There Is Only One Law In The Bible

Objection:

You seek to prove that there are two laws described in the Bible: one moral and the other ceremonial. But there is only one law.

Answer:

The logic of the objection is this: There is but one law; the Bible speaks clearly of a law abolished; therefore, the Ten Commandments were abolished, including, necessarily, the fourth, on which we build our case for the Sabbath.

So much false reasoning has been reared on this one-law doctrine that we must consider it at length.

The word “law” is used in the Bible in several ways. First, in the phrase, “the law and the prophets,” the word “law” rather uniformly means the books of Moses because, in his writings, the laws of God are specially set forth. Second, the word “law” is sometimes used without reference to any particular code as a collective term to describe any laws. Third, again, the word “law” is often employed to designate a specific code, for example, the moral law or the ceremonial law, as we shall seek to show.

To contend that every time the Bible uses the word “law,” it means the same code, would be as reasonable as to argue that every time the Bible uses the word “day,” it means the same period of time. The facts are that “day” may mean (1) the light part of the twenty-four-hour cycle, as day in contrast with night, or (2) the whole twenty-four-hour period, as seven days in a week, or (3) an indefinite period, as “now is the day of salvation.” What would we think of someone who reasoned that because certain scriptures speak of the ending of the day, that, therefore, the day of salvation has necessarily ended?

The Bible does say that “Christ abolished the law.” (See Ephesians 2:15) But Paul, who wrote that statement, also declares: “Do we, then, make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31. The contrast between the statements is sharpened when attention is called to the fact that Paul used the same Greek root for the words here translated “abolished” and “make void.” That root, katargeo, means “to make inoperative,” “to cause to cease,” “to do away with,” “annul,” “abolish.” But did the inspired writer, Paul, say to one church that” the law” is “abolished,” and then to another church exclaim, “God forbid,” at the very thought that “the law” is abolished, and refer to the same law in each instance? Obviously, Paul must be speaking of two different laws. These two texts are sufficient in themselves to expose the fallacy of the argument that the Bible speaks only of one law.

The first formal recording of any codes of divine laws for man was at the time of the Exodus. Then it was that God, who had chosen a people for His name, set them on their way to the Promised Land. The former centuries possessed no Scriptures, for none of the sixty-six books of the Bible had been written. Through Moses, God began to give men a written revelation to guide them, and from his day onward, with one striking exception, the words of God for man, including His laws for man, have been penned by human agents, the prophets. That one exception was a code of laws that God spoke to men with His own voice. Sacred history records no other sermon ever preached by God to man amid the supernatural, flaming glory surrounding the eternal God. Referring to this lone majestic instance, Moses declared to Israel:

“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” Deuteronomy 4:32-33.

And when God had spoken the code, the” ten commandments,” the record declares, “He added no more.” (See Deuteronomy 4:13; 5:22) The sermon was finished; it was a complete whole. There was nothing more that God desired to add. Then He wrote down the address with His own hand on “two tables of stone” (See Deuteronomy 5:22). On no other document in the history of man has the hand of God ever been inscribed. “The tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Exodus 32:16. And what God wrote on those tables of stone He described as “a law” (See Exodus 24:12).

Then follows another dramatic moment, a sequel to the giving and the writing of this “law.” Moses started down from the mount with the two tablets in his hands. He was bringing to Israel the permanent record of that remarkable sermon by the God of heaven. His anger at the sight of Israelites worshiping the golden calf caused him to dash the stones to earth and break them, symbolizing their breaking of the divine code.

Did the Lord then command Moses to write a copy of the code to take the place of the broken tables? No. The Lord wrote the Ten Commandments a second time on new tables of stone. A most specific law, indeed, that God Himself should twice write it on stone. He entrusted to His prophets many vital messages for men, but the Ten Commandments He wrote Himself.

The focal point, the holiest object of the religious service instituted by God for the Israelites, was the Ark of the Covenant, above which hovered the holy light of the presence of God. When the ark was to be moved in the journeying of the Israelites, none were to touch it lest they die. And in that most sacred of the sacred objects of the sanctuary, Moses was instructed to place the tables of stone (See Deuteronomy 10:5). Nor was any other code of laws set within that sacred ark. “There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb.” 1 Kings 8:9.

Again, this code of laws was distinguished as the basis of the covenant between God and the Israelites. Those who oppose the Scriptural doctrine of the perpetuity of the moral law, which we believe, have sought to support their view with this fact, but what they have overlooked is this: The very fact that the ten commandment law is described as uniquely the basis of the covenant, proves once more that the Ten Commandments is a distinct code, not to be confused with any other. Said Moses to Israel: God “declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:13.

Let us summarize these historical facts concerning the giving of the ten commandment law:

1. God spoke the law with His own voice in the hearing of all Israel—He gave no other law in that way. “He added no more.”
2. God wrote the ten commandment law with His is own finger—the only law that He ever wrote out for man.
3. God wrote the law on stone, and Himself prepared the stone—the only law of Bible record that was ever thus written.
4. God sent Moses down from the mount in the sight of all Israel, bearing the two tables of stone that contained only the Ten Commandments.
5. God Himself rewrote the law after Moses had broken the first tables.
6. God instructed Moses to place the tables within the Ark of the Covenant—the only law thus honored.
7. God declared that the ten commandment law was” his covenant”—the only law thus described.

Yet objectors profess to be unable to find in the Bible any grounds for believing that the ten commandment law is a different code of laws, not to be confused with any other code. We would ask: If they could have dictated the manner of giving this law and had wished to provide convincing proof that it was a law set apart, what procedure could they possibly have followed that would have set it apart more fully or more dramatically?

But the ten commandment law was not the only one formally set forth by God at Sinai. There was a code of laws, known as ceremonial laws, that gave the rules for the religious rituals that the Jews should follow, for example, their sacrifices and offerings, their annual feast days, the duties of the priesthood, etc. The book of Leviticus is filled with these laws. There were also civil laws to govern the Jews as a nation, such as laws on marriage, divorce, slaveholding, property, etc. (See Exodus 21). The Lord caused these civil statutes to reflect the perfect idea expressed in the ten commandment law to the extent that the dim spiritual understanding and willingness of the Israelites permitted. For example, the statute on slaveholding illustrates the adaptation of moral principle to the low spiritual state of a people. Of the divorce statute, Christ declared: “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” Matthew 19:8 (See Mark 10:4-6).

But these ceremonial and civil laws were not given by God directly to the hosts of Israel. As to how God made known these laws, who wrote them, and where they were deposited, the Scriptures are clear:

1. After stating that the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments “upon two tables of stone,” Moses adds immediately: “And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments.” Deuteronomy 4:13-14. A later Bible writer sets forth the same distinction: “Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers: only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.” 2 Kings 21:8. In telling the events of Sinai, Nehemiah, in addressing the Lord, also speaks of the fact that certain laws were spoken by God and others were given to Israel through Moses: “Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:” Nehemiah 9:13-14.
2. “Moses wrote this law.” Deuteronomy 31:9.
3. “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.” Deuteronomy 31:24-26. The words: “Put it in the side of the ark” might seem to suggest that this book was placed within the ark. But that would contradict the already quoted words of Scripture, that the Ten Commandments was the only law placed therein. The Revised Version reads: “Put it by the side of the ark.” With this translation of the Hebrew, commentators agree.

Because of the fact that the ceremonial law and the civil statutes were written down by Moses, and by him given to the people, they are generally described in the Bible as “the law of Moses.” See, for example:

1. 2 Chronicles 23:18. Priests to offer burnt offerings, “as it is written in the law of Moses.”
2. 2 Chronicles 30:16. Priests conducting Passover “according to the law of Moses.”
3. Ezra 3:2. Building of an altar for burnt offerings “as it is written in the law of Moses.”
4. Daniel 9:13. The destruction of Jerusalem had come “as it is written in the law of Moses.”
5. Malachi 4:4. “Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb [Sinai] for all Israel.”

In many of its references to law, the New Testament also reveals the same distinction between the ten commandment law and the code of laws given through Moses. For example, note the following references to the law of rites and ceremonies, sometimes described as the “law of Moses,” and sometimes simply as” the law”:

1. “If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?” John 7:23.
2. “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” Acts 15:5. Later in the chapter, when the claim of these Pharisees is restated, it is abbreviated thus: “Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law.” Verse 24. This nicely illustrates how a New Testament writer may use the non-qualifying phrase, “the law,” and yet mean a particular law, in this instance, “the law of Moses.” The context is generally sufficient to make clear what law is intended. Certainly, if circumcision is under discussion in the New Testament—and is often the bone of contention—it is sufficient to refer to the code of laws enjoining circumcision, simply as “the law;” that is, the law of rites and ceremonies given by Moses.
3. “The law of commandments contained in ordinances.” Ephesians 2:15.
4. “The sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law.” Hebrews 7:5.
5. “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” Verse 12.
6. “For the law makes men high priests which have infirmity.” Verse 28.
7. “There are priests that offer gifts according to the law.” Hebrews 8:4.
8. “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood.” Hebrews 9:22.
9. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” Hebrews 10:1.

The ten commandment law gives no instruction or information on burnt offerings, the Passover, the building of an altar, the judgments that would come on Jerusalem because of disobedience, circumcision, the order of the priesthood. But the Bible repeatedly reveals that there is a law that does give such instruction. That law is the ceremonial law, described in the Bible as the “law of Moses.”

It is true that “the law of Moses” was also the law of God because God was the author of all that Moses wrote. Hence it is not strange that a Bible writer should, at least occasionally, describe this law of Moses as “the law of the Lord,” though such instances are few. See, for example, Luke 2:22-23, where both phrases describe the same law. However, nowhere in the Bible is the ten commandment law called the law of Moses.

Note, now, some representative New Testament references to another law, which does not deal with rites and ceremonies, but with moral questions, the ten commandment law, which is also referred to, at times, as simply the commandments:

1. “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17. Then Christ immediately names several of the ten commands.
2. “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56.
3. “I had not known sin, but by the law: For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shall not covet.” Romans 7:7.
4. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:10-12.
5. “Whosoever commits sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. What law? Indeed, no one in the Christian Era believes that a failure to obey the law regarding rites and ceremonies is sin. Yet John warns us that transgressing the law is sin. He did not feel it necessary to explain what law he meant. How eloquently that argues that there was a specific law, known to all John’s readers, that was the moral rule of life. What confusion and consternation his words would have created among the first-century Christians if they had been laboring under the impression that there was but one law, a law that was a mixture of ceremonial and moral precepts! And that transgression of that law in the Christian Era is sin!

In conclusion, let us summarize certain of the contrasting statements made in the Bible concerning the moral and the ceremonial codes of laws:

The Moral Law (Ten Commandments)	The Ceremonial Law
1. Spoken by God Himself. Exodus 20:1, 22; Deuteronomy 4:12	1. Spoken by Moses. Exodus 24:3; Leviticus 1:1-3
2. Written by God. Exodus 31:18; 32:16	2. Written by Moses. Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 31:9
3. Written on stone. Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 10:3-4	3. Written in a book. Exodus 24:4, 7; Deuteronomy 31:24
4. Handed by God, its writer, to Moses. Exodus 31:18	4. Handed by Moses, its writer, to the Levites. Deuteronomy 31:25-26
5. Deposited by Moses in the ark. Deuteronomy 10:5	5. Deposited by the Levites in the side of the ark. Deuteronomy 31:26; 1 Kings 8:9
6. Deals with moral precepts. Exodus 20:3-17	6. Deals with ceremonial rituals. See parts of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
7. Reveals sin. Romans 7:7	7. Prescribes offerings for sin. See Leviticus
8. Breaking the law is sin. 1 John 3:4	8. No sin in breaking, for it is now abolished. Ephesians 2:15; Romans 4:15
9. Should keep the whole law. James 2:10	9. Apostles gave no such commandment to keep the law. Acts 15:24
10. We shall be judged by this law. James 2:12	10. Not to be judged by it. Colossians 2:16
11. The Christian who keeps this law is blessed. James 1:25	11. The Christian who keeps this law is not blessed. Galatians 5:1-6
12. The perfect law of liberty. James 1:25; 2:12	12. The Christian who keeps this law looses their liberty. Galatians 5:1, 3
13. Paul delighted in this law. Romans 7:22, 7	13. Paul called this law a “yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1; Acts 15:10
14. Established by faith in Christ. Romans 3:31	14. Abolished by Christ. Ephesians 2:15
15. Magnified and made honorable. Isaiah 42:21	15. Blotted out, was against us. Colossians 2:14
16. Spiritual. Romans 7:14, 7	16. Carnal. Hebrews 7:16

These and other comparisons that might he made reveal beyond all controversy that the Bible presents two laws. To conclude otherwise would be to say that the Bible presents a hopeless series of contradictions.

We grant that there are certain references to “the law,” particularly in Paul’s writings, where the context fails to make wholly clear which law is intended. Moreover, it seems evident that neither law is singled out in some instances, but only the principle of law, in contrast to grace, is under consideration. But these facts provide no proof that there is only one law. Because there are obscure or difficult texts in the Bible does not mean that we cannot be sure of the meaning of the clear and the simple texts. And those easily understood texts should protect us from drawing false conclusions from the difficult ones.

Reference to the two laws in terms of the centuries before Moses will also aid us in maintaining a clear distinction between them. Though we may rightly focus on the Exodus as the great time of the giving of the law, both moral and ceremonial, we should not conclude that the time before Moses was a period of no law, at least of no Ten Commandments; the Ten Commandments existed in Eden. Also, the first tender shoots of the ceremonial vine, which was to grow large at the Exodus, made their appearance in the form of the simple sacrificial services of our first parents after sin entered.

Who has not had the experience of looking at a towering tree and marveling at its heavy and varied foliage, only to discover on closer scrutiny that a vine is entwined around the tree and that what appeared to be one is really two? Though a far look at a high branch, especially if it is swaying in the breeze, may fail to reveal this fact, an examination of the trunk near the roots, where the vine first makes contact with the tree, leaves no doubt that there are two.

Now the Ten Commandments might be likened to a stately tree, with ten stalwart branches, that our first parents found flourishing in the Garden of Eden. After their fall, a vine of ceremonial law was planted close by, watered by the blood of animal sacrifices. For centuries the vine grew little, if any. Then at the time of the Exodus, it suddenly assumed a definite form and grew large. The tree did not need the vine to live, but the vine was wholly dependent on the tree. In later centuries, men inclined to cultivate the vine rather than the tree until the foliage of the vine well-nigh hid the tree and threatened to choke it. Therefore, it is easy to understand why some Christian people today, looking at the Biblical word picture of that tree, with its clinging vine, should fail to see that the two are not one. Particularly is this true if the winds of theological discussion are swaying the branches. But as with a literal tree, there need be no uncertainty if attention is focused, not on the topmost limbs but on the trunk and roots. To speak literally, an examination of the origins of the two laws, and the formal giving of them at the Exodus, leaves no possible doubt that there were two.

Nor can we claim any extraordinary Biblical vision in discerning that there are two, not one. From the days of the Protestant Reformation onward, the great church bodies have seen this and recorded the fact in their creeds and confessions of faith. Nevertheless, the claim that there is but one law has gained a foothold today among a certain segment of Christians in a fervent endeavor to meet the force of the Sabbath evidence now so vigorously and widely being presented by Sabbath-keepers.