Do You Know the
Ten Commandments?
Do you
remember the 10 Commandments… in order? And
don’t cheat by looking back at the Old Testament reading in your
bulletins! 1) You shall have no other
gods. 2) You shall not misuse the name
of the Lord your God. 3) Remember the
Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. 4) Honor
your father and mother. 5) You shall not
murder. 6) You shall not commit
adultery. 7) You shall not steal. 8) You shall not give false testimony against
your neighbor. 9 & 10) You shall not
covet. These commands are laid out for
us in Exodus 20 and repeated again in Deuteronomy 5, but more importantly, they
are solidified for us to follow in
various New Testament passages as well. And
even though the Ten Commandments aren’t a complete list of instructions, they
do present a general overview of the way we are to live our lives out of thanks
to God. And so they are very important
to keep in mind. They are very important
to keep. Period.
Can You Keep
the Ten Commandments?
But can
you really keep the Ten Commandments?
Whether you are able to remember them in order or not, the more
important question is: are you able to carry them out? Have you, are you, will you, can you follow these ten simple instructions
from our Lord? Now some of the commands
may seem easier than others. The first
commandment for example: “You shall have no other gods” seems simple
enough. As long as we don’t build an
altar to Buddha or perform a ceremonial rain dance to our dead ancestors or bow
down to a golden calf like those misguided Israelites did, then we should be
OK, right? But we must remember that the
first commandment also means that we love God more than anything or anyone at
any time, that we trust in God for everything in every situation without
worrying or complaining at all, that we respect our God and honor him for
everything that he does for any reason.
Do we really keep the first commandment?
Do we really do all of those things all the time in every way?
What
about the 2nd commandment? “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord
your God.” Well, as long as we don’t use
God’s name to justify some evil action or blurt out his name inappropriately,
we should be OK, right? But we have to
remember that the 2nd commandment also means that we pray to our
Lord with confidence and joy at all times, that we praise him for everything
that he gives us and everything that allows to happen to us, that we thank him
with a heart of gratitude even at those times when he takes those blessings
away. Do we really keep the 2nd
commandment? Do we really do all of
those things all the time in every way?
The 3rd
Commandment isn’t just fulfilled because we’re at church this morning. It also has to do with our attitude while we’re
here, our focus, our attention, our joy in studying his Word on our own, and
our dedication to do so every single day of our lives. The 4th Commandment doesn’t just
deal with parents but with all those in authority - requiring us to treat
employers and government officials with the utmost respect - whether they
deserve it or not. The 5th, 6th,
and 7th Commandments are not only broken by committing the act
itself, but by any thought that might cross our minds contrary to the Lord’s
Word. The 8th Commandment has
to do with all sins of the tongue and all of those unchristian comments we make
about other people. And the 9th
& 10th Commandments demand of us an attitude of contentment and
satisfaction with whatever the Lord has granted us - and with whatever he has
not. Do we really keep these Ten
Commandments? Do we really do all of these
things all the time in every way?
The Impossibility of the Law
It’s
almost depressing, isn’t it? When we
start to look at everything that is covered by each of these ten simple
commands, it’s disheartening to think of all the things we’d have to do and all
the things we’d constantly have to be thinking in order to keep just one of
them! And so when we take these commands
seriously and we don’t water them down and we don’t take shortcuts, then we begin
to realize that we truly can’t keep them.
Not only have we failed to keep them in the past and not only are we
probably going to slip up in the future, but we aren’t even capable of keeping one
of these commands no matter how hard we try!
We’re too sinfully slanted! We’re
too riddled with the sinful thoughts and sinful wants and sinful inclinations
that have plagued us ever since we began to exist. And so when it comes right down to it: Keeping
God’s law is an impossibility for us. It
is completely out of our reach. Our Lord
has actually demanded something of us that we cannot do. But that’s the point.
The number
reason why the Lord gives us the Ten Commandments along with every other
mandate in his Word is not so that we can reach some level of perfection by
keeping them, but to point out that we cannot.
The apostle Paul says it in this way: “No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law;
rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin” (Rom. 3:20). God’s law reveals who we really are; and
it’s not pretty! God’s law is the
standardized test to see where we stand; and we aren’t even close to a passing
grade. Because the “passing grade” is
100% after all; and we can’t get a single one of those commands right. God’s law is meant to look us right in the
eye and convince us over and over again: We can’t. We can’t.
We can’t. Because only then can
we truly appreciate that Jesus could.
And Jesus did.
God Did What We
Could Not by Sending Jesus
“We
can’t. He could. He did.”
That is the message of Paul in the book of Romans and that is the
message of the entire Bible. We can’t.
He could. He did. God the Father sent God the Son to this earth
not just to suffer and not just to die and not just to rise from the dead;
Jesus was also sent to keep every single one of those commandments that we
could not. Someone had to do it because
that’s what our God demanded. And so
Jesus did it. Jesus became a real human
being and carried out everything that his Father demanded from human
beings. From front to back, start to
finish, Jesus was actually able to keep each command, every directive, and all
of the decrees laid out for us in Scripture.
And not only could he do it, he did do it.
Jesus
always honored, always trusted, always loved his Father above everything and
everyone else; he kept the 1st Commandment perfectly. Jesus always prayed to, always praised, and
always thanked his Father no matter what he was going through and no matter
what he was about to face; he kept the 2nd Commandment
perfectly. Jesus always gathered
together with his followers to worship, he constantly studied the Scriptures,
he joyfully immersed himself in the Word; Jesus kept the 3rd
Commandment perfectly. And the 4th
and the 5th and the 6th, 7th, 8th,
9th, 10th, and the hundreds of other specific commands
required of us all. And Jesus did not
falter, he did not slip up, he did not forget, he did not even fail to carry
every one of them out with joy. Jesus could do what we could not. And he did what we never will.
Do you
realize how difficult that must have been for Jesus? Yes, he was and still is God himself, but
while he was on this earth he put those powers away and was a real human
being. Can you imagine how much effort
and concentration it must have took Jesus to constantly keep every one of his
Father’s commands throughout his entire life?
And you can be sure that the devil was at him night and day trying to
trip him up. Jesus didn’t have it
easy. It wasn’t a walk in the park for
him to keep every decree of Scripture.
It certainly took an incredible amount of dedication and a tireless
resolve on the part of our Lord every waking moment of his 33 years on this
earth. But, unlike us, he could. And, unlike us, he did.
What Jesus Did
We are Credited with
So what
does all of this mean for us right now on March 11th, 2012? This is what it means: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus… For what the law was unable to do because it was weakened by the sinful flesh,
God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And concerning sin, he condemned sin in that
flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law would be fulfilled
in us.” The law was “weakened by the
sinful flesh.” It was weakened because
it could not be kept. Theoretically, if
someone could keep the law perfectly in every respect, that person would be able
to go to heaven. But that possibility is
not realistic at all because of our sinful nature. And so God did what the law could not do: he
saved us. And he did that by sending his
Son in the form of our human flesh so that our sin could be condemned in that
flesh of Christ. Jesus kept God’s law
for us and then he took the punishment that we deserved for breaking God’s
law. And because he did all of that,
“the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us!”
To
summarize Paul’s line of thought: We can’t.
He could. He did. We
can’t keep the law as we should because we’re too sinful. Jesus
could keep the law because he came down to this earth not only as a real
human being but also as the perfect God at the same time. And Jesus
did keep that law just as it should have been kept by us all. And now, because of Christ, it is as if we kept
those righteous requirements ourselves, it’s as if we were able to do what we
needed to do. Jesus gave us the credit
while he took the blame! It’s an amazing
switch, isn’t it? It’s an astonishing
act of grace on the part of our Lord to do something like that for us! That he would do all the work, that he would
put in all the effort, but then he would give us all of the rewards of his
sacrifice. Our God is a wonderful
God! He certainly is a God of love.
And that
also puts the Ten Commandments in a different light for us, doesn’t it? We know now that we do not need to keep them
perfectly to get to heaven or to earn God’s favor; Jesus has done that for us
already. So now, for us as Christians,
the Ten Commandments are not only a mirror that show us our sins but also a
guide. They have become opportunities
for us to show our thanks and to give our praise to our Lord. They are still commands, but they are not
requirements for salvation. They are
still necessary, but not essential to keep perfectly for eternal life. Instead, the Ten Commandments and the
directives and the decrees of God’s Word are simply ways in which we can please
our God. And why wouldn’t we want
to? Why wouldn’t we want to try to do
those things for our God who has done so much for us? After all, we know: We couldn’t. He could.
And he did. That is the message
of Scripture. That is the basis of our
salvation. And that is the motivation of
our lives every day. We can’t. He could.
He did.
Amen.
“May the Lord direct
your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” - 2 Thess. 3:5
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