17. How did God give His Law to us?
First, God wrote these instructions upon the heart of every human creature. (All people have a conscience--an inborn sense of right and wrong.)
Romans 2:14-16 For when Gentiles, who do not have the Law, by nature do what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the Law. They show that the work of the Law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my Gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.Second, God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets for the people of Israel.
Read about God giving the Ten Commandments to Israel in Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21; and Exodus 34:1, 27-28.
Note: There are different ways of numbering the Ten Commandments. The Bible does not give us numbers for individual commands.
There are other laws in the Old Testament that governed the affairs of state or pertained to the particular forms of religion and liturgy given specifically to Israel. Christian have often distinguished three types of laws in the Old Testament: the moral law, which tells all people their duty toward God and others; the ceremonial law, which regulated the religious practices of Israel; and the political law, which was the "state law" of the Israelites. Only the moral law was and is written on the human heart and continues to apply to all people. People are confused by the Bible and even misuse it when they fail to realize that the Old Testament ceremonies and ceremonial law (which applied to Israel and can be hard to comprehend) do not apply to Christians, or anyone else, since Christ's death and resurrection.
Third, God also gave these instructions in various ways throughout the Bible (for example, Exodus 22:21-28; Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:21-48; Romans 12-13; Galatians 5:16-25).
Eventual commentary
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