submit ourselves as the bondservants of righteousness and of God, "Whose service is

perfect freedom".

The natural man knows no freedom of will or of choice. Release from the bondage of

sin and death comes only through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we become the

servants of righteousness, and with the Apostle Paul delight to call ourselves the

bondservants of Jesus Christ.

It would seem strange if God had not given certain explicit indications of His will to

His ancient People who were under tutelage. These indications we find in the Law. For

our purposes perhaps we may place the covenantal Law under three division:  the

ceremonial or ritual, the dietary and the Ten Commandments. As to the ceremonial or

ritual, clearly this has been fulfilled in Christ and was obviously a shadow of that which

was to come. The dietary may be considered outside the scope of this study as being a

subject which is seldom, if ever, raised as a point of dispute. There remains, however,

the Ten Commandments.

There are those believers who are convinced that the Ten Commandments are as

obligatory today as they were for those to whom they were first given, while on the other

hand there are those who are firmly convinced that the obligations of the Ten

Commandments were included in the `handwriting of ordinances that was against us' and

which Christ took `out of the way, nailing it to His cross' (Col. 2: 14). It is by no means

a question of unimportance to the members of the Church which is Christ's Body: are we

under obligation to observe the Ten Commandments?

We will seek to deal with this question in two ways: (1) what, if anything, is said in

the prison epistles in connection with the Commandments and (2) the `lawful' use of the

Law.

The first Commandment states: "I am the Lord thy God . . . . . Thou shalt have no

other gods before my face" (Exod. 20: 2, 3, see The Companion Bible note). What is here

enjoined is stated as a fact by Paul in Eph. 4: 6 "There is . . . . . One God and Father of

all". No member of the Body of Christ is likely to dispute this, nor claim the liberty to

have any other god. So the will of God concerning the relationship existing between

Himself and His people of all dispensations is made plain: There is one God.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" says the second Commandment,

`or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is

in the water under the earth'. Paul, however, takes the standard higher in his statement

"No . . . . . covetous man, who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of