Do You Have to Obey the Ten Commandments to Get to Heaven?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: “Dear Dave and T.A., As a Roman Catholic, I was taught that in order to get to heaven I needed to obey the Ten Commandments. Now, as an evangelical, I am told by some that I need to obey the Ten Commandments in order to please God. Both teachings, it seems to me, are contrary to what Paul writes in his epistle to the Galatians. Isn’t that so?”

Tom: Now Dave, I’m not sure what exactly they mean here, but I think this person is referring to Galatians:3:1-5 [1] O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? [2] This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? [3] Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? [4] Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. [5] He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
See All.... Let me read them for us: “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Dave, isn’t there some tension here between—certainly there is nothing we can do for our salvation. So the Ten Commandments—that was just to indicate that we were sinners. The law brings conviction of sin, right?

Dave: That’s true.

Tom: But as believers, we can’t obey the law for salvation. Christ paid the full penalty for our sins, as we’ve mentioned earlier. But as believers, now, the moral law, the Ten Commandments—we have to do that by the Spirit, isn’t that what Paul is telling us here?

Dave: Well, Paul says in Galatians:3:24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
See All..., “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” In other words, as you pointed out, by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law tells me I am a sinner. The law cannot save me because having once broken the law, I cannot make up for that by keeping the law in the future even if I kept it perfectly, because the breach of the law requires a penalty, and keeping the law will not take care of that penalty. As Paul tells us in Romans:3:20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
See All...: “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” So, here he is telling the Galatians, “The law was our schoolmaster.” It spanks us; it says, “Hey, straighten up!” Rap you on the knuckles with a ruler!

Tom: Right, it brings about guilt.

Dave: Right. You’ve made a mistake on this test—you didn’t get 100 percent. Even if you got 90 percent, it still isn’t perfect. “…That we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” So we are no longer under the law. “For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Then, going over to Galatians, chapter 5, he says, “Brethren, you’ve been called unto liberty.” Well, verse 1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” This is the law.

In fact, in Colossians, chapter 2, he tells us that Christ did away with it. He nailed those Ten Commandments to His cross. Now Paul says, “We have been called unto liberty, but not as an occasion for the flesh. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” He says, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians:5:18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
See All..., “If you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Verse 22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance: against such there is no law.”

So, what he is saying is we’re actually under a—we have a higher standard, that is, the life of Christ, the perfection of Christ. And rather than trying to keep the law, Christ has come to live His life in us. Well, first of all, He has forgiven us for the breach of the law; He paid the penalty for it on the Cross.

So, yes, I suppose it would please God if you perfectly kept the Ten Commandments, but that’s not what we are supposed to do. The idea of a Christian is not, somehow, to live by a law. In fact, Romans:8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
See All... says, “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” And he goes on and says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law couldn’t do, being weak in the flesh [because we can’t keep it], Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin and he fulfilled the law.”

Now He fulfilled it. It is not up to us to fulfill it. It’s up to us to stand in the victory that Christ has won and allow Christ to have His way and to live His life through us.

Tom: Dave, we have about a minute left. How does somebody do this—and how do you avoid legalism? I guess that’s what I am asking. In a sense, you said it, but do you have some particulars.

Dave: Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” I’m dead. I died. The Bible tells me I am dead to the law, that I might have the new life of Christ. So, it’s by faith—we walk by faith, not by sight. So when I am faced with a temptation, a temptation of sin, instead of gritting my teeth and saying, “I’m not going to do this! I’m going to overcome this! Somehow, I am going to keep from it!” No, I acknowledge that I am crucified with Christ, and by faith I allow Him to have His way to live His life in me.

It’s different from—a Buddhist can try to live a moral life, a Hindu can try to live a moral life; they do have some different moral standards, but God has written His law in every conscience. But we all know that we cannot keep it.

So, instead of trying to keep the law, I want to be obedient to Christ and allow Him to have His way and acknowledge that I am crucified with Him. “It’s no more I but Christ who lives in me.” This is the secret of the Christian life. This is what Christ has done for us that we can’t do for ourselves.