The New Covenant would be different from the Mosaic Covenant, in that the Law of God wouldn’t be written in stone. Rather it would be written in the minds and hearts of men (Hebrews 8:8-10). However, this might be easier said than done. While one could easily envision someone writing something on stone, how could this ever be done with respect to a man’s heart or mind, and assuming God could do such a thing, what, exactly, did he write upon our hearts and minds?
Some believers keep the seventh day as their Sabbath, but not all do. In fact, the majority of believers keep the first day as a day of worship, but even that day isn’t held in the esteem that the Sabbath was held under the Old Covenant. For example, most believers travel further than a Sabbath day’s walk to attend worship service. Some must work on Sunday, and still others voluntarily work on this day, such as cleaning the house or doing other chores like cutting the grass. Many believer have absolutely no compunction about watching sports on Sunday or even participating in such things at family functions on Sundays when friends visit. So, Sunday cannot be construed to be the believer’s Sabbath, because it has absolutely nothing in common with the Sabbath, except to say that it is a day when believers get together to worship the Lord.
Unless most Christians are disobedient to the Lord, and that doesn’t seem possible in that our consciences don’t bear witness to this idea, then the Lord could not have intended to write the Ten Commandments in the hearts and minds of his people, because all men still sin. We have no more power to keep the Law under the New Covenant than the Jews had under the Old Covenant.
Moses claimed that all the Lord required of man was to respect him, walk in his ways and to love and serve him with all our hearts and souls (Deuteronomy 10:12). When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28), he responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, saying:
The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. (Mark 12:29-30)
Jesus then went on to say the second greatest commandment is similar to the first:
And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:31)
Then the scribe who questioned Jesus replied in agreement, saying that obeying these two commandments was more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices in the Law, and Jesus responded by saying the man wasn’t far from the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:32-34).
It seems to me, therefore, that, if the Law the Lord intended to write in the hearts and minds of men (Jeremiah 31:32-34) wasn’t the Ten Commandments, then he must have had in mind the two laws Jesus mentioned above, upon which the entire Mosaic Covenant was founded (Matthew 22:40). To love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength, and one’s neighbor as oneself has always been considered the Christian’s responsibility. It is our love for God that drives us to share the Gospel with those who haven’t heard of Jesus, or who haven’t a correct understanding of him. It is our love for God, who became man and suffered the crucifixion in order to save mankind, that drives us to lay aside our own prejudices and hatred for men and to embrace them as brothers, even to the point of surrendering our own lives to keep others safe and away from harm. It is the law of Love that is written in the hearts of believers, because believers witnessed LOVE crucified and were compelled by love to share their witness with others.
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