God’s Top Ten List

by Brian Bill
Published October 2, 2007

God’s Top Ten List is straightforward and easy to understand. I heard about a newspaper editor who told one of his reporters to go out and rewrite the 10 Commandments. After a few minutes, the reporter came back with one word scratched in huge letters on a piece of paper: “Don’t!”

Some people get bent out of shape because they seem so negative. Granted, even though 8 of the 10 are worded negatively -- “Don’t,” “Thou Shall Not,” or “No,”, it’s for a good reason.

Suppose the recent flooding on the Mississipi wiped out a bridge. A caring individual noticed what happened and decided to put up a sign that said, “Bridge Out! Danger! Keep Away!” An hour later a man comes by and slows down to read the sign. Thinking the sign is just a joke, he drives past the sign only to discover too late that the bridge really is out. He plunges to his death in the icy water below. He died because he ignored the warning sign. That’s exactly what the 10 Commandments are: They are warning signs.

I see at least three applications to the 10 Commandments for today. Here’s the first one: Determine to Follow the Directions. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 85% of Americans believe that the 10 Commandments are binding today, but only 15% could even name 5 of them.

As you determine to follow the directions, you’ll soon notice something else. As hard as you try to keep these Commandments, you will inevitably fall short. The more you try to not covet, the stronger the temptation becomes to want more. The more you try to not lie, the more you find yourself exaggerating. If you’re honest, you’ll admit that the Commandments are very difficult to keep consistently, day in and day out.

That leads us to point #2: Admit That You Can’t Follow Them Completely. Another way to say this is that they are impossible to keep.

While God gave the 10 Commandments for us to follow and obey, He also knows that it’s impossible to keep all of them consistently. The 10 Commandments are like a mirror. They reflect back to us how we’re doing. They tell us what we’re really like. When we compare ourselves against God’s standards, we inevitably fall short.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about your life as you take an honest look at God’s Top Ten list, you’re not alone. The Bible puts it this way in Romans 3:20: “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law; rather through the Law we become conscious of sin.”

One of the purposes of God’s Commands is to show us that we fall short of His holy standards. We miss the mark of His perfection. Even if we keep some of them some of the time, or even most of them most of the time, it’s still not enough.

God turns up the heat a little more in another passage from the Bible: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). That means that it’s not enough to just try to live up to God’s standards. God says that if you mess up once -- just one time, you’re guilty of breaking the entire law.

Let’s all admit something. We’re all guilty of breaking God’s commands. There’s no one who can say that they’ve kept them all every day of their lives. If you do say it, then you’re breaking the 9th Commandment about lying! That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. It just means that as you try, you will see how far you come short.

This might not sound fair to you. If God tells us that the 10 Commandments are important, why should they be impossible to keep? I’m glad you asked...That leads to the third point. We need to follow the One who is impeccable.

Since the 10 Commandments are important and at the same time impossible to keep, God wants us to follow the one individual in history who kept every one of them completely. In other words, we need to put our faith in the impeccable one -- Jesus Christ. Impeccable means without sin or compromise. Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever lived a perfect life.

Let me come back to my earlier illustration about the washed-out bridge. Imagine, if you will, that you are standing on one side looking across a deep valley to the other side. The sign you passed that warned about the bridge being out has slowed you down. You knew the sign was important so you obeyed it. As you’re standing there, you realize that the only way across is over a bridge. The trouble is that you don’t see one.

Imagine that God is on the other side. Between you and Him is a deep valley. The Bible calls it the valley of sin. There’s no way for you to reach Him on your own. It’s too wide to jump across. It’s impossible to get to the other side on your own efforts. Every sin we commit is cosmic treason against God. Because of that, we deserve eternal condemnation. You need a bridge to God. A bridge that will allow you to walk over the valley of sin and separation. That bridge is Jesus.

When He died on the cross, the last words He said were, “It is finished.” That means that He has paid the price. He has shouldered all of our sins, our moral failures, and our inability to keep the 10 Commandments. He has paid our debt in full. Jesus paid for our crimes against a holy God.

I’m told that in a prison in Brazil, an experiment was conducted in which Christian values and principles were followed throughout the system. The 10 Commandments were taught. The walls were decorated with verses from the Bible. The prison has an astonishing record. Its recidivism rate is 4% compared to 75% in the rest of Brazil and the United States. Chuck Colson, a former convict himself, wonders how this is possible. This is what he said in a speech several years ago:

“I saw the answer when my inmate guide escorted me to the notorious punishment cell once used for torture. Today, he told me, that block houses only a single inmate. As we reached the end of the long concrete corridor and he put the key into the lock, he paused and asked, “Are you sure you want to go in?” “Of course,” I replied patiently. “I’ve been in isolation cells all over the world.” Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a carving of Jesus, hanging on the cross. “He’s doing time for all the rest of us,” my guide said softly.

When Jesus died on the cross, he did time for all of us. He paid the price. He took the rap. He served our sentence. And, he has become the bridge for us to have a relationship with God.

Most of us think that in order to please God we have to Do something, or Not do something. You might think religion is just a list of do’s and don’ts. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, He used another word. That word is not spelled D-O or even D-O-N-T; it’s spelled D-O-N-E.

Once you understand that Jesus paid the price for your sins, once you realize that He’s done time for you, you then need to come to the point of walking across that bridge. He has taken the first move -- it’s up to you to respond to Him. He will escort you across, but you have to take a step.

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