The Ten Commandments — Are We Just Throwing Them Out?

Are Christians supposed to keep the Ten Commandments today?
 Did grace replace the Law — or fulfill it?
 And if believers are not under the Law, does that mean anything goes?

In this episode of Grace Uncensored, Billy McDonald tackles one of the most common accusations against the message of grace: “So you’re throwing out the Ten Commandments?”

The truth might surprise you. The New Covenant doesn’t ignore the Law — it reveals its purpose. The Law was never designed to make us righteous. It was designed to lead us to Christ.

Using Hebrews 8:13, Galatians 5:18, and Romans 13:10 (NASB), this episode explains the difference between living under the Law and living under the Spirit — and why love now fulfills what the Law demanded.

If you’ve ever wondered whether grace leads to lawlessness, or how holiness actually works under the New Covenant, this episode will bring clarity and freedom.

Key Truth from this Episode:
“You can’t be under the Spirit and under the Law at the same time.”

Holiness does not come from rules written on stone. It flows from the life of Christ living within you.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• The real purpose of the Ten Commandments
 • The difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant
 • Why being led by the Spirit is not lawlessness
 • How love fulfills what the Law demanded
 • Why the Law exposes sin but cannot remove it

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Transcript

EPISODE 36 — Grace Uncensored

The Ten Commandments — Are We Just Throwing Them Out?

Are Christians throwing out the Ten Commandments?

Today on Grace Uncensored… if we say we’re not under the Law anymore, does that mean the Ten Commandments don’t matter? Are we ignoring them? Replacing them? Or misunderstanding their purpose completely?

Today we’re going to clear that up once and for all. Because the truth might surprise you. The New Covenant doesn’t ignore the Law… it actually fulfills what the Law was pointing to all along.

Once you’ve heard this, you can’t unhear it! Christianity was never meant to be about striving, guilt, or religious pressure. It’s about grace—real, unfiltered, life-changing grace. Welcome to Grace Uncensored—the podcast where we clear away the noise, break free from legalism, and rediscover the freedom, joy, and rest found in Jesus Christ. If you’re ready to stop chasing approval and start living in the truth of the gospel, you’re in the right place. Now here’s Billy McDonald with Grace Uncensored.

Hi, I’m Billy McDonald, and welcome to Grace Uncensored—where we strip away religious double-talk and rediscover the outrageous freedom of the gospel.

Let me bring you up to speed on where we are right now. We’re in the middle of a larger series called Christian Double-Talk, and within that we’re walking through a five-week mini-series titled “Why Does Grace Make Some People Angry?”

It started with Episode 34, “Why Grace Feels Dangerous,” and this week we’re talking about Mirror vs. Makeover—why the Law can expose what’s wrong but it can never actually transform you. If you missed that episode, you can always catch up at GraceUncensored.org.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to keep pulling on some threads that tend to make people uncomfortable. We’re going to ask why some Christians get upset when we talk about the Ten Commandments—are we throwing them out, or finally understanding their purpose? Then we’ll take a closer look at confession and 1 John 1:9, and we’ll finish the mini-series by exploring why some “law-focused” believers react strongly to grace—and how we can respond with clarity and kindness instead of arguments.

So, if this message is encouraging you or helping you see the gospel in a clearer way, take a quick moment right now to subscribe, follow the podcast, and share it with someone else who needs to hear the freedom of God’s grace. That simple step helps more people discover the message—and you won’t miss a single episode in this series.

And also, every Tuesday when a new episode drops, there’s a FREE Grace Uncensored devotional that goes with it. It’s short, clear, and grace-centered, and it lands right in your inbox. If you want that each week, just sign up once and it will show up every Tuesday alongside the podcast.

Now before we dive in today, I want to say something about the emails and messages that have been coming in recently.

I’ve been hearing from people all over the place, literally around the world, who are saying things like:

“Billy… I’ve been in church my whole life, but I’ve never heard the gospel explained like this.”

Others say,

“I finally feel free.”

Or,

“For the first time I’m not afraid of God anymore.”

But I’m also hearing from people who are wrestling with something deeper. They’re feeling the tension between what they’ve always been taught… and what they’re now seeing clearly in Scripture.

And that tension is real.

Because when grace shows up clearly, it often exposes what I call Christian double talk.

Statements that sound spiritual… but quietly contradict the finished work of Christ.

In fact, a comment I received recently from Amy captures this struggle perfectly.

Amy wrote:

“It's such a struggle from within. It's been a battle with me all my life.”

She said,

“I know in my heart what Jesus did for me and that I'm forgiven… but then it creeps in. All the things I've done or haven't done that I'm sure has grieved God.”

And then she said something that I think a lot of people listening will relate to.

She wrote,

“I question… am I saved. I hate that feeling of doubt. Sometimes I just wish God would audibly say yes you're saved and quit worrying.”

Now Amy, first of all, thank you for being honest enough to say that out loud. A lot of people feel that same tension but never admit it.

And what you described right there is a perfect example of what happens when the message of grace gets mixed together with the message of law.

Because when the focus quietly shifts back to our performance… our failures… our record… the result is exactly what you described.

Doubt.

Fear.

And the feeling that maybe we’re still not good enough.

And that brings us right into today’s topic.

Because one of the biggest places this confusion shows up in the Christian world is around the Ten Commandments.

What were they given for?

Are Christians supposed to live under them today?

Or did they serve a completely different purpose in God’s plan?

Today we’re going to clear that up.

And when you see it clearly, the tension Amy described starts to disappear… and the freedom of the gospel becomes incredibly good news.

Because one of the most common accusations people make when they hear about grace is this:

“So you’re throwing out the Ten Commandments?”

Let’s talk about that.

The first thing we need to understand is that the Bible itself says a covenant has changed.

Hebrews 8:13 says this:

When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Now think about that for a moment.

God Himself says the first covenant became obsolete.

That’s not Billy saying it.

That’s Scripture.

And the Ten Commandments were the centerpiece of that covenant.

They were literally engraved on stone tablets and placed in the Ark of the Covenant as the heart of the Old Covenant agreement between God and Israel.

So the question isn’t whether the covenant changed.

Scripture already tells us it did.

The question is what replaced it.

Some people assume the New Covenant simply means trying harder to keep the old rules.

But that’s not what the New Testament teaches.

Instead, the New Covenant introduces something radically different.

Life in the Spirit.

Galatians 5:18 says this:

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Notice that phrase carefully.

Not under the Law.

That means you cannot be under the Spirit and under the Law at the same time.

That statement alone makes some people nervous.

Because they immediately think, well if we’re not under the Law, won’t people just sin?

But here’s the irony.

The Law never stopped sin in the first place.

In fact, Scripture says the Law actually exposed and increased sin.

Romans 5:20 says:

The Law came in so that the offense would increase.

That doesn’t mean the Law was bad.

It means the Law had a purpose.

And once its purpose was fulfilled, something greater arrived.

The Law was never given to make you righteous.

It was given to show you that you couldn’t be.

Think of the Law like a mirror.

A mirror can show you that your face is dirty.

But a mirror cannot clean you.

And that’s exactly what the Law does.

It exposes sin.

But it cannot remove sin.

Only Jesus can do that.

Now here’s where people misunderstand grace.

They think if we’re not under the Law anymore, we must be against the Law.

But that’s not true at all.

We actually honor the Law by letting it finish its job.

And what was that job?

To lead us to Christ.

Galatians 3:24 says:

The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

Once the tutor has brought you to the destination, you don’t stay in tutoring forever.

You move into the new life you were prepared for.

The Law’s job was to lead you to Jesus.

Not to replace Him.

Now here’s the part that many people miss.

The New Covenant doesn’t produce less holiness.

It produces real holiness.

Because instead of rules written on stone, God now writes His life inside us.

Under the Old Covenant, God wrote His commands on stone.

Under the New Covenant, He writes His life in you.

That’s why the apostle Paul says something remarkable in Romans 13:10.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Notice what he says.

Love fulfills the Law.

Not replaces it.

Not ignores it.

Fulfills it.

In other words, the Law demanded behaviors.

But the Spirit produces the source of those behaviors.

Love.

And when love flows from the heart, you naturally begin to live in ways the Law was trying to force.

Not because you’re afraid.

But because you’re alive.

Holiness doesn’t grow out of fear.

It grows out of life.

Think about this.

If someone truly loves their neighbor, do they need a command not to steal?

Not to murder?

Not to lie?

Of course not.

Love goes beyond what rules demand.

Rules restrain behavior.

Love transforms the heart.

And that’s the genius of the New Covenant.

God didn’t just upgrade the rulebook.

He gave us a new heart.

The New Covenant didn’t improve the rules.

It replaced the engine.

Ezekiel prophesied this hundreds of years before Jesus came.

God said He would give us a new heart and put His Spirit within us.

That’s the transformation the gospel brings.

Not external pressure.

Internal life.

The gospel is not behavior management.

It’s heart transformation.

Now this is where Christian double-talk often shows up.

People say we’re saved by grace… but we stay right with God by keeping the Law.

But that contradicts the New Covenant completely.

If grace saved you but law keeps you, then grace was never enough.

Paul actually addressed this directly.

In Galatians he asked believers:

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

In other words, did God start the miracle… but now you finish it?

No.

The same grace that saves you is the grace that grows you.

And that’s why being led by the Spirit is not lawlessness.

It’s something far better.

It’s life.

Grace doesn’t remove morality.

It replaces external pressure with internal life.

When Christ lives in you, something new begins to happen.

Your desires change.

Your thinking changes.

Your motivations change.

Not because someone is threatening you with rules.

But because the life of Christ is working within you.

The Christian life is not trying to act like Jesus.

It’s letting Jesus live through you.

And that’s why Paul could say something so powerful.

You are not under law but under grace.

And then immediately say that sin will not master you.

Grace actually breaks sin’s power.

Sin loses power under grace, not under law.

So are we throwing out the Ten Commandments?

No.

We’re recognizing their purpose.

They were a signpost pointing to Jesus.

And once you arrive at the destination, you don’t keep staring at the sign.

The Ten Commandments were a signpost.

Jesus is the destination.

And now under the New Covenant, something greater has come.

Christ in you.

The Spirit leading you.

Love fulfilling what the Law demanded.

Holiness flows from life, not from rules.

Before I move to my final thoughts, let me say this quickly.

If this message is helping you understand the gospel more clearly, and you know someone else who needs to hear it too, take a moment and share it with them. Simply Go to Graceuncensored.org and click on “watch the episode.”

Also make sure you subscribe and follow the podcast so you never miss a new episode.

And remember, every Tuesday there’s also the FREE Grace Uncensored devotional that goes with the episode. It’s short, encouraging, and designed to help you start your week grounded in the truth of God’s grace.

My final thoughts.

The gospel didn’t come to make you a better rule-keeper.

It came to make you a new creation.

And when Christ lives in you, the life the Law demanded begins to flow naturally from the inside out.

Not because you’re afraid.

Not because you’re trying to earn something.

But because you’re alive in Him.

That’s the freedom of grace.

Next time on Grace Uncensored episode 37 …

We’re going to talk about one of the most misunderstood verses in the entire New Testament.

First John 1:9.

Does forgiveness depend on confession?

Is forgiveness something we receive in installments?

Or did Jesus forgive every sin at the cross?

Here’s the question that will challenge everything you’ve heard.

Did Jesus forgive all your sins at the cross… or only the ones you remember to confess?

Because forgiveness isn’t a faucet you turn on with apologies.

It’s a flood released at the cross.

That’s Next time on Grace Uncensored.

We’ll see you then.