A war of words is being waged over the Ten Words we typically call the Ten Commandments. In county after county, school district after school district, state after state and even in the glistening halls of the High Court there are battles being fought over the propriety of even displaying the Commandments. Why all the fuss? Because our nation can tolerate anything but what it deems intolerance. The Ten Commandments are pretty intolerant by today’s PC definitions. They speak loudly of an exclusivist God who permits no rivals. He not only expects His name to be invoked in the public square but demands it not be used inappropriately when uttered. This God knows nothing of contemporary “victimology” which absolves the most heinous crimes on the basis of environmental and developmental understanding. The Decalogue Deity is not hesitant to use the “not” word when referring to the most personal subjects of family, sex, speech, materialism and even raw ambition.
No wonder the social engineers are uncomfortable with the Ten Commandments. These short, pithy statements pack quite a wallop. Their pugnacious blows can leave one smarting for a lifetime. Not much room in Twenty First Century Americana for that. The Commandments will just have to go. After all, “Out of sight, out of mind.” The culture demands a credo without the Commandments.
In the legislative wrangling which consumes us we often forget why the Commandments were given. Some even suggest, “The Ten Commandments will save America.” The Ten were never intended to save any nation including Israel. They were intended to show us that we cannot be saved without God’s intervention. We are all lawbreakers. James says that if we break one commandment it is as if we have broken them all (Jam. 2: 10). The Law is a whole because it is an extension of the righteousness of God which can never be broken.
Only Jesus has perfectly kept the Law (Matt. 5: 17 – 18). If we are to be (in the words of the old hymn) “free from the law, o happy condition” then we must take refuge the Jesus Who gave the Law and kept the Law.