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Which God?
S. M. Hutchens on the First Commandment
At the foundation of the gospel is the law, which has not been destroyed by the coming of Christ, but has been incorporated into his gospel as the lesser into the greater. The sacrifices of the old covenant, for example, are still with us. They have in one sense ceased, but only to become greater in their comprehension in Christ’s sacrifice, in which we still partake. And so it is with all the law, which has not been revoked but remains alive in Christ.
At the center of the law are the commandments written once in stone by the finger of God, and now still written in the hearts of those who know him, for the Lord did not come to destroy the law, but to perfect it. The Ten Commandments, James Russell Lowell once observed, “will not budge.” This is because they are the Word of God, and are as such our food and drink—something we must have, for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word—including the law—that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
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