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Are Christians Under the 10 Commandments?
Desiring God ^ | August 7, 2010 | John Piper

Posted on 04/12/2015 11:16:47 AM PDT by RnMomof7

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

Are Christians under the 10 commandments?

No. The Bible says we're not under the law.

I love Romans 7:4-6. By way of analogy, it says that you are married to the law. And you better stay married because if you leave this husband and go marry another you are going to be called an adulterer. But if your husband dies, then you can go and remarry.

And then Paul draws the analogy out—a little complex the way he does it—saying that you died to the law. You aren't married anymore, you can have another husband, namely Christ. He's raised from the dead.

So, our approach towards ethics is different. We don't ask the question, "Am I under the law?" We are under grace. The law is already fulfilled perfectly by Jesus. We are in Jesus and as far justification goes, God sees it as completed for you, one-hundred percent. He says, "You've trusted my Son. You've been grafted in him. You are in Christ Jesus and he fulfilled the law perfectly. He covered all your sins." God sees you in and through Christ, therefore, as far as final judgment goes God is 100% for you. That is settled and nothing is going to change it.

Now, shall we sin that grace may abound? Paul says, "Dead men don't sin." If you've died to sin, how can you still live in it? The new birth is the writing of the law on our heart so that we are not under it, it is under us. It is just coming out.

The way we strive towards being obedient, holy and loving people is not by getting up in the morning and pulling the list out of our pocket. No! We get on our knees and we open ourselves to the whole counsel of God in the Bible. We saturate and shape ourselves by everything he has done, he is doing and he will do. We stake our lives in the gospel and then instead of serving the law, we serve one another in love.

Love is the fruit of faith in Jesus—faith working through love. And if you ask, "What does love look like?" First John says, "It keeps the commandments." That brings us back to the question, which commandments? I would say, the ones that are loving.

Love God and do as you please is not bad advice, if you're bent on holiness. If you're bent on love the ten commandments are really important. You should hang them on your wall and you should measure your life by them, but in a very different way than when you were under them, because they have been kept for you.

You are now married to the risen Christ. You are not married to the law and the oldness of the letter, but to the newness of the Spirit. Our whole approach towards transformation, love and life is different than list keeping.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Theology
KEYWORDS: 10commandments; faith; johnpiper; mercy; obedience; salvation
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To: Campion
But in Romans 3:29, it’s clear that he’s talking about a “Law” that belongs only to the Jews.

I agree. The law was the covenant with the Jews, not Gentiles. And the Ten Commandments, in scripture are properly called the Tablets of the Covenant.

41 posted on 04/12/2015 12:46:17 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: JesusIsLord

Live on the right mountain, love that! Immediately made me think of Psalm 110’s obvious prophecy of Christ Jesus:

“The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The LORD sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!”


42 posted on 04/12/2015 12:48:05 PM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: Fido969
So, the do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, etc, no longer apply to you?

We are under the command to love, which doesn't allow murder, etc. If I move from England to the USA, I'm no longer under English law, but USA law. We have moved from the law of Moses to the law of Christ.

43 posted on 04/12/2015 12:52:16 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: RnMomof7

What did Jesus have to say about it?

Mat 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.


44 posted on 04/12/2015 12:52:17 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Patiently waiting for the jack booted kick at my door.)
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To: RnMomof7

Yes. The Ten Commandments are a statement of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and are universally binding. Christians are not subject to Jewish ceremonial law — the specific laws and traditions that have preserved Jewish identity under persecution since ancient times.


45 posted on 04/12/2015 12:55:01 PM PDT by omega4412
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To: RnMomof7
Great ping list.

The "Grace Revolution" (THE gospel of the grace of God) is revolutionizing lives and the church.

you are not under the law, but under grace Rom 6:15.

Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 2 Corinthians 3:6-8.

46 posted on 04/12/2015 12:55:35 PM PDT by PapaNew (The grace of God & freedom always win the debate in the forum of ideas over unjust law & government)
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To: metmom
What is the purpose of the Law?

Do you know?

Do you know what is "the Law"?

47 posted on 04/12/2015 12:57:32 PM PDT by Fido969
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To: RnMomof7

Why do you think that nobody shared your theology for the first 1500 years after the time Christ walked on the Earth?


48 posted on 04/12/2015 12:58:38 PM PDT by impimp
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To: aimhigh
We are under the command to love, which doesn't allow murder, etc. If I move from England to the USA, I'm no longer under English law, but USA law. We have moved from the law of Moses to the law of Christ.

So, then, which of the Commandments aren't you supposed to follow?

49 posted on 04/12/2015 12:59:39 PM PDT by Fido969
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To: Campion

The Law says: Do not murder. Jesus says: If you hate your brother it is the same as murder.

The Law says: you shall not commit adultery. Jesus says: if you look on a woman with lust, you have committed adultery.

Jesus said, in Mark 12:30, AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31”The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”…

You don’t go to hell because you break the 10 commandments, you go to hell for not being Born Again.


50 posted on 04/12/2015 1:09:40 PM PDT by Paperpusher
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To: zipper

“Sadly many “Christians” believe this.”

Yes so true. The word fulfilled in Hebrew means lived under. Its been mis translated by the Catholics and a lot of other Christian faiths. Jesus lived as a Jew. He never broke the commandments and at one point he even said words to the effect of “do you think I came to do away with the laws of Moses?” He did not.

We are all under the law both Christians and Jews.

God is not schizophrenic. He does’t say one thing in the Old Testament and then change his mind later. God’s law does not change.


51 posted on 04/12/2015 1:11:07 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: impimp
Why do you think that nobody shared your theology for the first 1500 years after the time Christ walked on the Earth?

You're sure that NOBODY did?

Or is t possible that there's just no record of it because the Catholic church obliterated it?

But I'll take a shot anyway.

Because Satan send in false prophets to teach that we're still under the law and people who didn't know their Scripture believed it.

52 posted on 04/12/2015 1:11:10 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

God’s law doesn’t change but how God deals with sin and sinners did.


53 posted on 04/12/2015 1:12:23 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: JesusIsLord

I am truly struggling to understand this conversation.

From what I’m reading here, Christians don’t believe that they need to follow the 10 Commandments.

So are you people saying that Christians can murder and commit adultery because Christ already died for your sins?

This sounds like the explanation that the pro-gay “Christian” churches use to validate homosexual marriage.

If the 10 Commandments truly were ‘fulfilled’ with the crucifixion of Jesus, then they would be right, by that reasoning.


54 posted on 04/12/2015 1:18:41 PM PDT by Marie
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To: Rashputin
"This sort of Self and Self Alone Protestant derived drivel is why the US and Europe are now exactly like the society described in Romans 1. "

Society is ALWAYS exactly as described in Romans 1—either flagrantly (as the pagans) or in hypocrisy (the Jews who had the Law but didn't keep it)—and always in need of the answer in Romans 3:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."

I do believe "society" functions under law but only as a remedial check on fallen man. There is no salvation to be found in "order", just order. Good so far as it goes, and always preferable to anomie. America offered order, but see how sinful man has failed to keep it? Only the answer found in Romans 3 can "fix" sinful man and his guaranteed cyclical corruption.

So salvation really IS personal, "self and self alone" in the same sense as Proverbs 9:12

"If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it."

55 posted on 04/12/2015 1:20:00 PM PDT by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: JAKraig

Thank you. When a Jew speaks of ‘The Law’ he’s talking about the Torah Law - not the 10C. And the Torah is only for Jews.


56 posted on 04/12/2015 1:20:37 PM PDT by Marie
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To: RnMomof7

We are not under the Law, but we are under obligation to God, who is our Lord and Master. What He tells us will not contradict the ideas of the 10 Commandments.

As Jesus said:

” “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire...”


57 posted on 04/12/2015 1:25:30 PM PDT by Mr Rogers (Can you remember what America was like in 2004?)
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To: robert14

Jesus gave no new law. He lived under the law. The only thing he ever said was when asked what were the greatest of the commandments and he said love the lord your god with all your heart mind and spirit and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus’s only commandmant was love.

What about the good thief hanging on the cross next to Jesus? He asked Jesus to “remember me this day when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus said “this day you will be in paradise with me”. Jesus did not say “hey boy we need to get you down off that cross and get you baptized.”


58 posted on 04/12/2015 1:26:36 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Fido969; metmom

Do you know why God Gave the law to the Jews?


59 posted on 04/12/2015 1:27:59 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Fido969

“We are under the command to love, which doesn’t allow murder, etc”

You just validated the entire Christian homosexual lobby. They aren’t hurting anyone. They’re just ‘loving’.

Incidentally, there is only one commandment in the religion of Wicca - “Do what thou will, but harm none.”

So if there are no rules for Christians except to ‘love’ then you’ve just proved the new-age Christians totally valid and there is no longer a moral or Biblical argument against gay marriage.


60 posted on 04/12/2015 1:29:32 PM PDT by Marie
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