The 10 Commandments
On Sunday mornings, I’ve started a new series working through the Ten Commandments. I mentioned in the first week that I am often hesitant to talk about the Ten Commandments because there are many of us who see them as a list of rules to be followed in order for God to love us and save us. I believe we can be legalistic by nature, and by that, I mean that we can easily fall into the trap of thinking we have to earn God’s love. We live in a world where nothing is free. We have to earn our grades. We have to earn our spot on the team. We have to earn our salary. And if the truth were told, I think we like the sense of pride and control that comes from knowing that we’ve made our own way. We don’t like the idea of being in some’s debt or having to owe them a favor. Because of this, it can be difficult to fully accept the idea that God’s divine favor and blessing are given to us completely by His love and grace.
So, when it comes to sections of Scripture like the Ten Commandments, it can be easy to turn them into a checklist of things we have to follow every moment of our lives, otherwise we will upset God and lose His love and affection. But there are at least two problems with understanding of God’s commands.
One, the Ten Commandments were never given as a list of rules. Nowhere in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5, both places this list is given, do we see the word commandment. God was not giving us commandments to live by, He was inviting us into covenant relationship. This is a relationship where two parties agree to be things to and for one another. The closest thing we have in human terms of this type of covenant relationship is marriage. When two people marry, they make covenant commitments to honor and cherish and keep to one another as long as they both shall live. The Ten Commandments are likened to marriage vows where God says, “I am your God. I will always be things to you and for you as long as you live.” And He gives his people ways in which they can honor their vows to God. Jesus summed up these vows when He was asked about the greatest commandment. He answered, “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
The second problem with the Ten Commandments as a list of rules to follow so that God will love you is that, if this were the case, we would all be in huge trouble. Not only is the Law an invitation into covenant relationship, but it also demonstrates and declares the character and nature of God. And the thing it does most clearly is show us how far short we fall of this standard. God is the most perfect, faithful, and loyal husband in this covenant relationship, and we are the unfaithful and disloyal adulteress. We wander from the joy and hope and peace that come from a right relationship with God, and we give our attention to many different types of idols.
But God, in His wisdom, mercy and grace, anticipated our infidelity and set forth a plan from before the beginning of time to make a way for our forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus Christ was sent into the world to pay the penalty for our sin and open the door for us to receive all the beauty that comes from being in a right relationship with God.
So, when we look at passages like the Ten Commandments, let’s give up the impossible task of trying to earn God’s favor. Let’s admit our futility and rest in the in the love of God demonstrated to us through the life of Jesus Christ. After all, as Paul says in Galatians 3:23-24: “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”