From “shall” to “will”
August 9, 2024
Recently the Louisiana Legislature passed a law mandating that all state-funded schools and universities prominently display the Ten Commandments in classrooms and cafeterias. Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah are considering similar legislation. This initially seems benign, even beneficial. After all, in our baptismal liturgy we ask parents and sponsors to promise that they will teach the newly baptized the “Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 228). Martin Luther even placed the Ten Commandments first in his Small and Large Catechisms.
Clearly the Ten Commandments are an important part of our corporate and personal life.
Let’s take a closer look at a Lutheran understanding of the Ten Commandments. The first use of the law is to compel civility through legal restraint and the threat of punishment. In short, it restrains the basic urge to look out for oneself at the expense of others. Without this, life would be violent and chaotic. The second use of the law is theological. The law accuses those who disobey it and makes offenders aware of their sin and the need for forgiveness. In this sense the law exposes our absolute inability to save ourselves and our complete dependence on God’s free gift of grace. With this, sinners are put to death and believers are raised to new life.
There is a third use of the law spoken little about by Luther that sees the commandments as a guide for justified sinners. The reformers did not want the commandments turned into a vehicle for “works righteousness”—or worse, self-righteousness. The Lutheran understanding is that keeping the Ten Commandments doesn’t make a person holy or justified—the death and resurrection of our Lord does.
The promise fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Christ—that we are a new creation—turns the Ten Commandments into promises: from something we shall do to something God is certainly going to do and that will be true for us.
One must ask to what end the Ten Commandments are being posted. The argument being made is that the Ten Commandments are a historical document. Others might argue that posting the commandments is for the moral and ethical edification of students. For Lutherans, the Ten Commandments are not a mere historical document but a holy text. The first three commandments are explicitly about God. Arguments by those who claim that the commandments serve as a foundation of law in this country, and therefore posting them doesn’t counter the First Amendment of the Constitution, ignore the inherently religious content and context of these words from God.
Lutherans have a long tradition of catechetical training. Luther wrote the Small Catechism because of the woeful ignorance he found among pastors and people during his Saxon Visitation. The Small Catechism was originally intended for parents to instruct their children. Nowadays, pastors, deacons or trained lay leaders carry out this instruction for youth and adults in congregations and faith communities. The point is not a rote memorization or the posting of an ancient text to be displayed along with other historical documents, but a theological and spiritual encounter that draws us closer to God.
Besides, Lutherans (and Roman Catholics) don’t number the Ten Commandments the same way that other Christian traditions do. Heaven forbid we come up with Ten Commandments merch. There would be mugs and T-shirts for the majority and a separate section for us.
The promise fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Christ—that we are a new creation—turns the Ten Commandments into promises: from something we shall do to something God is certainly going to do and that will be true for us.
In the fullness of time, when God is all in all, through the justifying grace of Jesus, we will have no other gods. We will not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord our God. We will remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. We will honor our father and mother. We will not murder. We will not commit adultery. We will not steal. We will not bear false witness against our neighbor. We will not covet our neighbor’s house. We will not covet anything that belongs to our neighbor. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
