The Tenth Commandment
Saturday, March 22, 2014

In the Ten Commandments that God gave the tenth is the key to understanding the true definition of sin and how we human beings cannot by keeping the law fulfill the law.

KJV Hebrews 7:18-19
 18.  For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof
For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by which we draw nigh unto God.
 
The law was unable to make those who kept it perfect. Jesus said that we had to become perfect. It is the better hope and not the law that enables us to draw near to God.

KJV Matthew 5:48
 48.  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.
 
The law then was useless for this perfection and kept us away from and not near to God.

KJV Romans 3:21.  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
 
We know the prophets spoke of the grace to come but how did the law serve as a witness to testify of the righteousness of God without the law being needed?

KJV Romans 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.
 
Under the law two human witnesses were required to testify against someone to accuse them of breaking the law. The accused, if guilty, was usually killed.

KJV Hebrews 10:28
 28.  He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
 
How can a human witness testify that someone was coveting?  To covet is to think with the mind, to desire or lust and this without taking any action to do what is intended. If a person thinks in their mind about performing an evil act it is sin.
 
 Lust  (lŭst)
1. Intense or unrestrained sexual craving.
2.
a. An overwhelming desire or craving: a lust for power.
b. Intense eagerness or enthusiasm: a lust for life.
3. Obsolete Pleasure; relish.
intr.v. lust·ed, lust·ing, lusts
To have an intense or obsessive desire, especially one that is sexual.                                               


KJV Proverbs 23:7
7.  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
 
How could the tenth commandment be enforced by mere human witnesses' testimony when no one can know the thoughts and intents of the heart of anyone else?  Under the law as long as you did not actually do what you were thinking and kept your mouth shut you would appear on the outside as a whitened sepulcher but inside you would be full of dead men's bones.

KJV Matthew 5:28
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Jesus magnified the definition of sin to include the thoughts and intents of the human mind (spirit) and made the thought of sin equal to the act of sin and worthy of the same punishment. 

KJV Matthew 12:35
 35.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth-good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth-evil things.

KJV Matthew 15:18-20
 18.  But those things, which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart and they defile the man.
 19.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies:
These are the things, which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man.

The message Jesus gives us is that all manner of sin has its source in our human spirit. Our bodies are only the vehicles we use to commit the acts or speak the words we think about. All sin is premeditated. This is why a dead man is free from sin, he can no longer think, his thoughts perish.

KJV James 1:13-15
 13.  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
 14.  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
 15.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

KJV Hebrews 4:12
12.  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
 
KJV 1 Peter 2:11
 11.  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

KJV 2 Peter 1:4
 4.  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

KJV 1 John 2:16
 16.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

How can the Ten Commandments address sin when Jesus magnified the definition of sin to include our thoughts?
Your body by itself cannot do anything that you do not control with your spirit, you must in your spirit concieve evil and that is the cause of sin the actual act is the effect of your thoughts or spirit.
What person can control all of his or her thoughts at all times in order not to sin? This is the question Solomon asked.

KJV Proverbs 20:9-11
 9.  Who can say, I have made my heart(human spirit)clean, I am pure from my sin?
 
The real problem with humanity is the human spirit where sin begins. The law could not deal with the cause of sin but could only deal with the effect of sin.  The tenth commandment is a witness to this truth because you will never read of anyone in scripture convicted of coveting by two witnesses under the law and all the other nine commandments can be broken by coveting as Jesus illustrated. James also shows this fact.

KJV James 2:10
 10.  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
 
The law dealt with the outer man, the flesh, while the Holy Spirit deals with the inner man, the human spirit. Your human spirit is what you really are and is what has the promise of salvation, not your fleshly body. None of your fleshly parts can think, not even your brain; thinking is a function of your human spirit. Your human spirit is evil and needs transformed, renewed and conformed to the image of Jesus.

KJV 1 Corinthians 15:50
 50.  Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The law was given as a schoolmaster to teach us this very thing.
 
KJV Galatians 3:24-25
 24.  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
 25.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
 
The law is not sin but those who attempt to keep the law will become sinners.  In reality they are born into sin because of Adam.
 
KJV Romans 3:23
 23.  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
 
If we are honest with ourselves can we in truth say that we are without sin because we keep the law? All people have sinned and have fallen short of God's glory. Sin then is falling short of God's glory. God is incapable of sin and you must meet this glory to come out of sin and be perfect.  THE LAW, LIKE A MIRROR, CAN SHOW YOU YOUR RETCHED SPIRITUAL CONDITION BUT CANNOT CHANGE YOUR NATURE, THAT IS A JOB FOR GODS HOLY SPIRIT. Job and Solomon knew that sin begins in the heart of man and that no man was free of sin.

KJV Job 4:17-19
 17.  Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?
 18.  Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
 19.  How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

KJV Proverbs 20:9-11
 9.  Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
 10.  Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the lord.
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.
 
Those who think that following the law will make them justified in God's eyes are self righteous and deceived. No law was ever given to address the thoughts and intents of the human spirit. The law itself testified to this truth as well as the prophets.
This is why Paul said that he would not have known sin except the law had said thou shalt not covet. Paul recognized that all sin begins as a thought of coveting or lust in our human spirit. The law was powerless to address this fatal flaw in our natures. It is only by the Holy Spirit of God that our minds can be renewed into sound minds so that the inner man can also be renewed and transformed into the likeness of Christ. Those who are intent on keeping the law deny the working power of the Holy Spirit of God as well as the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The law could only give us the knowledge of what good and evil is but not the power needed to always do the good and reject the evil.

KJV James 4:17
 17.  Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
 
The law cannot change our natures but the Holy Spirit is the divine nature of God himself that can transform our minds to be like the mind of Christ.
 
KJV 2 Peter 1:4
 4.  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
 
Anyone who has ever come to grace has first come to an understanding of the law because the law is what condemns all as sinners and in need of being saved.  Once under grace the law has no hold a person. The correct way to preach the gospel is to inform sinners of their death sentence resulting from the laws righteous condemnation. To tell sinners they need to have sincere Godly sorrow for failing to keep the law. Sinners then are informed that Jesus brought a new covenant into effect by His sacrifice and resurrection to enable them to escape the old covenant. The law is a vital tool needed to bring sinners to repentance. Without the law there would be no sin to repent of and no way for God to judge the world. It is not just Israel but all people except those who have come to grace.
 
KJV Romans 3:19
 19.  Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and the entire world may become guilty before God.

There are many views today about the law and differences in doctrine among the churches, because of misunderstanding how the law functions.
 
KJV Galatians 3:22
 22.  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
 
It makes no difference if you are Jew or Gentile; God's law condemns all except those who come to grace. The law is not for the righteous, those who have faith in the gospel and are in the new covenant.

KJV 1 Timothy 1:9
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
 
All uncoverted people are under and condemned by the law to death. It is only the righteous, the born again and converted person that is not under the law.

The commandments the saints keep are the two Jesus gave of love to God and neighbor.  Jesus kept his Fathers commandments, the ten commandments, because no human being could other than the messiah.  Jesus did what no other man could and kept the law as God gave it to Moses. Jesus did this with love and not by the works of the law because love fulfills and works do not fulfill. Then Jesus gave two new commandments that are kept in the saints by the love of God that is given to us by the indwelling of Gods Holy Spirit that has the ability to transform the saints into the image of Jesus.

KJV Romans 5:5
 5.  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

This is why love is the fulfillment of the law.  If Gods love is what is needed to fulfill the law then the law alone was not fulfilling. The ten commandments are not the law of love. Jesus came to fulfill the law, to give the Holy Spirit of his Father to us that sheds abroad in our human spirit the love of God. Gods love does no sin and will fulfill any law. The nature of the saints is being changed, transformed, to be conformed to the image of Christ who was in this same way the image of God. The ten commandments are only a shadow but the two commandments of Jesus are the light. The ten commandments could not give the love of God to people otherwise the law would have given life and righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is the power from God that can transform and change human nature from sin to love, the law cannot do this.

The saints fulfill the intent of the law and thereby establish the law the way God wills.  I do not not define sin as the transgression of the law but rather whatever is not of the love of God. God is love and Jesus was the image of God and we are to become the image of Jesus. The image is love that cannot sin, immortal spirit beings, made after Gods image and according to His likeness just as God said in the very beginning.

KJV Romans 8:29
 29.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
KJV Romans 12:2
 2.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.