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.


Foundational Beliefs

God’s eternal purpose is to glorify His Son. The Son is the Beloved of the Father. The One in whom He is well-pleased (Matthew 17:5) and in whom is all His delight (Isaiah 42:1). It is the Son who is at the Father’s side (John 1:18) and has a unique oneness with Him in His eternal love (John 17:21-26). God created the world with its present design in accordance with this eternal purpose. He further gave these particular laws to govern it as an expression of His righteous nature to glorify His Son. This gets at an answer to the Why question. Why, for example, a law against adultery? Why constitute human relations in this particular way? It is because God would have His Son glorified and reveal His nature as faithful. God designed marriage to reflect Christ’s covenant relationship with His bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Since Christ is always covenantally faithful to His church, marriage must be governed by a law that reflects that faithfulness. This eternal purpose to glorify the Son becomes a hermeneutical tool for our understanding of God’s Law. I wonder how much popular, non-covenantal theology has contributed to Christian divorces?

A Christ-centred interpretation is necessary to understanding all of Scripture. Jesus said the whole Old Testament was about Him (Luke 24:27; John 5:39) including the Law of Moses (Luke 24:44). Christ is revealed throughout the Old Covenant Scriptures in symbols, prophecies, poetic expressions, the history and persons of Israel and in the Law. It’s all about Him. That means to interpret the Ten Commandments as simply the summary of God’s moral law to reveal and restrain sin as well as to guide Christian ethics (all due respect to Calvin), is to fall short of the full intent of the law. Christ must be seen in these commandments before any of these other uses of the Law can be adequately understood and applied.

The Old Covenant Law prepared people for Christ. Galatians 3:24 makes it clear that the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. That means far more than the Law revealing our need of Christ through its conviction of sin. The Law being enforced over a long period of time in a particular society would produce a way of life that would prepare the people to receive Christ. A worldview and societal structures would develop that provide a context of authority, accountability, justice and freedom for the gospel. For example, the fifth commandment requiring the honour of parents would develop a vertical worldview of authority and submission with its attendant mindset of accountability. Such notions of autonomous freedom and its stepchild, relativism, would be seen as unrealistic at best. In such an environment of acknowledged absolute authority and ultimate accountability, the gospel makes sense as the only real solution for sinners. In a culture of individualism and relativism, it does not. This is similar to C S Lewis’ intent for the Chronicles of Narnia. It was not that children would be saved by reading of Aslan’s sacrifice, but it would put gospel themes into their little minds so when they heard the gospel, they would recognise it and come to faith. The Chronicles of Narnia were designed to prepare children for the gospel. So it is with the law, which testified of the gospel (Romans 3:21), not just by showing us our sin, but by establishing structures and a worldview that would make Christ the obvious answer. God’s law is gracious because it provides the context in which we are led to the gospel. I wonder how much postmodernism owes to poor parenting and a lack of enforcing of the fifth commandment? This may also say something about the importance of biblical law governing societies.

Christ fulfilled the Law in His person and work. Jesus expressed this clearly in the Sermon on the Mount. He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. Whatever ‘fulfil’ means, it cannot mean ‘abolish.’ Rather, Christ fills the law full of its true meaning. Christ accomplishes the requirements of the Law as well as suffering the penalties of the Law for disobedience. In Christ all the blessings of the covenant are won and all the curses removed. More than that, Christ gives substance to the pictures, symbols and shadows of what the Law revealed. It is as if the Law was a mould from which a vague impression of an image could be discerned, but Christ is the plaster-of-paris which fills up the mould and gives us the very image itself. Jesus Christ is the One this worldview of the Law points to without abolishing the worldview, but filling it full of ultimate and eternal meaning. This means the Ten Commandments cannot be properly applied without interpreting them through Christ and His work. Surely this is the key to resolving the present controversy over observing the Sabbath today.

The Ten Commandments then establish a way of thinking and living that reveal Christ and His redemption. Sometimes they do this by picturing His work (seventh commandment against adultery), sometimes by providing a worldview that gives context to the gospel (fifth commandment to honour authority), sometimes by establishing a repeated pattern that Christ brings finality to (fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy). Historically the Ten Commandments have been interpreted as having a prohibition and its implied opposite requirement. Most of the commandments are stated negatively because Christ is the One who gives them all their positive fulfilment.

Christ in the Ten Commandments

And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:1-3). This first commandment reveals monotheism and establishes exclusivity in the Redeemeds’ relationship with God. He is the only God, and therefore, the only God to be worshipped. There is no other true and living God, and therefore, no other gods are to be worshipped. There is exclusivity with God. This becomes the necessary basis from which to understand the further revelation of the Trinity. There are not three Gods but one God in three distinct, inseparable persons. The exclusivity is then seen in terms of the Triune Godhead. This commandment is essential, not only because of its face value of God not sharing His glory with another, but also in terms of the exclusivity of the way to this one God. The exclusiveness of the gospel and of Christ being the only way to the Father (John 14:6) is the New Covenant impact of this commandment. Having been trained by this command to think of God and His worship in exclusive terms, the exclusive claim of the gospel in His one and only Son (John 1:14) is not so shocking. It becomes obvious that if there is only one true and living God who is triune, and the Son is the exclusive way to this God, then “no one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23). Pluralism is not just an attack on the first commandment, but on the gospel itself.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6). God forbids, not the use of images per se, but the use of images for worship. That is, using an image of God to represent Him in worship would only serve to misrepresent Him, and consequently, corrupt His worship and the worshipper. Yet God is not against all visible images used to represent Him. God Himself created man in His own image to visibly represent Him and His righteous rule over His physical creation. Surely the prohibition in the second commandment is against man-made images used to represent God in worship, such as the golden calf (Exodus 32). But there is one image of God we must worship, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3). He is the perfect visible representation of God being both God Himself and an uncorrupted Man created in God’s image. This is the only image that does not misrepresent God. The force of this prohibition then would be an ingrained aversion to man-made images of God so that we would worship God rightly through His only true image, Jesus Christ our Lord.

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7). God’s name is a revelation of His nature and of His relationship to His people. His name is to be praised as holy and with honour. How we treat His name is how we treat Him. The fearful reverence that this third commandment instills in us prepares us for the One who has been given a name above every name. The Father would honour and glorify His Son. He does so by giving Him this name before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. That name is Jesus who is Lord over all (Philippians 2:9-11). The third commandment, as the first two, requires us to know God through Christ Jesus, for this is His most glorious name.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11). “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:15). The pattern of Sabbath rest was ingrained in the lifestyle of Israel. There were the weekly Sabbaths, the sabbatical year, the Sabbath of Sabbaths called the year of Jubilee and the festival Sabbaths of the Passover, Firstfruits and Harvest (Pentecost). Death was the penalty for breaking the Sabbath. As given in Exodus, the Sabbath was grounded in creation so there is a natural aspect to it, namely that we need rest. As given in Deuteronomy, it is grounded in the freeing of Israel from bondage in the Exodus event so there is a picture of redemption in it, namely that we must find our rest from slavery to sin in God’s redemption. The Sabbath then pictures our rest in Christ. He is our Passover in His crucifixion and the Firstfruits in His resurrection giving us rest from God’s wrath and from the deadness of our sinful souls. He is the One who brings in the full Harvest by sending the Spirit at Pentecost from His exalted session at the Father’s right hand, giving us rest from the law written on stone to the living power of the law in our hearts. He forgives our debt of sin to God, sets us free from our slavery to sin and restores an eternal inheritance to us as our Sabbath year and Jubilee. He is our weekly Sabbath bringing us into New Covenant worship, free from repeated sacrifices, through rest in His once-for-all sacrifice. And if we do not find our rest in Christ, the penalty is that we will perish. The Sabbath pattern of the fourth commandment developed a mindset of looking for rest from God, ultimately in Christ. This is what any Sabbath or Lord’s Day observance must emphasise today. A list of restrictions to keep the Sabbath holy, wholly misses the point. Incidentally this is why I am not a Sabbatarian, strictly speaking, yet would support Sabbath legislation restricting business operations on Sundays. A Sabbath pattern in society provides a context for the gospel while personally I am free in Christ from the Old Covenant regulations.

“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). As stated above, this commandment established a structure of life and society that views the world in terms of vertical authority-submission relationships. This provided a worldview in which submission to Christ as King, and His gospel as a command to the nations would make sense (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 17:30; Psalm 2).

“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13). The murder of a human being is the destruction of God’s image. It is that destruction which invokes the death penalty for premeditated murder (Genesis 9:6). Only God can give life so only God has the right to take life, or those God appoints, such as human government (Romans 13:1-7). Restitution for murder is possible only for someone with the power of resurrection, so the murderer’s life is forfeit. This commandment against murder with its attendant death penalty would produce a God-centred view of the sanctity of human life. Life and death are God’s domain. We, however, are people of death for we cannot produce life from the dead. By our sin we have murdered God’s image in us and are unable to make restitution. This means we deserve death. Only Someone with the power of resurrection, the power to give life can free us from our just deserts. Christ is the giver of life (John 5:21) and is Life itself (John 14:6). He has the power of death and of Hades (Revelation 1:18). He takes the believing sinner’s death penalty upon Himself and makes restitution for us by His resurrection from the dead. Thus the sixth commandment leads to a Christological hope and anticipation of resurrection.

“You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14). Marriage is the only true covenant relationship we have these days. Contracts and voluntary associations, such as sports teams or schools, have some covenantal elements, but marriage is truly a covenant relationship in biblical terms. This commandment against adultery emphasises the sanctity of the marriage vows. As such it reflects the covenant faithfulness of God Himself. Ephesians 5:22-33 makes it clear that marriage was designed to incarnate the gospel. It has been said that every marriage preaches the gospel, poorly or truly. The seventh commandment was given by God to protect this covenant relationship because Christ is a faithful husband to His bride, the Church, and the Church is to be a faithful wife to her husband, Jesus Christ. As the very definition of marriage is under attack today, more is at stake than simple family values. The very demonstration of the gospel that permeates everyday life is under threat. We must fight for marriage, biblically defined and instituted, for the sake of the gospel itself.

“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15). God’s law concerning the protection of private property included a whole system of restitution. If a thief stole an amount of money, double that amount was to be paid back. Double because if only the amount stolen was returned, it would be as if he had borrowed the money. For those who could not make restitution, indentured servitude was in order. The thief would sell his labour to someone who would pay the restitution to the victim. The thief would then serve this master until the debt was paid off (Exodus 22:1-4; 21:2-11). This established the pattern of redemption in the very fabric of society. We have stolen life from God as sinners going our own way. We do not have the resources to make restitution for our sin and indebtedness to God. Christ, however, does have this ability and makes the double restitution for us in His active obedience of righteousness and His passive obedience of death. In doing so, He purchases us as His servants and sets us free from our slavery to sin.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16). The sanctity of truth is essential since Christ Himself is Truth (John 14:6). The specific issue in this commandment is the truthfulness of one’s testimony in court. Such true testimony is foundational to justice in trying a case. That justice was guarded especially in capital offense trials with the necessity of two or three witnesses. Multiple testimony would either reveal lies or establish the truth. The gospel is established as true on the basis of testimony from multiple witnesses. Christ demonstrates He has been sent from the Father as the God-Man by appealing to truthful witnesses in John 5:31-47. The resurrection of Christ is verified by a multitude of testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Christians are called to be witnesses of Christ and His gospel today (Acts 1:8). The ninth commandment called for the sanctity of truthfulness in witnesses so that the gospel would be firmly established by the apostolic testimony.

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:17). Here the heart of the Law is revealed. That is, the Law required more than just external obedience. It required obedience from the heart. Inward motives and desires are required by this prohibition against covetousness. All the other commandments could be broken by a motive of covetousness which Colossians 1:9 says is idolatry. It is this command that the Pharisees ignored, focussing only on outward conformity. It is this commandment that revealed to Paul his sinfulness (Romans 7:7-12). This commandment must have been a source of constant frustration in the Old Covenant situation. There was nothing in the law written on stone to change the covetous heart. Nothing to give a desire for obedience, a motive for God’s glory or a spirit of holiness. This was intentional to point toward the need for a New Covenant. A covenant which would not be broken as the Law had been, one which would be engraved on the heart granting the desire to obey, one which would be implanted by the Holy Spirit in every believer giving the ability to obey was needed. This is exactly what the New Covenant effected (Jeremiah 31:31-34; 32:38-40). True obedience to Christ requires heart devotion. The law written on stone, externally enforced could only frustrate such devotion. But in Christ we serve in the newness of the Spirit, not the oldness of the letter, because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6). Now the righteous requirements of the Law are fulfilled, not frustrated, in us by the Spirit (Romans 8:4).

Conclusion

God gave these specific Ten Commandments to point to Christ. All this may raise more questions than it answers. The implications of a Christ-centred interpretation of the Ten Commandments are vast and require further consideration. However, this much seems clear, the very patterns of the gospel were built into the structures of society in which these commandments were enforced. Things such as redemption from slavery in the eighth commandment, the nature of a covenant relationship in the seventh commandment, the need for a substitutionary death and resurrection in the sixth commandment and the structure of authority in the fifth commandment provided a context and worldview that made the gospel in Christ meaningful. As society moves further away from these structures and values, the gospel makes less sense to people. That does not mean the gospel message is no longer the power of God unto salvation. It simply means much more pre-evangelism must be done. Much of what such pre-evangelism involves is God’s Law summarised in the Ten Commandments, both by personal application to sinners and by the restoration of societal structures.