From his book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’, Jerry Sittser taught:
“I read recently that most Americans cannot name even half the Ten Commandments. Perhaps, in this case, ignorance is bliss, for knowledge of them would probably make us uneasy, considering how often we break them. Those of us who can name them don’t seem to take them seriously anyway. We have a tarnished view of this law code, seeing it as prohibitive and restrictive, which to some degree it is, but also as absolute and irrelevant, which it decidedly is not.
I used to be more suspicious of the Ten Commandments than I am today. I have changed my mind about them. I know how desperately my fallen nature needs restraint, and I also know how liberating they can be. The Ten Commandments are not only prohibitions; they are also affirmations, pointing out how we can live happily and productively. They invite us to set a course for our lives that is good, noble, and true, to turn the will of God into a way of life. In short, they offer us freedom, the freedom of obedience.
The Ten commandments are not the opposite of grace, as some erroneously think; instead they point out the implications of grace. If anything the Ten Commandments are grounded in grace. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”1 That opening statement is not a command, telling God’s people what they must do. It is a pledge of love and loyalty, revealing what God has already done. Grace precedes law; promise goes before demand. God acts for us before he asks something from us. The Ten Commandments do nothing more than describe a way life that grace implies and requires.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief survey of the positive implications of the Ten Commandments, demonstrating how wonderful life could be if we obeyed them. ~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 USA) p. 67-69 Continued with. . . . “You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me”.
