WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Ok, you've heard it and so have I.  "The ten commandments are SO old fashioned" or something like that.  We hear all the time how the ten commandments are really taken as though they are the ten suggestions.  We don't like to consider them as binding on our lives.  After all, since they are in the Old Testament and we now live in the New Testament times, they no longer apply. 

Today, I want to challenge that thinking as being shallow, immature, and destined to destroy our relationship with Jesus Christ.  We may not find it acceptable to stone violators, but the Bible DOES say Christ fulfilled the law - which started with the ten commandments.  Proper Biblical interpretation requires us to hold the same view of the OT scriptures as the Apostles did - and they held the OT as Divinely Inspired and as part of the story of the relationship between man and God.  For the Apostles, that story was unfolding - and it is for us as well.  Prophecies are found in the Bible about what is yet to come, as certainly as what has already happened.  Christ is the way to God - and Christ fulfilled the ten commandments.  He did so not to free us from them, but to cause us to look to Him for help as we seek to follow them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about a legalistic view of them, either.  Our salvation is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross and the empty tomb.  Neither will we STAY saved by following the ten commandments.  BUT, our spiritual maturity and strength is sapped when we try to pick and choose what to follow without any help from proper biblical understanding.  That understanding demands we understand the ten commandments in light of the new testament, NOT ignoring them all together.

Over the next few days, I will be posting some thoughts about the ten commandments and how ignoring them is destroying our intimacy with the Lord and we don't even realize it.  While the ten commandments SHOULD point everyone to their need for Christ's saving work in their lives, they also reveal cracks in a believer's relationship with Jesus.  If you are hungry for a deeper, more intimate relationship with Christ, then join me on this 10 day journey starting tomorrow!

And that's Just a Thought for today!

May the Lord Bless and Keep you!


Pastor Greg