Religious leaders are always very good at legalism so they added 603 moral and legal codes (365 thou shalt not's and 248 thou shalt).
Jesus accentuated the 10 Commandments because they are the key to knowledge about salvation (see Isaiah 42:21; Luke 11:52). The Bible says that "Only in Him (Jesus) is found salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved" (Acts 4:12 NKJV). Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6 NKJV).
Without the Law, there can be no knowledge of sin:
"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." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the Law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died." (Rom 7:7-9 ESV)
This is why it was necessary to display humanity's guilt and unrighteousness because of their sinfulness and ultimately point them to their need for God and His merciful grace found through Jesus Christ alone (Heb 8:5, 10:1; also Rom 1, 2, 3:20).
The Reason for the Law
"When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law" (Gal 4:4 NKJV).
The 10 Commandments are holy, but they do not have the power to save – only Jesus does. The Law was given to maintain Israel as a separate people through whom God would send the Messiah to reach the whole world. The Laws were used before the Cross to condemn and demonstrate that human beings inherently have the ability to sin habitually, which the human race continues to be very good at today. The 10 Commandments are what makes a person ready for salvation, but merely abiding by them cannot save a person.
Jesus said that He did not come to destroy (Gk: katalyo) or subvert the Law, but to fulfill (Gk: pleroo) it.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matt 5:17 ESV)
The word "fulfill" means to complete, finish, accomplish or expire. Jesus met all of the Law's requirements and standards and all future punishments for those who fall short. The Bible declares that "Christ is the end (Gk: telos) of the law," which means that Jesus is the termination or conclusion of it as a means of salvation (Rom 10:4 NKJV). He did not change the Law nor add to it (Matt 5:17-19).
Jesus fulfilled and satisfied the Law and all its demands as He lived by it for the sake of humanity, keeping it perfectly as the representative of all people before God, and then died for it, meeting its required punishment for sin. When Jesus said on the Cross, "It is finished" (Gk: teleo), He was proclaiming the fulfillment of the Law, and now all of its requirements, obligations and demands for all humanity were complete (John 19:30). A person rejects the finished work of Jesus when they make any attempt to go back and seek to be justified by or remain under the Law and "have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4 NKJV).
The Law, in its entirety, still serves an essential role in giving advice and instruction in righteousness to the Born-Again Christian and offers examples of virtue and models of holiness (1 Cor 10:6; 1 Tim 3:16). The Law is incapable of producing salvation. Only Jesus can save and transform a person from the inside out (Rom 7:7-13, 8:30).
The Bible says, "whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction" (Rom 15:4 NKJV). The Law must be used as examples of righteousness for the Church but not as a binding system of works (Rom 13:8-10; James 2:8-11; 1 Tim 1:8).
The Law ceased to be a legalistic code and "ministry of death" that had to be enforced to the letter when Jesus transformed it into the "ministry of the Spirit…and life" when He died upon the Cross and became the propitiation for all sin, breaking the sting of death (2 Cor 3; 1 John 2:2). Although Jesus fulfilled and completed the Law, that does not mean the Born-Again Christian can now live any way and do anything they want without any moral standards.
All 613 laws were fulfilled in the life of Jesus (Heb 8:6; Gal 3). There are not two plans of God, one of grace and one of works, but there are two phases of the same plan of redemption: preparation and fulfillment. The unity of the Law and the work of Jesus fulfilled the Law in its entirety. Either Jesus fulfilled the Law, or He did not. God's love is unconditional, which means that good works or religious piety do not affect it.
The Born-Again Christian did not begin with the Holy Spirit indwelling them at the moment of their salvation only to start being perfected by "the flesh" in the works of the Law (Gal 3:3). The Bible repeatedly identifies legalism as a work of the flesh or sinful human nature and worldliness.
The Bible also speaks of "the elemental principles of the world," which are the imposed restrictions of legalistic religiosity on the Born-Again Christian and not any "worldly" practice or behavior (Gal 4:3; Col 2:8, 20; also Phil 3:1-9).
A person either keeps the whole Law or does not (Gal 3:10; James 2:10; Matt 5:19; Deut 27:1; 28:1; 30:8). If they return to the Law and accept just one part of it, they are "under obligation to keep the whole Law" (Gal 5:3 NKJV). If a person continues to "go on sinning willfully after" they "receive the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment"... "Anyone who set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?" (Heb 10:26-29 NKJV).
Salvation by Grace through Faith
The Bible reveals that salvation is a matter of divine intervention in the human condition that can be received only by faith and not by any work because it cannot change the state of the human heart and the condemnation of sinful nature. Good works (moral transformation) naturally follow saving faith but do not bring salvation God gives by grace, which He will not revoke (Rom 8:26-39; 11: 29).
A person doesn't become Born-Again by merely raising their hand during an emotionally charged altar call and repeating a 'sinners prayer' or having someone pray over them to receive salvation. Belief cannot be willed. A person cannot self-help their way to God either. If they could, then there would be no need for God. Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:3 NKJV). Faith is something done for fallen humanity rather than by them. It is a gift, not a choice.
"By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God." (Eph 2:8 NKJV)
It is "God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil 2:13 NKJV). He is the one who enables the Born-Again Christian to work out learning how to trust Him. It has to be all God alone when it comes to faith. Human Beings are called by God, and God, the Savior, saves the Born-Again Christian. God is the giver of faith to become faithful.
Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me" (John 6:44 NKJV). A person does not come to Jesus; they are drawn to Him. Everyone on the planet is drawn to Jesus. The initiative is God's, not theirs. A person has the free will to either accept or reject Jesus.
No one can work their way to God or keep their salvation by doing good works (James 2:26). Continuous and habitual good works result from genuine conversion and prove that the Holy Spirit lives within them and their faith is indeed alive and not dead (James 2:26; 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5). Born-Again Christians naturally stay (abide) in Jesus because they are a Good Tree that naturally and automatically produces good fruit that accompanies salvation (Luke 8:15; Rom 6:22; 1 John 2:29; 5:18). No one "born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9 NKJV, also 5:4-5; Rev 3:5).
The Born-Again Christian "is justified by faith," which Jesus provided them, and not made void by it (Rom 3:27-31). No person could ever be justified by deeds of Law or by conformity with the moral or ceremonial Law (Rom 3:20-21). The just/righteous demands of the "law" are to be "fully satisfied" in the Born-Again Christian by God's grace and not by works, which is why Jesus said, "I came not to destroy (the law or the prophets), but to fulfill" (Rom 8:4; Matt 5:17 NKJV).
The "Law was given through Moses," but "grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17 NKJV). Jesus always preached Law to the proud and arrogant, and grace to the meek and humble because He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (Luke 10:25-26; 18:18 20; John 3:1 17; James 4:6). Preaching only grace to proud and unrepentant sinners will bring about false professions of faith (See Hebrews 6). A false convert has never "crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24 ESV).
The Law is the instrument of the death for the old nature. When a person becomes Born-Again, their old sin nature, inherited from Adam and Eve, was dealt with by Jesus when He was nailed to the Cross.
Fulfilling the Great Commission
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23 ESV).
The Greek word for "glory" is 'doxa' which literally means honor, worship, and praise. Thanks to Adam and Eve, all of humanity has fallen short of the honor, worship, and praise of God by failing to give their Creator the honor, worship, and glory due to Him, and the Law has left them guilty before God (Rom 3:19).
Every human being has failed to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength, which is the essence of the Law (Mark 12:30). The Law of God convinces a person that they are without God, hope, and eternal life. The actual function of the Law of God is to convert the soul (Psalm 19:7). The Law of God is the biblical means of awakening people to their need for a Savior who will forgive their sins.
The great and terrible wrathful judgment day of the Lord will soon come (1 Thess 1:10). For that reason, we must preach repentance and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior so that the eternal curse of the Law upon them is broken, once and for all. Sharing only the good news that Jesus died on the Cross for their sins will not make sense to them because "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Cor 1:18). The Bible tells us that no one understands it (Psalm 53:2-3; Rom 3:11-12; 8:7). The lost sinner must be led to the light by preaching the whole Gospel, including the fires of hell, for those who reject Jesus as Savior and do not repent of their sin. It is "godly sorrow" that produces repentance (2 Cor 7:10).
"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31 ESV).
The weight of sin's guilt is what causes a person to cry out, "I have sinned against the Lord!" The labor of keeping the Law is a heavy burden for everyone. Only by surrendering one's life to Jesus and receiving Him as Lord and Savior can that burden be lifted and the guilt removed.
Many in the church think they are saved but consistently don't do the "things that accompany salvation" (Heb 6:9). Just because a person 'believes' in Jesus as Lord and professes to know Him does not necessarily mean they are a good tree rooted in Jesus. There are many to whom Jesus will say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matt 7:23 ESV)
Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt 7:13-14 ESV).
No one can convince a person of the deity of Jesus; only God can (Matt 16:17). God reveals that great truth, and it is the Holy Spirit alone who will convict and convince the world of sin, righteousness, judgment, and the reality of Judgment Day (John 16:8).
The fallen human mind cannot understand the judgment of God. Only the Holy Spirit can convict a sinner about their sin and convince them of judgment. We can't do that. All we can do is plant the seed of truth. When the sinner repents of their sin and receives Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within and seals them for life eternal (John 14:17; Eph 1:13). The 10 Commandments given directly by God are the antidote to progressive revisionism because it is the mainstay of the Gospel message.
