Ten Commandments and the Christian
I recently taught a course on the Ten Commandments at Tyndale University College. This was a fun course to teach. Most of my teaching is in the area of the New Testament. But the Ten Commandments allowed me to touch on the Old and New Testaments, as well as theology and ethics.
One of the questions that comes up is the relationship of the Ten Commandments to the Christian. Do we ignore them since, “that’s just the Old Testament”?
I can tell you what they are not. The Ten Commandments are not a means to earn heaven. They are hard enough on their own, but including Jesus’ interpretation of some of them in the Sermon on the Mount means that all of us will fail at some point. Heaven would be a lonely place.
Here are some things that came up in class about the importance of the Ten Commandments for Christians:
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- They reveal something about the character of God. Each commandment reflects what God values.
- God wants a faith that affects how we worship and how we interact with other people.
- It is important for us to follow them to the best of our ability. Not in order to earn salvation, but because they are the right things to do.
- How we live on the outside reflects what we are like on the inside.
- Although we should never stop striving for obedience, our failures should lead us to rely on the grace that comes through Jesus Christ.
- The Ten Commandments give us a picture of what the kingdom of God should look like.
In case you are interested, these are the textbooks that were used for the class:
