We cannot understand the ten commandments apart from Jesus Christ. They are not only a list of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. We must not forget the Lord who spoke the words from Sinai and the context in which He spoke them. God's commands call His people to acknowledge Him as their Savior and Lord.
The law at Sinai expresses God's demand for perfect obedience. God is perfectly holy and can require nothing less. But God did not bring His people out of Egypt to consume them in the flame of Sinai. His purpose was to save them. Thus, God gave the law to enter into a covenant with His redeemed people. They promised to keep all the words that God spoke (Ex 24:3). Sacrifices were offered, and both the altar and the people were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice. From the very outset, it was clear that atonement must be made and that the atonement must come from God's altar.
Christ's coming is not a divine afterthought. The blood of the covenant sprinkled at Sinai witnesses to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God chosen from the foundation of the world. We may distinguish between the ten commandments and the ceremonial law. But we need to remember that they were given together. God did not speak words that could only condemn His people without providing the symbols of atonement.
When we hear God's law given from Sinai, therefore, we must not only tremble at its thunder and flee to Christ for His forgiveness and righteousness. We must also hear in it God's zeal for His own Son, and find in it witness to the redemptive purpose of the God who redeemed Israel from bondage.
Jesus kept the law for us. He learned obedience through the things He suffered. In His obedience, He was not only our representative, but our example. He transformed and deepened the law even as He fulfilled it. He enables us to understand the will of our heavenly Father as we understand the covenant made at Sinai. Above all, He renews us by His Spirit so that we may do what the law asks: love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and our neighbor as ourselves.
Refences:
Edmund Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery
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