Ed Clowney's last book on the 10 commandments is quite odd but always Christ-centred and often insightful. This is from the conclusion and summarises much of the book:
"Christ fulfills the law, not by diminishing it, but by deepening and widening it. In every one of the Ten Commandments we see not only the negative commands but their positive requirements.
- Having no other gods implies loving God will all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
- Not bowing to idols means honoring and revering God as Creator and Redeemer in our every thought, capturing all our thoughts to Christ.
- Not misusing God's name means honoring that name in every moment of our lives, and confessing it in witness by both our words and our actions.
- Remembering the Sabbath means finding our joy and rest in laboring for God and his kingdom not only one day a week, but all seven.
- Honoring our parents means accepting and promoting those family values that God set into creation and honoring all God's family members.
- Avoiding murder implies loving and protecting life and the image of God in man.
- Avoiding adultery means keeping our hearts pure from lust and from twisting sexuality to suit our appetites. It also implies placing love for God above all other loves.
- Ceasing to steal is insufficient to obey God's command, which demands that we work hard to earn enough money to be lavish and extravagant in graciously giving it away to those in need.
- Not bearing false witness implies that in every situation we must honor the reputations of those around us, refusing to allow any shadow of dishonor to fall across their reputations because of our words. It also means that our words are to bear testimony to the truth of God and to the person of Christ.
- Refusing to covet means that our hearts must be completely sold out to the good of the kingdom and thoroughly careless about the material implications of that passion.
How impossible to keep the commandments!... Praise God that the Ten Commandments not only have been intensified by Christ, but also have been transformed and fulfilled in his righteousness. The law is transformed in the full measure of the love of Christ. The love that fulfills the law is the love
- by which Christ gave himself to redeem those given him by the Father, and
- by which the Father gave his one and only Son [and]
- [by which] we live by the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead [and] can do what the law had no power to help us accomplish."
(formatting mine, pp.153, Edmund P. Clowney, How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments)
