godlyPOV

The lesson library / Lesson 15

God’s law and the Ten Commandments

Explain the enduring moral authority of God’s commandments, their fulfillment in Christ, and their proper use under grace.

Humanity, sin, law, and covenant

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Exodus 20:1-26 · Matthew 5:17-32 · Romans 7:1-25 · Romans 13:1-14

A common mistake is to assume that because obedience cannot purchase salvation, obedience must be irrelevant to a saved person. The conclusion doesn't follow. A rescued person has not become entitled to ignore the rescuer's authority. Scripture distinguishes the basis of acceptance with God from the life God commands. Keeping those questions separate makes the relationship between law and grace much clearer.

Read Exodus 20:1-17

1 God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “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.”

The opening identifies the God who brought Israel out of bondage. The commandments are not instructions for earning the exodus after it has happened. They establish how the rescued people are to live before their Redeemer. Notice also that the fourth commandment specifies the seventh day. Treating it as merely any convenient day requires an argument the wording itself does not supply. The commands reach worship, speech, work and rest, family duty, life, marriage, property, truth, and even desire.

Read Matthew 5:17-30

17 “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.
19 Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’
22 But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
23 “If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
25 Agree with your adversary quickly while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.
26 Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’
28 but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
30 If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.

Jesus presses beneath the surface of behavior. Avoiding the final act of murder does not make cultivated hatred righteous. Avoiding physical adultery does not make deliberate lust innocent. That is not a lowering of the standard. Nor is fulfillment a word that can be defined independently of everything else Jesus says here. Christ fulfills the Scriptures and their saving purpose. His followers still need to listen when He explains the obedience God requires.

A command can function in more than one way. It reveals God’s will, exposes wrongdoing, restrains evil, and directs the conduct of someone already reconciled to Him. Confusion begins when one function is treated as the only possible one. Because the law cannot justify a sinner, someone concludes it cannot instruct a believer. But inability to perform one task does not imply uselessness for every task. A map cannot repair a broken engine; that does not make the map unhelpful for choosing the road. The comparison has limits, but the logical distinction matters. Christ supplies salvation, and His word still directs the saved life.

Read Romans 7:7-13

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.

Paul repeatedly protects the goodness of the law while describing the destructive work of sin. The command exposes what is wrong; it does not create righteousness in the sinner by itself. Christians debate exactly how to locate the struggle described in the latter part of the chapter. The argument still makes one thing plain: deliverance comes through Jesus Christ, not through congratulating the flesh on its intentions. The law is an accurate standard, but a standard is not the same thing as a Savior.

Read Romans 13:8-14

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.
12 The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light.
13 Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

When Paul says love fulfills the law, he names commandments. He doesn't replace them with a feeling that can justify their opposites. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; adultery, theft, and murder do. The SDB World Federation likewise places the Ten Commandments within the principle of love. That does not turn commandment-keeping into a second Savior. It explains what faithful love looks like. If love is used to excuse conduct God calls evil, the definition of love needs to be checked.

Read the commandments as a call to faithful love under God's authority. Let them expose sin, direct conduct, and send you to Christ when they reveal failure. Do not use obedience as a receipt demanding that God pay you. Do not use grace as a document declaring His commands void.

Consider your perspective

God's commandments make obedience more definite than following a vague sense of goodness. Grace changes our standing before God and our motive for obeying; it does not make His righteousness irrelevant or turn obedience into the price of acceptance.

Put it into practice

Study one command you find inconvenient. Consider its application in light of Christ's completed work, then make one change motivated by gratitude rather than an attempt to earn salvation.

Reflect and respond

  • Which command have you treated as less serious because it is inconvenient?
  • How does Christ’s finished sacrifice affect the application of Old Testament commands?
  • Can you distinguish obedience as fruit from obedience as payment?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.