Ten Commandments – Biblical Solution

By Stephen McDowell (this excerpt comes from the book which can be ordered here: Ten Commandments and Modern Society )

If someone came to you and asked, “What must I do to obtain eternal life?”, how would you respond? Jesus was asked this question at least twice. When a rich young ruler came to Him asking this question Jesus responded by saying: “You know the commandments,” and then he briefly stated the last six commandments (Mark 10:17-19; Luke 18:18-20).

When a lawyer asked Jesus this question (Luke 10:25-28), Jesus in turn asked him “what is written in the Law?” The lawyer responded by quoting from the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” This was a summary of the Ten Commandments. Jesus said to this man, “You have answered correctly,” and then quoting from the law (Lev. 18:5) stated, “Do this, and you will live.”

Jesus is not saying that we earn our salvation by our works or bykeeping the law, for salvation is the gift of God and given by His grace. But Jesus is reiterating what all the Bible teaches — that His Law/Word, which is summarized by the Ten Commandments, contains principles that, if obeyed, produce life — life for men and nations — but if ignored, produce death (see Dt. 28).

God showed His love to mankind by giving us His Law/Word and sending us His Son, a living demonstration of His Word. We in turn show our love to Him by obeying His commands. Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep my commands.”

The fruit of Jesus’ atonement and of His sending the Holy Spirit to live in us is life for mankind. How is this life produced in us? The Holy Spirit enables redeemed man to do His will and walk in His truth — that is, to follow His commands. His law is now written in our hearts. The Spirit empowers us to keep His commands, which produces life for us on this earth.

The first step in salvation is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2). But salvation is much more than a one-time event or experience. We are to walk out our salvation; we are being saved everyday. Salvation includes appropriating all the blessings of God into our lives; it includes the restoration of man to the original creation order, where he is carrying the image of God and fulfilling the purpose of God to rule and subdue the earth. This comes through obedience to His word. In this sense, keeping His commandments brings life and salvation.

To summarize, we are not justified by the Law, but we are sanctified by the Law (with the Spirit of God working in us enabling us to obey His commands). Knowing and obeying the commands of God are essential for life.

Jesus said to the rich ruler, “You know the commandments.” Unfortunately, He cannot say the same thing to most Americans today, including most American Christians, because most Christians do not know the commandments, nevertheless obey them. A survey taken of 500 men at the Promise Keepers Washington, D.C., gathering (these were sincere and devoted believers) in the fall of 1997, revealed that a majority could not name the Ten Commandments, and only 1 out of the 500 could name them in the order they appeared in their Bibles. Jesus said a man will live if he keeps God’s statutes. It is no wonder that the life and blessing of God are leaving our nation.

For a nation to be great it must have the presence of God and the law of God (see Dt. 4:5-8). This was true for ancient Israel as well as early America. As America has rejected God’s presence and God’s law, America has declined in greatness.

Attack on the Ten Commandments

We are a nation whose laws were based upon God’s higher law. This higher law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, used to be taught to all Americans, was greatly revered, and all looked to obey it. Today, few obey, revere, or even know His commands. Many people are doing all they can to remove any vestige of His law from our nation, claiming they are a great detriment to society.

The most noted assault has come against Judge Roy Moore of Alabama and a plaque of the Ten Commandments he has hanging on a wall of his courtroom. A federal judge ruled it was unconstitutional for him to display the commands. In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that the public schools of Kentucky could not display the Ten Commandments on the walls. The Court said: “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments.”

This would certainly be a horrible situation! Just imagine if our children obeyed the Ten Commandments — “You shall not murder.” “You shall not steal.” “Honor your father and your mother.” “You shall not commit adultery.” “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” “You shall not covet . . . anything that belongs to your neighbor.” — to name some.

You can see how dangerous this is! It just might solve all our problems if our citizens obeyed these precepts. About 1.7 million Americans are behind bars today — 1 in every 155. To learn to not steal or murder might not be too bad an idea to help deal with this problem. Marriages ending in divorce have increased exponentially in the last three decades — to learn not to commit adultery seems to be a pretty good idea. And we could go on and on how the commandments (and their positive corollaries) are just what our nation needs to solve all our national problems. But in order to apply the principles of life contained in the commandments, we must first know them. If Christians do not thoroughly understand them, they will never be infused in the law and life of our nation. Before we briefly examine the Ten Commandments take a moment and see how many of them you can write from memory.

The First Table

The Ten Commandments are given in the Scriptures in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. They are the summation of the law/word of God. They contain general principles that when applied, both positively and negatively, produce the fruit of His Kingdom in our personal lives and in our nation. They have application in all spheres of life, both internally and externally. These are not mere rules that God made up to restrict man, but flow from the very nature of God Himself. They form the foundation upon which the moral and social universe should function. The Ten Commandments are the basic law of God that contain broad principles from which other specific laws flow. Examples of some of these specific laws, or case laws, can be seen in various parts of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

The summary that follows merely touches on each of the commandments, and is in no way complete. It is to introduce to you these principles of life. The first four commandments are often called the First Table and deal with man’s relationship with God.

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.

The prologue to the commandments is stated in Exodus 20:1-2: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” This reveals God is our LORD and our savior and deliverer. He is the one and only true God — “Here, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD” (Dt. 6:4) — therefore, we are to have no other gods before Him. Any other gods would be mere inventions of man.

Since there is only one God, there is only one source of law.

The first commandment has to do with the source of authority and law, both in our personal life and in our nation. Each commandment has application for the individual, family, church, business, school, and civil government — both internally and externally.

There is one God and, hence, one law, for He is the source of that one law. We live in a universe because He is the unifying factor. Polytheism (which includes humanism) implies we live in a multiverse with many law orders flowing from many gods. Man cannot live under one law in this system except by use of force or imperialism.

To modern man, with a humanistic or evolutionary view of law, every man is his own law-system, because there is no over-arching absolute law. The end result of each man being a law unto himself is anarchy. To force one law upon everyone requires imperialism by those in authority. Civil government will grow larger and stronger and more intrusive in the affairs of the citizens. It will usurp the authority and responsibilities of the individual, family, church, business, etc. The fruit is loss of liberty.

God forbids man being a law unto himself: “You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes” (Dt. 12:8). Since there is one God, there is one law, and there is one truth. The first command tells us that we should not have any other god (or law or truth) before or besides Him.

The Lord is one, absolute, unchanging God. His Law/Word expresses His nature and character and truth, and is also absolute and unchanging. Therefore, to change from a Biblical law-system to another law-system is to change gods. America and western civilization are undergoing a change of law-systems today. God and His law is the source of righteousness, of what is right. The law defines the legitimate and illegitimate members of society. It declares who is an “outlaw,” that is, who is outside the law. God is the source of power to uphold the law. He has delegated to man, through the divine institutions of family, church, and state, the power to punish those who break the law. Each institution has authority in dealing with matters under its jurisdiction. Understanding this is important when executing justice when the law is violated. God reveals the jurisdictions and means of punishment in His Word. In civil matters, involving the actions of men, civil government has authority (Rom. 13, 1 Pet. 2).