Night One Recap

At our first Extra Credit Summer Study gathering, Dr. Brown began the night’s conversation with a question: Why are the Ten Commandments important, and do Christians still need them today? After all, there are plenty of places in Scripture that give a detailed explanation of God’s law. Entire books of the Old Testament are devoted to explaining the civic law and sacrificial system, laying out every detail for how the Israelites should live. Even in the New Testament, Jesus gives us the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount; he even summarizes the Law up in two succinct commands in Matthew 22.

So why are the Ten Commandments so foundational? While it is true that rules like “Do not murder” and “Do not steal” are pretty good commandments to live by, perhaps more important is what God reveals about himself through these commandments, and what they reveal about us. We can see that by looking at the commandments in their original context. In Exodus 20, God had just led the Israelites out of Egypt, where they had spent several generations in slavery.

Not only were they several generations removed from their forefathers and the covenant promises God had made, but these are generations of Israelites surrounded by Egyptian mythology, religious practices, cultural norms, and moral ideologies. Now, it’s not as if the Israelites couldn’t have learned good moral rules from the Egyptians (though Pharaoh’s decree to have all of their male newborns killed might say otherwise). In fact, many cultures throughout the world and throughout history share similar moral laws, as well as creation stories and worship practices, to what we find in Scripture. But instead of recognizing the One True God, they give credit to other gods or spiritual forces or even man-made philosophical ideologies.

In Exodus, God goes to great lengths to demonstrate to the Israelites that he is superior to all other gods, even the Egyptian ones. Not only does he demonstrate his superior power through the plagues and the clouds of thunder and lightning on Mt. Sinai, but through his saving efforts and the commandments, he demonstrates that he is a personal God as well. As Dr. Brown pointed out on Sunday night, God was winning over the hearts of the Israelites.

God didn’t just hand down the Ten Commandments to be a list of dos and donts. He is pursuing a relationship with the people he has brought out of slavery. He tells them that he will make them his people and they will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that is able to be in his presence. The Ten Commandments teach the Israelites that 1. God is holy and cannot be manipulated or manhandled like the Egyptian gods, and 2. God cares about justice and faithfulness and the sanctity of life. The Ten Commandments also confront the Israelites with their own selfish disposition; that they are prone to take advantage of others for their own gains and seek out other objects of worship. So God gives the people the Law as both a signpost to call out their sinful hearts, but also as a guide for how to walk and remain in his presence.

But that was the Israelites; what about Christians under the New Covenant. Are the Ten Commandments still important? Aside from the fact that Jesus referenced them several times in his teachings, we also see the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jeremiah 31, when he says “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” The Law didn’t change with Christ and the New Covenant; God still cares very much about justice and faithfulness and the sanctity of life. But now, when we are born again into the New Covenant, God gives us a new heart, one that delights in the Law. The Holy Spirit works in us to convict and confront our sinfulness and reminds us that we continually live in God’s presence because of the work of Jesus Christ.

The Ten Commandments were once given to a people brought out of slavery, a people that God set apart from other nations and claimed as his own possession. But the Law is ours as well because the same Holy God of the Israelites sets us apart and calls us his people.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9