The Law Christ Refused to Abolish
If the Kingdom of God is truly coming, one question follows immediately.
Ask most churches whether the Ten Commandments still apply. The answer comes quickly: they were nailed to the cross. The law was for ancient Israel. Christians live under grace now.
It sounds settled.
But if the commandments were abolished, why did Jesus keep every one of them and command others to do the same?
The Sabbath, the Holy Days, obedience itself—everything ahead hangs on this answer.
This essay will prove three facts from Scripture: the Ten Commandments were binding long before Sinai, Yeshua (Jesus) kept and magnified them rather than canceling them, and the apostles taught obedience to them decades after the crucifixion. What was nailed to the cross was the record of our debt—never the law that defined it.
The Commandments Were Binding Before Sinai Existed
Many assume the Ten Commandments began at Sinai and expired with Israel’s covenant. But the commandments did not invent righteousness—they revealed it. Centuries before Sinai, God testified: “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws“ (Genesis 26:5). Joseph, with no tablet yet carved, refused adultery as “this great wickedness, and sin against God“ (Genesis 39:9). As Most Christians Can’t Define Sin (Week 17) established, sin is measured by law—and sin was being measured long before Moses climbed the mountain. The cross could not retire what Sinai never created.
Jesus Kept the Law—Then Raised the Standard
Christ’s words leave no room for abolition: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill“ (Matthew 5:17). He sealed it: “till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law“ (Matthew 5:18). Then He interpreted Himself—deepening the commandments, never relaxing them: murder now includes hatred, adultery includes lust (Matthew 5:21–28). Asked how to enter life, Christ answered plainly: “keep the commandments“ (Matthew 19:17). You do not exalt what you came to bury.
The Apostles Taught Obedience After the Cross
If the commandments died at Calvary, no one told the apostles. Paul wrote decades later: “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good“ (Romans 7:12)—and more bluntly, “keeping the commandments of God is what matters“ (1 Corinthians 7:19). Late in the first century, John identified God’s end-time people by a single mark: “those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus“ (Revelation 14:12). The apostolic church never preached a canceled law. It preached a kept one.
What Was Actually Nailed to the Cross
Colossians 2:14 is the favorite proof text for abolition—and read carefully, it proves the opposite. Christ “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us“ and “nailed it to the cross.” The Greek cheirographon means a handwritten certificate of debt—an IOU. What was nailed was the record of our transgressions and its death penalty, not the law that identified them. Grace—God’s unmerited pardon—cancels the debt. It does not repeal the standard that measured it.
A judge who pardons a prisoner has not erased the law he broke.
Why This Matters For the Kingdom
The Ten Commandments are not a relic of Israel’s past. They are the constitution of earth’s future. When Christ establishes the Kingdom of God—the literal government coming to this earth—nations will be ruled by this very law: “Out of Zion the law shall go forth“ (Micah 4:2). And the New Covenant does not discard that law; it relocates it: “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts“ (Jeremiah 31:33). God is not merely forgiving future rulers—He is forming them. No one is fit to administer a law he refuses to keep.
Conclusion
The Sabbath question, the Holy Day question, the obedience question—all reduce to one: does God’s law still stand? Scripture answers clearly.
The commandments governed before Sinai. Christ kept them, exalted them, and commanded them. The apostles taught them after the cross. The Kingdom will enforce them.
Our debt was nailed to the cross. The law was not. The law that defined sin still defines righteousness—and the King who kept it perfectly is coming to establish it over all the earth.
