Do the 10 Commandments Still Apply To Us Today?

  • Genesis 2:2-3: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it (holy), because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done”.

  • Exodus 20:8-11

God makes the Sabbath a command, saying, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God”.

Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). By keeping this day we are declaring that Jesus is our Lord. It is a way we honor and worship Him.

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). We are physical creatures and we often find ourselves tired or weary from the challenges of life. The Sabbath was created to give us rest. It gives us opportunity to recharge so that we can function correctly the other six days of the week. It is how the Creator made us. It is a wonderful gift from God that we should rejoice at the wisdom He had in its creation. Importantly, you can only understand how great this gift is by keeping it.

Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). On several occasions we see Paul keeping the Sabbath. This is the same man who wrote 28 percent of the New Testament. In his letters he continually emphasized the importance of keeping the law for Christians. Not for the purpose of salvation but in response to our salvation through Christ. “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). He was a Sabbath keeper and understood its importance in our relationship with Jesus.

In the book of Luke we learn that the women who were at the crucifixion of Jesus afterward prepared spices and fragrant oils to anoint His body. Then “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Luke wrote this account at least thirty years later. Notice that he does not refer to it as “the former Sabbath” or “the Jewish Sabbath” but as a commandment in the present tense. And this was after His crucifixion, a point in time where some believe the commandment was changed.

In referring to the future event that will precede the great tribulation, Jesus advises to “pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). If there was no longer going to be a Sabbath command after His resurrection, why would He make this statement? The answer is simple. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

I suggest you read Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:1-11) is only the beginning. The Ten Commandments are eternal. Read Genesis, and you will find that people were judged before the tablets were engraved. The Ten Commandments had to be obeyed in the Old Testament, but that was changed when Jesus gave His life for our sins.
Matthew 11:28 is His invitation to us, and John 3:1-15 tells us what is required from us, while John 3:16-21 tells us what and how God has done to make it possible.
I have started putting together a study of the New Testament using the
New American Standard Bible 1995 (this is considered the most accurate English translation) while replacing chapter and verse numbers with an outline.
It feels nice reading the full account of a teaching or event.
At 88 yo I don’t expect to complete it.