“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, . . “ (Exodus 20:3-5a)
The 10 Commandments are a demonstration of God’s holiness. His law is part of His nature and is meant to be obeyed so that human beings may enter into and enjoy proper fellowship with Him. The Commandments were the part of the covenant the people pledged themselves to keep. God had already pledged Himself to the covenant and shown them His faithfulness and love by delivering them from Egypt. Now they must show their love and faith by obeying what the Lord commanded.
Many human beings subscribe to some or all of these commandments, at least in theory. In practice, we humans create all sorts of other rules and regulations that we think will make us better people, earn our way to heaven, or just make us happy without having to follow God’s commands. These all fall short. The commandments of God are meant to produce in us the love of God and love of our fellow man. But, since in actual practice, no one could can keep the Commandments to the degree that the Lord desires we all need a mediator, someone to keep them for us.
We all need that mediator because all humans sin in some way or other so all fall short of God’s glory. The commandments serve to lead us to the only mediator, Jesus Christ. Only by faith in Him can we truly have fellowship with God and live in righteousness.