Are the Ten Commandments still valid for us today? Are they valid only for Christians, or for all people? Or are they perhaps only for Jews and pagans, but not for Christians? And is it merely piety or the inertia of conservatism that keeps them in our catechism, in the doctrinal strong room of the church? Are they still with us simply because no one has dared to question the ancient moral habits of the church? Wouldn't a business, eager to rationalize for the sake of success, have long ago cleared them out and relegated them to a museum of the ancient Near East?
Some prominent speakers in the church have come to just this conclusion and caught the headlines with it. One, a German church president, stated that it was impossible to prescribe a catalog of eternal norms of conduct; rather, the Christian was to decide in the given situation what love would command him or her to do. Therefore, when it came to personal ethics, the Decalogue was out of the question. On another occasion this same man said that it was equally impossible in a pluralistic society to accept the Ten Commandments as the basis for social morality and the law of the state—something most countries took for granted until very recently.
Another Protestant ethicist, with earned doctorates in theology and sociology, brought his sociological thinking to bear on the Decalogue. Calling the Ten Commandments "those ancient norms" and "a nomad law," he relativized them historically and sociologically. The civilized world of the industrial age was too far removed from the world of the Ten Commandments; they could hardly help us, let alone be authoritative. They were, rather, a hindrance to modern life.
According to at least two theologians, then—to put it in terms used during the Reformation—the Decalogue belongs neither to the pulpit nor to the town hall. Where, then, does it belong? Merely to the history of Israel? How shall we answer these two suggestions? Should we agree with one or the other, and if not, why not? Why does the church continue to preach the Ten Commandments? To whom are the Ten Commandments given?
I shall try to answer these questions with three theses: (1) the Ten Commandments obligate the people of God to whom they are given; (2) the Ten Commandments recommend themselves to every person as an appropriate definition of the good; (3) the Ten Commandments are the framework of Christian ethics; they need to be filled by love, by the guidance of God's Spirit.
The Ten Commandments obligate the people of God
Is the Decalogue valid today, and for whom? It is indeed still necessary to ask these questions. While one is studying the Bible it is of primary importance to take notice of the circumstances and context of the text. For example, consider this introduction to the Ten Commandments: "'And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you'" (Deut. 4:1, 2). *
To whom is this appeal of Moses directed? To Israel, of course, and more exactly to a certain generation in the history of the people of Israel—those who came out of Egypt. The Exodus is the original historical setting of the Ten Commandments.
But is that single generation the only one to whom the Decalogue is addressed? Already at Mount Sinai, questions about the general and timeless applicability of these words were raised the first precedent for similar questions asked today: "'When your son asks you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded you?"'" (chap. 6:20). "'"The Lord our God"'—" that the Lord of the Decalogue is our God is accepted. But as to the commandments, we hear the little note of disassociation (as verses 21-25 go on to say): "' "which the Lord . . . has commanded you.'"" This second generation was already being told that the commandments were binding on all generations of Israel, every living generation, because they all belong together as a "corporate personality."
The Decalogue, then, is addressed to Israel, meaning this distinctive nation which has come from Egypt. The introduction to the actual text of the Decalogue makes this point: " 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage'" (Ex. 20:2). And in Deuteronomy, the peculiar and unique character of Israel is unmistakably expressed: " 'Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?'" (chap. 4:34). Therefore, the answer must clearly be "No, the Decalogue is not just addressed to a single generation." Israel is a special case. They are the people of the covenant with God, and the Ten Commandments, as has been shown by Old Testament scholars, are the basic law and constitution of this covenant.
In his teaching on the Decalogue and in general, Martin Luther stressed the importance of discerning to whom a Biblical text is addressed, and especially "whether it means you." Concerning the Ten Commandments, he said in his sermon of August 27, 1525 ("Instruction on How Christians Are to Apply Moses"): "From the text we clearly have that the Ten Commandments [as such] do not concern us. Because God has not brought us from Egypt, but only the Jews." Consequently, he felt that the law of Moses does not bind the Gentiles—it has no authority for non-Jews.
Such startling conclusions raise a number of questions: How, then, does the Decalogue get into Luther's small and large catechism, and so into the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church? And why would Luther himself have interpreted the Decalogue, through preaching and print, more than a dozen times during his lifetime? How, then, does the Decalogue get into the Christian church and pulpit? There are several answers to these questions.
First, although Christians do not belong to Israel in a biological sense, yet, from the perspective of the history of salvation, Christians are included in the "new covenant," are members of the one people of God: "That in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles" (Gal. 3:14).
In another place, Paul makes the same point with an illustration which must have been as much a paradox to him as it still is to us: "Some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree" (Rom. 11:17). If this is true, then we should ask not whether the Ten Commandments are valid for us today, but rather how could the Christian church ever legitimately drop them? One of the former generation of Swiss Reformed theologians, onetime professor of ethics in the University of Berne, Alfred de Quervain, therefore concluded rightly: "As we for Christ's sake and through the gift of the Holy Spirit have become members of this people, and as these commandments make known God's will for all sanctified they also bind us. Christ has not come to abolish the commandments, but to fulfill them."—Die Heiligung (1946), p. 248.
Second, it is by the authority of Christ that the Ten Commandments are valid for all who follow Him. Moses is an authority for Christians insofar as Jesus took up his teaching. Jesus took the Ten Commandments seriously, unconditionally. In His meeting with the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:18, 19), He quoted them as the basic instruction for the way to eternal life. He submitted to the Decalogue when He contrasted God's commandments to the traditions of the elders (chap. 15:3). Part of His sermon on the mount is based on commandments from the Decalogue; His own new teaching is a heightening, an intensification, of the Decalogue's commandments and not, as is often said, an antithesis to them. (The wording of the Sermon on the Mount " 'You have heard that it was said. . . . But I say to you ..."" is antithetical, but there is radicalization of the commandments, not antithesis, in the contents of what Jesus says.)
Jesus warned His listeners not to form a misconception of what He intended, a misconception which could easily come up where no distinction is made between God's commandments and human moral traditions. " 'Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets,'" Jesus said; "'I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them" (chap. 5:17).
In His actions, too, Jesus is true to the commandments. His much-debated actions on the Sabbath are no exception. If there is to be no contradiction between Jesus' words and His actions, then His deeds on the Sabbath have to be understood not as the abolition, but as the fulfillment of the Sabbath commandment. For Jesus said: " 'For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
This righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees is the righteousness given to us free from God. Jesus makes this clear when He rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for teaching harsh laws but themselves not living up to them (chap. 23:1-4). This righteousness, though freely given by God, must be realized both in the sentiments of our heart and in our actual deeds keeping the commandments and doing the things the Spirit teaches us which by far surpass the law. For those, then, who according to the Great Commission have been taught to obey everything He commanded His apostles, the Ten Commandments remain in force " 'till heaven and earth pass away.'"
That the apostles repeated the commandments in the letters of the early church, and that the church as a matter of course continued to single out a special day of the week, witness to the validity of the Decalogue for the Christian church. The Lord God of Israel is the Father of Jesus Christ. His character, His sanctity, and righteousness will not change. By reason of the authority of Christ, the Ten Commandments are as valid for the people of God today as when they were first given. They are the framework, the basis, for God's communion with His people. Observing them spells blessing; transgressing them brings the curse of the Eternal.
Concerning the Ten Commandments, Karl Barth wrote: "The Decalogue ... is... in fact the basic event in the story of Israel—it unfolds the programme of the whole history of this people . . . and therefore by implication of His elect community . . . the Church. It was not, therefore, without justification that the Decalogue was adopted as the basis of the Christian catechism. It is the foundation statute of the divine covenant of grace and valid for all ages. Everything that the true God, the Founder and Lord of this covenant, has commanded and forbidden, or will command and forbid, is to be found within the framework of the programme of all His decisions and purposes as contained in the Decalogue."—Church Dogmatics, Vol. II, part 2, p. 685.
In our May issue Bockmuehl concludes his study of the Decalogue with an examination of natural law and Christian ethics.
