Theological Term of the Week

Ten Commandments
Ten laws that God wrote on two stone tables and gave to the nation of Israel after the Exodus. They summarize the Sinai covenant, defining “the life that the Lord calls his people to live before him and with each other”;1 also called the Decalogue or the Ten Words. 

• From scripture:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for theLord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:1-17, ESV)

• From The Heidelberg Catechism:

Question 114. But can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments?

Answer: No: but even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience; yet so, that with a sincere resolution they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God. 

Question 115. Why will God then have the ten commandments so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them?

Answer: First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin, and righteousness in Christ; likewise, that we constantly endeavour and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us, in a life to come.

• From No Other Gods:

[T]he Ten Commandments’ relation to the rest of the Mosaic law shows that each commandment covers more than what it states explicitly. The Ten Commandments are what we call apodictic laws, which are unconditional statements that apply universally to all people. They are simple and self-evident. Casuistic law, or case law, on the other hand, explains how apodictic laws apply to specific individuals. For example, an apodictic command such as “you shall not murder” (Deut. 5:17) is applied to specific instances of killing by the case laws of Numbers 35:9–34. The Mosaic law is full of case law that reveals the Ten Commandments’ full significance and application.

[T]he Lord Jesus Christ Himself shows us that searching out the broader applications and implications of God’s commandments is the right way to interpret and understand His law. Matthew 5:21–30, for example, tells us that the commandments against murder and adultery also prohibit that which may lead to those sins, namely, unjust anger and lustful thinking. The Ten Commandments, then, address the heart as well as outward behavior.

Learn more:

1. The Bible: Exodus 20:1-21
2. MacArthur Study Bible: The Ten Commandments
3. Got Questions.org: What are the Ten Commandments?
4. Bob Deffinbaugh: An Overview of the Ten Commandments
5. Arthur Pink: The Ten Commandments
6. Kevin DeYoung: Series of sermons of the Ten Commandments (audio)

Related terms:

• covenant
• Exodus, the
• third use of the law
• threefold division of the law

Filed under Old Testament History

1From the ESV Study Bible notes on Exodus 20.

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