prophets,” is used often in the Bible to describe the writings of Moses and the writings of the other Old Testament prophets. The writings of Moses were so distinguished by the codes of laws there recorded that they very understandably were often described as “the law,” in contrast to the writings of the other prophets. That fact in itself removes this objection from consideration, for neither Luke nor Matthew is discussing the Ten Commandments.
But what did these two gospel writers mean? The context gives the answer. Skepticism of the mission and character of Christ and John the Baptist marked many Jews. They insisted that they believed Moses and all the prophets. Christ repeatedly sought to make clear to them that He was the one foretold by the prophets, and likewise, his forerunner, John the Baptist, was foretold, and that now the kingdom of God was being preached unto them.
When Christ began His public ministry, He declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Mark 1:15. The prophets had foretold the coming of the Messiah. Christ announced that those prophecies were now fulfilled.
To the skeptical Jews, who failed to see in Christ the fulfillment of these prophecies, He declared: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” John 5:45-47.
When Philip found Nathanael and sought to bring him the thrilling news that the promised Messiah had come, he said, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” John 1:45.
When Christ was resurrected from the dead, He came to the troubled, bewildered disciples that same day and inquired, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” Luke 24:38. Then He reminded them that what had happened to Him on that fateful weekend was what the prophets had foretold, “that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” Verse 44.
Paul declared that his mission in life was “witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.” Acts 26:22.
Hence, it is evident that Moses and the other prophets’ prophesying was one of the prime proofs offered by Christ and the apostles in support of the claim that the Messiah had come. Prophets prophesy “until” the time when their prophecies meet fulfillment; after that, prophecy becomes history. Thus our Lord, in declaring that the “the prophets and the law prophesied until John,” announced that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” He was not implying that either Moses or the prophets were now abolished, much less that the Ten Commandments law had ended.
