For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law(Romans 3:28).
It is certainly not an uncommon sight. We see them outside and inside courthouses, police stations, churches of course, and many other places. The Ten Commandments. And, of course, we can recite many of them by heart…but perhaps slip on a few of those lesser-known ones.
Honor God! Do not take his name in vain! Honor your parents. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not bear false witness. Keep the Sabbath holy. And then comes…well, those are the important ones, right?
For generations, the Ten Commandments have formed the foundation for our religion, our ethics, our morals, and even many of our civil laws.
They have served as a bedrock for a society that has always embodied righteousness and justice. Lately, that bedrock seems to be crumbling — falling apart around us — in more ways than one.
But what about for disciples of Jesus Christ? Clearly, we are taught that we are saved by grace, through faith in him — and not by works. Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, right?
Well…do the Ten Commandments still apply to us?
Where Did the Ten Commandments Come From?
After 400 years of slavery, when the Israelites finally left Egypt, they were coming out of chaos — both physically and spiritually.
Here they had been enslaved for generations, and they were being asked to leave the only homes they had ever known to follow a leader they hardly knew to a place they had never been and knew nothing about.
They no longer knew any relationship to their God and knew only of the multitude of Egyptian gods to which they had been long-exposed.
Try to imagine millions of frightened people who had known only slavery being asked to now trust in a God they hardly knew. It is no wonder there was constant grumbling and doubting.
It should come as no surprise they were ready to stone Moses and return to Egypt. Like an animal caged for its entire life — when the cage door is finally opened, they are afraid to leave.
The children of Israel needed guidance. They needed to be taught how to relate to God and to each other. Thus, the commandments were written on two stone tablets — the first is the commandments for the relationship between God and man. The second is the commandments for relationship between man and man.
Many generations later, Jesus would summarize the commandments in this way:
Jesus replied:“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”(Matthew 22:36-40).
Thus, the Ten Commandments represented the fundamental, elementary guidance that the children of Israel needed at a time when they most needed it, just as we teach our own children in elementary school to follow the basics.
We guide our children by giving them rules to follow because we know what is best for them. We know where and how they can get hurt. We guide them to keep them from wandering into bad choices, to keep them from harm.
We use this guidance to help teach them to recognize that not everything that looks good is good. To recognize the hook so often behind what looks shiny and attractive.
This is why Paul later referred to the commandments as a “guardian” (Galatians 3:23-25, ESV).
Legalism and Grace
Why would Paul make such a statement? Why would the man who referred to himself as “…a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee…” (Acts 23:6) make such a statement.
Paul, then known as Saul, was a supreme legalist. But through Christ, Paul moved from legalism to grace, to an apostle of the message of grace through Christ.
Through Christ, Paul learned to recognize that no one could be justified could be made righteous by trying to keep the tenets of the Law, even referring to the Law, specifically the Ten Commandments, as the “ministry that brought death.”
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone…” (2 Corinthians 3:7).
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
Paul argued that through the law comes the knowledge of sin — what is sinful in God’s eyes.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin(Romans 3:20).
There is certainly no shortage of verses in the New Testament to evidence the message of salvation through grace by faith in Jesus Christ. In his letter to the Romans alone, Paul devotes a great deal of attention to the matter of righteousness that comes from faith (Romans 3:21-24).
For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
Paul goes so far as to offer Abraham, the forefather of the nation of Israel, as an example of faith over works of the law — before there was a Law.
What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3).
The author of Hebrews tells us that the sacrifice of our Savior on the cross rendered the law “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13).
And yet… in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed that, in fact, he had not come to abolish the Law — that the Law will remain. Rather, he came to fulfill the law! (Matthew 5:17).
But what does that mean, exactly?
It means that for those who do not believe in the Son, the Law remains, and will remain until the end of all things when the Lord brings a New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21).
But what does it mean for believers and our lives as Christians?
The Law Fulfilled?
Well, what it means is the rules have changed because we have changed. We are not the same sinful people we once were. We are no longer bound by the Law, but we are now bound by faith — through grace — to righteousness.
For believers, the Law has been fulfilled within us. God has given us something infinitely and eternally better (Hebrews 11:40). We are new creations!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (1 Corinthians 5:17).
The written Law, even those written on stone tablets, is obsolete because the Law is now buried in our hearts, just as God promised to the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 11:14-21).
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code (Romans 7:6).
What happens when we give our lives to Christ — I mean really give our lives to Christ — is that his Spirit moves in and makes our hearts his home. The effect is that our hearts change (Ezekiel 36:26).
We stand righteous before God, and our new desires begin to change who and what we are from the inside. Maybe not all at once, but the transition is happening even if we don’t realize it.
We now desire to live out the commands of Christ to love the Lord our God and love our neighbors, even if we don’t quite know how yet.
It becomes our heartfelt desire to live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Love is the fulfillment of the law in those who believe.
For further reading:
What are the 10 Commandments and Are They Still Relevant for Today?
Is Faith Just Following the Rules?
Why Did God Have to Give His People the 10 Commandments?
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