WERE THE TEN COMMANDMENT "ADDED FOR TRANSGRESSIONS"?
Updated 05/08/2003: Made easy to print out
People are telling us that the Law of Ten Commandments were added because of transgressions. This is not true. The law is the very definer of what transgression is.
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
To understand it clearly, the wording would be:
It [the law] was added because of transgressions [transgressions against the law].
The Law was not ADDED because of transgressions against itself. What was being referred to in the scripture is the judicial and ceremonial laws of the Jews. (Please see the page detailing the differences between the moral law of Ten Commandments, and the Ritual law given through Moses.)
The purpose of these laws was to deal with those who broke the moral law. Either you confessed upon the lamb and offered sacrifice, or, depending on the crime, you were dealt with most severely, till you wound up being the victim of the Judicial laws of the Jews which involved you being put to death. It was these laws that were “added because of transgressions.” The sins that did not merit corporal punishment were typically confessed upon a lamb, and that lamb was slain and the blood symbolically used to take away the offense.
The Jews were most apt to constantly talk about the Ceremonial or Ritual law that was given through Moses. This was because that in their day, they had the idea that whosoever was most engrossed in discussion about the outward technicalities and involved in rituals were more holy than others who were not. They therefore added many rituals of washings and wore special clothing, and did everything outwardly to look holy. The Ten Commandments could hardly afford them that possibility. The precepts of the Ten Commandments demand honesty, and virtually none of it involves anything tangible for outward show. Check the wording for yourself in Exodus 20.
The Ten Commandments, being the very definer of what transgression is, therefore cannot be “added because of transgressions” till Christ comes.
Christ Himself took away the need for people to confess their sins upon a lamb and to slay it. It was that which was taken away by the appearance of Christ on Calvary: the ritual law. It was that law which mandated that those who broke the Ten Commandments were to offer a lamb or some other animal in atonement for their sins or transgressions.
Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Paul is here telling us that the word “transgression” automatically means that some law has been broken. He is therefore saying that if no law exists, there cannot possibly be any transgression. In this particular sentence he is talking about the Ten Commandments.
Paul is here telling us that we are not to worship or serve the law. In other words, that is not to be our God. We cannot do this because the very reason why we need a Saviour is because we have transgressed that law. Once you break a law, that law condemns you and brings upon you the wrath of the organization or entity that created it. When you commit a crime, the law demands that you go to jail. When in jail, you cannot hope to keep the law in order to get yourself out. You cannot appeal to the law to get you out of trouble, because the law was the thing that brought the wrath of the state against you, because you broke it. Paul is therefore telling us to worship and revere something outside of ourselves that can get us out of the trouble we are in for breaking the law. The law works the wrath of heaven against all who break it. Anyone who therefore thinks to worship the law and not Christ through faith, worships something that can only condemn him and bring the wrath of God upon him.
There is no way in the entire universe that you can get God to be angry with you other than breaking the law. The law of Ten Commandments is the secret of His wrath. There is no way to, under a clean record, keep all of the Ten Commandments and God be angry with you.
For a further and fuller explanation of the Gospel, please see the following website: