Download discussion questions: Exodus 20_1-17
Calvary Institute – Fall 2018 Index
What Do We Do With God’s Law?
In last week’s study and discussion, the apostle Paul was unambiguous about the source of justification, our right standing with God. That justification does not come through following the law:
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:15-16, emphasis added.
With that in mind, what do we do with the Ten Commandments? We looked at the commandments in Exodus 20 in the context of two different views:
The Ten Commandments have no authority over you. None. To be clear:
Thou shalt not obey the Ten Commandments.[1]
God’s love gave us the law just as his love gave us the gospel, and as there is no spiritual life for us save through the gospel, which points us to Jesus Christ the Savior, so there is no spiritual health for us save as we seek in Christ’s strength to keep the law and practice the love of God and neighbor for which it calls.[2]
Both writers, Andy Stanley and J. I. Packer are agreed with Paul that the commandments are not the source of our salvation, but they seem to have substantially different opinions about what role, if any, the commandments should play in the life of a Christian.
Another passage from the Jewish Scriptures provides additional help on one of the purposes of the law. Moses spoke to the Israelites:
5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ (Moses, in Deuteronomy 4:5-6; specifically mentions the Ten Commandments in v. 13)
A few verses later (v. 13), Moses specifies that he is speaking of the Ten Commanments. Last week’s sermon began with the words in Jesus’ prayer, “I have manifested your Name” (John 17:6). The law shows us something about who God is and how He intended humans to live. Jesus manifested or displayed God’s character and God’s intentions for human life in the way He lived out the law. As one person in our group commented, Jesus showed the heart issues which the commandments address.
J. I. Packer related the law to our testimoney to the world that believes the deception that freedom and even Godlikenss comes through autonomy and lawlessness:
The Christian’s most loving service to his neighbor in our modern world, which so readily swallows this ancient lie, is to uphold the authority of God’s law as man’s one true guide to true life.”[3]
Observations about the Ten Commandments
One person pointed out that God is referred to sometimes as “the Lord your God” (v. 2, 5, 7, 10, 12) and in other places as simply “the Lord” (v. 7b, and twice in v. 11). The phrase “Lord your God” seems to be emphatic:
With this, the five-times-repeated formula, “the LORD [Yahweh] your God” (verses 2, 5, 7, 10, 12) reveals a covenant commitment.[4]
Someone pointed out that the lettering is significant. In most translations, when God’s personal name is used (as mentioned by Packer in the previous quotation), the word “lord” is written in all upper case letters (“Lord”). The substitution is made since the Divine Name is usually not written and not pronounced, especially by conservative Jews. Typically the word “lord” (adonai, אדֹנִ֗) when used of a human (such as Boaz in Ruth 2:13) is written in all lower-case letters. When the word refers to a royal person, only the first letter is capitalized. Psalm 110:1 illustrates both uses, the substitution for the Divine Name and a reference to a human king: “The Lord says to my Lord…”
Traditionally, “The Ten Commandments are portrayed on two tablets. The five commandments on the second tablet all concern our treatment of fellow human beings.”[5] The handout for our discussion reflects this division. Another observation was the significant difference in the length of the first five commandments compared with the second five. One comment was that the first two or possibly three commandments were correctives to Israel’s centuries surrounded by the gods of Egyptian culture. As another person put it, they needed a “reset” to return to the truth of one almighty God. Perhaps the lingering effects of Egyptian life expains how quickly the people reverted to a golden calf as an object of worship. A “reset” or “recalibration” was clearly needed. They needed clear, definitive statements about who God is and how to relate to Him.
The second group, regarding human interaction (v. 13-17, commandments 6-10), is substatnially shorter. One suggestion was that our ideas about God (for the Israelites and all fallen humans) may be incomplete and distorted. However, there is a general consensus among civilized societies about how others humans should be treated. C. S. Lewis describes this as “the law of human nature” which everyone knows and no one obeys completely.[6] The second half of the Ten Commandments needed less explanation than the first.
The tenth commandment is the exception. “You shall not covet…” (v. 17) does involve more extensive explanation. While murder, adultery, theft, and lying (v. 13-16) are overt acts, coveting is a sin of the mind, hidden and internal.
this is the only one of the Ten Commandments that legislates thought. All the other commandments legislate behavior…. it is coveting that so often leads to evil. Or, to put it another way, coveting is what leads to violating the preceding four commandments-the ones against murder, adultery, stealing, and perjury.[7]
J. I. Packer illustrates the spreading effects of sin:
David took Bathsheba (thus, by theft, breaking the eighth commandment) and got her pregnant (thus breaking the seventh) and then to avoid scandal arranged for her husband Uriah to be killed (thus breaking the sixth), and it all began with David coveting his neighbor’s wife, in breach of the tenth (see 2 Samuel 11).[8]
One question about the division between the two tablets involves the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother…” (v. 12). While that seems more directed to earthly relationships, the verse includes the covenental title “the Lord your God” as described above. It may be that family and relationships especially with parents form the link between relating to God and relating to others:
honoring parents is how nearly all of us come to recognize that there is a moral authority above us to whom we are morally accountable. And without this, we cannot create or maintain a moral society…. Honoring parents is the best antidote to totalitarianism. One of the first things totalitarian movements seek to do is to break the child-parent bond.[9]
Questions about the Ten Commandments
Our group had some discussion (far too little because of our limited time) on questions about the commandments. One issue was the meaning of the third commandment: What does it mean to “take” the name of the Lord in vain? Someone suggested that “vain” could mean “empty” or to treat trivially or dismissively. Dennis Prager, a Jewish writer and radio host, offers an interesting insight into the language:
The Hebrew original doesn’t say “Do not take”; it says “Do not carry.” [ṯiś·śā, תִשָּׂ֛א , from nā·śā, נָשָׂ֖א , “lift, carry, take”[10]] The Hebrew literally reads, “Do not carry the name of the Lord thy God in vain”…. What does it mean to “carry” or to “misuse” God’s name? It means committing evil in God’s name. And that God will not forgive. Why not? When an irreligious person commits evil, it doesn’t bring God and religion into disrepute. But when religious people commit evil, especially in God’s name, they are not only committing evil, they are doing terrible damage to the name of God.[11]
Joy Davidman, also of Jewish heritage and the wife of C. S. Lewis adds:
It is true that we often speak of God too lightly, making an empty noise out of the most real and profound of human experiences, substituting a meaningless verbal habit for a serious concept of the Almighty.[12]
Clearly, much more than offensive swearing is meant by the commandment. We are called to recognize and respond to an awsome, transcendent God who expects to be taken seriously.
Most of our discussion focused on the fourth commandment, regarding the Sabbath. Still in the context that our justification does not result from following any of the commands, one repeated question was, “Am I sinning when I don’t keep the Sabbath?” Jesus clearly explained the full meaning of murder as anger, and the meaning of adultery as lust. We sin when we violate His deeper definitions of the commandments regardless of our external behavior. On the other hand, He also scandalized His religious contemporaries by His Sabbath activities.
The fact that today believers’ sins are forgiven by His sacrifice (Thanks be to God!) was not a sufficient answer to the questioner in our group: “Am I sinning when I don’t keep the Sabbath?” If our desire is to conform our lives to God’s character and to “manifest His name” to those around us, then our desire is to obey Him. Are we sinning? Are we disobeying God when we don’t keep the Sabbath?
While we reached no definitive answer during our brief discussion time, it seems we need to define what it means to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” Davidman and Packer offer suggestions. Davidman emphasizes the enjoyment of Sabbath and Packer focuses on the opportunities:
How do you make a day holy? By stopping work – that is by stopping all the pursuits we engage in for necessity not for pleasure… By looking at the world and seeing that it is good. By entering into all its good and friendly and loving activities, and rejoicing in them. And above all, by looking beyond the world to the Love that sustains it.[13]
By behaving as Jesus did. His Sabbaths were days not for idle amusement, but for worshiping God and doing good…. Freedom from secular chores secures freedom to serve the Lord on his own day[14]
Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, emphazied that the Sabbath rest was for our benefit (like picking grain for a meal when hungry; Mark 2:23-28), for activities that refresh and revitalize us. Perhaps the sin of not keeping the Sabbath is when we fail to recognize that aspect of “our use of time, in a rhythm of toil and rest.”[15]
While our discussion time was limited, you can read a selection of additional comments from Prager, Davidman, and Packer on each of the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments and Making Disciples
Historically, the Ten Commandments have had an important part in the education and training of Christian converts. J. I. Packer describes the need for instruction (or using his preferred term, catechesis) in the Middle Ages, and his description (“largely uninstructed”) is applicable in many or even most churches today:
A largely uninstructed church had been fertile soil for serious error in terms of doctrine, experience, and practice. Luther and his contemporaries fought hard to reform the church in these areas.[16]
The reformers were agreed on the use of three aspects for equipping believers:
This pattern is wise and comprehensive and addresses all major aspects of the spiritual life for both individuals and congregations.
- The Creed addresses fundamental Christian beliefs and is thus a sort of primer on theology.
- The Commandments address Christian behavior and are thus a sort of primer on ethics.
- The Lord’s Prayer helps the believer in his or her communion with God and is thus a sort of primer on prayer.[17]
He continues and describes “the consequences of deficient dicipling:”
Superficial smatterings of truth, blurry notions about God and godliness, and thoughtlessness about the issues of living – careerwise, communitywise, familywise, and churchwise – are all too often the marks of evangelical congregations today.[18]
For Calvary Restoration to be a church making joyful, passionate disciples who make joyful, passionate disciples, the Reformers’ pattern for training disciples – the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer – can be an effective starting point.
[1] Andy Stanley, Irresistable ( : Zondervan, 2018), 137 (quoted by Marvin Olasky, “Mere Sponge Cake” World Magazine, October 22, 2018; https://world.wng.org/2018/10/mere_sponge_cake retrieved online October 20, 2018).
[2] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 99.
[3] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 334.
[4] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 346.
[5] Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still The Best Moral Code (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2015), 49.
[6] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 17.
[7] Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still The Best Moral Code (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2015), 84-85.
[8] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 882.
[9] Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still The Best Moral Code (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2015), 38-39.
[10] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), 670d-1b7.
[11] Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still The Best Moral Code (Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2015), 22-23.
[12] Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1954), 44.
[13] Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1954), 58.
[14] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 571.
[15] J. I. Packer, Keeping the Ten Commandments (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007) Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 577.
[16] Gary Parrett;J.I. Packer. Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 744 (p. 59).
[17] Gary Parrett;J.I. Packer. Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 1141 (p. 87); bullet points added for clarity.
[18] Gary Parrett;J. I. Packer. Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2000), Kindle Electronic Edition: Location 156 (p. 16).