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STOP TRYING TO LIVE BY THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!
I know that statement will raise a few eyebrows, but before you reach for your Bible to defend the Ten Commandments, let’s open it together and see what the apostle Paul actually taught. The Ten Commandments were given to Israel as part of the Mosaic Covenant. They were never given to the church as its rule of life. We are not called to live by commandments engraved in stone. We are called to live by faith in Jesus Christ.
And here’s something I say quite often: The Mosaic Law and modern religious rules and regulations are first cousins! One came from Mount Sinai, while the other often comes from religious traditions and man-made expectations. Both can leave people struggling under the weight of commandments they believe they must keep to please God.
Paul knew that struggle firsthand.
WHEN THE COMMANDMENT CAME, SIN REVIVED
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Romans 7:9
Now think about what Paul just said. When the commandment came, sin revived, and he died. Paul wasn’t talking about falling over physically dead. He was describing the condemning power of the law and what happened when sin took advantage of the commandment.
And notice something important. In Romans 7:7, Paul specifically mentions the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” That’s one of the Ten Commandments! He wasn’t merely talking about animal sacrifices, dietary restrictions, or ceremonial ordinances. He was dealing with the very commandments written on stone.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Romans 7:8
That word concupiscence refers to strong desires or coveting. Paul was explaining how sin took advantage of the commandment and stirred up the very desires the commandment prohibited.
The law didn’t create sin, and Paul never called the law evil. In fact, he called it holy, just, and good. But the commandment could expose sin without giving anyone the power to overcome it.
That’s why Paul made this remarkable statement:
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
1 Corinthians 15:56
Did you catch that? The strength of sin is the law!
The law was sin’s life support. Sin drew its condemning strength from the very covenant that exposed it. The commandment could identify the problem, but it could never supply the remedy.
PAUL’S STRUGGLE WITH COMMANDMENT KEEPING
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Romans 7:19
Does that sound familiar?
Paul wanted to do what was right. He knew what was right. He even delighted in the law of God according to the inward man (Romans 7:22). But knowing the commandment and wanting to obey it were not enough.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Romans 7:18
There’s the struggle!
Paul had the desire, but he couldn’t find the ability through the flesh to accomplish what the law demanded. The commandment could tell him what to do, but it couldn’t give him life.
And people are still fighting that same religious battle today.
They make promises to God, establish another set of rules, and determine that tomorrow they’re going to do better. Then they stumble, feel condemned, and start the whole process over again.
It’s like running on a treadmill. You’re wearing yourself out, but you’re not getting anywhere!
That’s what happens when people try to live by religious rules and regulations rather than simple faith in Jesus Christ.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WERE PART OF A COVENANT THAT WAS PASSING AWAY
Now let’s look at something that is often overlooked.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2 Corinthians 3:7
What was written and engraved in stones?
The Ten Commandments!
Paul called that covenantal administration the ministry of death. In verse 9, he called it the ministry of condemnation. And in the following verses, he contrasted its fading glory with the greater glory of the New Covenant.
The commandments were holy, but the covenant they represented could not produce the righteousness or life that Christ brought.
This is why we must understand the first-century transition from the Old Covenant to the New. The ministry engraved in stones was passing away, while the ministry of the Spirit was being established in its enduring glory.
Hebrews 8:13 describes that Old Covenant as becoming obsolete and ready to vanish away. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70 marked the historical end of that old covenantal order.
We are not living in that transition today. We are living in the established New Covenant.
Why would we return to the commandments of a covenant that has already fulfilled its purpose?
BUT DIDN’T JESUS SAY, “KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”?
Yes, He certainly did!
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:15
This is usually the first Scripture someone brings up when discussing the Ten Commandments. But let’s read what Jesus had already told His disciples.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 13:34
And again:
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15:12
Jesus wasn’t directing His disciples back to Mount Sinai. He was teaching them the commandment of love that would characterize their relationship with one another.
John later explained it beautifully.
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1 John 3:23
There it is! Believe on Jesus Christ and love one another.
That’s not complicated. We have made the gospel complicated by adding religious rules and regulations that God never placed upon us.
THE LAW WRITTEN IN OUR HEARTS
Under the New Covenant, God promised to write His laws in the hearts and minds of His people (Hebrews 8:10). I believe we see the expression of that promise in the love produced through our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
Paul then mentions adultery, murder, stealing, coveting, and other commandments. But notice how he brings them together.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:10
Think about that for a moment.
When you genuinely love someone, you don’t want to steal from them. You don’t want to destroy their marriage, take what belongs to them, or bring harm into their life.
You don’t need a stone tablet hanging over your head to make you treat people right. Love is already working in your heart.
That’s the beauty of the New Covenant. We aren’t trying to manufacture righteousness through commandment keeping. We are living by faith, and that faith expresses itself through love.
THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION
Paul’s struggle in Romans 7 leads directly into one of the most beautiful declarations in Scripture.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1
Notice that word therefore. Paul was bringing his argument to its conclusion.
He had described the struggle, the commandment, the power of sin, and the condemnation associated with the law. Now he announces freedom in Jesus Christ!
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:14
Paul didn’t say sin would lose its dominion because believers became better at keeping commandments. He said they were not under the law, but under grace.
And that is why I continually tell people to quit trying so hard to live by religious commandments.
The Ten Commandments served their purpose within the Mosaic Covenant. They were never intended to be the church’s continuing covenantal rule of life.
We don’t need another religious checklist. We don’t need to resurrect the ministry engraved in stones. And we certainly don’t need to spend our lives repeating the same struggle Paul described in Romans 7.
We have Jesus Christ!
Quit trying and just have simple faith in Jesus.
That’s the simplicity of the gospel. We don’t live by the Ten Commandments. We live by faith in Jesus Christ, and that faith works through love.
The law could expose sin, but it could never produce life. That life is found in Jesus Christ!
