The ten commandments are good, holy, and true. But the Bible is honest about what they can and cannot do.
The law shows us our sin
“By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). The commandments are a mirror. And the law is a whole: “whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10).
The law leads us to Christ
Paul says the law “has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). What the law could not do, “in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son” (Romans 8:3-4).
Jesus did not abolish the law
“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
Matthew 5:17
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus took the commandments deeper, not lighter — from murder to anger, from adultery to lust (Matthew 5:21-28).
Love fulfills the law
The commandments against adultery, murder, theft, and coveting “are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:9-10).
For those who belong to Christ, obedience flows from love: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). And “his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3).