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God of grace and glory Exodus 19: 3 – 8, 20: 1 – 19 |
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IT IS easy to think of religion as a boring set of laws and regulations which have little relevance to life today. This shows how badly we have misunderstood the Bible. The ten commandments clearly declare not law but liberation, not oppression, but grace. As Christians we go far beyond where Israel stood as God gave the Covenant to Moses; but, if we know what our base line is, we can see more clearly how far above that we stand. But, if we are not yet believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we haven’t even begun yet. God started a new thing with Israel. He built on a foundation going back even past Abraham, who went out from Ur in Iraq, not knowing where he was going, but knowing he was following the God who called him. But in Israel it takes shape. What had been an individual thing was now the life of a nation. It’s a process designed to culminate in Jesus dying on the cross. But we go back today, not 2000 years to Jesus, but 3700 years, to when a miracle occurred at Sinai. It is a year since my 60th birthday. Many of you were there to celebrate. For a few days before the day, I heard snatches about what was planned. We were going to dinner at the Lebanese restaurant in Newtown. But first, we would call in to the hotel for a quick drink with Joshua, because otherwise we would get to the restaurant a little early. I knew that Josh and Helen had the boys and it can be difficult to get to places on time. I thought this was just a way to get us all together so we would all arrive together. On the Sunday I discovered what Friday and Saturday were really about, when I saw that it was a ruse to get me to a surprise party. You are a sneaky lot! Sometimes we understand yesterday better when we look back from the perspective of today. So today we won’t start with God’s explanation to Israel of what he planned, but we will start a few days later with the law–giving on Sinai. We will look at three points:
What God expected You know about the Ten Commandments. We call them the Ten Commandments, but that’s not a Bible name. Catholics, Protestants and Jews divide them in different ways. But the fact remains that God expected certain things of Israel. These are: EX 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth... but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 12 “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 13 “You shall not murder. I have cut out some detail. We read it all a minute ago. Let’s just get the general thrust here. In fact, Jesus gave a fair overview. He said, MT 22:37 [... ]`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” God expects us to live moral lives. It means right relationship with himself, to the exclusion of all other gods. It means being like God, including taking our rest as God took his. It means respecting the people around us and not harming them in any way. There was a legal tussle in one of the US States recently over whether or not a monument bearing the Ten Commandments should be displayed in the front garden of a courthouse. Some wanted it, because the English and American legal systems are built on the Ten Commandments; some wanted it removed because it looked like there was a link between the American Government and Judaeo–Christian religion. 60% of the Ten Commandments are shared by nearly all religions and those of no religion. But there are a few, like having no God before Yahweh, or like misusing his Name, or not having idols which would offend other religions. However, you can’t pick and choose. Our world wants to, but the laws belong together, because this is how God wants us to live.
Why he expects it So why does God expect us to love himself with all we have, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves? It is not for God’s benefit, but for our own. God spoke particularly to Israel, to bind them to himself in a covenant relationship. But through the ages many societies have hit upon similar rules, because that is how life goes best. Many societies even accept these principles if they don’t accept the God who gave the principles. However, it’s not really about pleasing God by being good little boys and girls. Other religions may teach that, but Christianity doesn’t, and that’s not the point of the Commandments. Paul says to the Romans, I plead with you, therefore, my brothers, by God’s great mercies, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your rational worship. Then you will be able to approve by testing how good and perfect and acceptable is God’s will. God doesn’t want law–keeping, he wants sacrificial self–giving. If we truly give ourselves to God in love, law–keeping will begin to fall into its proper place. God is not the great Umpire in the Sky, giving us each a score for how well we don’t murder or how often we don’t commit adultery. As Mike Warnke said, “Christ didn’t die to make bad people good: he died to make dead people live!” If it’s all about being good and getting a reward for it, here is the reward: a better life. Nothing more — you get what it was designed for. On the other hand, don’t think that God is out to rob us of pleasure. That’s far from true. No society can last if it neglects these instructions. The commandments are social. They are about living together under God. A society which values lusting after what others have becomes a selfish society, thinking only of what it can get. Desire turns into action, we`take from our neighbour, we neglect our fellow humans because they have what we want. We, in Australia, have neighbours with resources — gold, timber, oil, land — and we want those things. World poverty rests on Western covetousness. People go to bed cold and unfed because we want what they have and we have the power to get it. A society which acccepts false testimony is a society where feuding clans rule, because there’s no law to settle things. Some of the people in our district are from villages where any lie is acceptable if it is for family, because there is no society, only family where they live. Stealing splits a community, adultery splits families, murder splits body and soul. We all know how it works. Even putting God first — every society knows that religion is one of the most powerful forces to bind a society together. That’s why rulers always exploit religion to create unity. This abuse is possible because it’s a distortion of God’s plan. God wants us to enjoy unity in relationship to himself. Kings, political bishops, dictators and demagogues — all are usurpers, standing tall on an idol’s plinth, basking in the praise of the deceived and the boot–lickers. God’s kind of unity creates freedom, because it is based on loving God and having no other gods beside him; it is based on respecting each other and caring for each other. There’s a well–known evangelistic tract which begins with the words, God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life. That’s what the commandments are about. A loving God wanting us to have the best life we possibly can. But what if we don’t keep these commandments? Then we tear apart our relationship with God and with our fellow humans. And God can’t let that go unpunished. Not because he delights in punishment, but because he is just. He defends the powerless. He sees more clearly than we do how our actions hurt others, how their lives are diminished by our radical self–interest. Recently someone told me something which seemed fairly important, but didn’t answer the who and how questions. When I asked for clarification, the answer came, “Oh, it doesn’t matter!” I was left standing while the other person walked away. It did matter. It mattered to me. It mattered that this person didn’t think enough of me to answer my question. It wasn’t, “It doesn’t matter” it was, “You don’t matter!” Do you, do I, do things like that to other people and not even see what we have done? God gives us the law, mainly because life goes better if we obey; but also because the lives of others will go better, too. And not to obey is death. As the Bible says, The wages of sin is death.
Grace revealed What most people miss, as they read these laws, is the grace which surrounds the law. We are so used to contrasting law and grace that we forget that the law is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. Law doesn’t save us, is powerless to save us; but it shows us clearly our need of a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. When we turn back to Exodus 19, we see the setting of where God gave the law to Israel. EX 19:3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 `You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Think about this. God is not saying to Israel, “You have kept my laws so well, that I will make you my own people; you are such moral people that I will now treasure you and make you a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” He says, “You see how I picked you up from the millions living in Egypr, how I lifted you high and brought you to myself. I chose you before you did anything to deserve my love. I called you out of absolute grace. If you stick with me, I will do wonders in and through you!” This is how grace is. I like to remember that the New Testament often speaks of Grace, Mercy and Peace. I know this is not a complete definition, but grace is getting the good things you don’t deserve; mercy is not getting the punishments you do deserve, and peace comes when you have the other two! What Paul told the Ephesians is still valid: By grace you are saved by faith, and that not of yourselves; not by works, lest anyone should boast. God has never changed. His standard is always the same — by his own sovereign choice he calls you and me through Jesus. He reaches down when we have done nothing to deserve his love, and lifts us up from the stinking mire, lifts us up and makes us clean and suitable for his purposes. And it is all based on love, love revealed through Jesus dying on the cross. As we read, God commends his love to us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is now and has always been the only basis for fellowship with God. Israel in the Sinai desert didn’t know that it was for the sake of Jesus that they were called and chosen and redeemed out of every nation; we do know it, and that makes it so much easier for us to see and believe and live by.
CONCLUSION Our God is a God of grace and glory. You and I deserve nothing but condemnation. How can we ever compensate for the wrong we have done? Can we get rid of it by creating a balance of good to outweigh it? The whole idea that we can deserve God’s favour by the deeds we do is totally ridiculous. If I commit murder, how many old ladies do I have to see across the road before I have compensated? If I show contempt for a stranger, does it fix it if I am nice to his neighbour? Can you see how ridiculous the entire idea of works–based righteousness is? I met a young man once who had had a tumultuous relationship with his parents when he was in his teens, and he honestly believed that he had to make it right with them by taking responsibility for the housework. He felt trapped and oppressed by his situation, but had no choice, because he had to make it up to them and to God. There is none righteous, not one — as the Bible tells us. What a liberating fact! Once I know myself to be a sinner, I can come in trust to the God who calls my name, come and receive acceptance and salvation through Jesus, who died on the cross for me. Once I know where I stand, once I know that acceptance, then, like Israel, I am redeemed, empowered and enabled to live a life of growing obedience; not because obedience saves me, but because it is the right response to one who loves me without limits. Yes, The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus Turn today, and find that life! AMEN |
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© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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