The Moral Mirror

The other day I met a friend of mine, a police chief, for coffee. He was on his way to work, so he arrived in uniform. Now, a police uniform is pretty impressive, but a police chief’s uniform is even more impressive. And the energy of the room changed when he walked in.

That’s because he’s a representative of the law and an enforcer of it. And the law functions as a marker for everything. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17 NKJV). He didn’t do away with the commandments; He was fulfilling them.

For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount He said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28 NKJV).

Then there was the very successful young man who came to Jesus one day and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17 NKJV).

Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother’” (verses 18–19 NKJV).

Why did Jesus do this? First, Jesus validated the Ten Commandments. Then He used the Ten Commandments as a moral mirror. The Ten Commandments don’t make us righteous. God gave them to us to show that we’re not righteous and to drive us into the open arms of Jesus. Our only hope in the struggle with sin is Jesus.