Thunder quakes as lightning rips through the air, right next to him. The blinding light and deafening sound is enough to send anyone to his knees, but that's not why Moses fell to the ground. His face was on the rocky ground below him because he knew this was God's finger cutting the rock. Moses knew he was being given the writing of his almighty lord, the ten commandments. Surly this would save his people, Moses thought. Surely this would be their salvation.
Today, we are going to answer the question: “Can a man become right with God by keeping the ten commandments?” The ten commandments has always been a staple in any Christian child’s upbringing. Most Christians have the commandments memorized. But some might find themselves wondering if they can have a full relationship with God by following these commandments.
The short answer is no, keeping the ten commandments cannot reconnect us with God. In order to fully explain why this is true, let’s break this article into three separate parts:
1. Why we don’t already have a relationship with God.
2. Why the ten commandments cannot give us a relationship with God
3. What we can do about it.
So why is it that we have to do anything to become right with God in the first place? Well, this is where the first commandment God ever gave us comes in. This commandment was “Do not eat from the tree of knowledge”, and was directed to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. You probably know the story already. Adam and Eve were both tempted by Satan in the form of a snake and broke God's commandment. They ate from the tree which gave them knowledge of sin. This knowledge of sin is passed down to every one of us.
Now, God is perfect and loving. God’s commandments are always completely perfect, because he cannot make mistakes. This means that we have no excuse to disobey his commands, because we have no doubt that what he asks is completely good and true. And yet, we do. Since we disobeyed God, the perfect king of the universe, and since we had no excuse to disobey him, we severed our relationship with God. As Romans 6:23 tells us “The wages of sin is death.”
Why, you might ask, can't we just start keeping God's commandments and thus reconcile with God? The answer is that disobeying God is such a terrible thing, that there is nothing we could ever do to pay for a single sin. If God was to allow us to be with him after our many sins, he would be accepting evil and therefore no longer be perfect.
That leaves humanity at a pretty somber point. What hope do we have of any relationship with God, if we are unable to fix our mistakes? Well, while we may be powerless, God is not.
God wants to have a relationship with us, and he understands our sinful nature. Because of this, he made a way. God sent his son, Jesus to live a life like ours. Jesus felt the same pain, hardship, and temptation as any of us did. However, unlike any of us, Jesus was able to resist temptation for his whole life and never sinned. This meant that he had no sin to pay for. Jesus did not deserve the punishment of death. But he took the punishment anyway. He died on the cross. Jesus was infinitely perfect, so he was able to infinitely pay for everyone's sin. Since you can't take away from infinity, he was able to rise from death which was proof of his success.
God's perfect gift is forgiveness through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is accept the gift. All we have to do is believe in Jesus' salvation for us, and we can have a relationship with God.
But wait a minute, if that's how we can reconcile with God, what are the ten commandments for? Should we even follow them? The 10 Commandments were not our salvation, they were what showed us why we need salvation. The 10 commandments showed us what God demands from us, and showed us how we cannot live up to God’s standards on our own.
Does that mean that the demands are unreasonable? No! It means that we are unreasonable! Yet God understood and pitied us, and he gave us another way for salvation. However, we should still follow the ten commandments. Every one of them is for our own good, even if it’s hard to see in the moment. It is also a way to say thanks to God. Think of it like this: Christians do not do good so they can be saved. We do good because we were saved. So in review:
• We have severed our relationship with God
• There is no way for us to reconcile with God, even through the ten commandments,
• God could and did make a way for us to reconcile with him, through Jesus Christ.
• The ten commandments, although not our salvation, should be followed to the best of our abilities.
So I hope you fully understand how we can become right with God. This important aspect of the Christian faith truly shows just how much our Lord loves us. Enjoy the gift that God has given us and become right with him again, not through deeds, but belief. In closing I wish to read you a very powerful verse: Romans 5:19.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. ”
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