The Ten
Commandments
Ex 20:1-17
20:1 And God spoke
all these words, saying:
2 “I am the LORD your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage.
3 “You shall have no
other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make
for yourself a carved image — 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; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate
Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My
commandments.
7 “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.
8 “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it
you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your
male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your
stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the
heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father
and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD
your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not
murder.
14 “You shall not
commit adultery.
15 “You shall not
steal.
16 “You shall not
bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not
covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his
donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
NKJV
The Ten
Commandments are rarely, if ever, mentioned in the Family. The official
Family position is that they no longer apply due to the ‘freedom’ that
Christians have, and the founder of the Family taught that his followers
may break the commandments with impunity, provided the actions were done
in love. He pointed out that if a Christian was acting in love, he or
she would not steal, lie or murder. However, he also taught that it was
possible to break the seventh commandment, ‘You shall not commit
adultery,’ again, provided one was acting in love. So, there are two
Family teachings regarding the Ten Commandments: first, that obedience
to them cannot bring salvation, and second, that Christians acting in
love may lawfully engage in sexual relations outside of marriage. These
two teachings are generally taught as though the second is an inevitable
corollary of the first.
In other words,
Family doctrine says that as salvation cannot come through obedience to
the Ten Commandments, therefore it must also be true that ‘loving’ sex
outside of marriage is permissible in the sight of God.
Family members
may point out that as Jesus provided forgiveness for all sin, obedience
to the Law cannot save us, and that Jesus said that all the Law and the
Prophets now rest on two commandments, to love God, and to love our
neighbour as ourself.
The first
teaching, that obedience to the Ten Commandments cannot bring salvation,
is absolutely true. The New Testament is clear that salvation cannot
come through any human effort of obedience or through human
righteousness of any kind. Salvation is a gracious gift of almighty God,
given in the ultimate act of mercy, through the sacrifice of His only
Son.
It is with the
second teaching that this study deals, or more precisely, with the
assertion that the second teaching necessarily follows the first.
That is, given
that salvation cannot come through the Law, does God still expect
obedience to the Ten Commandments? Is it sin to break the Ten
Commandments?
This study
examines the background, purpose and nature of the Ten Commandments,
their place within the Mosaic Law, as well as various perspectives on
the application of the Law to Christianity. It does not go into specific
analysis of the commandment against adultery, or any other of the ten.
Overview of the Mosaic Law
The ‘Law’ is a
large collection of commandments, rules and regulations presented in
various ways to the Israelites over an extended period of time, from
Exodus 20 through to Deuteronomy 33. The Ten Commandments themselves are
written twice, first in Exodus 20 when the Israelites were at Mount
Sinai and then in Deuteronomy 5 before the Israelites began their
conquest of the Promised Land.
The Mosaic Law
served to form a nation under God from people who had been slaves in
Egypt for centuries: God wanted to make of them a new people, untainted
by Egyptian culture and religion, unaffected by the idolatry of the
lands they were to invade. These people had to form a new nation, train
an army and implement civil and religious laws that would be effectual
both while they were travelling, and after they had settled down in
their new country. God wanted to ensure that these people whom He had
saved from slavery would remain His people. As such, the Mosaic Law is
the founding document of a nation.
The Law is in the
format of a covenant. This means it is an official, non-negotiable
document setting down the details of how the people (the Israelites)
were to relate to their Lord and Master (God). This was a relatively
common feature of ancient civilisations, when a conquering king imposed
on his vassals a series of rules detailing how they should act with each
other and towards him. Now, saying this does not imply that the Mosaic
Law is somehow copied from the laws of other nations. It merely
indicates that when God set down the code of conduct for the nation of
Israel, He chose a format that they could understand, relate to and
apply.
For more on
covenants throughout the Bible,
click here.
Seen from a 21st
century perspective, the Mosaic Law has various similarities with other
ancient covenants. However, the differences between this Law and the
covenants of the surrounding nations must have been extremely shocking
to the peoples of ancient times. For example, the Mosaic Law was unique
in the value it placed on human life, regardless of social status or
sex. Other codes usually valued only the lives of the wealthy or the
nobility.
There are several
different kinds of laws given in the Pentateuch, and it is important to
understand what they are before deciding whether they still apply. There
are the religious laws (those that relate specifically to the
Israelites’ relationship with God; an example might be the first
commandment, not to have other Gods); there are moral and ethical laws
(such as the bulk of the Ten Commandments); there are ritualistic and
Levitical laws (laws for sacrifices, priests, and temple worship); and
there are civil laws (laws guiding how the nation of Israel was to live
together, for example, laws covering farming, slavery, marriage, theft,
violence, other crimes and punishment).
Salvation did not come through the Law
An important
point: obedience to the Law did not in itself bring salvation.
“Nowhere in the Old Testament is it suggested that anyone
was saved by keeping the Law… The Law was not thought of in Israel as a
‘means of salvation.’ It was not given for that reason nor could it
possibly function in that way” (Fee).
This is clearly
seen by the inclusion of sacrificial rituals for the forgiveness of sin.
God required His people to keep the Law, but He also knew that they
would not, so in His mercy, He provided a means whereby they could
secure forgiveness. The Law was given to show the people just how they
were to act as God’s people, but salvation was only ever a gift of God.
“God never intended for the Ten Commandments to be a set
of regulations by which the people of Israel would earn salvation.” God
had already decided to make of the Israelites His people, proving this
through His miraculous deliverance from Egypt. The Ten Commandments were
an “act of divine grace” (Nelson).
The
Law as a paradigm
The Mosaic Law
was not intended to be a collection of all the laws that would govern
every possible situation. Rather, it is designed to be a paradigm, or a
model, so that the Israelites could see the kind of behaviour that
pleased or displeased God. For example, the tenth commandment instructs
Israelites not to covet.
Ex 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his
female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your
neighbor’s. NKJV
The word
‘neighbour’ is used in a general sense; in this case it doesn’t mean
‘one who lives in close proximity’:
Neighbour OT:7453 fellow, fellow-citizen, even another
person, with whom one stands in reciprocal relations
(Brown-Driver-Briggs)
Rather than ask,
“Who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29), Israelites were to apply this
commandment to all they came in contact with.
“The OT’s legal sections do not constitute a
comprehensive legal code,” many not having specific penalties or
enforcing authorities. Rather, “OT laws present a select sample of
illustrative cases or topics whose legal principles were to guide
Israelite individuals, the larger community, and lawmakers in making
decisions and in living out Israel’s worldview. Their purpose was to
teach the Israelite fundamental values—what it means to live all of life
in the presence of God—not to provide them with a handy legal reference
tool. In short, their aim was instructional not judicial” (Klein).
The
Ten Commandments
“The Ten Commandments are a statement of the terms of the
covenant God made with His chosen people; and in this respect they are
to be distinguished from the elaborate system of law known as the
Mosaic. The vast legal system of Israel, civil, criminal, judicial, and
ecclesiastical, was framed after the covenant law, not with a view of
expanding it, but to enforce it” (Unger).
In other words,
the Ten Commandments are a complete statement of the Law for Israel,
with the remainder of the Law serving to give illustrations of how the
Ten Commandments should be applied and enforced in religious, moral and
civil life.
The Law was “designed as an educator, to lead the people
into the great principles of life embodied in the Ten Commandments and
afterward exhibited in Christ. The Mosaic system was only a temporary
expedient to achieve a given end, whereas the Ten Commandments are a
statement of principles to continue for all time (Unger).
The
New Covenant
The Mosaic Law as
a covenant has been superseded by the New Covenant, written in Christ’s
blood. This New Covenant is built on the old, yet defines a totally new
way of relating to God. The Old Covenant came as a series of laws
written on stone (the Ten Commandments), and on paper (the books of the
Law). The New Covenant is written in the heart. Through the Holy Spirit,
God Himself lives within His people.
Jesus instituted
the New Covenant at the Last Supper, ratified it through His death, and
proved it through His resurrection.
Matt 26:28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. NASU
Fulfilling the Law
Matt 5:17-20
17 “Do not think that
I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but
to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass
away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until
all is accomplished. 19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these
commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least
in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 “For I say to you
that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
NASU
Jesus is the
fulfilment of the Law; He is the reality which the Law predicts. The Law
contains many symbols (‘types’) which ultimately represent Christ and
His sacrifice. For example, Jesus Christ came to be the sacrificial lamb
of God to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29), thus fulfilling
the Mosaic requirement for sacrifices of atonement. It is therefore not
necessary for us to sacrifice animals for our sins; in fact, doing so
would negate what Jesus did. However, and it is important to understand
this point, the principles of sin, atonement and forgiveness remain the
same. The principle is unchanged: man cannot attain perfection in the
sight of God and therefore needs His mercy. The fulfilment of the Law is
in Jesus becoming the lamb of God.
Notice the strong wording of Matthew 5:17-20, especially
verse 18. Iota refers to the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The
dot is an ornamental mark that the scribes used in writing. Although we
know that Jesus was less concerned with minute details of the Law than
with man’s basic relation to God, he is here saying: If you truly
understand what God asks in the Law, you will see that none of it (not
an iota or dot) is lost in my teaching.
Yet Jesus’ method was not to elaborate, develop, and
bring up to date the Law by applying it to the many details of
first-century Palestinian life. That was the method of the conscientious
Pharisees. Jesus rather went to the heart of the Law, extracted its
divinely-given meaning from the surrounding web of words and customs,
and proclaimed the will of God in its purity. But to those who
concentrated on the externals, Jesus appeared to be wrecking the most
sacred of religious institutions (Shinn).
When Jesus
condemned anger as sin in the Sermon on the Mount, He was not adding a
new sin to the list, rather He was explaining that the Law went much
deeper than a legalistic keeping of the rules in the Pentateuch. Anger
is a sin against God, as is murder. In other words, murder is a sin, not
only because it is listed as the sixth Commandment, but because murder
is rebellion against God Himself, against His nature. God is the source
of all life, and murder strikes against God Himself. Likewise, anger is
a sin, not only because Jesus forbad it, but because anger contradicts
the love, mercy, patience and forgiveness of God.
Therefore, the
principles of the Law remain the same today, and in fact for eternity,
because the principles of the Law are the timeless truths of the nature
of God Himself. The application of some of those principles has changed
with the coming of Christ, but the principles themselves are unchanged.
For instance, one unchanging principle is that mankind needs the mercy
of God for forgiveness. In Old Testament times this principle had its
application in the sacrificial system. With the coming of Christ, the
principle now has its application in His death on the cross. The
principle itself is eternal.
It is important
therefore for Christians to gain an understanding of the Law, not
because they are bound to obey all its details, but so that they can
learn its timeless principles and apply them to their everyday lives.
How do the principles apply
today?
The question is
which Old Testament laws may be considered as indicative of behaviour
God requires of Christians. Please note that the question is not whether
or not obedience to a particular law is necessary for salvation, but
rather whether God still regards as sin behaviour condemned in the Old
Testament.
There are two fundamental interrelated assumptions about
the nature of OT Law. First, we believe that God intends it to serve as
a paradigm of timeless ethical, moral, and theological principles.
Christians who dismiss it as outmoded and irrelevant deprive themselves
of the teachings God conveyed through it. Second, to interpret Law
properly the student must discover the timeless truth it conveys. In
some cases, the truth lies right on the surface unobscured by culture.
Prohibitions like ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Do not steal’ (Exod 20:13,15;
Deut 5:17,19) need no cross-cultural translation; they clearly identify
murder and stealing as wrong. Similarly, the timeless aspect of the
instructions about equitable legal procedure (Exod 23:1-8) is fairly
obvious: witnesses should tell the truth and judges should refuse
bribes. In other instances, the underlying, universal truth may be
difficult to perceive behind its present cultural form—ancient Israelite
Law—so careful interpretation is necessary (Klein).
There are several
theories as to how much of the Old Testament applies to Christians. Some
churches say that it all applies, except that which the New Testament
repeals. Others say that none of the Old Testament applies, except that
which the New Testament repeats. Still others say that it all applies,
but not apart from its fulfilment in Christ. All of these theories have
value, all have flaws. Obviously, it is difficult to formulate a general
rule to explain whether or not a particular Old Testament law applies
today.
It seems to be
true, however, that some Old Testament laws remain literally valid for
Christians. These are the ones specifically reaffirmed in the New
Testament. In some cases, the New Testament actually makes the Old
Testament Law stricter. On the other hand, some Old Testament laws are
no longer literally valid because of teachings in the New Testament. For
example, as pointed out above, Christians do not need to follow
literally the Old Testament sacrificial system because Christ is now the
only sacrifice for sins. Even those laws that no longer literally apply,
however, still teach important timeless truths. For example, the Old
Testament sacrificial system graphically reminds Christians that God
takes sin seriously, requires a severe penalty, yet graciously offers
forgiveness.
The Core of the Law
“That the Ten Commandments contain the essential
principles of the moral law, and are therefore of permanent obligation,
is affirmed in the New Testament. Jesus held the Ten Commandments up as
the perfect code. When the young man asked Him the way of attaining
eternal life, Jesus quoted from the Ten Commandments and told him to
obey them and live (Mark 10:19; Luke 18:18-20). And again, after
assenting to the two features of the Ten Commandments as the very
essence of the law, He said, ‘Do this, and you will live’ (Luke 10:28;
cf. Matt 19:17)” (Unger).
The statement
that the Ten Commandments are “of permanent obligation” does not mean
that obedience to the Ten Commandments can somehow secure salvation,
rather that they are a clear indication of the things that please or
displease God. They are a concise synopsis of what obedience to God
looks like. Salvation can only come through the saving blood of Christ,
but that salvation will produce righteousness as the Holy Spirit works
through the believer. Further, that righteousness will not and cannot
contravene the heart of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments.
There are two
important points to remember about the Ten Commandments:
- A strict
obedience to them cannot save anyone. Salvation only comes through
faith in the atoning blood of the Lamb of God who died in sacrifice
for us.
- Breaking any
of the Ten Commandments would almost certainly be sin, for they are
a concise expression of what God requires of mankind. The Ten
Commandments, as distinguished from the remainder of the Mosaic Law,
contain the eternal principles that must be understood and applied
in the lives of all of God’s children.
It is sin to
break the Ten Commandments, not only because there are written laws in
Exodus 20 but also because breaking these laws rebels against God
Himself. Thus, having another God besides the Lord is always sin, as is
murder, theft or adultery. These things are sin because they are actions
contrary to God’s light, love and righteousness, not merely because they
are statutes in a rulebook.
“Although God gave the Ten Commandments to His people
through Moses at Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago, they are still
relevant today. They have an abiding significance, for God’s character
is unchangeable. These laws originate from God and from His eternal
character; therefore, their moral value cannot change” (Nelson).
“The Ten Commandments are far more than statutes and
ordinances, more than commandments for Israel alone; they are God’s
moral will for all mankind. They are more than a moral code; they are
primarily prohibitions against everything that would pridefully exalt
the creature above God” (Williams).
A note on love
Gal 5:14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in
the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” NASU
Paul did not say
that the only principle now to be aware of was that of love; he listed
many other principles in his epistles. He did not say that love replaces
the Law, but that love summarises the Law, that love is the heart of the
Law. Love does not give license for activities prohibited under the law,
but rather gives the motivation for obeying God to the utmost. Love is
the heart and soul of the law, and will never contradict the divine
principles expressed in the Law.
Conclusion
The Ten
Commandments are clear statements of eternal principles. They are
timeless truths showing the heart of God’s requirements for His people.
They are unchanging and unchangeable.
The first
commandment, to have no other gods before God is an eternal principle
that may not be trifled with. In ancient times, the danger lay in
following the pagan gods of the nations the Israelites were to conquer.
In modern times, the ‘gods’ may be financial or intellectual, but the
principle is unchanged.
The fourth
commandment is to remember the Sabbath day, and God still expects His
people to keep a day holy for Him. The exact manner of how Christians
should ‘keep the Sabbath’ and whether this day should be Saturday,
Sunday or every day is a topic for further study, but the principle of
devoting a portion of our time to God remains constant.
The sixth
commandment, not to murder, is as true today as it ever was, and as it
ever will be.
The seventh
commandment, not to commit adultery, likewise remains an unchangeable
divine precept. Jesus did not give license for anyone to break this, or
any of the Ten Commandments. Instead, He brought forgiveness and
reconciliation with God for those who had sinned. Is adultery sin?
Unquestionably, yes.
For definitions
of the word ‘adultery’,
click here.
See
also:
Sin: a Definition
Covenant
References:
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, ©2003.
Fee: How to
Read the Bible for All its Worth, Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart, 2003.
Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI.
Klein:
Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, W. Klein, C. Blomberg & R.
Hubbard, 2004, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN.
Nelson:
Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Thomas Nelson, 1986,
Nashville, TN.
Shinn:
The Sermon on the Mount, Roger Shinn.
Unger: The
New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, 1988, Moody Press, Chicago.
Williams: Renewal Theology, JR
Williams, 1996, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI.
© 2007 Make Straight Paths
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