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Why Should We Bother To Keep the Ten Commandents?

M

MrVersatile48

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By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services

Q: I'm not trying to be difficult, but if Jesus paid the price for all our sins, then why should we bother to keep the Ten Commandments? After all, the Bible says we can't be saved by keeping God's laws, doesn't it? -- T.T.L.

A: You are right; the Bible does say that we can't be saved by being good or trying to keep God's laws -- and the reason is because God's standard is perfection, and none of us is perfect. Jesus said that even our inner thoughts will condemn us: "I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment" (Matthew 5:22).

This is why we need Christ, for only He can take away our sins and make us pure in the eyes of God. He was without sin -- but He willingly allowed the stain of our sins to be transferred to Him, and He took the judgment we deserved. It's as if you were taken before a judge and pronounced guilty for something you had done -- and then the judge stepped down and paid your fine out of his own pocket. The difference is that Christ paid for our salvation with the cost of His blood.

We don't keep the Ten Commandments in order to be saved; we keep them because we want to please God and bring honor to Him by the way we live. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15). The Bible also says, "Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do" (1 Peter 1:15).

Have you committed your life to Jesus Christ? If so, He now lives within you by His Holy Spirit, and His will is for you to turn your back on sin and -- with His help -- to live a life that honors God. Make this your goal -- beginning today.

========

Send your queries to "My Answer," c/o Billy Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C., 28201; call 1-(877) 2-GRAHAM, or visit the Web site for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: http://www.billygraham.org.

See Billy: The Early Years:-

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32388

God bless!

Ian
 
I'm going to ask a silly question again, sorry! :oops:

Are they ALL still relevant today? The later ones, sure, but "keeping the Sabbath holy" for example?

Isn't that in the same league as stoning people for working on the Sabbath, or whatever?
 
Hi LauraM :D

I don't think that your question is silly at all.

If we look at commandments, such as keeping the sabbath, it's good to keep a few things in mind. For example,

Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Concerning the Sabbath, what is meant by, Which are a shadow of things to come? Simply put, the Sabbath points to a spiritual reality and that reality is found in Christ.

Briefly, God rested from his creation on the Seventh day (Sabbath), and so proclaimed it a holy day.

As far as stoning people for working on the sabbath, Jesus said,
Mark 2:27-28 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Take a gander at John 5, paying attention to John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father works still, and I work. and see what you can put together. :wink:

As far as, ; but the body is of Christ.

The Church is the Body and Christ is our head. Colossians 1:18 And he (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

We also see this language (Church = Body) in Saint Paul's writing to the Corinthians.

Let me know what you think, and come up with, and thanks for asking :D
 
LauraM said:
I'm going to ask a silly question again, sorry! :oops:

Are they ALL still relevant today? The later ones, sure, but "keeping the Sabbath holy" for example?

Isn't that in the same league as stoning people for working on the Sabbath, or whatever?
Click to expand...
Please do not take this is a dismissive remark, but I believe that this whole issue is somewhat complicated.

Not all will agree with me here, but I believe that the Torah - the law of Moses - is no longer in force for any persons, Jew or otherwise. I can explain why I believe this if you wish. Since I understand the Sabbath law to be part of Torah, I think it is a law that has been "retired", although I think we do well to dedicate the Sabbath to God even now.

Technically, I suppose that the 10 commandments are part of Torah - someone will correct me if I am wrong about this. So to be consistent, I probably would have to say that these 10 "rules" are no longer in force. But I say this in a heavily qualified sense - they still apply insofar as they are particular expressions of the true essence of Torah - which I see as not having been retired, but instead affirmed by both Jesus and Paul. Jesus, I think tells us what the underlying essence of Torah is in this exchange:

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
 
hey Drew, thanks for your input :D

Do you think that the difference might have been in how Torah was interpreted by the different folks? If we interpret the 10 commandments through the SHEMA, it doesn't seem to take on that legalistic flavor if you know what I mean.

Thanks Drew.
 
Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with Jesus' example, the tradition of the Church has always acknowledged the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue.

Drew said:
...Not all will agree with me here, but I believe that the Torah - the law of Moses - is no longer in force for any persons, Jew or otherwise.....
Click to expand...

You know that I agree with you. Yet, the "heart" of the commandments - their meaning in light of Christs teachings - still does bind us, if not the "letter" of them.
 
Catholic Crusader said:
Drew said:
...Not all will agree with me here, but I believe that the Torah - the law of Moses - is no longer in force for any persons, Jew or otherwise.....
Click to expand...

You know that I agree with you. Yet, the "heart" of the commandments - their meaning in light of Christs teachings - still does bind us, if not the "letter" of them.
Click to expand...
I agree with you 100 % here. I realize that what I wrote was perhaps confusing. Rather than try to explain, I will simply state that for all intents and purposes, the 10 commandments are still binding.
 
StoveBolts said:
hey Drew, thanks for your input :D

Do you think that the difference might have been in how Torah was interpreted by the different folks? If we interpret the 10 commandments through the SHEMA, it doesn't seem to take on that legalistic flavor if you know what I mean.

Thanks Drew.
Click to expand...
I think that I see what you are saying and agree. And the invocation of the SHEMA is indeed important and relevant - it undergirds the content of all of Torah.
 
LauraM said:
I'm going to ask a silly question again, sorry! :oops:
Are they ALL still relevant today? The later ones, sure, but "keeping the Sabbath holy" for example?
Isn't that in the same league as stoning people for working on the Sabbath, or whatever?
Click to expand...
Thats not silly. Its quite correct, actually. But as I said, the "heart" of the commandments - their meaning in light of Christs teachings - still does bind us, if not the "letter" of them
 
Why Should We Bother To Keep the Ten Commandents?

I once heard a Seventh Day Adventist make the argument that observing the "sabbath" was the only one of the ten commandments that seems to have been done away with. I thought this was a fairly strong argument until I considered the sermon on the mount.

Jesus uses two other commandments as examples. He talks about people who thought they were keeping the law because they had not committed murder or adultery. He says that even anger or lust in the heart was a transgression. He was showing that we are called to a higher standard than just the law. If one were to extend the same principle, you could say that for the Christian every day should be holy.

The purpose of the law is to show us we can't keep it (humans like the Pharisees and Galatians tend to think otherwise). If we cannot keep even the law, the question becomes how could we hope to keep the higher standard.

Colossians 1:27
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The Christian life is not the mastery of a higher discipline or the learning of a way to do even better than the Pharisees. It is God in us. James 4 describes greater grace given to those who surrender themselves to God in humility. As we are emptied of "self" God can work in us.

2 Corinthians 5:15
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Philippians 2:13
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Conversely, we can quench the Spirit through the elevation of the self and attachment to this world.

James 4:4
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Romans 8:5
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.

The Christian life should not be about the "right" way to keep the sabbath, but about surrender to Jesus so that His light and love can be seen through us.

Romans 13:10
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
 
Hi Tim,

You must have been listening to the same Spirit. ;-) You said:

Jesus uses two other commandments as examples. He talks about people who thought they were keeping the law because they had not committed murder or adultery. He says that even anger or lust in the heart was a transgression. He was showing that we are called to a higher standard than just the law. If one were to extend the same principle, you could say that for the Christian every day should be holy.

The purpose of the law is to show us we can't keep it (humans like the Pharisees and Galatians tend to think otherwise). If we cannot keep even the law, the question becomes how could we hope to keep the higher standard.
Click to expand...

Heh, I wrote almost the same thing on this page,in the "What is the Purpose of the Law " thread.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32414&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=45

Have you read through that thread yet? Some good stuff there. 8-)
 
Because Jesus said so. "If ye love me, keep my commandments". (John 14:15)
Jesus also said [amongst others] "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21)
 
“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.â€Â
(1 John 3:23 NASB)

“Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.â€Â
(2 John 1:5 NASB)
 
Ephraimsdaughter said:
Because Jesus said so. "If ye love me, keep my commandments". (John 14:15)
Jesus also said [amongst others] "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21)
Click to expand...


I guess, but might he not have been referring to "his" commandments that Drew posted (rather than the "old" Ten)?:

37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Click to expand...
 
I would say that they are a guideline to living a good and honest life.
 
Ephraimsdaughter said:
Because Jesus said so. "If ye love me, keep my commandments". ....
Click to expand...
Yes, keep JESUS' commandments, not Moses' commandments.
 
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