I watched a true story the other day about a Christian Missionary who was also an Athlete who refused to run on a Sunday because he believed it’s wrong to work on a Sabbath. I began to think how this is wrong because the true Sabbath is a Saturday, that we are also not bound by the Old Testament rules which Jesus has abolished but I found myself with questioning thoughts why is it we are not bound? Is the 10 commandments really abolished for us? Why did God create laws to simply abolish them, he is not a God that changes.
God must have spoken to me because answers suddenly flooded through me. I found myself talking about how Jesus is the only man that could live up to those ten commandments because Jesus is the only man who is sinless, He is Gods own Son, He is God. When I now look at the 10 Commandments I see Jesus, not laws made for Man but laws made for Jesus to fulfil. Jesus is “ I am who I am” who wrote the Ten Commandments Himself knowing he will fulfil them Himself.
The Ten Commandments were created to set the standard for being saved; it makes sin much clearer as having a law gives you something to judge against. It was created as the doorway to Heaven and once Jesus died for us on the cross, having not broken a single commandment, having fulfilled all prophecies, the doorway to Heaven that was firmly kept closed due to sin were opened by the unblemished lamb. Jesus became the open door. The commandments were a doorway to Heaven that no man could open, but only God’s Son. And now through believing in Jesus and having faith, through Him we can enter through the doorway to Heaven unblemished, viewed without sin having been washed in His precious blood.
So those Commandments were so much more than a burden we could never keep. They were not a failed plan by God that changed. But the commandments are part of our salvation through Jesus Christ who removed that burden from us. His burden is light, we do not need to continue trying and failing any longer to live up to the expectations of the Ten Commandments, a standard that only our righteous God can keep.
But of course the Commandments and laws that followed were beneficial for the mankind of ancient Israel; it created rules for the new nation to be built on, also to be a light for the all nations. But it is still beneficial for us today to try our best to live up to the teachings of Jesus Christ; to follow in the footsteps of our saviour whom fulfilled these Commandments. The greatest commandment that was breathed by Christ Himself summarises all of the old testament commandments.
Mathew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
All scriptures are taken from the NKJV