What do Justice Roy Moore, media hype, Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, the Supreme Court, Counsel Jay Sekulow, and the American Civil Liberties Union all have in common?

Religious fervor and outrage. The Ten Commandments have stoked passionate response both angry and weepy in the last ten decades. Are the Ten Commandments simply a symbol of legal heritage? Or do they provoke religious ideas better shoveled into the realm of subjectivity and a truth-is-what-I-want-it-to-be generation?

You tell me. Are these commands relevant today?

• You shall have no other gods before Me
• You shall not make for yourself an idol
• You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
• Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy
• Honor your father and mother
• You shall not murder
• You shall not commit adultery
• You shall not steal
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
• You shall not covet

There's probably a few up there you could honestly claim that you haven't broken. But if you compare these commandments not just to your actions but your thoughts, I doubt you'd be guiltless on a single account. In fact, anyone who followed these perfectly would have to be perfect.

That presents a big problem. If you ever lusted, Jesus calles that adultery of the heart. If you ever stole, you're a thief. If you ever told a lie, you're a liar. If you ever hated someone or called them a bad name, the Bible calls this murder of the heart.

No matter how good someone lives or kind they try to be, everyon comes up guilty when their life is compared to God's perfect law. And because God is good and just, He must punish sinners by casting them into the lake of fire for all eternity. That may sound harsh, but it's not if you consider the perfect holiness of God. Just as pure white snow makes even the whitest of laundy look dirty, so the closer we see our sin in light of God's infinite holiness, the more we understand why our sin requires an infinite punishment.  

I've broken those commandment too. I've failed to obey the Ten Commandments a million times over. That's the bad news. But there is good news.

Because God is not only holy and just but also full of mercy and forgiving, He sent His one and only Son to earth to die in your place, on the cross, suffering the punishment you and I deserve. Three days later He came back to life, proving that He is not only God but holds authority over sin and death.

No matter how hard you try to be, you know you'll still mess up, and your good works will never make up for past sins. That's why God did all the work for you. But does this mean that everyone goes to heaven? Not at all.

When a Philippian jailor asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." To believe is to trust. It means to trust that Jesus' death was a sufficient price paid for your sin, and all you have to do is admit your sin and turn to Jesus Christ, trusting His death on the cross to save you from eternal death in hell.

No amount of church attendance, Bible reading, or religion-following will earn you even a paperclip of credit with God. God already provided the way: His Son Jesus Christ. He gave His life for you. Now He asks you to give your life over to Him.