While studying for Sunday’s message in Luke 18:18-27, I was researching v. 20 and came to, what I believe to be, a startling understanding. It has to do with the reason why Jesus quoted a portion of the OT Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. He quoted, in scrambled order, the last half of the Decalogue involving an Israelite’s relationship with others Israelites including their parents. This seems simple enough. However, a few questions come up: 1) why didn’t He quote all the Law? 2) why did He quote the Law at all?
First, He did not quote the whole Decalogue, I think, because He did not need to given the fact that the rich ruler was confused about God to begin with. Remember, he just confessed that others are as good as God (v. 18). Jesus corrects him and moves on. The OT is ample in evidence that only God is good and that many is only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). The fact that this man was so confused and dark on such a fundamental basic level tells me that asserting the “God-portion” of the Decalogue would not be beneficial.
Second, given the fact of point one, we can now understand point two. Why did Jesus assert the Decalogue at all when He could have asserted the usual, “Take up your cross and follow Me” from the beginning? I believe the reason takes us back to the original purpose of the Law. Paul tells us,
“The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:20-21
And again,
“Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.”
Galatians 3:19
Jesus was only asserting the actual original purpose of the Law: to expose the condition of sin that constitutes the very nature and fabric of our core. This religious ruler would know the commandments. In his delusion, he thought he had kept them from his younger days until the moment he was speaking with Christ. However, the fact is, the Decalogue, which was meant to expose his sin has, because of the perversion of Judaism of the time, compounded his sin as he thought that his self-righteousness was God’s actual righteousness (low understanding of God; high estimation of himself). When it came time for this man to display absolute devotion and love to God, which is the great commandment (Deuteronomy 6:4ff), he failed. The Decalogue did not do its job in the man because the Decalogue was not read in faith.
“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.””
Romans 9:30-33
Sketches of Scripture 