Just over a year ago, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore unveiled a monument which he had placed in the rotunda of the Alabama State Supreme Court building. This monument prominently displayed what is known as the "Ten Commandments," which we find recorded in Exodus 20:1-17. On November 18th of this year, Judge Moore was ordered by a District court judge to remove the monument within 30 days, saying that it goes too far in promoting religion (From www.foxnews.com).
I have a great deal of respect for Judge Moore, and have been given to understand that he is a very moral and God fearing man. I don't doubt that he is sincere in what he is doing. He testified during the trial that the Commandments are the moral foundation of American law, and that he installed the monument partly because of his concern that the country has suffered a moral decline over the past 50 years because of federal court rulings. Due in part to this dispute and others like it, there is a movement to place similar monuments and posters with the Ten Commandments on them in public places throughout the country.
While what Judge Moore said is essentially correct, and while I would always agree with giving the scriptures a prominent place in our lives and with making them more accessible to others, there is a very troubling aspect to this movement of posting these Ten Commandments. So if you would, let's consider the "Law of Moses" for a few moments this morning.
Why did God give the Ten Commandments? God's plan for saving man was seen when He told Abraham in Genesis 22:18, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed..." When He said this, God was indicating that Jesus would come through Abraham's lineage--that is, through the Jewish nation. The Apostle Paul referred to this very thing in Galatians 3:16, saying, "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, 'And to your seed,' that is, Christ."
Now, the Ten Commandments are a part of the Law of Moses, and just a few verses earlier, in verse 11, Paul wrote that no man can be made right in God's sight by keeping the Law. In verse 19, He then began to address the question, "what purpose did the Law serve, if the blessing could not come through it?" Here, he said that, "it was added because of transgressions," apparently indicating that because the Jewish nation transgressed the will of God and sinned, it was added (Lipscomb, David; J.W. Shepherd, ed., A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles, Vol III, Gospel Advocate, Co. Nashville, Tennessee, 1989). But he continued, "until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made." It was added and to remain only until the seed--Jesus Christ--should come.
What purpose, though, did the Law serve? In verse 22, Paul said that, "Scripture has shut up everyone under sin..." Everyone, both Jew and Gentile, has committed sin. The Law showed what sin was, and that all were subject to it. He continued in verse 24, "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith." The Law was intended to lead us to Christ! As Adam Clarke wrote of this verse, "...The law did not teach us the living, saving knowledge; but, by its rites and ceremonies, and especially by its sacrifices, it directed us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
The whole law was designed to be introductory to Christ. The writer of Hebrews pointed out in 10:1-4, "...the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." It showed a pattern of what was going to have to be, because all men of every nation sin. Animal sacrifices could never wash away the sins that came from not being able to keep the old Law perfectly; Jesus' sacrifice can.
Paul wrote in Romans 7:2 that, "...the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband." Then in verse 4, he applies this principle to those Christians who had previously been under the Law of Moses that he was writing to: "...you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead [i.e., Jesus Christ], in order that we might bear fruit for God."
We should also note that we know that Paul was speaking in reference to the Ten Commandments, because in that verses 6 and 7, he includes one of them: "But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COVET.'" It seems clear then, that the Christian is not obligated to keep the Ten Commandments as Law.
What are the consequences of trying to keep them as law? We read in Galatians 5:2-4: "Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."
We see the principle that if you try to keep a portion of the Law as Law, you are obligated to keep the whole Law--and as a consequence, you have been severed from Christ, and have set aside the grace of God freely given.
If they are done away with, what happens now? Are we free to do absolutely anything we want? No. Jesus was once asked, "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'" (Matthew 22:36-40)
When speaking to his disciples, Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." John 15:10-12.
That expectation of love for God and fellow man that was the foundation of the old Law was never done away with, in fact, it has been there from the beginning of creation. God expected that kind of love from the Israelites at that time, and he expects it from us now; the only difference is that for them, he codified the expressions of that love. If we have the love for God and our fellow man that we should have, the expressions of that love will follow.
Let's turn back to Galatians chapter 3, this time verses 24-27: "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
Because of the fulfillment of the Law by Jesus, those who have been baptized into Christ and are sons through faith, have the forgiveness of sins. But if we try instead to keep the Ten Commandments as Law, we reject Christ, and seek to be justified on our own merits. There is nothing wrong with posting the Ten Commandments. They were a part of the Laws of God given to the Jews of ages past, and may have been a part of the moral foundation of American law; but the fact is, the Christian is not subject to the Law of Moses, and dare not seek to be justified by it.
