How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments

For many Christians, conditioned to emphasize our freedom from the law, Jesus' words seem strange, even incompatible, with the gospel of grace. If Jesus did not abolish the law, then how should we look at the Ten Commandments today? Clowney explains how Jesus actually intensifies the law and expands its scope to every situation in life. But as the author did so often during his ministry, he goes further, finding Christ in the law and showing how he fulfills it for his people. Thus believers will learn more not only of God's character revealed in the law, but also of the gospel with its focus on Christ. Divided into eleven chapters, each with study questions for reflection and application, this book is an ideal resource for group study and personal growth.

About the Author :
Edmund Clowney was an influential pastor, theologian, and educator, both in church settings and several leading seminaries. The author of acclaimed works such as The Unfolding Mystery, Dr. Clowney completed How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments shortly before his death in 2005.

Review :
Out of a lifetime of love for Jesus and a heart and mind saturated in his Word, Dr. Clowney has shown how the Lord of the Law revealed its fullness in both his teaching and his keeping of it. Here we discover that the Ten Commandments, far from being tame guidelines for good behavior, surgically expose the deep corruption of our hearts. Yet Dr. Clowney also places these fierce commands as gems in the setting of Christ's redemptive mission, reflecting his purity and grace like shafts of light throughout the Scriptures, transforming us in the process.--Dennis E. Johnson, Ph.D. Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology Westminster Seminary California As a good friend and enthralled student of Ed Clowney for many decades, I'm so grateful that God enabled him to finish this book before his death. Nobody had a deeper understanding of how all Scripture witnesses to Christ. In this volume, Clowney goes to the Ten Commandments, the heart of the Old Testament, and shows how Christ transforms our understanding of them. Here, he writes simply, but profoundly. He includes questions for discussion. I recommend the book highly for adult classes in churches, and for all who seek a better knowledge of the Lord Jesus.--John Frame As he has done in all his writings, Ed Clowney has given honor to Christ in showing how Christ fulfills the Ten Commandments. For each commandment Clowney shows the heart of fulfillment not only in Jesus' obedience to the Father, and in his bearing our sin for the violation of the commandment, but in the way in which our lives are renewed in the image of Christ so that we keep the commandment in spirit and in truth. I heartily recommend this book for its devotional value and its theological depth.--Vern S. Poythress, Professor of New Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary; author, Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will obey what I command.' The words seem strange to ears that want to believe Christ's gospel annuls God's law, but Jesus was clear that he did not come to destroy but to fulfill the law. So what demands does the law possess for the believer? How can we be released from its bondage and condemnation and still rely upon it to express our love for God and his people? Dr. Edmund Clowney, the great expounder of Biblical Theology, guides us between the errors of lawless license and graceless legalism through this magnificent study of the Ten Commandments. The studies not only feed our hearts but are made sweeter by the knowledge that this was Dr. Clowney's last work, a labor that was the culmination of a lifetime of love for our Savior and all the aspects of his Word that reveal his grace.--Bryan Chapell, President, Covenant Theological Seminary