I applaud states such as Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, which are currently waging court battles to defend their laws requiring that the Ten Commandments be on display in public schools. When I was in grade school, this was common practice. But that was before our public schools expelled common sense from the classroom and forgot that boys are male and girls are female.
Not only are God’s moral laws the foundation of our nation’s legal system, but the Scriptures say that His law was given to show us that we all have sinned against a holy and righteous God.
Survey God’s list of do’s and don’ts in Exodus 20, and we quickly realize our need for repentance.
- You shall have no other gods before Me.
- Don’t worship idols.
- You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not lie.
- You shall not covet.
When we come to Christ, accepting God’s forgiveness through faith in Him, we are not only forgiven, but He cleanses us—all those sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus—and God doesn’t remember them anymore.
And let’s not forget the promise that comes with God’s commandments: “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:5-6).
Like an MRI that reveals a cancerous mass, the Bible says God’s law reveals sin’s deadly infection of the heart: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).
The Apostle Paul drives home this point further in Galatians 3:24: “Therefore the law was our tutor tobring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
I like the analogy that compares the Ten Commandments to a mirror. God’s law doesn’t cleanse us or justify us before our Creator. Instead, like a mirror, it merely reveals the dirt on our face—our sin, which can only be washed away by Jesus’ sinless blood shed on a cross for our forgiveness.
Consequently, when we look into the mirror of God’s law, we are reminded: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12).
While the media and politicians alike focus on the infamous Jeffrey Epstein files, may we not forget that one day we will all be held accountable to God for what we did and didn’t do on this Earth.
And God’s file on us goes much deeper than just what we’ve said or done. He knows our thoughts, desires and motives. That’s why Jesus applied the Ten Commandments to the sins of the heart.
For example, in Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
One day, we will stand before God and everything will be revealed—and I mean everything. The only hope for any individual is to accept God’s provision for our forgiveness, which is the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He shed His blood and died on the cross in our place.
To have peace with God, we must confess our sins, ask Him to forgive us, and by faith, receive Christ personally. When we come to Christ, accepting God’s forgiveness through faith in Him, we are not only forgiven, but He cleanses us—all those sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus—and God doesn’t remember them anymore.
I’m glad that God doesn’t expect us to fulfill the righteous requirement of His law in order to receive eternal life. Instead—by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—we can live obediently through the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells His followers.
“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-5).
That’s the same Gospel message of hope that I proclaimed Jan. 24-25 in the largely Buddhist region of Siem Reap, Cambodia, “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
As always, thank you for covering me in prayer and everyone who serves our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
