The 10 Commandments, the Gospel and You

         The Ten Commandments or the Decalogue are perhaps some of the best known teachings in the Bible.  Probably more material has been written on this subject than almost any other topic in Scripture.  The interpretation of the Ten Commandments consists of the extremes from offering a good moral compass to God’s absolute code of conduct for his people.  Additionally, the public display of the “Law” continues to be a lightening rod dividing believers and un-believers as the “separation of church and state” issue is debated on the court-house steps and in society at large.

            As Christians, they serve as a charter of conduct for a people already redeemed, who already participate in God’s redemptive plan by being walking and talking examples of what it means to be created in God’s image.  They are a picture of righteousness and point to the Righteous One who alone was able to keep the law, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).  So, the Decalogue are commands of God to be understood in a redemptive context, a context that defines the deliverance of God’s people in Exodus and the reiteration of that redemption in the New Covenant through the blood of Jesus.

            As we get ready to share our testimonies for the Great Exchange on UGA campus on Wednesday, September 28^th, this event heralds 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  This is the same redemptive thread that began with the “Passover” and continues throughout Scripture until Jesus’ cry from the cross, “It is finished.”  Just as the LORD passed over the Hebrew mud huts stained with the blood of the lamb to judge sin, the LORD made his only Son to be sin so that the sin which was ours could be judged on the cross and atoned for by the blood of Jesus for all times.  As our substitute, Jesus kept the Law perfectly and then gave us his righteousness and took our iniquities and nailed them to the cross as he completed the Great Exchange transaction.

            In a similar way, the Ten Commandments serve as a bridge between the two covenants.  The LORD gave the Law as a means for his people to relate to him and to each other as well as to differentiate between the pagan cultures of the world.  In the NT, Paul tells us that, “The Law also served as a guardian until Christ came so that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).  Because of the Law we were under a curse; for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not “abide by all things written in the law and do them” (Galatians 3:10).  Galatians reminds us that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us”... (Galatians 3:13).

            The writer of Hebrews continues to expand this bridge between the covenants, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Hebrews 8:6-7).  The church must, therefore, view the Law from a Christological perspective rather than as a treasure chest of moral principles.  Since believers in Christ are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we should view the Law as reflecting the perfect righteousness of Christ and our ideal for Christian living.

            We must be careful to remember that the Ten Commandments are not primarily concerned with personal, private morality.  Our individual righteousness is not so much at stake, but rather a corporate dimension, whereby the people of God live in community and harmony as a testimony to the glory of God.  This was God’s intention in the OT, but even more so in the NT, as the people of God are not trying to earn or secure their salvation, but rather living as that “shining city on a hill” for the entire world to see.

            Unfortunately, we often use the Ten Commandments today as a basis by which to judge the “personal morality” of others rather than as a reminder of our own depravity.  It is bad enough to use this barometer in the church, but when we subject this treatment to those outside the family of God, we send the wrong gospel message, that being right with God is primarily a matter of proper conduct.  To single out the Ten Commandments and set them up as a standard of conduct for unbelievers or American society in general indicates not only a misunderstanding of the purpose of the Decalogue, but of the good news itself.  Christ died and rose to provide another way.  We should do nothing to obscure or confuse that message.

Papa Fred

September 26, 2011

           

           

            

The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart

Chapter 9 of Romans contains some of the most difficult passages in Scripture regarding the Sovereignty of God, particularly regarding the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and God’s role in that choice.  In fact, Exodus contains four uses of the word harden and fifteen uses of the word hardened all pertaining to Pharaoh.  Before we look at this issue, Hebrews 3:13 suggest a stern warning about hardening: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

            As we emerge on the other side of the Sea of Reeds, don’t forget that the book of Exodus is one magnificent oracle about the Sovereignty of God and his judgment against sin.  Each of the ten plagues is a specific judgment directed against specific Egyptian god(s) that Yahweh may be glorified and “The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 7:5).  The plagues have provided a horrible picture of the wrath of God juxtaposed against the mercy and grace of God towards the children of Israel;  “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).

            We cannot presume on God’s grace and just like the Hebrew 3 verse quoted above, sin is a heart hardener.  Romans 1:24-25 is clear that, “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a “lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”  Pharaoh has to be included in this crowd because the Egyptian pantheon was well defined with the king himself considered to be the son of Ra, the sun god.

            As Christians, we often fall into the snare of cheap grace.  Because we know that the heart of the gospel is forgiveness and redemption, we presume upon God’s grace and begin to act as though God is obligated to show us favor.  We forget that God does not owe it to anyone to stop justice from taking its course.  He is not obliged to pity and to pardon.  If he does so, it is an act of his own sovereign will, and nobody can object.  He is the potter and we are the clay.

            Paul’s message in Romans 9:14-18 specifically addresses this very issue and includes Pharaoh as the poster-child through which God has chosen to reveal his power and declare his name in all the earth.  This idea is further developed in Romans 9:22, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepare for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”  Pharaoh is clearly a vessel of wrath that God has chosen to reveal his glory.  Scripture is replete with other biblical and historical examples, including the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Ahasuerus, Darius and many other leaders through which God choose to use to reveal his glory.

            So, does this mean that Pharaoh had no choice but to be God’s pawn?  The same sovereign God that appears to harden Pharaoh’s heart has given us some degree of freedom in our decision making.  To label this as “free will” can be misleading.  John Calvin recognized a freedom in our will and choices but qualified this liberty, “free will is not sufficient to enable man to do good works, unless he is helped by grace.”  In fact, Calvin avoided using the term “free will” altogether because it is subject to misunderstanding. 

            He qualifies this caution as follows in the Institutes; “But how few men are there, I ask, who when they hear free will attributed to man do not immediately conceive him to be the master of both his own mind and will, able of his own power to turn himself  toward either good or evil....If anyone, then, can use this word without misunderstanding it in a bad sense, I shall not trouble him on this account...I’d prefer not to use it myself, and I should like others, if they seek my advice, to avoid it.”

            To be sure, in God’s hands we are as clay in the hand of the potter, but God has given us the ability to make willing choices, choices that have real effects.  That freedom is ours in the context of a sovereign God whose will is always going to prevail.  Scripture nowhere says that we are “free” in the sense of being outside of God’s control or of being able to make decisions that are not caused by anything.  Nor does it say we are “free” in the sense of being able to do right on our own apart from God’s power.  An absolute “freedom,” totally free of God’s control, is simply not possible in a world providentially sustained and directed by God himself.

            That is why the “All things” of Romans 8:28-30 ultimately work together for our good and God’s glory.  God can and does use our sin and work it together for our good and his sovereign will for our lives and his Providence in history.  That is the great theme throughout the story of Joseph in Genesis and continuing in the book of Exodus.

            Wayne Grudem, in Systematic Theology, distinguishes between God’s moral will (sometimes called his revealed will) and his providential government of all things (sometimes called his “secret will”).  Examples of God’s moral will include the Ten Commandments and the moral commands of the New Testament while all the events of history testify to God’s “secret will” if they occur.  This includes the fact that Christ would be crucified by “lawless men” (Acts 2:23) as well as all the evil events that have transpired in Exodus.

            Therefore, Pharaoh was free to act as he would, to harden his heart, or to have his heart hardened by his actions.  But he was not free to thwart completely God’s will to deliver his people out of bondage.  God was providently controlling all the events in Egypt in order to accomplish all of his “I will” statements in Exodus 6.  So, even when Pharaoh hardens his own heart, that is not inconsistent with saying that God is causing Pharaoh to do this and thereby God is hardening the heart of Pharaoh. 

            While we do not understand how God can ordain that Pharaoh can carry out evil deeds and yet hold him accountable for them and not be blamed himself, “The blame for evil is always on the responsible creature, whether man or demon, who does it, and the creature who does evil is always worthy of punishment.”  Paul’s own response to this question is found in Romans 9:19-20: “You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault?  Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me thus?”  The Providence of God is a mystery that should result in Doxology.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Papa Fred

September 20, 2011

UGA and the Gospel

Over the past year and a half students in our ministry have been interviewing students on the campus of UGA in an effort to share the gospel.  What we have discovered is sobering.  Almost 90% of the students we interview have no clear understanding of who Jesus is or about the great news of the Gospel.  The overwhelming number of them we have interviewed (a little over 1500 students ) believe that in order to have a relationship with God you have to "be good".  This is a lost generation.  They either have a wrong view of the gospel or they simply have never heard it.  That's the reason we go on campus.  That's the reason an event like The Great Exchange needs to happen.  Below you will find a video that has excerpts from some of those interviews.  Watch it and then pray about how you can help get the message of Jesus onto the campus of UGA.