The Gracious Gift of the Law

The law (including the Decalogue) was neither a way of salvation nor a burdensome obligation; it was a gracious gift, a guide for God's people so they might knowingly respond to his grace according to his will.

This means that impulses to post the Decalogue in public schools and courthouses are fundamentally misplaced. The problem with American society is not that people do not keep the "Ten Commandments"; it is that most have never left Egypt. It is unrealistic and unbiblical to expect those who have not been redeemed to live according to the principles and commitments of the redeemed.

--Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy (NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 172.