So, when he says for I through the law am dead to the law but alive to God, does that mean that the ten commandments of God are no longer in effect since Christ died?
God's Commandments are very much in effect. But the question is what power do the commandments have over a dead man ? The sentence of violating the law of God is death.
Or to put it another way. The Gospel is not the message that God just decided to forget about the consequences of sin. The true message is the opposite. the true message says that the commandments matter and the violation of those commandments brings death.
The gospel is not the diminishing of sin or the death that sin brings. It is the exaltation of grace and the life that grace brings. In other words , someone died for me and took my penalty. When I give up my old identity and choose to identify with Christ , then I am free from the consequences since the penalty has already been paid.
This concept is in our legal system.
I remember watching a movie a while back that was about the concept of double jeopardy in the law. In the movie this lady is framed by her husband for his murder. He fakes his own death and frames her. She goes to prison and does the sentence for murdering him. When she gets out she seeks revenge. She tracks him down and murders him for real . They are unable to prosecute her because she was already previously convicted of murdering him and served her sentence. A dark plot and certainly sensationalized for dramatic effect. I am not sure if it is 100% accurate legally speaking but it does draw upon the legal concept of double jeopardy. The penalty is only required once.
From wikipedia
Double jeopardy is a procedural defence that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction.
So the issue is not whether or not it is still a crime to break the law. the issue is whether or not the penalty for that crime has been paid or not. Breaking God's commands is still a sin. But the penalty for that sin is paid for us already if we are in Christ.
This is a totally separate issue from the issue of what parts of the law pertain to non jews. That issue is argued on the basis of whether or not the law applies to all people.
That is a vastly different matter than the Gospel message which admits we are sinners worthy of death and that our penalty has been satisfied in Christ. One admits the crime , the other argues that the crime never really took place.
So there are two parts to the issue. The one part is whether it is a sin to violate certain commands. The other is the issue of whether the penalty for sin has been paid.
We may differ on some of the details. I am not sure. But we agree on this point. There is such a thing as commands which apply to all people. Otherwise things like murder and stealing would not be sins. Obviously there are commandments of God which we are all required to obey even today or we find ourselves to be sinning.
The question of whether the Ten Commandments apply to Gentiles is a complicated one with much debate on both sides throughout the centuries of Church history. Clearly a moral code does apply to the gentiles. But is the same specific commandments that pertained to Israel ?
My opinion is that the principles applly to all people because Israel was called by God to be a light to the nations. A called out people who were to be an example for the rest of the world to look upon so that they could see what holiness looks like. Holiness looks like someone separated to God who does things God's way and not their own way. That is a good description of Jesus . Israel was a representation of who Jesus is. So is the church. God's character has not changed. We are still called to represent who he is by living a holy life.
