Exodus 20:1-17: The Importance and Relevance of the Ten Commandments

Let’s begin this sermon today with a pop quiz!  How many of you can list the Ten Commandments without looking?  Research indicates that many professing Christians are not very familiar with the Ten Commandments, and Christians who are familiar with them are often confused about them because they struggle to understand the relationship between law and grace.  This has lead to confusion about morality in the church today. 

Add to this the increasing confusion about morality in our culture.  We live in a culture that rejects any notion of absolute truth, and the popular approach to morality and ethics in our day has been called “situational ethics” or “cultural ethics.”  What that means is that morality and ethics are defined by particular situations and cultures, not an overarching standard that transcends all situations and cultures.  The result of such thinking is a culture that believes everyone is ultimately his or her own moral compass and authority on morality.  Sounds like Adam and Eve before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil doesn’t it? 

Situational ethics is not the view of morality that Scripture puts forth.  Scripture paints a world that was created by God and is accountable to its Creator.  The God who created the universe revealed His moral standards to His creatures and will judge the world based upon them.  The Ten Commandments are probably the clearest snapshot of these moral standards in all of the Bible.  Therefore, as God’s people, we need to understand the importance and the relevance of the Ten Commandments.  They hold a central place in the morality of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  My prayer is that we would see the Ten Commandments as God’s gracious revelation of how we are to live and then see the gospel of Christ as the only way to live it.

[20:1] And God spoke all these words, saying, [2] “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. [3] “You shall have no other gods before me. [4] “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. [5] You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. [7] “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. [8] “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. [11] For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

[12] “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. [13] “You shall not murder. [14] “You shall not commit adultery. [15] “You shall not steal. [16] “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. [17] “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:1-17 ESV) Why should believers seek to know and obey the Ten Commandments today?

I.              The Ten Commandments Represent God’s Unchanging Moral Standards for Humanity

The Ten Commandments represent how we as human beings were created to live in the first place because they represent the moral character of God, in whose image we were created.  If we were made to bear God’s image, then we were made to bear God’s morality.  And since God never changes, neither does His morality.  This is why we see God’s moral standards upheld from Genesis to Revelation.  The moral standards of the Ten Commandments are seen before the Mosaic Law is given, within the Mosaic Law itself, and then even after the Mosaic Law in the New Testament.

a.     Morality Before the Law

The moral standards of the Ten Commandments did not begin at Mount Sinai.  In the beginning, when God’s world was perfect, His image bearers were expected to love and obey Him above all else and to love one another as well.  What happened in the fall of Genesis 3:1-7?  Adam and Eve committed idolatry by playing god instead of submitting to God before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This violated the first commandment to have no other gods before Yahweh (Exodus 20:3).  Adam and Eve were expected to keep this commandment and broke it.  What did God curse Cain for?  He cursed Cain for breaking the sixth commandment (Exodus 20:13) and murdering his brother.  The flood was God’s judgment upon mankind’s violence (Genesis 6:13), another breach of the sixth commandment.  In Genesis 9:22-25, Ham dishonored his father Noah, violating the fifth commandment and his offspring was cursed as a result.  Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed for their sexual immorality, which the seventh commandment prohibits (Exodus 20:14).  Finally, we see Joseph’s brothers coveting his beloved position before his father to the point of hating and harming him (Genesis 37).  This was a violation of the tenth commandment (Exodus 20:17).  The point here is that the moral expectations that are found in the Ten Commandments have always been expected of humanity, even before they were written in stone upon Mount Sinai. 

b.    Morality in the Law

The book of Exodus, where God’s people received the Mosaic Law, narrates the events that turned the family of Israel into the nation of Israel and defined them God’s people.  It tells the story of God establishing His people in fulfillment of His promises to the patriarchs.  Part of their establishment as His people was their receiving the His law, and according to Exodus 19:5-6, they way God’s people would reflect the character of God as His treasured possession would be by keeping the law:  [5] Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; [6] and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

What is important to understand about the Ten Commandments is that they actually summarize the entire Mosaic Law.  In the Law of Moses, there were 613 commands, but God says those 613 commands are summarized in the Ten Commandments. So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:28 ESV) And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. (Deuteronomy 4:13 ESV) So the Ten Commandments are the heart of the Mosaic Law. 

c.     Morality After the Law

Finally, we also need to understand that God still calls for the morality of the Ten Commandments after the Mosaic Law in the New Testament.  At this point we need to take a second to also understand how a Christian is supposed to approach the Law, because this can be a confusing matter.  Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it and that it was binding until heaven and earth passed away (Matthew 5:17-20).  So even though we are no longer under the law but are under grace as Christians (Romans 6:14), we also need to understand that we should uphold the law (Romans 3:31) because it is “holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7:12) as long as one uses it appropriately (1 Timothy 1:8-11).  But how do we do so? 

In 1 Corinthians 9:20-21, Paul makes a helpful distinction between “the law” and “the law of God/Christ”: [20] To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. [21] To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  This means that there must be some distinction between items that are still binding and items that are not.  Traditionally, Christians have noticed three kinds of laws in the Mosaic Law: ceremonial laws (which are no longer binding because Christ has fulfilled their purpose), civil laws (which are no longer binding because we do not live under a theocratic system of government as the Jews did), and moral laws (which are still binding because they reflect the unchanging moral character of God).

We know that the morality of the Ten Commandments is binding at all times because New Testament authors consistently point to the Ten Commandments as a standard for how believers are to live (Mark 10:17-22; Romans 13:8-10; Ephesians 4:25-28; 6:1-3).  Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, took the reduction of the 613 laws to ten a step further and reduced the ten to two: to love God and to love one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).  In doing so He was showing us that what the Law ultimately calls for (love for God and neighbor) is called for among God’s people until heaven and earth pass away.

d.    God’s Morality is for Our Good Always

One final thing I want to point out about God’s moral standards is that they are for our good always.  We see this in Deuteronomy 6:24-25: [24] And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. [25] And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.

God’s commandments are not bondage, but are the loving instruction of a Father who wants what is best for His children.  Imagine a world where people kept these commands.  Imagine a world where children always obeyed and respected their parents and they got along, a world without war or violence or acts of hatred towards others, a world where people loved their spouses and remained faithful to them, a world where you never had to worry about your stuff being stolen or your home being broken into, a world with no gossip or slander, but where we always lived in harmony because we spoke the truth in love with one another, a world where everyone was content with what they had and wasn’t jealous of anything anyone else had.  It would be heaven on earth!  Truly God’s moral standards are for our good. 

As God’s people, we must take God’s moral standards seriously and see them as our good always.  As human beings, we are image bearers of God.  We were meant to live and reflect the moral character of God seen in these commands.  The more we keep these commands, the more human we are and the more we disregard these commands, the less human we become.

II.            The Ten Commandments, when Properly Understood, Cause Us to Treasure the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Our Only Hope

a.     Consider the Utter Condemnation the Ten Commandments Pronounce Upon Us

What you will see in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is that the Ten Commandments call for a level of devotion and righteousness that no fallen human being can obtain.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn’t change the Ten Commandments; He interpreted them.  Keeping the Ten Commandments is not just a matter of obeying ten simple rules, but of obeying God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We’re not only to keep the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law as well.  The Law called for complete devotion to God and love for one’s neighbor.  When we understand this reality, the Ten Commandments utterly condemn us.  We break the Ten Commandments everyday because we are broken people.  But by condemning us, these commands reveal our desperate need for grace and for someone to keep them for us.  In condemning us, they ultimately lead us to Christ. 

b.    Consider the Magnitude of Christ’s Atonement in Keeping the Ten Commandments and in Atoning for Our Transgression of Them

Understanding the depth of devotion called for in the Ten Commandments also highlights the magnitude of Christ’s perfect life and substitutionary death.  It is absolutely astounding to think about the reality that Jesus never broke the Ten Commandments, not in motive, thought, word, or deed.  Jesus did more than simply never having sex with a married woman; He never even entertained an impure thought about a woman in His entire life.

Also, understanding the level of devotion demanded by the Ten Commandments amplifies our understanding of just what Jesus’ death paid for.  Our sins are innumerable when you consider just much we actually break the Ten Commandments in motive, thought, word, and deed.  This also helps us appreciate the magnitude of Christ’s atonement: He paid for all of my innumerable iniquities and imputes His impeccable righteousness to me when I trust Jesus for my salvation.  Hallelujah, what a Savior!!!

c.     Consider how the New Birth Enables Us to Keep these Commands as a Means of Sanctifying Grace

The final way that the Ten Commandments point us to the gospel as our only hope is by reminding us that it is only in the new birth that we find the possibility of truly keeping them.  The promise of the new birth is that God will give us new hearts and make our spirits alive so that we can keep His commands (Ezekiel 26:25-27).  In the new birth, God circumcises our hearts and writes His law upon it so that we can love and obey Him (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:31-34).  Keeping the Ten Commandments in only possible for people who’ve been born again.  So now, after conversion, these commands become a means of sanctifying grace to make us more like Christ.