The Bible Truth About the Ten Commandments (Not What Many People Think)

 

The Bible Truth About the Ten Commandments

(Not What Many People Think)

 

I believe that perhaps the greatest barrier to salvation for many people, even those who profess to be Christians, is the failure to understand the true purpose that God gave the Ten Commandments , “The Moral Law”. (Exodus 20: 1-17)

After learning about “The Law” and its source, many people concluded that it seemed to be a good way for mankind to live in harmony within society. Many decided that if they would obey and follow the Law, they would be deemed to be “good” in God’s eyes.  As a result, God would be “pleased” with their behavior and would permit them to enter Heaven when they died. The Bible says that those ideas and assumptions are not only not what God intended, but they are also not true.

To put the Law into proper perspective, it is important to briefly review man’s history as God gave it through the Bible Scriptures.

Background:

From the time of Adam’s fall into sin (Genesis Chapter Three), man has inherited the penalty of death because of disobedience against God’s orders. Man has also been plagued by an inherited  “sin-nature”. That natural tendency to think and act in a manner that puts oneself desires first, even above God’s, is what we all have as part of our personality.  Unfortunately for us, the “conscience” that Adam and Eve gained through eating of the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 3: 22), was not a strong enough support for man’s soul / spirit to overcome the effects of that sin-nature, that had become part of our “carnal” flesh / body. (Romans 8: 5-8)

The same temptations that the Serpent / Satan used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden continue to plague man today, as a constant part of that sin-nature. Those temptations target the senses of the body, and the soul (mind, will and emotions). They are:

·       Lust of the eyes (coveting something because of its “pleasant”/good appearance),

·       Lust of the flesh (coveting something because it is pleasing to the other physical senses), and the

·       Pride of Life (coveting something to enhance one’s position / standing before others)  (1 John 2: 16)

[Later the Devil Satan tried these same temptations against the Lord Jesus in the wilderness after His baptism, but he was unsuccessful. (Matthew 4: 1-11)]

Over the following centuries, through the provocation of God’s Enemy Satan, man’s social behavior declined with an alarmingly increasing rate of violence. The unchecked temptations noted above pitted one person against another, causing tremendous injury and death. The result was such an offense to the Creator God that He flooded the Earth to destroy all mankind except for “righteous Noah” and his family. (Genesis Chapters Six - Eight) Even after “Noah’s Flood”, man’s inherited sin-nature still dominated his behavior, and continued to incline towards evil. Noah’s descendants refused to obey the LORD’s instructions to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth” (Genesis 9: 1), choosing instead to attempt to remain as one group in a place named Babel. Their intent was to follow their own minds and stay where they could create their own society and means of worship. The LORD intervened, confounded their language, and scattered them as He had intended. (Genesis Chapters Nine – Eleven).

Before God Gave the Law / Ten Commandments

Note that after Adam’s sin and fall from God’s Grace, God would continue to deal with each person individually, based on the choices made under the influences of their conscience. (Romans 2: 12-16)  Man was aware of the difference between good and evil, but evil still prevailed, and death still ruled.

Sin was in the world, but the Scripture said, “sin is not imputed (attributed or charged) when there is no law.” (Romans 5: 13)  Our Just and Righteous God would not charge a person with having failed to live up to His Moral standards when there could be any question as to what “standard(s)” were violated. Because of His love for His favored creation man, the LORD moved to implement the next phase of His Plan to restore man to Himself. He would implement His Plan to educate man to the nature of  the “righteousness” that was “His” Standard.

God’s Plan: Through the Abrahamic Covenant

The LORD chose one man, a Syrian named Abram (later called Abraham), through whom He would establish His Covenant (a formal agreement) affecting all mankind. That landmark agreement is known as the “Abrahamic Covenant”. (Genesis 12: 1-3). The LORD promised Abram that if he would leave his homeland and his father and family, and go to a new land, He (The LORD) would make of him a “great nation”, and give him many blessings, and through him would “all the families of the Earth be blessed.”  

That “Blessing” for “all the families of the Earth” would be the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3: 8)  Through His death, burial and Resurrection, He defeated Death, making a path to eternal life for all who would believe in Him, and what He has accomplished for us. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; Romans 10: 9-13) Believers are no longer under the curse of death given as a result of Adam’s sin. However that remained a secret in the mind of God, and it would not be revealed until He was ready to disclose it. (Deuteronomy 29: 29)  [This is another example of the “progressive revelation” of the Scripture.]

Abram obeyed and became “righteous” in God’s sight through his faith. (Hebrews 11: 8-9) Through his obedience, Abraham became the “Father” of God’s favored people, the Nation of Israel through his son Isaac, and grandson Jacob (later renamed “Israel” by the LORD).

Role of Israel:

After the LORD made the Covenant with Abraham, God would continue to deal with each person individually, based on the choices they made under the influences of their conscience. (Romans 2: 12-16)   However, God’s new Plan was to use a select group of people (the Nation of Israel) to serve as His “priests” / intermediaries to bring and teach the rest of mankind (the Gentiles) God’s Moral Standards of Behavior / The Law./ “Ten Commandments (Exodus 19: 1-8)  (Exodus 20: 1-17)

The Ten Commandments / The Law

At this point I ask and encourage you to read Exodus Chapters 19 and 20.

Later in the Bible, the Scripture clarifies several key points:

·       the Law was given specifically to those who were under the Law (Israel), (Romans 3: 19)

·       God was going to teach and apply the Law to all mankind so that no one would be able to argue that they had not sinned / broken a law of God because the Law didn’t apply to them.  

·       Under the Law, all the world had become guilty before God, (Romans 3: 19)

·       because all have sinned; (Romans 3: 23)

·       therefore by the deeds of the law (attempting to do what the Law says) would make no one become “justified” / righteous in His eyes; and most importantly, the true purpose of the Law:

·       for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.  (Romans 3: 19-20) 

The Law was viewed in the Scripture as a “Schoolmaster”. Its purpose was to teach man his limitations, and the need for a Savior to provide for righteousness.(Galatians 3: 22-25)

The people of the Nation of Israel attempted to keep the Moral Law / Ten Commandments so that they could teach others from their own experiences. But they soon learned that God’s standards for behavior were far beyond what anyone could accomplish. Further, Israel’s “Laws” had been expanded to reach a total of 613 rules and regulations, although there was some disagreement as to the accuracy of that specific number. (See: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-origins-and-use-of-the-613-mitzvot ; and   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments   The Scripture clarified that the failure to meet even one of the Commandments resulted in the failure to meet all of them. (Deuteronomy 27: 26; Galatians 3: 10; James 2:10) Also, because God looks on a man’s heart and not just his actions, the Lord Jesus explained that a person’s intent could also be seen as a failure. (Matthew 5: 27-28) 

Israel’s attempts to keep the Law were futile, just as have been the unsuccessful efforts by all others (Gentiles) since then…except of course our Lord Jesus.

 

There is another important factor related to the Moral Law / Ten Commandments that many have not understood. The Law was not intended to be a continuing “yardstick” / measuring device to determine righteous in the sight of God.

One of my teachers (Les Feldick) pointed out something that I had not seen earlier in the Scripture.  Galatians 3: 19 says the Law “was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made:…”  I had understood that the Law was added because of man’s “transgressions”/ sins, but had not appreciated that the Law was only to be necessary until “the seed” (our Lord Jesus Christ) should come “to whom the promise was made”. The term “seed” takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where the LORD God prophesied that the “seed of the woman” would bruise / crush the head of the serpent that brought sin upon mankind. (Genesis 3: 15)  The “promise” was the Abrahamic Covenant, as noted above.  Again, Our Lord Jesus is that blessing, and He came through the lineage of Abraham and the Nation of Israel.

Once Israel’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus had come, the Nation’s people were to recognize who He was, and that He would bring them everlasting righteousness.  (Daniel 9: 20-24) There would no longer be a need for the Law. From that time through the present time, every Jew and Gentile could / would be declared “righteous” in the sight of God (as though they had never sinned), if they placed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 3: 19-31; Galatians 3: 21-26) 

In summary, there is no “self-righteousness”. There is nothing a person can do or perform to enhance their righteousness before God, except to place their faith in Christ Jesus.

Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson