The Reason For The Ten Commandments Series

"When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law." (Galatians 4:4 NKJV)

The Ten Commandments are holy, but they do not have the power to save – only Jesus does. The Law was given primarily 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 outstanding at today. The Ten Commandments are what makes a person ready for salvation, but merely abiding by them cannot save a person. 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).

One of the main reasons for the law was to prepare the way for the birth of Jesus (Galatians 4:1-7). The nation of Israel was like an immature child who needed a "guardian" to care for them, instruct and protect them, the way enslaved people in the first century cared for their masters' children. But when children mature, the guardians aren't needed anymore. Jesus fulfilled the Jewish ceremonial system revealed in Exodus and Leviticus, but the moral content of God's law remains. Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament for the church to honor and obey. The Sabbath commandment isn't repeated.

Fulfilling the Law

Jesus didn’t “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” He came “to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17 ESV). All 613 laws were satisfied in the life of Jesus (Hebrews 8:6; Galatians 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.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus accentuated the Ten 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).

"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." (Matthew 5:17 ESV)

Jesus said that He did not come to abolish (Gk: katalyo) or subvert the Law, but to fulfill it. The word "fulfill" (Gk: pleroo) 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 (Matthew 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" (Galatians 5:4 NKJV).

The Law, in its entirety, still serves an essential role in giving advice and instruction in righteousness to the Christian and offers examples of virtue and models of holiness (1 Corinthians 10:6; 1 Timothy 3:16). The Law is incapable of producing salvation. Only Jesus can save and transform a person from the inside out (Romans 7:7-13, 8:30).

The Bible says, "whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction" (Romans 15:4 NKJV). The Law must be used primarily as examples of righteousness for the family and the Church but not as a binding system of works ( Romans 13:8-10; James 2:8-11; 1 Timothy 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 Corinthians 3 ESV; 1 John 2:2). Although Jesus fulfilled and completed the Law, that does not mean Christians can now live anyway and do anything they want without any moral standards.