The Commandments of God in Stone and the Hearts of Men

Most people are not aware that God gave Moses the Ten Commandment not once but twice. The first time is described in Exodus 24:12: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to Me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.'" And again in 31:18: "And He gave to Moses, when He had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God." These tablets were the ones shattered by Moses in anger at the idolatry of the Israelites in their worship of the golden calf (chapter 32).

After shattering the original tablets, Moses was then tasked with replacing them with a new pair of tablets, which he himself fashioned. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke'" (Exodus 34:1). As when Adam fell into sin, when Moses broke the commandments, literally, he was cursed with an increase in labor, having to carve and carry the stone tablets himself. 

This historical event came to my mind during a recent Sunday school lesson at my church. Part of that lesson dealt with the law of God written on human hearts. We see this in two places in the New Testament. First, Paul mentions it in Romans 2:15: "[Gentiles] 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." Then the writer of Hebrews mentions it again as part of the new covenant, which he, in turn, borrowed from the Prophet Jeremiah: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds" (Hebrews 10:16, from Jeremiah 31:33). 

Notice the parallels between these two pairs of events. In each, God gave His holy commandments, but they were broken by men. And then God gave them again. 

By this pairing of breaking and restoration, we see two magnificent things. First is that God does not lower His standards merely because men cannot meet them. To do so would be to betray His own holiness. And second is His mercy. While the breaking of the law naturally incurs the death penalty (Romans 6:23), God's work is restorative, not punitive, for His elect. He restores His law (Isaiah 42:21). And He restores His elect through the imputation by faith of the perfect obedience of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:17, II Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:21-22). 

Our Covenant Heads: The First Adam and the Last Adam

"Because He is the covenantal head of elect believers, He [Jesus] may be and is their righteousness with God by faith alone in Him. Because He is the covenantal head of elect believers, the obedience of these believers need not be, may not be, and is not their righteousness with God. For their obedience to be their righteousness with God would be to dispossess, displace, disregard, and disgrace the head of the covenant, who is Jesus the Christ. It is the precise purpose of Galatians 3 to establish that the precious but contested truth of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ has its ground in the covenantal headship of Jesus Christ."

- David Engelsma, "Gospel Truth of Justification," p. 303

The Apostle Paul describes a parallel and contrast between Adam and Jesus in Romans 5:12-21. 

First, he tells us of Adam in verse 12: "Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned..." Theologians refer to this as the Covenant of Works, which God made with Adam, and, through him, with all his posterity. All of Adam's descendants, excepting Jesus alone, were represented by Adam. If Adam had fulfilled that covenant by perfect obedience during his period of probation, then not only he, but that posterity also, would have been confirmed in eternal life. The condition to be met in that covenant was perfect obedience. For how long? We aren't told. However, for some length of time. But Adam failed, taking himself and his posterity into death, both spiritual and physical. 

Then Paul tells us of a separate covenant between the Father and the Son, for which the application to us has been called the Covenant of Grace. "But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's [i. e., Adam's] trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for [a different] many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following man trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:15-18).

Thus, Paul points to two covenants, one headed by Adam, the other by Jesus, whom he calls "the last Adam" in I Corinthians 15:45, and contrasts their effects. One renders men sinners while the other renders men righteous, not inherently, but rather by the imputation of the nature of the heads of the respective covenants. 

Modern Americans have a problem with covenant theology, because we do not live in a covenantal society. We believe that each person determines his own fortunes in life. Yet we same Americans are happy to talk about Jesus as our savior. We will gladly accept the imputation to us of His righteousness. However, we rarely accept the other side of the same coin, the imputation of Adam's fall. The two concepts follow the same covenantal logic, but they fall on our ears very differently. Yet, to accept the one necessarily implies the other, as I wrote here. 

Jesus as Surety for His People

"To Jesus Christ, to His account, as the one now responsible for the sins of those in whose stead He died, God imputed our sins. Although personally the man Jesus was sinless, the guilt of the others became His own on the cross, indeed, throughout all His life of suffering, by God's imputation of this guilt to Him. God held Jesus responsible for the sins and sinfulness of all the elect, for whom Jesus was the divinely-appointed substitute. God dealt with Him accordingly, cursing and damning Him." 

- David Engelsma, "Gospel Truth of Justification," p. 294 

In the paragraph above, Engelsma is summarizing and paraphrasing what Paul taught in three passages. The first was Galatians 3:13-14: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree' - so that, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith." The second is II Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that, in Him [the Son], we might become the righteousness of God." And, finally, Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

In theology, we say that Jesus gave Himself to be the surety for all those whom the Father had given Him. Or, to use our modern parlance, He became the "co-signor" for us. But that must be understood a little differently. When a person, call him John, co-signs a loan for another person, call him Bob, then John takes upon himself a risk. Bob is promising to repay his loan, but, if he fails, the loan then becomes John's responsibility. However, in the case of the suretyship of Jesus, He agreed to co-sign for the sin debt of His people, even knowing in advance that His people would indeed fail. He didn't just assume a risk; He assumed the certainty that His people would have a sin debt for which He was taking responsibility. Would any merely-human co-signor agree to such a responsibility? 

But notice further that Jesus, as surety, didn't undertake merely the debt of our sins. There was a further imputation, as well. As Paul said to the Corinthians, the redeemed become "the righteousness of God." The redeemed are not brought to some morally-neutral state, but rather we are brought to a positive account of righteousness, His righteousness, so that, as the same Apostle told the Galatians, we live the godly life as Jesus's righteousness is placed in us, by means of faith alone. That is an instantaneous exchange, not the progressive one pretended by Rome and other Pelagian sects. It is done! 

Justification by Double Imputation, Through Faith Alone

Orthodox Protestants properly state that justification is by faith alone, without regard to works. That statement is true, and the only way of justification found in the Bible. But we are often week in defining what it is that is conveyed to the believer by means of - not on the basis of - his faith. What is conveyed to the believer is the negative obedience of Christ, i. e., His willing submission to the judgment of the Father for sin, and His positive obedience, i. e., His willing obedience to the law of God as the Second Adam.

The first cancels the sin debt that the elect carried for our sins, while the latter gives us a true righteousness in the eyes of God. 

"If faith in Christ is the only way to be righteous, to the exclusion of all the works of the sinner himself, then the sinner's righteousness with God consists exclusively of the works of Christ in his stead and on his behalf. In the saving work of God of justification the sinner's righteousness is solely the obedience of Christ - His lifelong, perfect obedience to all the commandments of the law in our stead and His obedience in our place to the demand of the law that we be cursed for our transgressions. 'By the obedience of one shall many be [constituted] righteous' (Romans 5:19)" Engelsma, Gospel Truth of Justification, p. 192.

For His negative obedience, we have many passages in the Bible, such as Isaiah 53:4-6: "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 

That passage is well-known, but how many can point to the imputation of his perfect obedience? " You will ordain peace for us, for You have indeed done for us all our works" (Isaiah 26:12). See also II Corinthians 5:21 and Hebrews 13:20-21. When we stand before Jesus, not to be judged, but to have His righteousness and mercy displayed before the universe, we will not be without works. Rather we shall bear His works! 

True Christianity and the Imputation of Works

"What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (1Cor. 4:7). 

All non-Christian religions advocate some form of salvation by works. They say, "Change your behavior, and then your deity will love you." And this isn't just professing non-Christian religions. Many pseudo-Christians say some variation of the same thing. For example, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, in

Canon XX (1547), said, " If any one shall say, that a man who is justified and how perfect soever, is not bound to the observance of the commandments of God and of the Church, but only to believe; as if, forsooth, the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life, without the condition of observation of the commandments; let him be anathema."  

Yet, in the verse above, the Apostle Paul denies the very thing asserted by Trent. Justification is by grace alone through faith alone, apart from any works.  That is one side of the double imputation that occurs at the moment of true belief: the judgment due to our sins is transferred to our Surety, who paid for them on the cross. The other side is the imputation of His perfect works to the believer: "O LORD, You will ordain peace for us, for You have indeed done for us all our works" (Isaiah 26:12; see also II Corinthians 5:21 and Hebrews 13:20-21). 

Thus it is true that without holiness, no man shall see God (Hebrews 12:14). But, as Paul says, it is not a holiness produced by the man but which is imputed to him from Jesus by grace alone through faith alone. So, that same Paul is cursed according to Trent.