Grace before Law

All the commandments given to Israel under the old covenant continue to guide our understanding of what we are to believe about the Lord and what duty He requires of us, for Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). Of course, the way we follow the law under the new covenant differs in some ways from how old covenant believers kept it. For example, we do not sacrifice animals anymore (Heb. 10:18). Nevertheless, the Mosaic law remains God’s Word to us, and we must have at least a basic understanding of it to comprehend all the facets of our salvation.

What is the purpose of the law in our salvation? Today’s passage tells us one essential truth about the law and our redemption: God’s grace to sinners precedes His giving of the law. Exodus 20:2 continues the introduction to the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, with a one-sentence rehearsal of the history of the Lord’s dealings with Israel. Before He gives the Ten Commandments, God reminds the Israelites that He “brought [them] out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” We will not comprehend the Bible’s teaching on salvation if we miss the importance of this sequence. The Lord did not demand that the Israelites keep the commandments before liberating them from enslavement, and He did not rescue them from Pharaoh by using their power. Instead, Israel’s salvation from bondage was the work of God alone. As Moses had told the people in Exodus 14:13–14, the deliverance at the Red Sea from Pharaoh’s army—and everything that led up to it—was the salvation that the Lord worked for them. He alone fought and defeated Pharaoh to take them out of Egypt. Israel could take no credit for their own deliverance; God alone saved them.

Only after the Lord redeemed Israel did He give His law to His people. Thus, obedience to God is a consequence of our salvation, not the means by which we secure our salvation. Obedience to the Lord, then, displays our gratitude toward Him for what He has done; it does not merit eternal life. Yes, we are obligated to serve God and keep His commandments, but we do this not to be saved but because we have been saved. His free grace to us redeems us, and then we obey Him because we belong to Him, for we were purchased by Him and are glad to thank Him with lives of holiness. Matthew Henry comments on today’s passage that Israel was “bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had done them so great a kindness, had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a glorious liberty.”