The Purpose of the 10 Commandments
What Most People Don't Realize About God's Law
"No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands, the law simply reveals how sinful we are." Romans 3:20
Part 1 - Romans 3:19&20
“The law [of Moses] applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands, the law simply reveals how sinful we are.” (Romans 3:19&20)
The passage above, written by the Apostle Paul, effectively summarizes the purpose of the law of Moses which includes the 10 Commandments and numerous other commands that are similar in nature. (Note: In all, the law of Moses includes over 600 commandments! The first of these, the 10 Commandments, are the most well known.)
In the two verses above, Paul tells us three things about God's intended purpose for giving His laws and commands.
1. God gave His Commandments "to keep people from having excuses."
All of us have probably heard the expression, 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse.' God made sure that no one could plead ignorance of His law by writing the 10 Commandments on "tablets of stone." Then, God required Moses and the people of Israel to carry these stones wherever they went. These commandments, written in stone, served as a constant and visible reminder of exactly what God required. Today, almost anyone, anywhere in the world, can easily read the 10 Commandments online. God gave His commands in writing so that His people could not plead ignorance or make excuses for disobeying, or disregarding, even one them.
2. God gave His commandments "to show that the entire world is guilty before God."
Paul makes it clear in this passage (and in several other New Testament passages), that the purpose of God's law is to reveal our guilt and sinfulness. As He says elsewhere...
The law was given "so we can see how terrible sin [our sin] really is" (Romans 7:13). If we honestly compare our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors with God's righteous and Holy commands, we will quickly conclude that we all "fall short" (infinitely short!) of what God requires. "No one is righteous not even one...everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." (Romans 3:10&23). God's commandments demonstrate that we are all guilty before God.
To illustrate what Paul is saying, let's briefly consider an analogy of a courtroom trial. In this scenario, the case is being tried, not in an earthly court, but in the Supreme Court of the Universe where God is the judge and you and I are the defendants. The charge that is being brought against us is that we have broken God's law by our frequent disobedience and constant disregard for what He has told us to do. The judge has concluded that based on the 10 commandments, the evidence against us is overwhelming and irrefutable. All arguments in our defense have been overruled or thrown out as irrelevant. The verdict is in and we have been pronounced "guilty" on all counts, without appeal.
3. God gave His commandments "to reveal how sinful we really are."
By nature, we tend to be in denial about our own sinfulness. We may feel some initial remorse or guilt when we sin, but we soon begin to rationalize what we've done or we attempt to put it out of our minds altogether. We intentionally forget about most of the sinful things we have done against loved ones, other people and especially God. But if, and when, we consider what God actually requires in His holy law, it serves as a wakeup call or a recall for our hearts and minds.
What Paul is saying is that the 10 commandments can never make us sinless (or even help us sin less), they only prove how sinful we really are. The point that Paul is making is that trying to keep God's commandments will never make you righteous in God's sight, it will only show you how unrighteous you really are. God uses His law (and our inability to keep it) to demonstrate our complete inability to save ourselves, and to make us aware of our desperate need for a savior.
Most people, who read these two verses in Romans for the first time, are surprised at what they teach. The reason for this is that many of us, (especially if we have been influenced by Judaism, Catholicism or modern Protestantism) have been led to believe that we are made right with God by trying to keep the 10 commandments or by living a good and moral life. Yet, notice that what Paul is saying is that the very opposite is true. He emphasizes this point even stronger in next verse...
“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law...We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are." (Romans 3:21)
Paul makes it clear that we are not made right with God by obeying (or trying to obey) the Commandments. He says, "God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law." But notice that Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on to explain, in no uncertain terms, exactly how we can be declared perfectly and eternally righteous in God's sight! He says, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are."
The two words “faith” and “believes” in this verse are synonyms - they mean exactly the same thing. In fact, they are the translation of the same Greek word. This word simply means ‘to trust in, believe in, or to have faith in someone other than yourself. What Paul is emphasizing, by using this same word twice in one verse, is that God declares us ‘perfectly and permanently righteous’ in His sight, the moment we have faith in - the moment we believe in - Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Simple childlike trust in Jesus, and what He has already accomplished for us through His death and resurrection, is all that God requires of us (no works, no effort, no personal dedication, etc.). Christ has done it all on the cross. He has paid the full price for our salvation. There is nothing left for us to do, but to receive His gifts of full forgiveness, perfect righteous, and eternal life by believing in Him only. In a parallel passage, Paul puts it this way...
“[We] know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
Three times in this one verse, Paul tells us that we are not made right with God by obeying the law and three times he says we are made right with God through "faith" in Jesus Christ. God’s means of declaring a person to be righteous in His sight is only through faith (simple childlike trust) in Jesus alone. The Bible offers no other way to become right with God than this. Our salvation is provided freely (at no cost to us) the instant we first believe that Jesus died and rose again for us.
Tragically, this simple and straightforward message has been all but lost in our day as more and more churches and teachers are placing an emphasis on something you must do (good works, obedience, surrender, etc.) in order to be saved, instead of on what Christ has already done for you on the cross. In his book titled “Romans for You”, author Tim Keller writes…
“In some churches, it is implicitly or explicitly taught that you are saved through your ‘surrender’ to Christ, plus right beliefs and behavior. This is a fairly typical mistake in evangelical churches. People are challenged to ‘give your life to Jesus’ and/or to ‘ask Him into your life.’ ...People think that we are saved by strong belief and trust in and love for God, along with a life committed to Him. Therefore, they feel they must begin by generating a high degree of spiritual sorrow, hunger, and love in order to get Christ’s presence... But the gospel says that we are saved through our faith. The first approach really makes our performance the savior, and the second makes Christ’s performance the Savior... The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely. The moment that you revise it, you reverse it.”
Sometimes we hear people use words like ‘commitment’, ‘dedication’ or ‘obedience’ as if they were synonyms for faith or additional conditions for receiving salvation. But this is a misrepresentation and distortion of the correct biblical meaning of faith, as well as a compromise of the true gospel of grace. Keller goes on to say…
“The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely!”
In the New Testament, the one book that was specifically written to explain the way a person receives eternal life is the Gospel of John. In this book, the word “believe” is used over 90 times! It is the one and only condition set forth for receiving eternal life. The good news of the gospel is that everyone who believes in - has faith in - Jesus Christ has eternal life (for further study, see John 1:12, John 3:16-19, John 5:24, John 6:35&40, John 8:24 and John 11:25-26). This is Paul’s point exactly. In the book of Ephesians, He writes…
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved... so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9 (ESV)
God, in His “grace” (His undeserved kindness), offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free “gift” to be received by “faith” only. This gift is completely undeserved by us and can never be earned or merited by our deeds, devotion, rule-keeping, or obedience. It is received 'by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone!' (see Acts 10:43, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 4:1-8, Romans 4:23-26, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:1-14, Philippians 3:9).
Our salvation is solely and entirely based upon the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Those who put their faith alone, in Christ alone, receive full forgiveness for all their sins, a perfect and righteous standing before God, and eternal life.
"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."
Romans 3:23&24
"For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood...God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right [righteous] in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." Romans 3:25-28
All quotes from Scripture in this article are from the New Living Translation Bible (NLT)
We also suggest that you look up these passages in your own copy of the Bible or online, so that you can see for yourself what they are saying.
Please feel free to copy and distribute this content, provided no changes are made and all copyright information is retained. Content may not be sold. Written by Rob Armstrong © 2017.
For more articles and free study materials, visit www.DiscoverGodsGrace.org
In the two verses above, Paul tells us three things about God's intended purpose for giving His laws and commands.
1. God gave His Commandments "to keep people from having excuses."
All of us have probably heard the expression, 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse.' God made sure that no one could plead ignorance of His law by writing the 10 Commandments on "tablets of stone." Then, God required Moses and the people of Israel to carry these stones wherever they went. These commandments, written in stone, served as a constant and visible reminder of exactly what God required. Today, almost anyone, anywhere in the world, can easily read the 10 Commandments online. God gave His commands in writing so that His people could not plead ignorance or make excuses for disobeying, or disregarding, even one them.
2. God gave His commandments "to show that the entire world is guilty before God."
Paul makes it clear in this passage (and in several other New Testament passages), that the purpose of God's law is to reveal our guilt and sinfulness. As He says elsewhere...
The law was given "so we can see how terrible sin [our sin] really is" (Romans 7:13). If we honestly compare our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors with God's righteous and Holy commands, we will quickly conclude that we all "fall short" (infinitely short!) of what God requires. "No one is righteous not even one...everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." (Romans 3:10&23). God's commandments demonstrate that we are all guilty before God.
To illustrate what Paul is saying, let's briefly consider an analogy of a courtroom trial. In this scenario, the case is being tried, not in an earthly court, but in the Supreme Court of the Universe where God is the judge and you and I are the defendants. The charge that is being brought against us is that we have broken God's law by our frequent disobedience and constant disregard for what He has told us to do. The judge has concluded that based on the 10 commandments, the evidence against us is overwhelming and irrefutable. All arguments in our defense have been overruled or thrown out as irrelevant. The verdict is in and we have been pronounced "guilty" on all counts, without appeal.
3. God gave His commandments "to reveal how sinful we really are."
By nature, we tend to be in denial about our own sinfulness. We may feel some initial remorse or guilt when we sin, but we soon begin to rationalize what we've done or we attempt to put it out of our minds altogether. We intentionally forget about most of the sinful things we have done against loved ones, other people and especially God. But if, and when, we consider what God actually requires in His holy law, it serves as a wakeup call or a recall for our hearts and minds.
What Paul is saying is that the 10 commandments can never make us sinless (or even help us sin less), they only prove how sinful we really are. The point that Paul is making is that trying to keep God's commandments will never make you righteous in God's sight, it will only show you how unrighteous you really are. God uses His law (and our inability to keep it) to demonstrate our complete inability to save ourselves, and to make us aware of our desperate need for a savior.
Most people, who read these two verses in Romans for the first time, are surprised at what they teach. The reason for this is that many of us, (especially if we have been influenced by Judaism, Catholicism or modern Protestantism) have been led to believe that we are made right with God by trying to keep the 10 commandments or by living a good and moral life. Yet, notice that what Paul is saying is that the very opposite is true. He emphasizes this point even stronger in next verse...
“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law...We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are." (Romans 3:21)
Paul makes it clear that we are not made right with God by obeying (or trying to obey) the Commandments. He says, "God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law." But notice that Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on to explain, in no uncertain terms, exactly how we can be declared perfectly and eternally righteous in God's sight! He says, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are."
The two words “faith” and “believes” in this verse are synonyms - they mean exactly the same thing. In fact, they are the translation of the same Greek word. This word simply means ‘to trust in, believe in, or to have faith in someone other than yourself. What Paul is emphasizing, by using this same word twice in one verse, is that God declares us ‘perfectly and permanently righteous’ in His sight, the moment we have faith in - the moment we believe in - Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Simple childlike trust in Jesus, and what He has already accomplished for us through His death and resurrection, is all that God requires of us (no works, no effort, no personal dedication, etc.). Christ has done it all on the cross. He has paid the full price for our salvation. There is nothing left for us to do, but to receive His gifts of full forgiveness, perfect righteous, and eternal life by believing in Him only. In a parallel passage, Paul puts it this way...
“[We] know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
Three times in this one verse, Paul tells us that we are not made right with God by obeying the law and three times he says we are made right with God through "faith" in Jesus Christ. God’s means of declaring a person to be righteous in His sight is only through faith (simple childlike trust) in Jesus alone. The Bible offers no other way to become right with God than this. Our salvation is provided freely (at no cost to us) the instant we first believe that Jesus died and rose again for us.
Tragically, this simple and straightforward message has been all but lost in our day as more and more churches and teachers are placing an emphasis on something you must do (good works, obedience, surrender, etc.) in order to be saved, instead of on what Christ has already done for you on the cross. In his book titled “Romans for You”, author Tim Keller writes…
“In some churches, it is implicitly or explicitly taught that you are saved through your ‘surrender’ to Christ, plus right beliefs and behavior. This is a fairly typical mistake in evangelical churches. People are challenged to ‘give your life to Jesus’ and/or to ‘ask Him into your life.’ ...People think that we are saved by strong belief and trust in and love for God, along with a life committed to Him. Therefore, they feel they must begin by generating a high degree of spiritual sorrow, hunger, and love in order to get Christ’s presence... But the gospel says that we are saved through our faith. The first approach really makes our performance the savior, and the second makes Christ’s performance the Savior... The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely. The moment that you revise it, you reverse it.”
Sometimes we hear people use words like ‘commitment’, ‘dedication’ or ‘obedience’ as if they were synonyms for faith or additional conditions for receiving salvation. But this is a misrepresentation and distortion of the correct biblical meaning of faith, as well as a compromise of the true gospel of grace. Keller goes on to say…
“The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely!”
In the New Testament, the one book that was specifically written to explain the way a person receives eternal life is the Gospel of John. In this book, the word “believe” is used over 90 times! It is the one and only condition set forth for receiving eternal life. The good news of the gospel is that everyone who believes in - has faith in - Jesus Christ has eternal life (for further study, see John 1:12, John 3:16-19, John 5:24, John 6:35&40, John 8:24 and John 11:25-26). This is Paul’s point exactly. In the book of Ephesians, He writes…
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved... so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9 (ESV)
God, in His “grace” (His undeserved kindness), offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free “gift” to be received by “faith” only. This gift is completely undeserved by us and can never be earned or merited by our deeds, devotion, rule-keeping, or obedience. It is received 'by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone!' (see Acts 10:43, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 4:1-8, Romans 4:23-26, Romans 5:1-2, Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:1-14, Philippians 3:9).
Our salvation is solely and entirely based upon the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Those who put their faith alone, in Christ alone, receive full forgiveness for all their sins, a perfect and righteous standing before God, and eternal life.
"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."
Romans 3:23&24
"For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood...God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right [righteous] in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." Romans 3:25-28
All quotes from Scripture in this article are from the New Living Translation Bible (NLT)
We also suggest that you look up these passages in your own copy of the Bible or online, so that you can see for yourself what they are saying.
Please feel free to copy and distribute this content, provided no changes are made and all copyright information is retained. Content may not be sold. Written by Rob Armstrong © 2017.
For more articles and free study materials, visit www.DiscoverGodsGrace.org