The last 60 years have seen a sustained and successful campaign by the ACLU and individuals to remove displays of the 10 Commandments from schools and public spaces. The effect on the public consciousness has been dramatic. Many see the idea that God’s commandments are relevant for determining right and wrong as outmoded. Today “experts” appeal to so-called established science and ignore the Bible. Even Christians have come to see this as normal and the way it ought to be. People assume falsely that the Constitution prohibits bringing the Bible and its commandments into the argument as we discuss moral and ethical questions in the public sphere.
And of course that mindset spreads, permeating everything else in culture, from entertainment to business, from education to technology. At the local and personal level, many people regard God’s commandments as irrelevant to daily life. Secular society has marginalized God and his commandments, pushing them to the edge of the page, or off the page entirely.
What could be further from reality? Removing God’s commandments from public view does nothing to diminish their authority over every human being.
God’s law is not outdated
The truth is God created and sustains all things and designed and created humanity. He alone knows what brings life and what causes disease and death. No one is more relevant to how we as humans flourish than God, and he has told us how to do that in his benevolent commandments. In love God gave all his commandments. For our highest good and his highest glory he gave his law.
James 4:12 says, “There is only one lawgiver and judge.” God is the lawgiver. Jesus is the lawgiver. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Just as manufacturers provide instructions for how to use a product safely and for optimum usefulness, so God gave his rules for living.
God’s law is above every human law
God’s laws are more important than the U.S. Constitution, than the Bill of Rights, than the laws of the land, than the employee handbook of your company. God requires us to treat his laws with ultimate respect. We should seek to learn them and follow them in all things: sexuality, business, how we speak to each other, marriage and family life, how we spend our money, what we think about, how we spend free time—everything.
To deliberately disobey and ignore these commandments is to be lawless. Ignoring God’s commandments is infinitely more serious than ignoring the U.S. tax code. It is infinitely more serious than an NFL football player ignoring the rulebook. What lawless people ignore is we must answer to God. Although people who earn money must answer to the IRS, the punishments it can decree for nonpayment are limited; God’s punishments are unlimited. They are forever.
Isaiah 33:22 says, “The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver.” God both decrees the law and then upholds it as judge. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Final judgment for every person is coming, and at that time we will answer to God for whether we carefully sought to know and keep his commandments or whether we ignored them.
The Lawgiver who offers forgiveness
Why are God’s laws ultimate? Because he created and sustains us moment-by-moment. He thus owns us. We are not independent, self-existing creatures. God created us, and he defines our existence. Ultimately we answer to him alone for how we treat others, how we treat ourself and God’s world, and how we treat God.
None of us is anywhere close to perfect. We are all lawless to different degrees. But thankfully, God has provided a way through faith in Jesus Christ to be forgiven and accepted by God. Romans 4:7 says, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” Lawlessness can be forgiven, but only through faith in the one who perfectly obeyed God’s commandments and then intentionally died on the cross not for his own but for our lawlessness.
