The Ten Commandments

When I went to Sunday school as a young child and we talked about the Ten Commandments, I remember thinking of them as a list of rules that needed to be followed if I wanted to be a Christian. This understanding of course was very shallow and revealed my pride: This was how I could earn God’s favor. I basically saw the Ten Commandments as the measure of a sinless life. I hope you can see the major flaw in my young thinking. I was reading the Ten Commandments with me at the center. It was like God was directly telling me: You can do this, but don’t do that! This was how I needed to behave in order to be a part of His family.

I think a lot of Christians fall into this same trap, treating the Ten Commandments as a program to follow in order to be right with God. Just do these things and God will accept you. But that is not how the New Covenant works. As Christians, God accepts us through faith in Jesus Christ. We no longer live under The Law, because Jesus fulfilled it and its requirements. Instead, we live under the grace of God purchased for us at the cross. 

But the Ten Commandments are still important to us. They teach us deep truths about God and what our lives should look like as we live in a loving relationship with Him! Through the Ten Commandments, the LORD reveals what it should look like for His people to live a righteous and faithful life before him.