The Ten Commandments apply today
When Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, he was standing there as a representative of a people who had just been released from captivity in Egypt. The God of Israel had redeemed his people from bondage. Now He revealed His will to them. «You shall have no other gods before me», was the first commandment. Then followed additional commandments that described the people’s duties to God and to one another. The obedience he now demanded was based on the redemption he had given them. They were now free to serve their God. He opened His heart to them and asked them to open their hearts to Him.
In recent years, it has been claimed through what is often called hyper grace that the Ten Commandments no longer apply. It is claimed that they were given to the Jews and that they have never been valid for the Gentile Christian congregation. It is further claimed that the Ten Commandments are linked to the law and that the law was abolished by Jesus and that we now have only one commandment – the commandment of love. Such a view ignores the overall Scriptural witness. Unfortunately, there are several examples in church history where it has been claimed that the law in the sense of the moral law no longer applies. But all the time, this view, which we usually call antinomism, has been rejected. The Ten Commandments apply today. Antinomialism is a doctrinal error.
The Ten Commandments are universally valid
The moral law – the Ten Commandments – was given to the Jewish people at Sinai and was part of the covenant between God and Israel. But the Ten Commandments do not only apply to the Jews. Although the Gentiles did not receive the Ten Commandments, they still by nature do what the Law teaches. According to Paul, they are their own law even though they do not have the law, and he goes on to say that this shows that the work of the law is written in their hearts, which also their conscience testifies. The same goes for their thoughts. Hence, the Gentiles have a law within them that corresponds to the moral law, even though it has not been preached to them. This emphasizes the universal, God-given validity of moral law. When Paul says that the Gentiles do not have the law, he does not mean that the Ten Commandments do not apply to them. They just haven’t had God’s Word preached.
Not one single new commandment
The Ten Commandments were the constitution for Israel, but the prophets pointed to a time when the law would not be written on stone tablets, but in the hearts of men. Jesus emphasized the Ten Commandments as a guide for our lives and reinforced them by applying them to not only the action, but the motives and thoughts behind the action. He summed up the commandments in a new commandment – the commandment of love (John 13:34). Not in the sense that he replaced the other ten commandments with one single commandment, but in the sense that the essence of the commandments is love for God and love for my neighbor (Mt 22:37-39). To claim otherwise is to read something Jesus does not say.
In Paul’s letters, the Ten Commandments have a central place. He uses them as a basis and reference in his letters (e.g. Ephesians 6:1-3) and he says that what matters is to keep God’s commandments (1 Corinthians 7:19). Romans 13 is like an echo of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples when he gave them the commandment of love. Paul mentions several of the commandments – you shalt not commit adultery, you shalt not kill, you shalt not steal, you shalt not bear false witness, you shalt not covet – and says that all of these are summed up in this word: «You shall love thy neighbor as thyself». He does not abolish the commandments. He says that the commandment of love summarizes all the commandments. And he goes a step further and says that love is the fulfillment of the law.
The heartbeat of the God of love
Neither Jesus nor Paul abolishes the Ten Commandments. They reinforce them by pointing to our motives and thoughts. And they point to love as the sum of all the commandments. At the basis of the commandments lies the love of God and my neighbor. The Ten Commandments are not heavy demands from a strict God. They are the heartbeats of the God of love. They are full of care and kindness. They are God’s good will for the ultimate He has created, man. They point to the way to peace and harmony. Therefore, the law is holy and just and good.
But in the time of the new covenant, something qualitatively new has happened in our relationship with the Ten Commandments: they are written in our hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:16). We have had God’s love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) so that we can walk in love and through that fulfill the commandments. For it is clear that there is no contradiction between what the Ten Commandments say and the law that is written in our hearts. We rejoice in God’s law according to our inner man (Romans 7:22).
Ethical foundation for the individual and society
Throughout the New Testament, the Ten Commandments were passed on to the Christian congregation. Therefore, the Ten Commandments have formed a moral foundation and a guideline for the Christian church at all times. The Ten Commandments have been an objective judge who has decided what is right and wrong regardless of individual opinions, perceptions and common opinions of time. To live as a Christian has always been to live a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments. From the early church until our time, the Ten Commandments therefore became the ethical foundation in societies and states where the Christian faith spread and gained a foothold. The Ten Commandments had a dramatically positive consequence for social morality and legislation. In particular, we see the influence of the Ten Commandments in the formulation of legislation in countries in the Western world. In England, the United States, France and the Scandinavian countries, to name a few, the Ten Commandments are enshrined in the constitutions as an ethical prerequisite. The ethical foundation in many countries of the world would be completely different without the influence of the Ten Commandments.
Antinomism in the early church
The fact that it has been claimed in a Christian context that the Ten Commandments no longer apply is nothing new. The first antinomistic attack on the church came in the first century from Marcion, who was the son of a bishop. He wanted to carry out a radical reform of the church in the Pauline spirit. He wanted Judaism out of Christianity and therefore rejected the entire Old Testament and with it the Ten Commandments. However, because he was influenced by Gnosticism, his Reformation threatened to reshape the entire Christian faith. In 144 C.E., when he presented his teachings to the congregation in Rome, to whom he had previously given a large sum of money, and demanded recognition for his doctrine, he was instead expelled from the congregation, received the money back, and was stamped a heretic.
The antinomistic controversy
During the Reformation, a dispute flared up again about the Ten Commandments in the Christian church. Luther initially taught that only grace and not the law can lead to real repentance. Later, like Melanchton, he argued that the law must be preached in order to awaken the recognition of sin and repentance. This was strongly opposed by Johann Agricola, who had been Luther’s secretary for a time. He argued that penance alone can be learned through the gospel, not through the law of Moses. His expression is famous: «On the gallows with Moses»!
The Threefold Function of the Law
Melanchton – the leading theologian of the Reformation period – addressed the question of the validity of the law in the Christian church in his dogmatics Loci (from 1535). After this, it became common to talk about the threefold functions of the law. By this way of looking at the law or the Ten Commandments, one would distinguish between three different ways the law functions in the dispensation of grace. For the Reformers, it was necessary to clarify the question of the law both against those who believed that works of the law were necessary for salvation – the false nomism, and against antinomimism, which promoted a loose lifestyle.
From this point of view, the first use of the law is its application as an ethical foundation for society through the secular authority (usus politicus). God uses the law in this way to maintain an outward lawfulness in the world. The second use of the law is to lead man to the knowledge of sin so that he can seek salvation in Jesus Christ (usus spiritualis). The third use of the law is to guide the faithful in the Christian life (usus didacticus). The Ten Commandments are like marker stones that show where the road is and where the ditch is.
The Ten Commandments apply today
The Ten Commandments are an expression of God’s heart and will. Keeping them to be saved was never the meaning, for no one is justified by works of the law. But they are God’s good will for us humans. Therefore, the Christian church has always held the same view as Jesus and Paul had of the Ten Commandments. We as Christians today should continue to do so.