We continue this week to look at how we can live in grace each day of our lives, and today I’d like to focus on how the Ten Commandments provide us with a guide on how to live in grace with a life in Christ.

It all boils down to math, believe it or not.

When I was in college studying to be an electronics engineer, I found out pretty quickly that although I wasn’t very good at electronic kinds of things, I was a whiz at math.

Calculus, algebra, statistics, geometry, you name it, I could ace any exam they threw at me.

I guess when all is said and done, I should have been a mathematician. Instead, I left it up to God and, after 20 years in the high tech industry, I went back to school and became a pastor. And it is then that I realized how important my college math skills were.

So, here it is, my mathematical theory as it pertains to the Ten Commandments: 1 + 1 = 10.

You may think that is absurd and being a pastor has clearly messed up my once fine-tuned mathematical mind. But there is no doubt that 1 + 1 = 10. And the equation comes with the understanding of the love of Jesus and how God has used Him to sum up the “Law” and change it into “Gospel.”

Exodus 20:1-17 sums up the Ten Commandments and it is, to this day, considered the Law of God for the Jewish nation and should be the law for all of us as they are all grounded in unconditional love.

The commandments can be summed up as, love God, go to church, honor parents and authority, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie and do not covet.

But it was the love of Jesus throughout His life that turned this math upside down.

When confronted with the question on which of the 10 is the greatest commandment (Matt 22:36), Jesus responds “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the LAW and the prophets.”

There, you have absolute proof that 1 + 1 = 10, or simply, love God + love your neighbor = the Ten Commandments.

The interesting thing about the Ten Commandments is that they are like a “I should have had a V8” moment. It is a “no-brainer,” as the saying goes.

The Ten Commandments are the foundation of an intelligent, law-abiding society. Bottom line, they represent a definition of the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and with our God-given brains we should be following that instruction every day.

And those commands are really easy to follow actually, when you look at the two love commands that Jesus laid down in summary of the 10, i.e., when you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, it is only natural to love your neighbor in the same way, and ultimately you want to do whatever you can to help your neighbor in times of need.

And loving your neighbor doesn’t just mean the guy next door whose dog loves to make deposits on your front lawn, rather ALL people, near and far. And when we do that, we live a life in Christ with God’s grace evident everywhere.

Guess where that leads us to here in Lake County?

Working together so that we can all live in grace with a life in Christ. It is the Ten Commandments of Law, turned into two commandments of grace.

please join us this sunday at first lutheran church in lucerne as we talk about how we can live in grace with a life in Christ.

We offer Bible study at 9:30 a.m., worship at 11 a.m. and a hot lunch immediately following worship.

Our food cupboard is offered every third Sunday of the month from 1 to 2 p.m.

All are welcome, so please, come as you are as we reach out to this community and beyond to spread the healing Word of the Gospel.

Chris DelCol is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Lucerne, Calif. The church is located at 3863 Country Club Drive, telephone 707-274-5572.