Free Grace Baptist Church

Introduction

Why did God give the Ten Commandments? I ask the question not in terms of the various uses of the Law, but in terms of God’s reason for giving these ten particular laws as morally binding. There is no standard of righteousness outside of God’s own nature. There is no law that is compulsory for Him to command other than that which is an expression of His own righteous nature. Yet many of the Ten Commandments do not seem to be necessary expressions of God’s own righteousness. For example, the second commandment against images cannot mean that God is averse to every representation of Himself because He created man in His image. Consider also the fourth commandment of Sabbath rest. God could have created creatures who do not need rest. After all, the rest our Sabbath is patterned on was not God’s own weariness. Also, the eighth commandment against stealing can only be a moral issue if there is such a thing as personal property. God could have designed the world without this and therefore, without any law against stealing. No doubt God legislates from His own righteous nature, but it seems He could have designed the world so that the Ten Commandments could have been different. Why did He create the world as it is with these laws to govern us in it? Why did God give these ten commandments? I suggest the answer to this question rests on the following foundational beliefs.
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