The fifth commandment requires us to honor our parents and thus trace back to our source, our origin—the God who created us (Exo. 20:12). I truly know that many Christians behave in a way that matches the experience of the Chinese people. People in northern China have a proverb: “No honoring, no befriending.” This means that if a person does not honor his parents, you should not make friends with him. This is a sound word. However, almost no one knows what the ultimate meaning of honoring our parents is. To honor our parents is to remember our source. We came from our parents; without our parents, how could we have existence? But where did our parents come from? When we trace back to our source, our origin, we trace back to God. I believe that everyone who honors his parents venerates God. Hence, although it seems that the fifth commandment is concerned with parents and is therefore related to man, it is listed in the first group of five items, which belongs to the first tablet of stone, and is related to God.
The sixth through the tenth commandments require man to live out the virtues that express God according to God’s attributes (Exo. 20:13-17). The second tablet of stone contained the latter five commandments, which are all related to man. The first of these commandments is not to kill, not to murder; the second is not to commit adultery, not to commit fornication; the third is not to steal, not to rob; the fourth is not to bear false witness against others, not to lie; and the fifth is not to covet, not to be greedy for others’ possessions. If you violate any of these five commandments, you overthrow God’s attributes and do not manifest God’s virtues. What are God’s attributes? They are love, light, holiness, and righteousness. God is love and full of kindness; God is light and full of brightness, without any darkness. God is holiness; He is transcendent, different from everything else, extraordinary, and distinct from all common things. God is righteousness; He is right, not crooked or biased, not twisted or distorted, but just, upright, and right in every way.
God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness, but what about us? Some say that they have never killed anyone and therefore have never violated the sixth commandment. However, when the Lord Jesus came, He gave a deeper word concerning killing. He said that to hate people is to kill people. Can you say that you have never hated others? Just consider a little: Among the people you have met, who does not hate others? To hate is to kill. Concerning adultery, the Lord Jesus also gave a deeper word. He said that every one who looks at a woman in order to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:27-28). Concerning stealing, I have to confess publicly that before I was saved at the age of eighteen, I had stolen from others. May I ask whether or not you have you stolen anything? You may have taken the pencils from your company and used them at home. That was stealing. Any stealing or robbery is contrary to the virtues which are the manifestation of the divine attributes. Fourth, have you ever lied? We have lied too much. Not to speak of your entire life, if you did not lie only yesterday, you are almost an angel! The last commandment is concerned with covetousness. Who does not covet? When you see others riding in a luxurious car imported from Europe and you are riding in a Japanese-made car, you may begin to imagine in your heart that you will also ride in a European car one day. This is covetousness.
The law, therefore, exposes our condition, showing us that it is impossible for sinners to fulfill the requirements of God’s law. Although man cannot do good, he desires and wills to do good. Actually, man’s condition is that he does not care for God; rather, he cares for things other than God. He does not take God as his satisfaction nor takes what God has accomplished as his enjoyment and rest; rather, he wants to strive by himself and bear the burdens alone. Today people have fallen into a condition of hatred, murder, and fornication. Today people commit fornication like those at the time of Sodom. Atheists greatly advocate evolution, and homosexuality is fornication to the uttermost. Evolution is atheism in its extreme, and homosexuality is human fornication in its extreme. I can tell you that most of those who believe in evolution do not honor their parents, and those who engage in homosexuality commit fornication to the uttermost.
Since man’s condition is such, God considers His law, His reality, as His requirements upon sinners. It is as if He says to man who desires to do good, “These are My requirements. Do you want to do good? Go ahead! If you can work out all the Ten Commandments, I will justify you.” According to Romans 7, it seems that Paul was able to work out the first nine commandments, but he was not able to work out the last commandment concerning not coveting. The law of God makes it impossible for sinners to fulfill the requirements of God, because God’s law is for the purpose of exposing man. It cannot give life (Gal. 3:21). The law as a “photo” is good, but it does not have life. Furthermore, there is something that the law cannot do, in that it is weak through the flesh of sinners (Rom. 8:3a). The law itself is not weak, but the flesh of man that tries to work out the law is weak, so the law became weak and impotent.
Since the law cannot give life and is impotent, being weak through the flesh of sinners, why did God add the law? The law of God was added for the purpose of exposing man’s inward, sinful nature and his outward, wicked deeds (Rom. 3:20b; 5:20a). I have briefly presented the Ten Commandments with very simple illustrations. According to my presentation, you cannot escape. You have violated every one of the Ten Commandments. The law is a mirror. When we stand before the mirror of the law, we all are exposed.
Nevertheless, the law of God has a positive function in God’s hand. The law has become the custodian and child-conductor of God’s chosen people to bring them to Christ—grace (Gal. 3:23-24). God’s chosen people were shut up and guarded under the law, just like sheep being kept in the sheepfold (John 10:1, 16). In His economy God used the law as a sheepfold to keep His elect in custody until Christ came. The law was able only to demand and condemn; it could not give life. There is no life in the law; there are only commandments. Life is in Christ. He is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), the only One who is able to give life. When we are under law, we are just like children, and we need the law to be the custodian and child-conductor watching over us. This kind of watching over is not with an evil intention; it is for our protection. Hence, this custodian becomes our child-conductor, and this child-conductor brings us to Christ. Today Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the grace that we enjoy. When Christ comes, grace comes. He became flesh and was full of grace, and of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. Now we are no longer children under the custody of the law. Rather, through our faith in Christ Jesus we have become children of God to enjoy Him as our grace.