Lesson 13: God’s Holiness Generates a Reminder, part 6

Another way God reminds us that He is Holy and we are not, is The Ten Commandments.

Romans 3:9-20 - "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."

In these verses Paul just destroys every self-love teaching from our secular society. He declares that man is not basically good, man is basically bad, bad to the bone. What did Paul say? He said nobody is righteous, we are worthless, we do not understand, our mouths are deceitful and full of bitterness, we do not seek God and do not even fear Him! Why does Paul say all this? Is he just trying to ruin our self-esteem? Precisely! But not only that, he is trying to show us the purpose of the law.


You see, the Ten Commandments were not given just as a guide for behavior. They were given to reveal our need of a Savior. Paul said, "Through the law you become conscious of sin." This is an important thing because, if we are honest with ourselves, we will not readily admit that we are sinners who are cut off from God! How many of us get up every day and say, "I just cannot wait to get out in public so I can tell everyone I meet that I am a dirty, rotten, filthy sinner!" This is precisely our problem. God wants a relationship with us, but we are disqualified because He is Holy and we are not, and we do not want to admit it.

How then is a Supernatural, Multi-dimensional, Infinite, Holy God going to communicate this problem to tiny, finite, unholy human beings? He uses an external teaching tool called the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are God's loving way to get us to admit our problem so we can get to the solution - Jesus!

We will study each of the Commandments to see how they remind us that we need Jesus.

* Memorize Romans 3:23-26 -
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.