What Are the Ten Commandments For?

The Ten Commandments are God’s abiding moral will—a summary of what it looks like to love God and love neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). They did not expire at the cross, because they flow from God’s own unchanging character, not from a temporary arrangement. But how the Law functions for a Christian is where the real clarity comes, and Lutherans speak of the Law having three uses.

The first use is civil: the Law works like a curb, restraining gross evil and keeping order in society, whether or not people believe. Even unbelievers are held in check by “thou shalt not murder.” The second use—and for Lutherans the chief one—is the mirror: the Law shows us our sin. Held up honestly, the commandments reveal that none of us keeps them, driving us out of self-righteousness and to Christ. “Through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20); the Law is our “guardian until Christ came” (Galatians 3:24). This use never retires, because we never stop needing to be driven to the Savior.

The third use is the guide: for the Christian, now forgiven and made new, the Law also serves as a lamp showing how to live in a way that pleases God and serves the neighbor (Psalm 119:105). Here is the crucial difference in motive. The unbeliever meets the Law as demand and threat. The believer, already saved by grace and not trying to earn anything, receives the same commandments as a loving father’s instruction—guidance freely followed out of gratitude, not dread.

So “do Christians still have to keep the Law?” is best answered by reframing it. You are not saved by keeping the commandments—that door is closed to everyone. But having been saved freely in Christ, you now get to keep them, imperfectly and gladly, as the shape of a life lived toward God and neighbor. The Law can no longer condemn the one who is in Christ; it can only guide him home.