The Ten Commandments

Catholic Educators' Resource Center (CERC) ^ | 08-16-04 | Grace MacKinnon

[Salvation]

The Ten Commandments    GRACE MACKINNON

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Dear Grace, My son and I were discussing the importance of the Ten Commandments and how they are to be used as a guide. He says they are part of the Old Testament and therefore we need not focus that much on them. His attitude towards them is that they are just a lot of "Do Nots." Can you help me explain why God gave us these commandments and why they are still important for us today?

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While it is certainly true that many people have this understanding or attitude towards the Ten Commandments, it just so happens that the complete opposite is true. The reality, you see, is that the reason God gave them to us was not to limit or restrict us, but rather to set us free — free from sin. Who is it that knows us better than the One who made us? Because we belong to God who loves us so much, the only way we can be truly free and happy is when we live according to His ways. That is when we become “who we really are” — sons and daughters of the One, True, and Living God. It is precisely when we try to be “who we are not” that we are not free.

Deep within every human heart, God inscribes what is known as the natural law, a sort of code of moral conduct by which our reason tells us whether something is in conformity with our true human nature (Romans 2:15). All of those things that are not in agreement with our nature we are obviously to avoid because ultimately they will not fulfill us. In other words, they will hinder and possibly destroy the possibility of attaining our true destiny, heaven. This should make sense. Would we feed our bodies gasoline when they are made to live on food and water? This same basic principle applies to the moral order of our lives, for we are a people who are a unity of body and soul. The Ten Commandments are, if you will, a summary of this natural law, which reveals all that is good for us. When the Hebrews, wandering in the desert, failed to obey the natural law inscribed within them, God then gave to them the revealed law — the Ten Commandments.

In his beautiful encyclical Veritatis Splendor (the Splendor of Truth) the Holy Father John Paul II tells us that man’s freedom is not unlimited. Every human person “is called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact, human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfillment precisely in the acceptance of that law. God, who alone is good, knows perfectly what is good for man, and by virtue of his very love proposes this good to man in the commandments. God's law does not reduce, much less do away with human freedom; rather, it protects and promotes that freedom” (n. 35).

Throughout the Scriptures, a certain theme is woven in, that in life, there are two roads, the road to life and the road to death. By this we mean eternal life and eternal death, for we know that this life here on earth is temporary. If you can imagine this: On the road to life there are signposts, if you will, and these signposts are the Ten Commandments. This connection between the commandments and eternal life is clearly demonstrated by Jesus in the story of the rich young man in Matthew’s Gospel. When asked, “Teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19: 16-17).

Yes, to many the commandments seem so challenging and restrictive, and this is so because we live in a world where at every turn there is the temptation to sin. But like Peter, who could do what seemed like the impossible when he walked on water only by keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus (Matthew 15: 29-30), we too can follow the Lord to our heavenly home. So, let us follow the “signs.” The road to life is the right road to be on! You are indeed a good mother in wanting to teach your children to love God.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Grace MacKinnon. "The Ten Commandments." (March, 2004).

Reprinted with permission of Grace MacKinnon.

THE AUTHOR

Grace MacKinnon is a syndicated columnist and public speaker on Catholic doctrine. She is the author of Dear Grace: Answers to Questions About the Faith published by Our Sunday Visitor. Order online by e-mail at osvbooks@osv.com or call 1-800-348-2440.

Readers are welcome to submit questions about the Catholic faith to: Grace MacKinnon, 1234 Russell Drive #103, Brownsville, Texas 78520. Questions also may be sent by e-mail to: grace@deargrace.com.

You may visit Grace online at www.DearGrace.com.

Grace D. MacKinnon

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[Salvation]

For your information and discussion of the Ten Commandments.

[Salvation]

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[Salvation]

Matthew 19:16-22 (Daily Mass Readings, Gospel, for 8-16-04)

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Funny, I've seemed to be hearing lately, that the Ten Commandments are really the Ten Suggestions. </sarcasm/// off>

[Salvation]

How true -- has secularism grabbed this part of our society and taken it away?

I pray not.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***God gave them (the 10 Commandments) to us was not to limit or restrict us, but rather to set us free — free from sin. ***

I wonder if the author has really understood the message of the book of Romans.


Rom 5:20
"Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Rom 6:14
"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

Rom 7
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me."



The desire to truly keep the Law will bring the honest and sincere person to utter desperation. Desperation over their utter inability to keep the law from a pure motive.

The Law kills us. It can never set us free. It can only show us how far we have fallen from God's glory.


Jesus, and faith in him alone, makes us alive.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Very nice!

Freedom is only realized when we have the ability to reason. Is an insane person free, even though he does whatever he wants? No. He is a slave to his diseased mind. Is a drug addict free? No. He is a slave to his addiction. Is a young child free? No. He is a slave to his desires. It's not until he grows up and sees the choices and the reasons behind them, and he develops the self-control and will to choose that which is reasonable even when it contradicts his own urges and desires, that he is truly free. So is fallen man truly free?

God's law exposes our slavery to sin. That's why it is so hated. But Christ's gift freed us from that slavery, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Only then are we truly free.

I guess the big problem is that so many people claim Christ who also disclaim and discredit God's law.

[aimhigh]

The Law kills us. It can never set us free. It can only show us how far we have fallen from God's glory.

Agreed. The Ten Commandments are repeated referred to as the "tablets of the covenant" - referring to the first covenant with the Jews.

Through Christ, we have been set free from that convenant (the law), and have been made partakers of a better convenant (Hebrews 8). We have also been given New commandments (John 13:34, 1 John 3:23, etc.)

[Salvation]

**I guess the big problem is that so many people claim Christ who also disclaim and discredit God's law.**

Very well articulated. You said it much better than I could have.

[TotusTuus]

Concerning the Law - of which the decalogue is at the heart - and Grace, St. Augustine stated that God gave the Law so that we would see the need for Grace. God gave us Grace so that we could now fulfill the Law.

The decalogue contains so many "do not's" because, like most laws, they give us a minimum below which "we aren't making it". However, merely keeping the external precepts doesn't necessarily mean virtue for us. In the life of Grace, we all should be soaring well above the minimum requirements. The decalogue is a foundation, but the beatitudes through grace are the edifice that God wants us to build on it. The edifice will crumble without the foundation.

[Salvation]

**St. Augustine stated that God gave the Law so that we would see the need for Grace. God gave us Grace so that we could now fulfill the Law.**

What a fantastic quote!

[wgeorge2001]

Galatians 3:24
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.


17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

[GirlShortstop]

Through Christ, we have been set free from that convenant (the law), and have been made partakers of a better convenant (Hebrews 8). We have also been given New commandments (John 13:34, 1 John 3:23, etc.)

A remarkable thing about the absoluteness of Truth:  you can not violate one of the Ten Commandments without violating what Christ commanded.  The fullness of Truth... the Word made flesh, Jesus.