A Gentile Christian’s Perspective to Understanding our Jewish Roots – A Paper To Help Increase your Faith and Knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - A Series Continued...

The Old Testament Law otherwise know as "The Ten Commandments"

It occurred to me one day as I was reading the Ten Commandments, in light of what I just said that there may be more than meets the eye in the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” the Lord commanded- “which is the first commandment with a promise,” Paul adds to his letter to the Ephesians 6:2.  Have you ever asked why?  “That it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth.”

Could it be, the long, fulfilling spiritual life is being withheld from the Church until she honors the origins of her faith?  Could it be the history of division will cease only after we unite with God’s chosen family- the Jewish community?  Hence this teaching, I believe is going to serve as a timely reminder to bring about a spiritual awareness of our responsibility as Christians to Israel, the Law (The Torah) and the Jew in these last days.

In Hebrew, the word for commandment is Mitzvah.  In Judaism, there are 613 mitzvahs.  All these mitzvahs are encompassed by the Ten Commandments.  Today, all over the world there seems to be a concerted attempt to remove all representations of the Ten Commandments from the minds of people in many subtle ways.

Let’s take a brief refresher course on the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai as recorded in Exodus 20:

Ten Commandments

1.       You shall have no other gods before Him.

2.       You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness – an idol.

3.       You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.

4.       You shall remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

5.       You shall honor your father and your mother.

6.       You shall not murder.

7.       You shall not commit adultery.

8.       You shall not steal.

9.       You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10.   You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or anything that is your neighbors.

I don’t want to assume that you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life, and you are born-again according to John 3:3, and therefore let me proceed by asking you that just because you are now saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus that you don’t have to follow these Ten Commandments?  In other words, does it mean that Jesus put an end to those teachings of having to follow the Law of God? Let me answer that questions with a reply from Jesus Himself – “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”  (Matthew 5:17)

Now we are brought to the question that has created confusion for multitudes of Christians:  If the works of the Law cannot save a person, is it therefore necessary to keep the Law?  Apparently, this was a burning issue in the early church, because Paul asked the same question in Romans 6:1 – “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  In other words, does grace give us a license to disobey the Law of God?  Paul’s answer is: “God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (verse 2).

How interesting it is that Christians in this age of relativism can invent their own definitions that condone lawbreaking.  The Bible says sin is violating the Ten Commandments – the law which has been described as irrelevant and old-fashioned by many modern theologians.

The reason that the gay movement, the abortion industry, and the humanist movement have flourished in nearly every country in the world is because the church has been a sleeping giant for too long.

Some spiritual leaders have reached a stage where their indifference is so clearly seen by the stance they take.  If the church does not rise up, speak out, and take action on issues like the sacredness of marriage, we will bequeath a moral cancer to our children and the children of the world who live in darkness and sin.

Don’t be deceived.  Every one of those great moral precepts is just as timely and needful today as they were when God wrote them on the imperishable tables of stone.  And nothing has ever happened to make them less binding than they were when God gave them.

In fact, we are going to discover that Jesus came to magnify the Law and to open up its spiritual application, making it more comprehensive than the legalistic Pharisees ever imagined.  Under the distilling influence of Christ’s perfect life of obedience, we can see the spiritual details of keeping which are neither recognized nor made possible apart from Him.

Fortunately for us, all 613 Mitzvahs have been condensed into these two mitzvahs:  Jesus tells us to love and honor God the Father and love others as yourself.  How simple!  How gracious and wonderful indeed!

John 3:3 – “Jesus answered, and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”