Why The Commandments Work.
The Ten Commandments are deeply embedded in our culture. But are they still relevant today? A new series by Stephen March seeks the truth.
Perhaps You Have Heard of Them
The 10 Commandments. Perhaps you’ve heard of them, maybe you even know them, or at least some of them. They are the highlight of the law that was given to Moses in the wilderness. They do seem to have lost some popularity in recent days, which begs the question, what are the 10 commandments, and are they still important for today? Are they still relevant in our society? That will be the focus of this series. Each week we will take a look at one of the commandments, and explore what the intent of the rule was, and why it is still important for today.
An Overview of the Commandments
In this first part I’m going to give a bit of an overview on the commandments as a whole, because when we do look at them individually, it is very important that we keep in mind the overall purpose of the law, and particularly the commandments. I will also look at the reasons why some people, even within Christianity, might feel that the Ten Commandments are no longer necessary.
Let’s start with the simple question, what are the ten commandments? To answer this question we can go to Exodus chapter 20:1-17.
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Quite a List
Quite a list, and honestly, many of these have found their way into our laws of today, and are generally recognized as important and worth following. Now, these are the first 10 of around 613 commandments found in what we sometimes refer to as the “Law of Moses”, so what differentiates these ten from the rest of them? There are actually a couple of thoughts on this. Some offer that these ten represent God’s moral law, and the balance would fall under the civil law for the people and nation of Israel, or the ceremonial or ritual law concerning the worship of God by the people of Israel.
Laws and the People of Israel
There is some truth to that, especially since a good number of the remaining commandments do deal with things like who the people of Israel were permitted to marry, how they were to interact with each other, and how they were to interact with foreigners and the other nations around them.
There were also laws that concerned how they were to care for and use the items of the tabernacle, or later the temple and so on. These laws, by their very nature could not then be said to be applicable to all mankind, but the ten commandments can be applicable to all.
Paul writes in Romans 3:19
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. Again, the idea of this theory is that for God to be just, Gentiles would only be held accountable for those laws which fall under the overall moral code, and not those specific to Israel. Again, there is some merit to this line of thinking, it may be incomplete, but it’s a start.
Representative of the Whole Law
Another reason that is presented is that the Ten Commandments are representative of the whole law. The idea with this thought is that the other commandments would each fall as an item under these ten subheadings. For example, laws that concern homicide, accidental or otherwise, would fall under the command of “You shall not commit murder.” What’s interesting about this view, is that Jesus says something in the book of Matthew that seems to support this idea.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. Jesus’ response was in verse 37. And he (Jesus) said to him,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”.
Putting Things in Context
Now, neither of these are mentioned in the ten commandments, the first, to love God is from Deuteronomy 6:5, and the second, to love our neighbour is from Leviticus 19:18. However, what puts it into the context here is the last thing that Jesus says, when he states “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets”. What he is saying is that every instruction found in the law begins with these two principles.
Relationships to God and One Another
So when we look at the ten commandments, we do see that the first four are centered on our relationship to God, and the remaining six on our relationship to one another. In effect, if we love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind, we will adhere to and follow the first four commandments, if we love our neighbours as ourselves, we will keep the latter six. Of course, the idea of keeping these commandments is always to be understood as to the extent that we are able to keep the commandments, more on that later. I do believe the prominence and focus on these ten commandments over the other 600 or so, is founded on a combination of these two understandings.
Purpose of the Commandments
So now, let’s examine the purpose of these commandments. On the surface, it seems that they are a way to live righteously, and if one can live righteously, then surely they should be able to go to heaven, right? In theory yes, however, we also know that nobody can keep this law perfectly. We don’t even need to get to the remaining laws, just looking at the ten commandments, they are impossible to be kept by any person. There’s a very good reason for this. When God gives us this instruction for righteousness, it is based on His standard for righteousness, which is based on His character, which is perfection in every attribute. The only way to keep the law fully, would be to live a perfect life, and nobody’s perfect, we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, of God’s standard.
A Law We Cannot Keep
So then, why would God give us a moral law we cannot keep, wouldn’t it be more fair to base the law on the limits of our capabilities? It might seem that way, but that would not be a true moral law, it would be flawed because it is founded on a flawed source. But let’s look at what Paul says about this in Romans 7, as it helps to understand the real purpose of the commandments, as they relate to us.
In Romans 7:7 Paul writes: “
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said ‘You shall not covet’” He continues on later in the chapter revealing how He himself, no matter how hard he tries, is still unable to keep from breaking the commandments, and then gets to verse 24 where Paul says “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Our Insufficiency Revealed
What Paul is saying is that the purpose of the law, which cannot be perfectly kept, reveals our insufficiency, our sin to us, to help us realize that we must rely on the compassion, mercy and grace of God if we want to have any chance of avoiding His judgment on sin. God revealed this love and grace to us, when He sent His Son, Jesus, to take the penalty of our sin, as prescribed in the law, by dying for us on the cross. His promise is simple, if we believe in Jesus, in who He is and what He has done, we will be saved from the penalty of law, which is death and eternal suffering, and have everlasting life and peace with God in heaven.
The Law is Unable to Save Us
So, if the law plays such an important role, why would some say it isn’t important? Well, it’s not that it isn’t important, it is that is unable to save us. That is, because we are unable to fully keep the law, it no longer matters how much of it we do keep, how good we do perform, we are still guilty and therefore deserving of the penalty for our sin. This is confirmed in Romans 3:20 where it says, “
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Jesus, on the other hand, through His divine nature as God, did live a perfect life according to the law, and in doing so qualified himself as being able to take our punishment upon himself, that if we believe in Him we are saved, not through obedience to the law. In this aspect only, the law is not needed as a path to salvation, because it is insufficient as a means to be saved.
An Important Role
However, as we have looked at, the commandments still play a very important role in helping us acknowledge our sin, and therefore our need for a Saviour. This theme is in the Old Testament too, when God declares that the righteous shall live by his faithfulness. That is to say, a person will not be declared righteous by following the commandments, but by trusting that God’s ways are right, and that He will provide the way for us to be forgiven.
Modern Day Relevance
Finally, are the ten commandments still relevant and applicable for us today? Yes, from all this we can assert that for the person who has believed in Jesus, while we know that the law does not save us, we do understand that through our faith in Jesus we also declare that His ways are right, and good for us to follow. The ten commandments give us some of the best insight into the moral life God wants us to live, and so we follow them to the best of our abilities, because we love God. For the person who has not believed in Jesus, the ten commandments are absolutely still relevant, because whether they choose to believe it or not, it reveals the standard by which they will be judged, and found guilty, with the intent of showing the person that they need the grace of God, offered through Jesus Christ, to escape the punishment we all deserve.
In part 2 we’ll begin our look at the importance and relevance of the individual commandments, starting with number one, that we shall have no other gods.
Do you think the 10 Commandments are still important today? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Stephen March
Stephen March is the President of FBH International and HopeStreamRadio. He graduated from the Broadcasting Program at Niagara College in 2001, and has previously worked in television production and post-production. Stephen lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with his wife Corinne and their four children.
Read and hear more from Stephen March on his contributor’s page. Stephen currently has 5 Programs on HopeStreamRadio:
- Please Forgive Me
- Isolation Chronicles
- Faith By Hearing – The Twelve
- Bibles and Baseball
- Bible Tech Talk
More Podcasts Below:
More Blogs
Why Did Jesus Say “I Am the Bread of Life
Images courtesy of:
Moses – Pixel2013
Family – nukul2530_0
Couples – StockSnap
Tumwine Ivan says
Yes the ten commandments are still very important, they reveal to us the righteous way of living even when you believe in Jesus Christ the saviour. That may not be enough for a daily sinner…
Ray Marshall says
Hello Tumwine! Yes the commandments are very helpful. They show us where we are going wrong in our lives. Praise God that we have a Saviour, Jesus, who kept the 10 commandments for us, then died for our sins and rose again to give us hope.
Barikisu Moro says
I just want to understand the word well because in this world we need to know the truth
And some people used to say the is know God some says know one came to die for our sake
Ray Marshall says
Hi Barkisu. Thank you for commenting. Yes, there are many people in the world who don’t believe in God. However, we do. We also believe that God became a man. We call that man Jesus. Jesus came to die for our sins. Then He rose again! We can have life and hope in Jesus! He wants us to follow Him, like the disciples did? Are you a follower?
Vincent says
How do I get closer to God? How do I believe in His promise that His son Jesus Christ will redeem us of our sins if we believe in Him? Is it right for me to challenge God to provide for me in a difficult situation with the promise of staying True to Him?
Ray Marshall says
Hi Vincent. Thank you so much for your comment. One of my favourite verses to go along with belief is in John 1:12, where it says “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So we soo two important verbs there. One is believe and the second is receive. For example, if someone gives me a gift of a shirt, I receive, or accept it. Usually I say something like, “Thank you so much for your very kind gift. I really needed that shirt.” In a similar way, we understand that God the Father loves us so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus as a gift for our salvation. It is important then, that we thank God for His gift of salvation – as we really need this gift! Many people pray to God, thanking Him for the gift of Jesus, as we really need Jesus. We cannot have salvation without Him.
Another great verse is Romans 10:9. It says, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Again this reminds us that we can both believe and actively make a declaration with your mouth, something like. “Jesus I believe that you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I want you to save me.”
For your second point, I don’t think it is a good idea to “challenge” by saying that you will only stay true to Him if He provides for you. God’s love for us is unconditional and our love for Him should also be unconditional. God has already given you so much! For example, your life, your daily needs up to now, and so much more. However, I do think that it is right to pray to God and ask Him for your daily needs.
You ask, “How can I be closer to God?” The answer is to spend time with Him. I strongly recommend that you pray and read your Bible every day, or as often as you can. For example, if a man is falling in love with a woman, he wants to spend as much time as possible with her to get to know her better. It is similar with God. We will get to know Him better if we spend more time with Him.
I hope these answers help. If you have any more questions, or would like me to learn more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, please let me know. May you be richly blessed as you seek to learn more about God.