No one, not you, nor I can possibly keep the Ten Commandments.
Jesus said to the self-righteous religious leaders in Matthew 5:27 & 28: “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Now what man on God’s earth can possibly look upon a beautiful woman, no matter who she is, without lusting after her? Nobody! Nobody’s that saintly, nobody’s that good, and Jesus knew it! He was quoting that scripture to prove to the self-righteous hypocritical scribes and Pharisees that not even they could possibly keep the law! He was proving that it was impossible for any man on God’s earth to ever keep the Mosaic Law, and that’s why it was given, to show the righteousness of God, the perfection of God. It is impossible for anyone to be good according to the Mosaic Law! The Mosaic Law makes every one of us a sinner because not one of us can keep it! Nobody has ever kept the Ten Commandments except Jesus himself, nobody! It’s impossible! No man can say he is without sin because the Bible says in 1 John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”. That’s why Jesus had to die for us, so that we could be forgiven and be saved by his grace and his mercy and His love without the law! By the law we are judged for our sins and condemned to die and to suffer. But Jesus came to save us by love, by his mercy, showing that love and mercy are greater than the law, and He says so! John.1:17, Galatians 5:14, Titus 3:5.
The Law was only our teacher our instructor, our “schoolmaster”, to show us that we are sinners, to bring us to God for mercy: “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24 Now the word justified by faith means that God removes the guilt and penalty of sin while at the same time making a sinner righteous through Christ’s atoning sacrifice. And this is the good news, now the poor, sinner, you and I, have been freed from the guilty verdict that the Laws of Moses passes down to us simply because we accepted Christ paying for our sins. Now a lot of people get confused about the word “righteous”. Remember it’s not your righteousness, its Christ’s. He did the dying for you; you did nothing to earn salvation except believe by faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” Ephesians 2:8–9. You cannot save yourself no matter how good you try to be. You can’t be good enough, you can’t be perfect enough! Your “good works” have nothing to do with your salvation, nothing! You are saved by grace. It’s all by faith! We receive salvation as a pure gift, not because we’re good enough or because we deserve it or earn it, and not by any works we have done or any works of the law or law-keeping. We receive salvation just because He loves us and He gives it, and all we have to do is believe and receive. It is the gift of God. No amount of church-going or masses or prayers or anything else is going to save you; only Jesus saves. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12. And no amount of good works, church going, and tithing, praying or trying to be holy is going to keep you saved either. Salvation is a one-time act of faith! And don’t misquote dear Apostle Paul when he said in Philippians 2:12 , that you should work out your salvation in fear and trembling. Thinking that it is now up to you to keep your salvation or somehow be good enough to save yourself. Why should Jesus have bothered if you could save yourself? No beloved, You may think you can go on living a selfish life after Jesus paid for your salvation. But the bible says in Daniel 12:2 that some of us will be raised to everlasting glory and others to everlasting shame. Now that’s why you should work out your salvation in fear and trembling. Will you be able to face Jesus in heaven having done nothing for Him after He gave His life for you? Receiving salvation through Jesus is an act of faith done through confession and belief that He died for your sins. Romans 10:9,10 says: With thy mouth confession is made unto salvation and with the heart you believe that He did this by death on the cross. Praying this simple prayer is the part you play in fulfilling God’s precious promise of eternal salvation to you. “Dear Jesus, please come into my heart, I believe you died and were raised from the dead in payment for my sins and mistakes, please give me Your free gift of eternal life in Jesus Name, Amen”.