In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

 As you may know, this week the Supreme Court ruled on whether or not the Ten Commandments could be displayed on government property.  It was sort of a mixed bag as I understand it, in which displays were allowed to some extent, but only outside of the courtroom and only if they were there among other historical documents like the Magna Charta or the code of Hammurabi.  In other words, as long as they were treated basically like a museum piece, they were OK, but if what they said was being specifically promoted in the present, then that wasn't OK.  Obviously, it's frustrating that in a court of law, this perfect summary of the Law is not allowed.  We want to enforce right and wrong, but we disallow the foundation of it and the God who alone determines these matters.  Everyone wants a moral and ethical society, but in the name of tolerance and freedom, little or no public promotion of what is good and moral and right is allowed.  As C.S. Lewis once put it, we castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful.

 However, having said all of that, even though the Ten Commandments have universal and unchanging meaning, in their truest sense, they do only apply to God's people, believers, Christians.  For notice what God says at the very beginning, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."  Before anything is said about us, we are reminded that our relationship with God begins with His action toward us.  He claims us as His own people, purely by grace.  He brought Israel out of their slavery in Egypt when the Passover Lamb was sacrificed.  He has brought us out of our slavery to death and the devil through the cross of Christ.  He brought Israel through the Red Sea and separated them out as His own.  He has brought us through the baptismal waters and made us His own special, chosen people.  The Lord is our God; we are His people.

 What follows are ten statements of God's gracious and holy will for His people, statements which describe what the Lord's people look like when they truly believe that He is their God and they are His people.  Today we shall consider each of these ten commandments in order.

 1) "I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods."  In Moses' day, and also in our own, there was a tendency to have various idols for various purposes–portable, domesticated, house gods; little images that promised fertility, prosperity, success, or happiness; nice gods to have around. You controlled them; they fulfilled your needs. We have such gods too–though we have wallets for ours, and we use remote controls to make them do what we want.  We cling tightly to our household gods. We don't easily part with them.

 God is a jealous God.  He is the husband who doesn't want His bride going after another.  He wants His people all to Himself.  He went to the ultimate length to be our God.  Not only did the Lord come down to His people in the burning bush and in the pillar of cloud and fire, but finally He came down right into our own flesh and blood and became man.  He sacrificed His flesh and shed His blood to win our freedom.  He payed dearly to be our God.  He is jealous for His beloved people.  "You shall have no other gods."

 2) "I am the Lord, your God. You shall not misuse my name."  God's name is not just a title; In it He actually reveals and gives Himself and His life to us.  In His Name He forgives His people, He heals them, He blesses them, He makes His face shine upon them. Where God causes His Name to dwell, there salvation is given out.

 Therefore, God's people do not use His name frivolously and meaninglessly just to color their speech or add emphasis.  They do not use His name to curse but to bless.  They do not drag His name into lies, but keep their oaths and vows.  God's people do not teach false things in His Name, and when they have spoken a careless word, they are quick to repent and correct it. God's people use His Name when they are in trouble, and when others are in need. They use God's name to pray, praise, and give thanks.  For God has revealed His Name in His Son–Emmanuel, God with us; Jesus, which means "the Lord saves."  We receive His Name in our Baptism. It is our identity. We belong to Him. "You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord, your God."

 3) "I am the LORD, your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."  God's people know that they cannot live by mere bread alone. What fills the belly cannot feed the soul. Man lives rather by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  And so we are not free to ignore the preaching of God's Word or the gathered church.  Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ, and whoever cuts himself off from the preaching of this saving Word cuts Himself off from Christ and His salvation.  The person who claims to believe in Christ but who rarely shows up for divine service is strong only in his unbelief.  The one who is absent from the Word and the Supper preaches the real absence of Christ in his life.  He has a different Jesus and believes a different Gospel.  Jesus is present in His Word and His Supper to give us true peace and rest, new creation.  Jesus is Himself God's Sabbath, who says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  In Jesus alone there is rest from the Law, rest from guilt and shame and sin.  "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, " by keeping it set apart for the saving Word of Christ.

 4) "I am the LORD, your God. Honor your father and your mother."  The Lord is a God of order.  His Word gives us our station in life and establishes offices of authority and responsibility–husbands toward wives, parents toward children, employers toward employees, governors toward the governed, pastors toward the flock.

 The operative word is "honor," a word that is ordinarily reserved for God Himself.  God is honored when the authorities He has established are honored.  For parents and other authorities are the masks behind which God hides and through which He blesses.  They are God's vicars, His agents, His instruments.  We are to honor them, not only when they behave honorably but even when they don't, because God still works through the office they hold.  Honor is not something earned.  It is given on account of God's Word.  If God told us to honor a piece of wood or a chunk of rock, we would honor that wood or rock for no other reason than God said so.

 Where there is no honor for authority, order collapses.  We have sufficient examples all around us.  Anarchy abounds in our homes, in our streets, at our jobs, in our churches.  However, in Jesus Christ, God reveals Himself to be our true Father.  We are His true children.  He baptizes us into His family; we have a place.  He restores order to the chaos; He calls us to be ordered under Him and His representatives.  "Honor your father and your mother."

 5) "I am the LORD, your God. You shall not murder."  Human life is sacred, a holy gift from God, above all other forms of life; for He created us in His image.  God alone gives life, and He alone takes life away.  And so God's free people do not hurt or harm their neighbors–from the unborn child in the womb to the terminally ill and frail and elderly.  They do not try to be God in place of God, but they honor Him as Lord when it comes to matters of life and death.  They speak not of the quality of life but of the sanctity of life.

 Since life is God's gift, we are also given to help and support our neighbor in every bodily need, to care for the poor and the needy and the orphaned and the widowed.  We are not to pass by on the other side but to stoop down to do for others as we would have them do for us.  For Christ stooped down even to the depths of the grave to give us life.  Through Jesus, death has been swallowed up in victory.  "You shall not murder."

 6) "I am the LORD, your God. You shall not commit adultery."  Marriage and family are God's gift.  Sex too is God's gift.  It is the one flesh relationship He ordained between a husband and a wife.  Adultery takes God's gift of sex away from the context of marriage and uses it against God and others in service of the self.  Sex outside of marriage, living together before marriage, homosexual relations–all of that is self-centered, not God-centered.  The one who is sexually immoral sins against his or her own body.  The costs are enormous, of which the divorce rates and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases are only the tip of the iceberg.

 God's people seek to keep marriage holy, to love and honor their spouses.  They recognize that their bodies were bought with a price, the body of Jesus hung on a cross.  They recall this fact by tracing the mark of the cross on themselves. You have been tagged with the mark of the Good Shepherd, branded with the seal of His sacrifice in Holy Baptism.  You proclaim Jesus' death by receiving into your bodies His own Body and Blood.  God's redeemed people are free, free to say "no" to their lusts and "yes" to God.  They glorify God with their bodies.  "You shall not commit adultery."

 7) "I am the LORD, your God. You shall not steal."  Like murder and adultery, stealing is the attempt to be God in place of God.  The thief doesn't like the way God has distributed money and possessions and seeks to reorder things along lines more favorable to himself.  The thief fails to recognize that God is the Owner and the Provider of all things, and it's Him you're messing with when you steal.  However, God's people recognize that He is the Giver of gifts.  They reject laziness to do honest, careful, and excellent work.  They serve the Lord and others in their work, not merely the paycheck.  For they have first been served by Christ.  Though rich, He became poor, so that through His poverty, we might be truly rich.  "You shall not steal."

 8) "I am the LORD, your God. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."  At stake is your neighbor's name and reputation.  With a word of gossip you can destroy it.  God's people know the value of a good reputation, for God has given them a good reputation by putting away their sins as far as the east is from the west.  If God speaks well of us in not counting our sins against us, how can we not speak well of others?  To speak well of others is to see others as God sees them, through the lens of the cross.  Your neighbor is one for whom Jesus shed His blood.  "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

 9 & 10) "I am the LORD, your God. You shall not covet."  Coveting is the sinful desire for something.  These final two commands point inward to the heart.  The heart that is unbuckled from God latches onto other things like Velcro.  These commandments remind us of something that was implied in all of the others, namely, that God doesn't just want mere outward keeping of His commandments, like the Pharisees.  He seeks something greater than that, an inward righteousness.  He wants us to do His will from the heart, a heart that loves and trusts in Him.  These final commands remind us that greed is stealing, that lust is adultery, that anger and grudge-keeping are murder, and so on, even if no one ever sees it.  If we thought we've kept the commandments pretty well, these last two burst that bubble real quick.  They remind us of how deep into our humanity the cancer of sin runs, how deep our need for Christ is. It is not just our actions that the Law judges, but our thoughts, desires, imaginations, and motivations.  Learn well then, that though the commandments are important, they cannot save you.  They always accuse you before God and condemn you–every single one of them.  They can show you what it means to be good, but they can't make you holy.  Their real purpose is to drive you to despair of yourself and to trust in Christ alone.

 And the good news is that through faith in Christ alone, you are saved.  For Jesus said in the Gospel that He did not come to destroy but to fulfill, to fulfill all the requirements of the Law for you and in your place.  It is written that God the Father sent forth His Son, born under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law's judgment, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  Jesus did not relax the Law's demands.  Rather He squared us up to the Law's full demands by doing the Law perfectly, right down to its last jot and tittle, all for you.  He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.  He perfectly loved His Father in heaven and His neighbor on earth.  And Jesus also fulfilled the requirements of the Law by taking the judgment the Law demands in His own body.  All of our unrighteousness He made His own, suffering its consequences, being obedient even to the point of death on a cross.  Jesus was made to be the commandment breaker so that you would be made to be what Jesus is, God's perfect child.  You are holy and sinless before God in Jesus' name.  All of the righteousness and holiness of Christ He credits to you through faith.  Because you are baptized into Christ, united with Him, His holy life now counts as your own.  Jesus did all of this so that He could give it all to you freely, by grace.

 So the words of Jesus which seemed to be impossible are now, in fact, true in Him:  "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."  But your righteousness now does indeed exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.  For you have the righteousness of Jesus Himself.  Through Christ you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  Believe that, for it is true.  The Lord truly is your God, and you are His people, eternally.

  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

(Much of the above was adapted from a sermon on the Ten Commandments by the Rev. William Cwirla of Hacienda Heights, CA.)