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.
“You shall not make for yourself an image 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 parents 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.
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20: 1-17
Yesterday we started watching The Ten Commandments, the hours-long epic film from 1956 Starring Charlton Heston.
It’s so long we only managed to reach where Moses is exiled into the desert. It's a beautiful, lavish movie, and must have been breathtaking watching it on the big screen in the late 50s. Even today, it still holds up visually. The writing is poetic, having been adapted from four novels; according to Wikipedia, “The film is based on the 1949 novel Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson,[6] the 1859 novel Pillar of Fire by J. H. Ingraham,[7] the 1937 novel On Eagle's Wings by A. E. Southon,[8] and the Book of Exodus, found in the Bible.”
So today, I tried to remember the actual Ten Commandments off the top of my head and I only remembered eight. The two I forgot were “do not bear false witness” and “do not take the Lord’s name in vain.” It’s interesting forgetting the laws that I’ve read so many times and that are engraved in humanity’s consciousness since we are made in the image of God.
But that’s the point: we forget these laws and break them all the time. We also judged ourselves against the ones we know we cannot break, like don’t bow before an idol or murder. But in reality, Jesus said,
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
Matthew 5:21-22
This means that we have probably broken and forgotten more of the Ten Commandments than we care to admit.
This is why Paul spends so much time on this in Romans, talking about how the law shines a light on our sin and was not made to be perfectly followed because we can’t,
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Romans 3:20
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Romans 7:7
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
James 2:10
So you can see how it is there to shine a light on how guilty we are before we even start to think about obeying it. This is why Jesus Christ came because we were lost to sin,
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:16
Yet we still live in tension with the law and with the saving grace of Jesus Christ because the law must still be upheld. It is still wrong to have idols, to steal, to kill, to covet. We still need to honor the Sabbath. Jesus said, in Matthew 5:17-45 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Jesus also removed condemnation for breaking the law, or us having to bear judgment and the wrath of God for breaking the law for eternity. Instead, we have access to forgiveness of our sins—no matter how great—when we believe and follow in Jesus.