God gave us His law or 10 commandments to show us His holy standard of righteousness. The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God. They tell us 1) to love God first, 2) to have no idols, 3) not to take God’s name in vain and 4) to keep the Sabbath day holy. The last six commandments deal with our relationship with other people. We are 5) to honour our parents. We are not 6) to kill, 7) commit adultery, 8) steal,9) lie, or 10) covet. (Exodus 20) Looking at this we realize that we are all in trouble. Even if we try to keep the Ten Commandments, we fail. We would all have to admit that we have told a lie.
The law was given so that we can see our sin. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20b) We don’t know we are breaking a law unless there is a stated law, such as with traffic laws. We are to stop at a stop sign and we are not to go over a certain speed. God tells us His laws so that we can see our sin. “For where no law is, there is no transgression.” (Romans 4:15b) The law is given to show us our guilt. (Romans 3:19) We need to see our guilt so we will seek a solution to the problem. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)
