Yes, your focus is on the 10 Commandments, but you are also asking if they apply under the New Covenant? So I'm answering this question by stating that they are not part of the New Covenant, but part of the OT Law. They are, in my view, part of the Old Covenant, and as I define the Old Covenant, it includes both the 10 Commandments and the entire Law.
The 10 Commandments were indeed called "the Covenant," but in being called that it was not intended to be the exclusive material called "the Covenant." We *know that* because Moses explained that this Covenant also required fully keeping the *entire Law,* as well as recognizing the ammendments that went with it.
Perhaps you wish to ask the question in such a way that you only accept terms as you define them? If so, I don't think the question is for just anybody to answer--just for those you feel use your definitions. But my answer would *not* use your definition, specifically with the assumption that "the Covenant" is exclusively the 10 Commandments.
No, see above. We define "the Covenant" differently. This is *not* a "diversion."
I've said many times that when the Temporal Laws of Temple, Priest, and Sacrifice are stripped away, along with all that aniticipates a future Salvation in Christ, what you have left is the original command of God to "live in God's image, after His likeness."
That is how God defined it--that is not an evasion! It is a Moral Law, as is commonly referred to in Church Theology--that is not an evasion! It requires Faith to know who God is, and what Moral Law is associated with living in Him.
Cain did not require a Law prohibiting Murder to know it was wrong to murder his brother. He knew by faith in God, and by association with Him, that it was morally wrong to abuse others. But God gave it to him anyway because he needed the law spelled out for him, being that he seemed to avoid recognizing that.
There is a Moral element in all of God's laws because Israel set an example under that system of *doing what God said to do.* Morality requires obedience under whatever system God has currently in place. What system God currently has in place is a matter of Faith and a matter of recognizing what He has done in instituting a new system after the Law.
In the NT system, God requires Christians to direct all of their moral applications to "God's likeness" in Christ's example. He lived under the Law but was separate from the Law, ie the Law did not apply to him except as a reference to his Salvation. We saw his obedience under the Law, but we also saw that he fulfilled the Law.
God was therefore recognizable by Faith in our observance of Christ and his moral example. We saw in him the likeness of God, and thus developed our "Moral Law," which calls for us to live like God in the example of Christ.
So, if you're looking for a list of rules, they are not, like the Law, anticipating the need for a future Salvation. They are based on the fact Christ has already done the work of Salvation, and legal perfection is no longer to be recognized as prohibitive in the Salvation of the Church.
There is therefore no more need for laws to redeem us from legal disqualification. We simply live like Jesus lived, as he represented God's image and likeness.
You have to recognize in his example the God who he represented. And you have to see, by Faith, how his example related to the Law in terms of its Morality. It means we abide by many of the principles of the 10 Commandments, as well as by the example of obedience to God Jesus demonstrated. We do not lust or covet, violate the rights of others, or seek any example of religious life apart from the example Jesus set. And so, we are called to fidelity to his moral example.
This requires Faith that Christ is the Messiah of Israel and originator of the Law of Moses. It is how he fulfilled its moral quality and ended the need for rules of redemption that determines the system of morality we live under.
When Jesus told the man who was still under the system of Law that Salvation comes by obeyiing the rules of the Law he was not stating that those laws liberated him from the need for redemption. The Law was always meant to lead Israel, in obedience, towards ultimate Salvation through Christ.
Now that the Law has been fulfilled, there is only need to abide in the example Christ set, being separate from the Law and yet the heart of its moral structure. This means that we simply follow after God's image and likeness, and strip away the things that are no longer needed that represented obstacles to our Salvation.
This may be an undesirable task for you, but for most Christians in history reading the Scriptures, both OT and NT, and joining that to our experience of Faith has been sufficient to encode moral and spiritual laws on our conscience. Who God is shines through in whatever Covenant we read because He is always perceivable by Faith. The material we read is simply a "legal transparency" under which we perceive God's moral likeness.
To the One Who Twists the Covenant and Rejects the Commandments of God
You speak boldly, but not with understanding. You say the Ten Commandments are not part of the New Covenant, but you show that you neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God. You confuse the Word and lead others into error, showing a heart that is not humble, but hardened against the truth that Jesus plainly taught.
You dishonor the words of Jesus—the very One you claim to follow.
When He was asked,
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”—Jesus did not speak in riddles or vague ideas about moral likeness or abstract faith. He said clearly:
“If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:17, NKJV)
Not just any commandments. He named them—
from the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal…” and so on. These are not vague spiritual impressions—they are clear, written laws,
etched in stone by the very finger of God (Exodus 31:18).
Jesus Himself said:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17–18, NKJV)
Have heaven and earth passed away? No? Then neither have God’s commandments.
You talk of “a new system” as if God changes like shifting shadows. But the LORD said:
“For I am the LORD, I do not change.” (Malachi 3:6, NKJV)
The New Covenant was not made to
abolish the Ten Commandments, but to
write them on the heart.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33, quoted also in Hebrews 8:10)
Which law? Not the laws of the Levites, not the temple rituals, but the very law that God gave His people from Sinai—
the Ten Commandments, which He called
“My covenant” (Exodus 34:28).
You talk of faith, but what is faith if it leads to lawlessness?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)
You say Jesus lived “separate from the law,” but this is a lie. He lived in full obedience to His Father’s law, and He said:
“I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)
You dishonor that love when you separate it from obedience.
You try to mix truth with your own ideas—"moral likeness," "church theology," "faith conscience"—but none of these can replace the
Word of God, which was made flesh and dwelt among us, and which never contradicts the commandments of God.
If you say we do not need to obey the Ten Commandments under the New Covenant, then you lie against the very One who gave them. Jesus never once said to stop keeping the Sabbath, to stop honoring your father and mother, or that it is now okay to steal, lie, or commit adultery. Rather, He made the law even deeper by applying it to the heart (see Matthew 5–7).
You confuse grace with lawlessness.
Jesus did not die to make sin acceptable—He died to
save us from sin.
“You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
And what is sin?
“Sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)
Do not be like those who hear the Word but twist it because their hearts are not right.
The LORD said:
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8–9)
You are warned. Stop resisting the truth. Return to the simple words of Jesus. Keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). For on the last day, no clever theology, no word games, no redefinitions will stand. Only the truth.
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life.” (Revelation 22:14, NKJV)
Repent, before it is too late.
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