The Ten Commandments: A Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Lent
Exodus 20:1–17 NKJV
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 bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“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; 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, but showing mercy to thousands, to 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 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. 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.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which 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, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
We come to the 3rd Sunday in Lent, a season in which we take stock of ourselves and our relation to God. It is a time in which we contemplate who God is, who we are, and how we stand before Him. One of the texts for this week comes out of the Book of Exodus where what we know as the Ten Commandments were given to Israel. We know that these commandments reflect the person of God and perfectly express His will. How do the Ten commandments apply to the Christian today? After all, does not the Apostle Paul say that we are not under Law but grace? (Romans 6:14) Let us now examine the text to see how the Law applies to us.
The first thing we read is that God spoke all these words. Sometimes we refer to the Torah in general and the Ten Commandments as the “Law of Moses.” We can see right away that this is incorrect. These words are not the words of Moses. They were given to Moses by God Himself. This means that they are totally authoritative as the LORD intended them to be used.
The parallel passage to the Ten Commandments is found in Deuteronomy 5 in which the Ten Commandments are stated to be a covenant made between Yahweh and Israel who had been called out of Egyptian slavery by the grace of God. This is stated at the very beginning of the Ten Commandments: “I AM the LORD thy God who brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” We also read from Deuteronomy 5:15 to the Sabbath Commandment:
Deuteronomy 5:15 NKJV
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."
This means that the basis of the Sinai covenant between Yahweh and Israel was based upon grace and mercy and not just a simple listing of things to do or not do. When the Ten Commandments were restated in Deuteronomy (Second Law), the LORD made this rationale abundantly clear. The covenant was not based upon the merit of Israel. Far from it. They were slaves in Egypt. The record also bears that Israel wanted for obedience to Yahweh who had graciously freed them solely by His grace alone.
The nature of the Covenant God made with Israel was unilateral. These commandments were not negotiated between Israel and the LORD. They were imposed. The covenant was also conditional in that the blessings of the covenant were dependent upon Israel’s obedience. It is interesting that Deuteronomy contains twice as many curses as blessings. God was giving Israel the Land of Canaan from the wicked Canaanites who forfeited their rights to it for their iniquity. But if Israel proved unfaithful to the covenant stipulations, they would also be removed from the land. the promise was an everlasting covenant so long as Israel kept it. But as we learn from history, Israel filed and was taken into Babylonian captivity. Bu grace alone by the promise of God, they were restored to the land after seventy years. But even so, they were subject to Persian, Greece, and later Rome in their own land save for a short respite under the Maccabees. Then they were removed again in 70 AD, The New Testament tells us that the second exile was due to their rejection of Jesus. The nation of Israel was again restored after World War 2. Israel, for the moment abides in the Land. But they do not have an unconditional right to it. their rights can be revoked for covenant disobedience. So let Israel beware of its conduct to the other nations around it.
We must remember that the Sinai covenant was between Yahweh and Israel. So whatever use we might make of the Law is derivative. the Christian Church is under a different covenant.
It would do us well to remember that God has made many covenants with the human race. As God cannot be unfaithful to a covenant He has made, the stipulations of a later covenant cannot annul a previous one. The first covenant was made with Adam and Eve. They were given overlordship of all the Garden. The one stipulation was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else they would die. This covenant was unilateral, conditional, and universal, seeing that at that time Adam and Eve constituted the entire human race. They disobeyed and death came to all men as was stipulated in the covenant.
the next covenant was made indirectly to Adam and Eve after the Fall. speaking to the serpent who was cursed to crawl upon his belly and eat dirt also stated that Eve would have a male descendant whose feet Satan would bruise. But this seed would give a death wound to Satan. (Genesis 3:15). This was an unilateral, unconditional, and universal promise which can not be annulled. But it could not annul the previous covenant in which all men must die. It is when we realize that the first covenant of death was fulfilled in Jesus Christ who died for all men even though He was entirely faithful to the covenant. Jesus is also the means for the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15.
The next covenant is the one given to Noah. It was unilateral, unconditional, and universal in scope. God would never us a flood again to destroy the earth. However, this covenant did not annul the previous ones. Noah and all his family would experience physical death. The only condition of this covenant was that those who shed blood would have their blood shed in return The fact that Noah found grace in the sight of the LORD made sure that the covenant of Genesis 3:15 be kept. If Noah did not find grace, then all of the human race would have perished which would have made the promised seed of no effect.
There were two covenants made with Abraham, one in Genesis 15, and the other in Genesis 17. The covenant of Genesis 15 was unilateral, unconditional, and universal in scope. All the nations of the earth would be blessed through this covenant. We know the covenant was unconditional because Joshua 24:2 states that Abraham came from a family of idol worshipers. Therefore, it was made solely by God’s grace and not by merit. Nothing in this covenant annuls any of the previous ones. It does give additional focus as to how God was going to fulfill all of them. It would be through a promised seed, a descendant of Abraham. The unilateral nature of the covenant was so strong that Abraham was unable to personally ratify it. Instead, a substitute passed through the divided animals to ratify the covenant. Jesus ratifies this covenant for both God and man, seeing that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Looking at the Genesis 17 covenant, it was unilateral, conditional, and limited to those of Abraham, his descendants, and his servants. The mark of circumcision was required on the part of men to ratify this covenant. The promises as well as the stipulations of this covenant applied only to these people. Those who were uncircumcised were not part of this covenant, for better or worse. The Ten Commandments do not directly apply to them. This does not mean that the Gentiles were without law. Romans 1 tells us that they had the concept of right and wrong imputed at creation. Gentiles are as much under the curse of Adam as the Jews. We are not under the Law but grace. The Jew needs grace as none have kept the Law. the Gentile needs grace because of the violation of the law of conscience.
So then, what purpose do the Ten Commandments have in the Christian Church? There has been much debate over this. The Ten Commandments as all Scripture do perfectly state God’s will. The law of the conscience does indeed tell all men that murder, adultery, impiety, and other transgressions are sins. If one perfectly kept the law of conscience which comes from God, he would be justified. But all have transgressed this in Adam. The Ten Commandments make things abundantly clear. No one could excuse himself from the law of conscience, and the Ten Commandments make this clearer, so that no one has excuse. Therefore, the teaching of the Ten Commandments are indeed useful for the Christian as well. The problem occurs when the Ten Commandments are wrongfully used to excuse one’s behavior. If one looks rightly into them, he would realize that he has no hope of salvation in them. This means that we need to petition God for grace.
Some see the Ten Commandments as being useful to creating a just society. There are many who feel they belong in every courthouse. The problem is that many of these who want to set up the Ten Commandments as an external standard of morality can not quote all of them. Even in the Church I have found few that can get all Ten right. Some also add commandments which are not in Scripture. How is this helpful when even those who feel that the Ten Commandments are necessary cannot even tell us what the Ten Commandments are. The Ten Commandments were more properly taught at one time in the churches as part of the Catechism. But the Church has loosened its grip on this. If they are to be of any use in society or in the Church. the people must know them.
Another problem with this use of the Ten Commandments is that their context is stripped from them. the rationale for keeping the Ten Commandments is stripped out, leaving a bare list of do’s and don’ts. Gone is the rationale for keeping the Sabbath. Gone is the promise of long life for honoring one’s father and mother. Gone is the promise of mercy to those who keep the commandments as well as that God’s wrath is set to those who do not including their descendants. We have already noted that the preamble has been removed as well which shows that at the very foundation of the law is grace. So the purpose of the law is to help maintain freedom and not to enslave one to them. God did not free Israel from Egyptian bondage to enslave them to the bondage of the Law.
This does not mean that the Christian is free to sin. Paul is certainly right in Romans 6:1-2. The transformation which occur when one accepts Christ is to free us from and not to sin. Jesus fulfilled the covenant of death which Adam and Eve fell into by transgression. He died for all men, paying the obligations of the Covenant. He also fulfilled the Sinai covenant by keeping the Law perfectly. Once the covenant was fulfilled, it loses its force. Many misunderstand what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount when He says that not one jot or tittle will fall from the Law. what they don’t hear are the following words: “until it be fulfilled. The Law is fulfilled in the death of Jesus who kept every jot and tittle. So as long as we are in Him, there is no more curse of the Law upon us.
One should also remember that the New Testament teaches us that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) (1 Peter 1:19-20). We talk about the New Testament as being the New Covenant. Actually, it precedes creation itself. Remember that the unchangeable God cannot annul anything He has established. Before the first transgression, the New Covenant was established in the foreknowledge and predestination of God. I don’t want to enter into the Presbyterian controversy over the order of decrees. Let it be sufficient that is has been the LORD’s will from before the beginning to send his Eternal Son to come, to live among us, to die, to rise again, to ascend, to come again, and to establish the everlasting kingdom.
We reflect this Lent as we do every Lent over our relationship with God. And our conscience still shows us that we have not yet achieved perfection. This can lead us to despair even as Paul so graphically portrays in Romans 7. He wants to do good but cannot perform it. He finally cries out: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall save me from this body of death?” The answer immediately comes to his mind: “But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” There is, therefore, no condemnation if we are in Christ.
The first chapter of 1 John also answer this conundrum. John tells us that God is perfect light without a speck of darkness. Who could come into His presence and not burn to a cinder? We also read that if any man says that he has not sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Notice the present tense is used here. It does not say that we once sinned but no more. We have sin. How do we deal with it. John says that we confess it, and the blood of His Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We can enter into the presence of God because we are in the Son. We indeed mourn our sin. We should forsake it. We must also remind ourselves that the Ten Commandments stripped from the promise and foundation of grace can only lead us to despair rather than hope that the one who has begun a good work in us will complete it in the Day of the Lord Jesus. (Philippians 1:6) Let us not despair too much this season. Rather, let us hope in the promises of God.
