The Ten Commandments are probably the most famous code of law ever written. But they are so much more than that!
In the Ten Commandments we see the outcome of grace. That may sound like a strange statement, because we often see ‘grace’ and ‘law’ as opposite and contradicting concepts. We say, “If grace is ‘God’s riches at Christ’s expense” and we can’t do anything to earn God’s favour, then surely we can’t be asked to obey the law.
The problem with that line of thinking is that it represents what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “cheap grace.” He writes,
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. … Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.
The Ten Commandments are the natural response to God’s grace. God had been incredibly gracious to the Israelites – rescuing them out of slavery in Egypt and bringing them to His mountain. God’s grace is unmistakable. So, the Ten Commandments are a natural outcome of that grace – as God gives them a set of laws by which they are to live as His people in response to that grace.
Let’s face it; the Ten Commandments are not onerous. I can’t see any of the Ten Commandments that I’d like to exclude. I think it’s a good thing that we’re told not to murder or steel and it only makes sense that God’s people are told not to have any other gods before their only true God. So, the Ten Commandments are a natural outcome of God’s grace and concern for His people.
God’s grace requires a response. And this is no more fully seen than in the clearest picture of God’s grace – the Cross of Christ. And that’s where Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls us to replace cheap grace with costly grace,“Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus … Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Ben Jonson said, “Speak that I may see thee.” It’s only as someone speaks that we truly see who they are. It’s no surprise then, that as God speaks in Exodus 20, we see true grace because grace is at the very heart of God.
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.