When we speak or hear about the law of God or the Ten Commandments, love is usually the last thing that comes to our minds. We tend to picture large stones and towering inscriptions laid out before us, written by the hand of an angry God, a Just Judge. We see the bold words “THOU SHALT NOT” and cower in fear. We tend to correlate the law of the big ten with the halls of justice, cold, insensitive, exacting, condemning. We see them devoid of all emotion, warmth, endearment, understanding, forgiveness. Instead, we put our heads down in fearful expectation, waiting and cringing at the sound of that gavel of justice. We hang our heads low in shame, cast in the shadow of the law. Guilty, condemned, and at the same time, down deep at the gut level, we despise such commands and restrictions, feeling intense stirrings of rebellion in our hearts. “Who are you to tell me what to do,” We say. For in our minds we regularly separate love from law, for they seem diametrically opposed, antithetical to one another. This is simply not true. Lawlessness is really lovelessness. God did not hear the cries of Israel, solely to impose strict commands on a severely oppressed people, enslaved under a cruel dictator; no, God did not deliver a people from one form of cruel slavery, only to bring them under another kind. That is not salvation. Yes, this new freedom has boundaries, albeit, only because love has boundaries. So then, it is equally true we were slaves of sin and now in Christ have become slaves to righteousness. Slavery compelled us to act in rebellion, now love constrains us from such unspeakable things, for love now leads us into active submission to our “new” Master.
This is a glorious paradox of freedom. Do you not know that if you presen...
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...inst us, cursing us and condemning us. Jesus came to fulfill the righteous requirements and receive all the blessings of covenant keeping. As a matter of fact, Christ became the inheritance, the promise land, the Sabbath rest for all who would enter in. Look with me at this great biblical doxology: Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (1Timothy 3:16) God can never be less than God Himself.
My prayer then as you read this book is to look at the Ten Commandments in the light of redemption, as a covenant of love, like a marriage covenant, boundaries in our relationship with the Heavenly Father through the blood of His Son, and the Spirit as our guarantee. God is saying, “I love you, do you love Me?”
The Ten Commandments are the first ten of the six hundred and thirteen commandments given by God to the Jewish people. The Ten Commandments built a foundation for Jewish ethics, behavior, and responsibility, which are still followed in numerous religions to this day. The Ten Commandments
Much like the laws in the Old Testament, the law is God solving a problem before it occurs (Maxwell, 2010). As Reggie Joiner reminds us: “Relationship comes before rules” (Maxwell, 2010, 176). If a relationship forms, rules are easier to embrace. Rules are a tool to keep the ship and everyone on it going in the same direction. Shared systems of values strengthen partnerships minimizing the possibility of comprise. Values determine our actions. Our conscience can be a fickle thing if not tended to. A good study of 1 Timothy 1:5 will sharpen the cause for keeping the conscience in order and know that a good conscience is the product of a pure heart. Finally, we trust fully in God’s promises to comfort us, but need to share that same comfort through an empowerment to do so from God himself. Kept promises are the glue that holds all the guidelines together and shuttles them into the heart and soul of mankind by building
Throughout Exodus, he shows his consistent love for the Israelites when he continues to help them after they have disobeyed. Because God is both eternal and good this is the best thing anyone could possibly want. Therefore anyone who doesn’t want god doesn’t really know what the good life is. His use of violence to correct those who are falling of the straight and narrow line is in no way to hurt them. But is used to remind them of how to get to the good life they desire. It seems as if god posits that if you love me and do what I tell you, everything will be fine and I 'll give you eternal life. But if you don 't, I 'll have to destroy you. However, it should be seen as I will do whatever I can do in my power to guide you to the good
Moreover, Stern’s explains how God is the creator of all things he is the uncreated [author’s italicization]. Furthermore, he gives in details God’s unfailing love for his creation by showing creation right from wrong. “According to the New Testament, he is love. His love is expressed, in part, in providing law
The Ten Commandments are a set of Commandments, that were inscribed on two stone tablets, which were given to Moses, during the New Testament, Exodus 20:1–17. The 10 Commandments are known to be
Ten Commandments shows them how to express their love for Him. Exodus 20 Talks about how the commandments are given as guidelines of worshipping Yahweh. In addition, the Ten Commandments is known as a contract that God gave the Israelites.
They say that Freedom comes at a price ; why a price on freedom dosent that defeat the
The Old Testament law is seen as irrelevant by most modern Christians today. Christians are now under the blood of Jesus Christ which is said to abrogate the Law. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is to love God and your neighbor as yourself. This does not mean, however, that the Old Testament Law does not apply to Christians today. Author J. Daniel Hays expounds on this topic in his article, “Applying the Old Testament Law Today,” and focuses on the hermeneutical approach of Principlism. This approach allows the Old Testament Law to be viewed in light of the New Testament.
When in times of trouble, we look to the law as guidance, and as Christians, we look to the Bible as well. God gave us commandments so that we can easily distinguish right from wrong, and to act as our concrete “law,” so to speak. What would happen if the law didn’t matter or that authority was corrupt? This is exactly the horror that occurred. Authority definitely looke...
Obeying God’s commandments is where we obtain this freedom. Many people feel that having to live by “these set of rules” (the ten commandments) is debilitating but as a matter of fact, it is sin that is crippling us. Plantinga (2002) stated that “Sin traps people and makes them wilt; godly obedience liberates people and helps them flourish” (p. 74-75). In Exodus 19:4-5, it says to “obey my voice,” the commandments were not given to us to rescue us, but because we have already been rescued. “God rescues people and then lays down the law,” said by Plantinga, perfectly reflects these thoughts. Grace is a tremendous word that is used more than 150 times in the New Testament to speak of divine favor granted to undeserving people. MacArthur (2014) writes in God’s Sufficient Grace that, “We are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) and in grace we stand (Romans 5:2). Grace upholds our salvation, gives us victory in temptation, and helps us endure suffering and pain. It helps us understand the Word and wisely apply it to our lives. It draws us into communion and prayer and enables us to serve the Lord effectively. In short, we exist and are firmly fixed in an environment of all-sufficient grace”
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." [Matthew 22:37-40, AV]
The Ten Commandments is a movie about the book of Exodus and Moses. The movie began at the first order to kill all Hebrews under the age of two. Here Moses is cast off into the Nile and the story begins. It ends with the end of Moses’s life and Joshua taking over. The movie, for the most part, stayed true to the book of Exodus, but some detail and major plotline were different. The movie was good, but the added love story and power struggle made the movie a little off topic. The story itself, Moses being adopted, raised, sent away, and then came back and freed the people is the same, so Exodus is followed in a general way. Some detail is not, like some of the plagues are different (Plague seven was just hail, not hail on fire), and some characters are not existent in the Bible, but appear in the movie. The movie was very good and is one of the best Moses and Passover movies of all time. The only flaw was the details that the movie lacked or were incorrect.
So powerful is the compulsion of the law, that even if a man slays one who is his own chattel [i.e., his slave] and who has none to avenge him, his fear of the ordinances of god and of man causes him to purify himself and withhold himself from those places prescribed by law, in the hope that by so doing he will best avoid disaster.
Luther states “the law is spiritual. If the law were for the body, it could be satisfied with works. Because it is spiritual, however, no one can satisfy it- unless all that you do is done from the bottom of the heart” (Luther 77). What Luther really means by this is that law can only be fulfilled where there is a spiritual heart and where that spirit is absent from the heart then there is sin and dissatisfaction with the law. A law is achieved by doing works which God decides if we are performing these tasks with the will of God from the heart. However, one will be punished by God for performing deeds when there is no heart because God is not satisfied by individuals who only do good works when others are watching or to get something in return. (Luther 76). Laws are meant to keep the sinful attributes of individuals under control through the fear of punishment. The law shows anyone that compares their life to Christ’s life who was without sin that he or she is sinful. God gave us law not because he is harsh but to help society maintain order and is also a guide so that we can know what good works will please God. The book of laws are found in the Old Testament which teaches what individuals can and cannot do. The Old Testament is comprised of the demanding of good, stories of how laws can be maintained or broken, and promising the forgiveness of sin (Luther 98). The apostles use the
The Decalogue passages reveal that there is a fundamental purpose of organization and order. By finding the true meaning of the Decalogue through analysis of both the Exodus and Deuteronomy accounts, as well as observation of framework structure, the Commandments reveal a deeper understand of the Lord’s message. Even though the Israelites had various other legal collections, the laws presented in the Ten Commandments were specifically placed at the beginning of the excerpts in order to solidify the true purpose of the Covenant God made with the Israelites. By not making punishments a priority, the Lord created a more sustainable relationship with His people, thus effectively conveying His message.