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The Ten Commandments - Are They Required Today?
Section 6
The Role of the Holy Spirit
God’s grace gives more to the Christian than just a spiritual understanding of the law. Out of the abundance of His love, He gives His Holy Spirit. This Spirit works to change us from the inside out. Through it, Christ lives in us, and we strive to live in Him—within His parameters. Thus, the faith of Christ is at work in our minds to convert our entire being over time (Jn. 14:15-20).
By this Spirit, the love of God is shed abroad in our heart (Rom. 5:5). We come to love God because He loved us first (1 Jn. 4:19). It is out of this love that we strive to obey Him, not in the letter only, but in the spirit—in the very essence of our being. Thus, grace does not do away with the law. Instead, it becomes a catalyst working in us to establish God’s law in all that we do. Paul confirms this thought by saying:
Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law (Romans 3:31).
This point is extremely important to realize. Grace does not do away with the law! Christ’s sacrifice has a greater purpose than just paying for our past sins. God’s plan is to create a people zealous to do good works. To this end, He gives us His Spirit as a part of His grace so that we are able to view life as He does. It enables us to share His mind and come to love His law. For example, the great King David was a man after God’s own heart, and he wrote:
I delight to do thy will, o my God: yea, thy law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8).
Later, the apostle Paul would echo the same words when writing to the Romans:
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man (Romans 7:22).
These are the words of two faithful men who were both inspired by God. Although one lived during the Old Covenant and the other in the New, they both had the Almighty’s Spirit dwelling in them and both of these faithful men understood the importance of these eternal laws. Like the Old Covenant, the New Testament requires our obedience to the Ten Commandments.
Further, the covenant God makes with Christians is a precursor to that which He will make one day make with physical Israel during His millennial reign (Jer. 31:31). As the author of Hebrews explains:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people (Hebrews 8:10).
This verse reveals yet another aspect of God’s grace. The Commandments are based upon love and the Holy Spirit engraves God’s law of love into our otherwise stone-like hearts and minds.
Without the Commandments, we would have no way to define sin (Rom.7:7). Devoid of this knowledge, and ruled only by our human nature, we would instinctively hurt others in our selfish tendency to please ourselves. Thus, the Ten Commandments show us what love is and how that love is to be expressed toward God and mankind.
A Loving Marriage
Few people understand that the Old Covenant was a forerunner of the New Testament. Thus, all that happened to Israel was for our benefit today (1 Cor. 10:11). Those events stand as a timeless example for us, including the fact that Christ was married to Israel. As the prophet Jeremiah writes:
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you… (Jeremiah 3:14).
Jesus Christ was the God of ancient Israel (Jn. 5:39, 8:58). He was married to them and the law was their marriage agreement (Ex. 19:5). One seldom understood purpose of Christ’s death was to end that original marriage bond so that He could marry another—the Church. Paul explains this truth, giving the details, and never once does he refer to the law as if it were abolished. Instead, he confirms both its importance and validity:
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet (Romans 7:1-7).
In these verses, the apostle shows us that Christ’s death did away with the marriage covenant to ancient Israel. It did not do away with the law itself. The Commandments stand as a means to point out what sin is and to show us the way of true love. A story illustrates this point.
A man and woman were married, but she did not really love and appreciate her husband. He had prepared a list of rules and regulations for his wife to follow and insisted that she read them over every day and obey them. To her, he seemed overly demanding and particular.
After several long and trying years, her husband eventually died. As time passed, the woman fell in love with another man. They married and her new husband did everything he could to make his wife happy. She realized that He continually showered her with loving tokens of his appreciation and affection.
One day, as the woman was cleaning the house, she found the lengthy list of orders her first husband had given her. As she looked it over, an amazing thought dawned on her. Her present husband hadn’t given her any written demands, but she was doing everything her first husband’s list required. She realized that she was now devoted to her new husband in her heart and not only bound by a marriage certificate. She now understood that her first husband’s list actually showed her the ways to express her love.
Because of her passion, the acts of love through service and obedience came to her naturally—out of a sincere desire to delight him. Her deepest desire was to please him out of love—not obligation. She did her duty because she wanted to, not because she had to.
In a similar manner, through true repentance, baptism and the laying on of hands, we become engaged to our future husband (2 Co. 11:2). He has given us every token of his love, even laying down his life for us. The list containing God’s Commandments still exists. However, it is not tucked away in a drawer some place. Instead, His rules are to be engraved on our heart and in our mind through His Holy Spirit.
As a vital part of becoming espoused to Christ, we are to have His Spirit dwelling in us, and through it a new relationship begins. As Paul states:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 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 (Romans 8:1-4).
These scriptures teach us that it is only the converted mind that desires to keep God’s commandments. This yearning comes from the heart and flows from His Spirit producing a longing to be faithful and obedient to our future husband. In fact, without His Spirit it is impossible for us to properly keep the law. As Paul Continues:
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. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against god: for it is not subject to the law of god, neither indeed can be (Romans 8:5-7).
Paul makes it clear that the natural mind, without God’s Sprit, rejects the law of God. Perhaps this is why so many outwardly profess Christ, but inwardly reject His law. The truth is that they have not been converted. They have not truly repented from sin. They have not had a true minister lay hands on them, and consequently have not actually received God’s Holy Spirit.
As Christ clearly said, the Commandments are not done away (Mt. 5:17). By following His prescribed course of repentance, baptism and laying on of hands, we obtain His forgiveness, we receive His Spirit, and then we are expected to go forward and “sin no more” (Jn. 8:11). As John wrote:
Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And ye know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him. My little children, let no man lead you astray: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous: he that doeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother (ASV, 1 John 3:4-10).
These are profound and powerful verses that make the truth undeniably clear! In these few words the apostle John confirms the fact that keeping the Commandments is righteousness (Ps. 119:172, Lk. 1:5-6). On the other hand, whoever rejects them is considered to be lawless and stands guilty of committing sin. Such people are not considered children of God, but are actually acting on behalf of the devil.
Contrary to most modern teaching and preaching, John also makes it plain that we cannot continue to practice sin. The impregnation of the Holy Spirit does not give us a license to break the Commandments! It is just the opposite. Receiving God’s Spirit reinforces our obligation to keep them! It is much like accepting the vows of matrimony. In order to become one with Christ, as His future bride, we must obey Him (Rev. 19:7-8)
The Law of Love
A lawyer once came to Christ and asked Him a very important question. Believing that Jesus was the Son of God, this man knew that only Christ could give him a definitive answer. He wanted to know; what was the most important thing God requires of us? Jesus replied:
…Thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matthew 22:37-39).
In response, Jesus proclaimed this magnificent and wonderful truth—the law of God actually defines love. In fact, these two authoritative prescriptions summarize the entirety of the law. Having love toward God and neighbor is the only way that people can live in peace together and with God. Those who wish to live forever must desire to live by this code today.
However, some believe that these two commands of love are separate from, and exempt us from, the laws contained in the Ten Commandments. This is a complete fallacy! The Ten Commandments are an expansion of Christ’s two-fold commission to man. They reveal the specific ways in which we are to love God and one another. As Jesus continued to explain:
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40).
Jesus made it clear that the entire law, and all the warnings of the prophets, hang on these two precepts. The Ten Commandments reveal exactly how we are to express love. Understanding this, we can see that these ten laws are actually divided into two categories. The first four show us how to love God. The last six show us how we are to love our neighbor.