On our wedding day, my wife and I recited traditional vows to one another. We promised “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us part. This is my solemn vow.” Marriage is a covenant relationship. While it is deeply personal, it also comes with standards and expectations for the husband and wife to be faithful to one another.

Deuteronomy 5 includes one of the most famous passages in Scripture, the Ten Commandments. For some, this is an example of the legalistic nature of the Old Testament. But the example of marriage can help us better understand how these commands work (v. 2).

The commandments are not about trying to earn God’s favor any more than a husband trying to earn his wife’s favor by keeping his wedding vows. Instead, the commands outline the expectations and responsibilities of this covenant relationship. The truly stunning fact about the Ten Commandments is that God voluntarily entered a covenant with His people at all. As the Supreme Being, He did not have to. Israel’s history recounts how they would fail to keep their covenant commitments to the Lord. The prophets regularly pictured Israel as a wayward wife who had abandoned her husband (Jer. 2:1–37; Hos. 1:2). But the reality is that no one can perfectly keep the covenant (Ps. 14:1; Rom. 3:23). It is for this reason that Jesus came, to “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

The Ten Commandments highlight how much we need a Savior. The apostle Paul instructs us, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering” (Rom. 8:3).

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