With the Ten Commandments front and center in our current national debate, Christians may need a reminder of why God’s revealed law –including the Ten Commandments–is so important. In Written in Stone: The Ten Commandments and Today’s Moral Crisis [Crossway Books], Philip Grahan Ryken addresses himself to the church and then explains what is at stake:
Good teaching on the law and the gospel has never been more badly needed than it is today. We are living in lawless times, when disrespect for authority has led to widespread disdain for God’s commandments. People are behaving badly, even in church. Part of the problem is that people don’t know what God requires. Even among Christians there is an appalling lack of familiarity with the perfect standard of God’s law, and of course the situation is far worse in the culture at large. This ignorance undoubtedly contributes to the general lowering of moral standards in these post-Christian times, but it does as much damage to our theology. People who are ignorant of God’s law never see their need for the gospel. As John Bunyan explained it, “The man who does not know the nature of the law cannot know the nature of sin. And he who does not know the nature of sin cannot know the nature of the Savior.”

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