Jesus & The 10 Commandments
Thursday, July 07, 2022
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 6:17-20
Jesus did not come to destroy or 'do away' with the ten commandments. It is just as binding now as it was when He Himself gave it from the Mount Sinai. Jesus pointed to the law, He kept it perfectly and He magnified it, just as it was prophesied that he would.
"The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable." Isaiah 42:21
When the rich young ruler came to Christ, to ask what he must do to be saved, this is what Jesus answered:
"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Matthew 19:16-19
Paul agrees with Christ. According to Strong's concordance, establish means: to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything. To make firm, fix establish. To cause a person or a thing to keep his or its place.
"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31
The Ten Commandments are not a shadow of things to come, as the sacrificial services and Jewish festivals were. They are a law of liberty. (James 1:25)
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7:12
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."1 John 5:2-3
Let's take a look at them.
10 Commandments
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Jesus said over and over, that God must be first in our lives. Over positions, riches, family, popularity, all else. This was why so many turned away.
The rich younger ruler went away sorrowful, because he was lacking. He did not love God more than he loved his possessions.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Christ magnified this commandment, not by doing away with it, but showing the importance of it.
"Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black." Matthew 5:33-36
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Jesus kept the Sabbath, and showed how it was to be kept - despite the Pharisees falsely accusing Him of breaking it, just as they falsely accused Him of blasphemy, treason and more. Jesus declared the Sabbath - the Lord's day, for it was His day from creation.
"For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." Matthew 12:8 (Also Mk. 2:28 & Luke 6:5)
"Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?" Luke 6:9
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
"For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." Mark 7:10-13
This commandment was disregarded through greed, children using 'corban' to take advantage of parents and devolve themselves of their responsibility to their parents. All while calling it a gift to God.
Both Jesus and Paul commented on this commandment.
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Ephesians 6:1-3
6. Thou shalt not kill.
Jesus magnified this commandment, as did John.
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5:21-22
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” 1 John 3:15
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:27-28
Jesus went to the heart of this issue. He went on to say it is better to pluck out your eye than be lost through lusts. Clearly this commandment was important.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
Jesus commented on this when He spoke about stealing from parents, and the Pharisees turning the temple into a den of thieves by their false dealings and unfair practices.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:20
The Pharisees were not keeping the law. They they were murderers - going about to kill Jesus, they were covetous, greedy, full of hatred and pride. They bore false witness, they stole from their parents and did not honour them, they broke the Sabbath by going about doing evil and not good, and they took God's name in vain by calling themselves representatives of Him, when they were not.
"Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" John 7:19
In other words, they were hypocrites. Legalists - not because they loved God's law, but because they loved their own man-made laws.
"For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men..." Mark 7:8
"Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matthew 23:28
They did not have the love of God in them.
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:8-10
And they could not keep the law. They could not be justified by the law, they could not find forgiveness, they could not be made righteous through their own power.
"But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." Romans 9:31-32
Paul knew this experience well, for he wrote about in Romans 7. As a religious man, pharisees, teacher of the law and persecutor of the Christians, he was carnal, sold under sin. He did not have faith in Christ, and He could not have His righteousness. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Without Jesus, we will fail again and again. Our experience lead to our calling out:
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24
The answer is not to throw out the law, and declare that we don't have to keep it. That would be to deceive ourselves. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5:3-5, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:8, Romans 1:18-31, Romans 2:1-11, 2 Timothy 3:1-7, Hebrews 10:26 are just a few of the spots that list the things that you cannot do and be saved.
"He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4
Christ came to save us from our sins, not to leave us in that miserable body of death, in a life of constant failure. He does not want to leave us in slavery, in bondage to sin. We can not save ourselves, we cannot justify ourselves through the law.
We are told we cannot do these things, but we also know that we have no power to stop doing them. What can we do then?
"When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:25-26
It is in Christ we find deliverance, when we have repented and believed. He forgives us and justifies us by His blood and sacrifice, and He also sanctifies us.
Christ's sacrifice saved us from the penalty of sin - (deuteronomy says the lawbreaker would be hung on a tree, and be cursed.) We were under the curse, because broke the law, we didn't continue in it. We failed. And so, our just punishment is death.
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Galatians 3:10-13
He also saved us from the bondage of sin, from continual failure. He sent the Holy Spirit, to make those that accept Him a dwelling place so that we are not carnal - sold under sin. This is a free gift, a sanctifying power that we did not have of ourselves, and that the law could not give.
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." Romans 8:3-5
Only God can get to the root of our problem - our hearts. We cannot change our own, but He has promised to. Romans 2:12 says the Gentiles who are justified have the law written on their hearts.
"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26
Then we have no bragging rights or confidence in ourselves, but we have a changed heart and obedience that comes from submitting to God. We have hope and a promise for the future.
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Revelation 22:14
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