The world is full of people crying out to be rescued from the mess we’ve made. Yet, as Joy Davidman wisely remarked, “God, for many of us, is a life preserver flung to a drowning man. And so He is, if you happen to be drowning. But you can’t drown all the time. Sooner or later, you have to start living again; you reach shore, splutter the water out of your lungs—and then what?” The Decalogue—the Ten Commandments—is God’s answer to that question. It is not a program for how to get life, but a guide for how to live life once you’ve been given it. It is “the perfect law, the law of liberty” (James 1:25), showing us a life set free from slavery to sin. But the Decalogue cannot impart the freedom it depicts. For that we need the work of Christ and his Spirit to renovate our hearts from the inside-out. And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed—not free to continue in the sins he died to save you from, but free to become who God made you to be.