The Promise of The Ten Commandments

MORE THAN COMMANDMENTS

Have you ever wondered why the Ten Commandments repeatedly say, "Thou Shalt Not"?

Not, "Thou should not," or "Thou must not," but, "Thou shalt not."

The difference in meaning is plain although we tend to gloss over it as if it were merely a rhetorical flourish.  The difference is that "shall" is a word that indicates what will be in the future. The Hebrew uses the imperfect tense, which expresses a continuous action, so that the words might be translated, "you do not kill, you do not steal, you do not covet", which sounds like the description of a person. The Greek Septuagint simply uses the future tense, which also makes the commandment sound like the description of a person yet to be born. Something that "shall be," as the Greek, or is a continuous reality as the Hebrew, cannot be disobeyed or avoided: it is a statement of fact.

"Should", on the other hand, speaks of what is right, and "Must" speaks of what is commanded, but both what is right and what is commanded may be disobeyed. They lack the implication that there WAS, IS, and SHALL BE One who fulfills all that is commanded.

If then the Commandments are really the description of a Person, then the essential commandment is to be like the Person whom the commandments describe. But who is this Person?

In truth, these are words that describe the Messiah. When He comes, He will be as the commandments describe. The commandments indeed come from Him, describing Him (Rom 3:31), but since they were revealed first they served to predict what He would be like: He would not steal, He would not commit adultery, He would not bear false witness against His neighbour, etc.

"For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth."  Rom 10:4

So the Commandments really describe Christ but they were given to the children of Israel to be obeyed. But the Israelites failed to obey, making and bowing down to a golden calf idol before Moses had even come down from the mountain with the tables of stone. And here is another illustration that the Commandments speak of Jesus Christ. The first set of tablets Moses cast down and broke before the Israelites because they had broken the commandments in worshipping the golden calf. But the second set which God gave Moses when he went back up the mountain, he placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, which also represents Christ. The unbroken set commandments of were not preserved with the people of Israel but with the Messiah!

The only commandment that is not a prediction of a sure future is, "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." And yet in this commandment, a promise is given with obedience.

So what does this mean?

The 10 Commandments really describe Christ and command the Israelites to be like Him by their own strength. And thus Paul writes that the Law was not given to make us righteous but to give us the knowledge of sin and show us our guilt before God.

Israel was given these commandments as regulations to be obeyed but because of sin and the weakness of the flesh, they were not obeyed and so they did not accurately describe the children of Israel throughout their history. The Commandments describe Messiah and command the Israelites to be like Him, but they do not provide death to the flesh or the Holy Spirit needed to give power and wisdom to men in order to keep them! For that, we needed the Messiah Himself to give us His Gospel and Spirit (Rom 8:2-4).

We are taught that the law presents us with the form of knowledge and of the truth (Rom 2:20). But Christ is the one who fills that form with His Spirit and life. Because of the weakness of the flesh we don't just need the form of Christ to model our lives after, we need the Spirit of life in Christ to enable us to actually follow the Lord as His disciples.

Messiah did keep the commandments perfectly (Heb 4:15, 2 Cor 5:21); in fact, as already said, they derive from Him. But nevertheless, He lived their obedience perfectly while He was in the flesh--He was made under the law (Gal 4:4). And here is the Gospel hidden in the Ten Commandments. Everyone who has faith in Messiah and His finished work is born again IN Messiah and the commandments are transformed in Him from commands we are told to obey in our own strength, into PROMISES of what we SHALL BE by God's work in us, which we work out, as Christ has fulfilled them already and we are now in Him by God's grace through faith.

They are a description of Christ who knew no sin, and now we fulfill their righteousness also as we walk in the Spirit, and one day when we have seen Jesus, we shall be sinless and perfect like Him. And then the Ten Commandments will be perfectly fulfilled by all of God's flock. For God said, "You shall have no other gods before me," and we will have no other gods before Him. Or, as in the Hebrew, God said, "You do not kill, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness, or covet anything that belongs to your neighbour," and we shall not do any of those things.

So, it is wonderful to note that an ancient Israelite could have read the Ten Commandments and understood that they promise and describe Messiah. And now for us who believe in Him who has come, who died for sinners and rose again to save us, these same commandments promise our sinless perfection and eternal life in Him.

"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God."  Luke 23:35

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me." John 5:46

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."  Luke 24:26-27