The Ten Commandments
The reason God made two tablets of stone was to show the distinction between the laws to obey God and the laws to obey and love man. The 1st Tablet only contains the first four commandants, while the 2nd tablet contains the remaining six commandments.
1st Tablet Toward God
- You Shall Have No Other gods Before Me. (What do you put above God? Is it money, children or health?)
- You Shall Not Make for Yourself a Carved Image of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. (How many statutes of Mary are worshipped today? Or pictures of Jesus that are prayed to? Both are gross sin)
- You Shall Not take the Name of the Lord your God in Vain. (This is broken every day anytime someone says, “Oh God!”)
- Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. (Not going to church on Sunday violates this command, unless one is house bound)
2nd Tablet Towards Man
- Honor your Father and Mother (The first commandment with a promise)
- You Shall Not Murder (Any pre-meditated murder, including Abortion)
- You Shall Not Commit Adultery (Jesus said, if you look at a woman to lust, you have committed Adultery. Jesus also said, this world has temptations, but woe to the person who tempts another)
- You Shall Not Steal. (Taking anything that isn’t yours is stealing, from taxes to a pencil at work)
- You Shall Not Bear False Witness against your Neighbor. (Lying)
- You Shall Not Covet your Neighbor’s wife, his money, his property, or anything that is your neighbors. (It’s a sin to try and “keep up with the Jones”)
This famous work of Moses holding the Ten Commandments was painted by Rembrandt in 1659, this image begs to ask this question, as Christians today, are we still under the Ten Commandments? Many Christians will tell you no, we are not under law, but under grace. This view is sincerely held, but sincerely wrong, let me explain.
Human beings were not created autonomous (meaning free from the law) but theonomous (meaning subject to the law of God) This is not a hardship, because God has created man in such a way that grateful obedience would bring him the greatest joy. Duty and delight would occur at the same time as it did in Jesus.
Unfortunately, the fallen human heart hates God and equally hates His law. Those who have been born again however, find not only that they love the law and want to keep it, but also to please God, out of a heart filled with gratitude for His amazing grace and mercy. The Holy Spirit leads the believer into a degree of obedience that they didn’t know before.
God’s moral law is abundantly set forth in Scripture, in the Ten Commandments, sermons by prophets and Christ, the New Testament letters, and obeying them is always our duty. The Old Testament laws which no longer apply to Christians were given to the Nation of Israel about ceremonial purity, dietary laws, and the sacrificial laws, these were temporary enactments for future realities and instruction. Christians no longer obey these laws because we are under grace, and their symbolic meanings have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. But to refuse to obey God’s moral laws brings His discipline for believers and His wrath for unbelievers, for it dishonors God and hinders our happiness. Again, we were created to find our deepest fulfilment is obeying God’s laws and as we do, we demonstrate gratitude and love the God who first loved us.
Everyone has broken the Ten Commandments, some multiple times daily. God holds His arms out to forgive His children and applies the shed blood of Christ when we repent. But to the unbelieving, to those who hate God and to the cowardly, those who follow sinful lifestyles so they will not be ignored, there awaits a terrifying Day of Judgement. You can ignore it, or not believe it, but it doesn’t change the fact of its reality. As long as you have breath you can ask Christ for forgiveness, but once you “pass on”, it’s too late. “For its appointed unto man to die once, and after this the judgement.”
Praying for Christians to obey and non-believers to repent and seek Christ’s forgiveness. For every person that I have met I wish to see in Heaven with Becki and me.
A slave of Christ Jesus,
John
