Are the Ten Commandments Still Relevant?

Deuteronomy 5:1-21

If you are of a certain age, you might remember when The Ten Commandments had  prominent place in the public square.  Framed prints of these ancient words were found in courthouses and public schools throughout our country. Not so much anymore -some courts have ruled that they violate the separation of church and state.

So what value do The Ten Commandments have for us today?  Trust me, if the way to saving grace was through obeying these commandments each and every day, I would be a complete failure!  And the Lord knows that - thanks be to God that he sent his Son to redeem us, not through anything we have done to deserve it.

God gives these commandments to Moses twice - once at the beginning of their sojourn in the wilderness (see Exodus 20) and again, 40 years later, at the entrance to the Promised Land (today's text in Deuteronomy).  The first generation of Israelites have died - their failure to obey God means that they won't see the Promised Land.  But Moses reminds the people why God gave these commandments:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  (v. 6).

The Ten Commandments are born out of a relationship - our relationship with God, our Father, our Creator, our Redeemer.  It's not first about us loving God.  It's first about him loving us and creating us to serve him,

We follow the Ten Commandments (and we break the Ten Commandments because God first loved us.  So the gospel, the good news, comes before the law.

God reiterates this fact, this foundation, in Deuteronomy 6:4:  Hear O Israel:  The LORD, our God, the LORD is one.  Pious Jews recite this prayer, the Shema in Hebrew,  twice a day. 

We can learn a lot from our Jewish brothers and sisters.  God is God, and we are not!  He gives us the Ten Commandments because he loves us, not because he wants to trick us into sinning.  We do that just fine on our own.

The Ten Commandments may be gone from the public square, but God is still God.  He made a covenant with his people, and as Christians, we are grafted into his tree as his adopted sons and daughters.  Thanks be to God!