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Introduction

We know that Jesus never made an error, and that Jesus is the source of wisdom, yet there is a incident recounted in Matthew, Mark and Luke in which Jesus gives a very different response to that which modern evangelical Christians would ever be likely to give.

^{MK 10:17} And as He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" ¹⁸ And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹ "You know the commandments, `DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'" ²⁰ And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." ²¹ And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." ²² But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property.

When this young man asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life we might well ask why did Jesus not give a similar answer to him to that which John tells us was given to Nicodemus in an earlier encounter – ‘To inherit eternal life you must be born again’ (see John 3:3,7). This is all the more surprising when we consider that a right of inheritance is normally a matter of birth and descent.

But Jesus did not tell him that, and we must ask why did Jesus refer to the commandments? We cannot escape from the question by saying that this incident happened before Calvary and involved a Jew, because the confrontation with Nicodemus happened earlier and without doubt Nicodemus was a very prominent Jew. So we have to deal with the matter on its merits – why did Jesus refer this young man to the commandments?

Is there something about the commandments that we have overlooked? We are used to calling the terms of the covenant that God gave to Moses in Exodus 20 the ‘Ten Commandments’. The other term for them is the ‘Decalogue’ which comes to us from the Greek meaning the ‘ten words’ after the old Hebrew term for these commandments – they were the ‘Ten Words of God’. In this study we shall attempt to explore the Decalogue in a different way, and discover that there is more to these 10 words than we may be used to finding.

The Decalogue was the basis of God’s relationship with mankind. It described the nature of a kingdom under God’s leadership. The covenant based on the Decalogue failed in Exodus, not because there was anything lacking in the Decalogue, but because there was not the power to deliver man’s compliance with the terms of it.

Has God changed since Sinai? Has God lowered His standard of righteousness in order to effect the New Covenant that the New Testament reveals? Put this way we would of course answer a resounding ‘NO’. But this means that the Decalogue is still a true description of the nature of a relationship between God and man. What we hope to do in this study is to discover something beautiful and perhaps unexpected in the Decalogue.

The Decalogue

The text of the Ten Commandments is found in Exodus 20.

^{EX 20:1} Then God spoke all these words, saying,

^{EX 20:2} "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³ "You shall have no other gods before Me.

^{EX 20:4} "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

^{EX 20:7} "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

^{EX 20:8} "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹ "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

^{EX 20:12} "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

^{EX 20:13} "You shall not murder.

^{EX 20:14} "You shall not commit adultery.

^{EX 20:15} "You shall not steal.

^{EX 20:16} "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

^{EX 20:17} "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

We might immediately notice that the commandments break naturally into two groups of five. Sometimes the division is suggested as four and six, but I hope to show that there is a five/five split. The Decalogue is really the terms of the relationship between God and man, and we might also describe it as the description of life in God’s Kingdom. On this basis we might paraphrase the second five commandments as – ‘In God’s Kingdom no one will murder. In God’s Kingdom no one will commit adultery, steal etc.’

In democracies all over the world candidates for election to government promise to reduce crime, to increase the resources spent on the preservation of law and order. No one would ever campaign on a promise to eliminate completely murder, adultery or any other social disorder. Rightly no one would believe them, because that is beyond all human achievement. But that is exactly what the Decalogue declares will be the state of the society in the Kingdom of God. That is what life will be when God is King.

The first five commandments however appear to have a peculiar construction. They are more like paragraphs than simple commands. This feature arises because in each of the five are verbs describing God’s action, and this is what we shall in this study.

The first five commandments

We might observe at the start that the name of God appears eight times in these five commandments. This name, which is printed in our text as LORD – is the name ‘YHWH’ that God revealed to Moses at the bush in chapter 3. Thus there is already a strong nudge that these five commandments are different.

The first commandment

^{EX 20:2} "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³ "You shall have no other gods before Me.

It should be noted that verse 2 is not a preamble to the whole of the Decalogue, but is a part of the first commandment.

The first matter to consider is who these commandments are for. The clue is in this first commandment – ‘I am the Lord your God’. This is very significant language, using a formula which appears in three previous occasions.

1. When God confronted Isaac in Genesis 26 He said -

^{GE 26:23} Then he went up from there to Beersheba. ²⁴ And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham;

From the surrounding text we learn that at this point Isaac had not taken God for himself, and so God could only come to him as the God of his father. Indeed we find in Genesis 26 that this was the decisive confrontation in the life of Isaac when he came to personal faith in God.

2. That Isaac did indeed come to a personal relationship with God is confirmed in Genesis 28 where we read of God’s confrontation with Jacob. At Bethel God introduced Himself with the description –

^{GE 28:13} … "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.

Here God introduces Himself to Jacob and declares that He is the God of his father and grandfather – but not yet of Jacob. That Jacob had not yet entered into a relationship with God can be adduced from Jacob’s response to this introduction to God –

^{GE 28:20} Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, ²¹ and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.

At this point Jacob not only had not taken God as his God but in fact would not do so then, and Genesis shows us that it would be another twenty years before Jacob would come to faith in God.

3. Thirdly many years later Moses met God at the burning bush with the explanation –

^{EX 3:6} … "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

Again God meets Moses with an introduction as the God of other people, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In his subsequent obedience to God Moses showed that he now took this God as his own God, and so when God met with him at Sinai God is now able to declare – “I am the Lord your God”. The point not to be missed is that these commandments are therefore for those who can say ‘Lord, you are my God’.

We have noted that the text of the first five commandments is accompanied by a description of action by God. Thus in this first commandment, before God gives any word of instruction He first describes what He has done – He has brought His people up out of the house of bondage. The first thing that God wants His people to know is that He is the God who has liberated from bondage.

This is the first stage in salvation, and it is this aspect of salvation that God draws to our attention in this first commandment. The Children of Israel of that generation were physically in bondage in Egypt, but the Bible tells us that all of mankind is in a far worse state of slavery, from which we have of ourselves no means of escape. Mankind is in bondage to sin and in consequence has a fear of God and of his judgement (or a desire to convince himself that there is no God). The Bible puts it succinctly when it declares that Jesus came to deal with this bondage –

^{HEB 2:14} Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵ and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

The language of this first commandment is God’s promise that liberation from the bondage to sin is available now in the relationship that God offers, and one day there will also be liberation from the bondage of sin and death. The New Testament writer Paul sums up the achievement of this in the beautiful language of Colossians 1

^{COL 1:9} For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you … ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Those who are part of God’s Kingdom, those to whom God has given His covenant, are first of all those who have been set free, whose sins are forgiven. To such people God says –

"You shall have no other gods before Me".

Before modern Christians respond that this could not be directed to them, let us rephrase it – ‘You shall have no higher authority in you life than Me’. The message of this first commandment is that God alone is sovereign.

Paul has told us that we have been transferred from the domain of darkness, from the slavery and captivity of sin and death, not into a vacuum, not into a desert to make our own way, but into the kingdom of His beloved Son. This means that for us there is and should be no sovereign but God. We can never again be slaves of the kingdom of darkness, but Paul tells us in Romans 16:17-18 that if we fall into the trap of following our own prejudices and vanities we become enslaved to ourselves.

^{RO 16:17} Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. ¹⁸ For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites.

If we live like this we would usurp the sovereignty that God declares is His alone. So in celebrating the liberation that our salvation gives to us, let us remember to submit everything to the sovereignty of Jesus, because He truly is Lord, and He is our Lord, our God, and He has set us free.

The second commandment

In the first commandment we saw that God sets free the prisoner to sin and judgement. His salvation offers forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is wonderful, but the Bible teaches that salvation brings much more than just forgiveness of sins and the next four commandments reveal how much more is given to us in the covenant relationship that we have through the Calvary work of the Lord Jesus.

The second commandment is found in Exodus 20:4-6

^{EX 20:4} "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

At first sight it seems easy to understand and apply this commandment. It is a straight prohibition of making and using idols. But what are we to make of the second half of the commandment? Is it just a comment on God’s character that bears no relation to the matter of idolatry?

We can break this long commandment into two parts.

1. ⁴ "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ "You shall not worship them or serve them;

The instruction is clear enough; no one is to make an idol. But why does God tell us this?

The reason is offered in the second part -

2. ⁵ … for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

We need to observe again that God declares Himself to be ‘your God’. We observed in relation to the first commandment that this introduction by God is precise. When God uses the expression ‘your God’ He specifically means those who have come to Him and taken Him as their God. To such people God gives a message not to serve idols, because God is a jealous God. The phrase ‘jealous God’ does not mean that God is emotionally threatened by idols, or that He will huff if attention is given to idols instead of to Him. The thought is not of jealousy as an emotion, but rather of God being a zealous God, a God of zeal, of fervent action. Yet if this is so how does it make sense to instruct the people of God not to make idols, because of God’s fervent or zealous activity?

At first sight the description of God’s activity - visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands is a strange statement. A brief consideration suggests that the language is poetic. If it was intended to be a literal explanation of God’s dealings it would mean that children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who oppose God would be condemned out of hand. More bizarrely it would also mean that the descendants of someone who loved God would be saved to the thousandth generation, regardless of how they themselves responded to the message of salvation. Clearly this is not the message of the Bible, as Ezekiel 18 makes very clear.

^{EZE 18:20} "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

The point in this strange statement in Exodus 20 is to emphasise the contrast between the third and fourth generation on the one hand, with the thousandth generation to whom God shows love. A similar contrast is given in Psalm 30.

^{PS 30:5} For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime.

The simple message as far as man is concerned is that God extends His love to a degree far, far beyond any presentation of His anger. In fact it is so far beyond that it goes off the comparative scale. This statement by God is not just a casual comment. We can note its importance in the way it is used in the self-description of God to Moses in chapter 34:6-7.

^{EX 34:6} Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; ⁷ who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

In this declaration we have God’s righteousness and God’s love, but how can the two be reconciled? This question remained unresolved in Old Testament times (contrast for example Jonah 4:1 with Nahum 1:3). It is only when we come to 1 John that we find clearly stated what the second commandment and the declaration in Exodus 34 is telling us about the character of God to us.

In 1 John 4 John twice makes the startling revelation that God is Love (1John 4:8, 16). John is not just waxing sentimental and telling us something that he has made up; he is bringing to full unclouded revelation how we can understand what God is telling us in the second commandment in Exodus 20. But John is writing after God has dealt with the claims of His righteousness. Paul’s magnificent statement in Romans 3 is that at Calvary God demonstrated His righteousness publicly.

^{RO 3:21} But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God’s love and God’s righteousness are no longer hard to reconcile. The important point is that Exodus 20:5-6 and 34:6-7 are not suggesting that God’s righteousness is outweighed by His love. God’s righteousness is as important and as essential to God’s nature as His love. But nothing that man could do could ever satisfy God’s righteousness or slake His wrath against sin. But the revelations in Exodus 20 and 34 are not about the way in which God’s righteousness would be satisfied. So there would be no point in explaining in these commandments how the requirements of God’s justice would be met. God would deal with the demands of His righteousness apart from man. The point that God is pressing in this commandment is the outrageous scale of the love that He wants to show to us.

God is so zealous, so fervent in love to those who are His people that the measure of His love is presented on a scale that dwarfs His wrath by thousands to three or four. It is this character of active love that the second part of this commandment emphasises. How then does it help us to understand the first parts?

God declares – don’t make idols, and then explains that idols are a waste of time and space, because He is a God of zealous action, or more precisely of fervent love to those who have taken Him as their God. We know that idols are not gods, they are merely lumps of wood or stone. But this is exactly the point. The idols are not rivals to God; rather they are a waste of space and an encumbrance to those who make and use them. That this is the argument of the commandment can be evidenced from the magnificent scathing attack on those who revere idols in Isaiah 46:1-4

^{ISA 46:1} Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, a load for the weary beast. ² They stooped over, they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity.

^{ISA 46:3} "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth, And have been carried from the womb; ⁴ Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you; I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you.

The picture is of a people who have to flee an impending disaster, be it an invading force or a tsunami. In such circumstances an idol does nothing to help. In fact it is a hindrance, an encumbrance. It makes the situation worse because the people have to carry the extra weight of their idol. By contrast, God says, you do not carry Me, I carry you. This is the relevance and the point of the emphasis on the fervent love that God has for those who are His.

Idolatry in the Old Testament is actually an issue about control, about the desire by man to control the natural forces through magic associated with the idol. But as Isaiah shows this does not work and in fact only adds a burden to the idolater. If in our attempts to serve God we load ourselves with responsibilities and seek to control the work of God we become like those who make and use idols.

Such conduct will no more profit us than the physical idols did to the people that Isaiah mocks. The real tragedy however is that we lose sight of the truth of God’s plans and purposes for us. We do not have to carry God, or the burden of God’s work. He carries us, and allows us to fellowship with Him. His face to us is only love, and we can rest in full confidence on His care because this second commandment assures us that He is fervent in love. Consider also the lovely description of God’s zeal in the message to Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9

^{2CH 16:9} "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

God’s salvation is not just forgiveness of sins, but the assurance of God’s ‘hyperactive love’. He wants His people to serve Him, but not weighed down with burdens that He does not give, rather in the freedom that rests in His sufficiency and love.

The third commandment

In the first commandment we considered the beautiful picture of our God as the liberator of the captive to sin and judgement, the forgiver of sins. Then in the second commandment we found that the message is that God’s favour does not stop with forgiveness, but He assures us that He is fervent in love to us – the text might be paraphrased loosely as God being hyperactive in His love to us.

Now we shall continue with commandment number three.

^{EX 20:7} "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

The first thing to note is that again the commandment is addressed to those for whom the Lord is their God. In our terms it is addressed to ‘Christians’. It is not easy however to determine precisely what ‘taking the name of the Lord in vain’ is meant to convey.

We might see this as using God’s name as a swear-word, or treating the name or title of God cheaply. God’s name is not something cheap. The Song of Solomon gives us a clear allusion to the name of God in telling us that –

^{SS 1:3} Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. (NIV translation)

Proverbs gives us the great assurance that –

^{PR 18:10} The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.

The Name of the Lord represents the whole character of God as Exodus 34:5-6 indicates. To use the name of God as something common or worse is obviously offensive. It should offend those who love God as much as it is abhorrent to God Himself. Thus this misuse of the name of God is likely to be included in the phrase ‘taking the Lord’s name in vain’ although it is not something that we would expect to find Christians doing.

The phrase may also include ‘swearing falsely in the name of the Lord’. Again taking an oath in the name of God as a cloak for falsehood is patently wrong, but as Jesus in Matthew 5:33-37 enjoins us not to swear an oath by anything at all it is perhaps less likely that this is the main thrust of the third commandment.

Possibly the way to understand the misuse of the name of the Lord is to consider the proper use of it. This is introduced in Genesis 4

^{GE 4:26} And to Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.

We find the same expression in Genesis 12:8 concerning Abraham, but more significantly in Genesis 26:25 the phrase appears to denote the moment of Isaac’s coming to faith in God.

^{GE 26:25} So he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD

We might say therefore that calling upon the name of the Lord is turning to God in our need and relying on Him to respond to our situation in accordance with His sovereign will.

To come to God in submission to His sovereign will is not a hopeless last ditch clutching at a final straw. If we have learned from the second commandment that God is fervent in His love to us then He can truly be trusted not to ignore us or to cheat us. His passion towards us guarantees that to place ourselves ‘subject to His will’ shall never ever produce anything but the very best for us.

If this is the proper use of the name of the Lord, what amounts then to taking the name of the Lord in vain? Perhaps the answer may be found in another portion from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. In chapter 6 we read –

^{MT 6:5} "And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. ⁶ "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. ⁷ "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

Jesus here describes two attitudes to praying to God that are in vain. He firstly refers to hypocrites. These are people who are only pretending to pray in order to be acclaimed as pious. The underlying point is that they do not believe that there is any real meaning in prayer. To them God does not answer prayer, so they do not in reality direct their prayers to God at all. Their prayers are meant to be observed and admired by the onlookers. God, even though they use His name, is completely irrelevant.

The second group that Jesus denounces are the ‘Gentiles’ or the heathen. These peoples recognize the importance and the power of Deity, but seek to obtain what they want by ‘meaningless repetition’ or incantation of the name of their god. By such ritual they expect to compel the deity to grant them their request. For these people the name of the god is reduced to a tool to be used.

To come to God in prayer hypocritically, without sincerity, in an attempt to impress others; or to seek to use the name of God in prayer to force God to respond to our prayers is to take the name of the Lord in vain. The tragedy is that God has shown to us that He loves us with such intensity that He withholds no good thing from us (Psalm 34:10, 84:11). True prayer, calling upon the name of the Lord, is effective, because God wants to hear us and to bless us, and we need never be in any doubt about His response (see John 16:23-27).

Sadly, as Jesus warned the disciples in Mathew 6, even Christians can misuse the name of God in prayer. What is the consequence for us? The commandment has another statement woven into it. This tells us that –

‘the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain’.

This translation is perhaps not the best. Better is –

^{EX 20:7} … for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (KJV), or

^{EX 20:7} … for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (NIV), or

^{EX 20:7} … for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. (NRSV).

From these other translations we can see that there is a curious double negative form involved in the sentence as given by the KJV and NIV. This tells that God will not hold guiltless.

It would seem to me that the NASB and NRSV have sought to tidy up the language by eliminating the double negative, but in the process they may have lost something of the underlying sense (the NASB more so than the NRSV). The concept ‘of holding guiltless’ is woven into the Psalms (see for example 32:1-2). In Psalm 51:10-12 however David links the creation in him of a clean heart (making guiltless) with the restoration of the joy of God’s salvation.

^{PS 51:10} Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, …

The concept is more fully explained in the New Testament as ‘justification’, and Paul expounds it at length between Romans 3-8. The removal of punishment that is forgiveness is wonderful, but the removal of guilt that justification grants is more wonderful still. Is there any better description of making guiltless than that which Paul sets out in 2 Corinthians 5?

^{2CO 5:21} He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God’s salvation makes us free from the slavery of sin, granting us forgiveness. It exposes us to the outrageous love of God, and now we learn that it also brings justification making us clean in God’s sight.

The significance of justification for us as we live day by day is as David prayed in Psalm 51. It is that which brings the joy of our salvation to us. Paul also set it out in Romans 5:1 –

^{RO 5:1} Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What then does it mean in the third commandment when God says that He will not hold guiltless those who take His name in vain? If we remember that this commandment is addressed to Christians we can conclude quickly that this expression does not mean that God will refuse them the justification that is an intrinsic part of their salvation, or will remove salvation or justification from them.

However we have considered that anyone who prays to an audience of men or who seeks to force God by using His name as a formula to get what he or she desires is not calling upon the name of the Lord in trust and submission. The first thing that such a person will experience is the loss of the confidence and peace with God that the active appreciation of the grace of justification brings. In this sense their loss of fellowship with God is a loss of the living knowledge of God’s justification. This is the same consequence that David found when he chose to walk in sin. He lost the ‘joy of God’s salvation’.

The remedy is to use the name of the Lord properly, and call upon Him for the restoration of fellowship and joy that is the present appreciation of our cleansing or justification.

So we can now rejoice that in giving us this third commandment with its warning not to take the name of our God in vain, the text has been constructed so that our attention is also drawn to the necessary and wonderful action of God in our salvation of making the forgiven and blest sinner clean, justified? As Paul began Romans 8 –

^{RO 8:1} There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The sense of Paul’s great rejoicing is not that there is now no sentence of punishment for the sinner who comes to Jesus in faith, but rather that there is not even any ground for a guilty verdict.

That this is pledged in the third word of the Decalogue shows that God really means it when He declares that He loves us fervently. And we shall discover that there is yet more in the final two commandments.

The fourth commandment

In our consideration of the first three commandments we have looked at how the presentation of the commandments reveal or outline God’s design for our salvation. From the first commandment we saw God’s forgiveness of sins and the release from the bondage to sin. In the second commandment we found the message of God’s outrageous love to us, and the third commandment brought to our attention God’s activity in justification. Here the forgiven sinner is made guiltless, or clean as part of the salvation that God has arranged and pledged.

Now we come to the fourth commandment, in a way perhaps the most curious of all.

^{EX 20:8} "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. ¹¹ "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

The question surrounding this commandment is not what does it mean, but why is it given? The text is clear enough. No work of any kind is to be performed on the seventh and last day of each week. This applied to Israelites, their families, servants and working animals. It even applied to visitors. We may agree that it is good to have a day each week as a break from work, and in fact most people now have a two-day weekend, but it is far from clear that the concept of the modern week-end lies behind the commandment.

The reason for the commandment is stated to be because in Genesis 1 we read that God performed the creation in six days and rested on the seventh day. We might also note that verse 11 tells us that God blessed the seventh day and made the seventh day holy. This also reflects the language of Genesis 2:3.

The reference to God making the day holy can be understood as God setting it apart, but the concept of holiness is one that is throughout the Bible applied to God Himself, as witnessed by Isaiah 6 –

^{ISA 6:1} In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory."

On a casual read therefore we might be inclined to conclude that the Sabbath Day was a kind of memorial to the creation week, a mark of respect to the God of creation. However the book of Deuteronomy contains another record of the Decalogue. This is given in chapter 5:6-21. The commandments are the same, except for this one.

In Deuteronomy the fourth commandment is given as –

^{DT 5:12} `Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. <sup>13</sup> `Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ `And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty and and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

Here the basic instruction is the same, with the addition of rest for donkeys as well as cattle. The reason that is given for the observance of the Sabbath however is very different. In Deuteronomy the reason is that the servants or slaves of the Children of Israel might enjoy a day of rest each week, and just in case anyone should be churlish at such generosity to servants the nation is reminded that they themselves were slaves in Egypt until God brought them out.

In Exodus 20 the reason for the Sabbath instruction was the pattern in the creation week in Genesis. In Deuteronomy it is so that servants may be given a day off each week. Can there be any reconciliation between the two versions?

A clue may be in another thought that is given in the Deuteronomy version. The Sabbath rest for servants was not just so that they might have a break, but that the servants may be like their masters. Can we tentatively suggest that this may be behind the commandment in Exodus 20? They were to make the day different because God did it. They were to do the same as God.

This idea of sharing with God, or becoming like God is confirmed when we read the third version of the instruction about the Sabbath Day. This is given at the end of the forty days and nights that Moses spent up on the mountain with God, just before Moses received the first set of stone tablets containing the Decalogue. The fact that God gave Moses this instruction at the same time as giving him the tablets containing this fourth commandment suggests that there is something of importance in it.

^{EX 31:12} And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, `You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. <sup>14</sup> `Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ `For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. <sup>16</sup> `So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.' ¹⁷ "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed."

From this we learn that the Sabbath was a sign. More significantly it was a sign that God is the Lord who sanctifies (will sanctify) the people of God. That this is the key is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel –

^{EZE 20:12} "And also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

The point in the Sabbath was not that God sanctified a day, but that God was in the business of sanctifying people. Thus we can return to the text of Exodus 20:8-11 and appreciate that the significant action in the text is the act of making holy. If we add to that the thought that we extracted from the comparison of the Deuteronomy version of the fourth commandment with Exodus 20, namely that the point of the commandment is that man should become like God, (just as the servants were to become like their masters) we can discover where this commandment is pointing us to.

Our salvation is not just releasing us from bondage, bringing us into the grace of God’s boundless and fervent love and making us clean through justification. God has also planned to sanctify us, to make us like Himself.

We find this expressly stated in 1 John.

^{1JN 3:2} Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

The final outcome of God’s salvation plan for us cannot be described in full, because we are not able yet to see it. However we are given the assurance that whatever it is to be, it is to be the same as our Lord and Saviour. God’s plans are to elevate former rebels and captives to sin to share with Him and to be like His incarnate Son. Again this is confirmed by Paul in 2 Corinthians, with the added information that our destiny, like our Saviour’s will be glorious –

^{2CO 3:18} But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

And just in case we are not yet convinced Hebrews 10:14 spells it out that those whom God has sanctified (and remember that the Sabbath was given as a sign, a pledge that God will sanctify those who come to Him in faith) God makes perfect for all time.

^{HEB 10:14} For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Forgiven, loved, justified, sanctified, (made like God; made perfect) can there be any more? Amazingly the answer is YES.

The fifth commandment

The final climax to our salvation comes to us in the fifth commandment.

^{EX 20:12} "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

This commandment seems to mark a change from the previous four, in that it refers to human relationships. It is right that children should honour their parents. But this is not simply because their parents are older and wiser. Children should have respect for anyone who is in a position of providing care, education or support for them. But the call for honour for parents goes beyond this respect. The parent/child relationship is a very special one. The begetting of human offspring is sometimes called procreation, and this term gives the key to understanding the point of this commandment. Human reproduction (procreation) is ‘creation on behalf of (God)’. Thus children should have respect for parents for what they do for them, but they also should honour them as (in a specific way) their creators.

People in positions of responsibility for children often care for them with great skill and dedication, sometimes even giving them great love and affection. However at best they are performing a duty or fulfilling a need. The attitude of parents to their offspring is different. Their children are an extension of themselves; they are literally their own flesh and blood. They have passed on to them their own life, and they cherish them as they do their own life. Sadly there are many examples in history and today where sin has damaged and even destroyed the appreciation of children so that some parents do not behave like this to their children. These examples do not however affect the truth of the principle in the parent/child relationship.

In our study we have noted that the use of the phrase ‘the Lord your God’ indicates that God is specifically addressing those who have a relationship to Him. The use of the phrase in this commandment therefore indicates that it also is directed to those whom the New Testament enjoins to address God as ‘Father’.

The message in this commandment is that the God who is our Creator also wants to relate to us as our parent, our Father. As if the blessings that we have received already (forgiveness, love, justification and sanctification) are not enough, God makes us members of His own family. Just as the relationship between children and their natural parents is very special, transcending any other relationship deserving of respect, such as teacher, carer or mentor, so the relationship between the recipient of God’s salvation and God is one of absolute closeness.

Thus this commandment is not exclusively about human relationships after all. It completes the picture of salvation from the release of slavery to sin by the forgiveness of sin to the adoption as sons as Paul argues in Romans 8 and Galatians 4 –

^{RO 8:15} For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God …

^{GAL 4:4} But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵ in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

It is important to appreciate that this concept of becoming members of God’s own family is not just a figure of speech, a form of words that does not really mean anything. Of all the texts that we might select to evidence the reality of this magnificent blessing the one that is perhaps the most powerful is from Hebrews 2

^{HEB 2:8} For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. ⁹ But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰ For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. ¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, ¹² saying, "I WILL PROCLAIM THY NAME TO MY BRETHREN, IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING THY PRAISE."

The key verses are 10 and 11. Verse 10 tells us that the entire purpose of God from the beginning was to bring many sons (and daughters) to glory. Note carefully that the text tells us clearly to bring sons, not sinners, not men but sons. Verse 11 is the proof and the guarantee. It is the assurance beyond all assurance.

Consider carefully what the text says. First is the logical statement that He who sanctifies (Jesus the incarnate Son) and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. If the verse stopped there it would just be a statement, a mystical claim but one that we would have to take on faith. But it doesn’t stop there and goes on to make perhaps the most astounding declaration that the Bible knows.

It makes the assertion that Jesus is not ashamed to call men brothers. The reason why Jesus is not ashamed is the fact that ‘He who He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father’. In putting these two expressions together the author of Hebrews is daring anyone to challenge the truth of the declared family relationship.

Just stop and consider – what would make Jesus ashamed of calling sanctified men ‘brethren’? The answer is that if the claim was not true! If Satan (the accuser) was able to storm heaven’s door and point to Jesus and show that mankind has not been made kindred (brethren) of Jesus, then Jesus the Son of God would be shown up as a liar. I suggest that if such could be done, then Jesus would not just be ashamed, but the sustainer of all things (Hebrews 1:3) would be shown up as a liar and the creation itself would implode and vanish.

We might consider therefore that the very fact that the sun came up this morning is living proof that the accuser has not been able to make the Son of God ashamed at declaring that forgiven, justified and sanctified men and women have been truly adopted into God’s family, because that is the reality.

In the commandment the promise is given of ‘prolonged life in the land which the Lord your God gives you’. When we see that the underlying message in the commandment is that God wants to make us members of His own family we can appreciate that the prolonged life is in fact eternal, as Jesus clearly stated in John 10 –

^{JN 10:27} "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand."

We should also see that the ‘land which the Lord your God gives you’ is not Canaan, but the city ‘whose architect and builder is God’ (Hebrews 11:10) and which has a spiritual reality now (Hebrews 12:22-24) but which awaits a physical revealing in a day to come (Revelation 21-22).

Can we now see that in these ancient covenant terms given by God on Mount Sinai are the steps by which God will take those who are in bondage to sin and death and bring them to become members of His own family? But what is the point in such a study? Is the Decalogue just detail about a failed and superseded covenant? What is the relationship between the Decalogue and the New Covenant of Hebrews 9:15?

From Decalogue to New Covenant

To consider the relevance of this Decalogue to the New Covenant we need to look at the sequence of events in Exodus 20-34

1. Ch. 20 - Decalogue given – God explained the commandments to Moses

2. Ch. 24 - Covenant made – (a) Moses wrote the commandments in a book (b) Covenant was cut; sealed in blood (c) Fellowship with God (covenant feast vv 9-11)

3. Ch. 31 - Stone tablets given.

If we consider this sequence of events we may think it odd that the tablets of stone, written on by the finger of God were not given in chapter 20, or before Moses cut or sealed the covenant in chapter 24.

The significance seems to be an underlying message that the tablets were not part of the covenant; they were given after it was made. Yet the tablets contained the Decalogue, written on by the finger of God. Since we can quickly discount the suggestion that God only produced the tablets as an afterthought we must ask why are the tablets, in this sense the Law, outside the covenant. What do the tablets represent?

4. Ch. 32 - Covenant shattered – (a) God and man at war (b) Moses shattered the Tablets

When the people sought to imprison God through the magic of the golden calf God declared to Moses that He would destroy them (Exodus 32:9-10). This demonstrates clearly that the people and God are at war. There is no covenant relationship of peace between them. That has been shattered by the people in less than six weeks from its being sealed or cut. So when Moses hurled down and shattered the tablets (32:19) he was giving a picture of the shattered covenant.

5. Ch. 34 - Moses returns to Sinai (a) New Covenant promised (b) New Tablets given

In Exodus 34:10 God promises to make a new covenant. But we search the whole of the Old Testament in vain to find another covenant sealing ceremony like the one recorded in chapter 24. We should not miss the fact that a new ceremony was needed because a new covenant is needed. The covenant of chapter 24 is no more as the behaviour of both man and God show clearly. That this is beyond dispute is also evidenced by God’s promise to make a new covenant. Significantly God gives to Moses new tablets of the commandments. Again we have the question, what is the significance of the tablets and why are they given this time before the covenant is sealed or effected?

The new covenant is promised, and the terms of the Decalogue are the same, but it is never effected or commenced. Centuries pass but the Bible has not forgotten about it.

6. Jeremiah 31 - The promise of the new covenant remembered

^{JER 31:31} "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. ³³ "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people..

The new covenant has not been forgotten. It will be different because the Law will be ‘within’ – written on minds and hearts. Is this how Jeremiah understands the significance of the tablets being given before the covenant is sealed, so that the tablets will be inside the new covenant in a way that were not included in the first covenant?

So now we have another question. Not only do we have to ask what the significance of the tablets is, but also how can the tablets being inside the covenant produce the effect that Jeremiah describes of writing God’s law on hearts and minds?

But this is just a picture. Although Jeremiah reminds us that the New Covenant is not forgotten yet again centuries pass and still nothing happens, the covenant promised in Exodus 34 is not commenced.

What if the Decalogue became flesh?

The Decalogue means 10 words – a partial revelation of God’s nature and character. How does John’s gospel commence?

^{JN 1:1} In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Decalogue was a true revelation of God, but a limited one (10 words); Jesus is THE WORD – the full revelation of all that God is (Col 1:19, 2:9).

In the New Testament we read in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke about Jesus’ declaration that His blood is the blood of the New Covenant; and the book of Hebrews tells us of the making of the New Covenant. This is presented in Hebrews 8:8 – 10:16. Significantly this section is framed by two bookend quotes of the new covenant promise from Jeremiah 31 –

^{HEB 8:8} … He says, "BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; ⁹ NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD. ¹⁰ "FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM UPON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. ¹¹ "AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, `KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL SHALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. ¹² "FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE."

^{HEB 10:16} "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND UPON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,"

The bookend use of the quotation can be seen from the reversal of ‘minds and hearts’ (8:10) to ‘hearts and minds’ (10:16).

In the middle of this section in 9:16-20 the death of Jesus is confirmed as the sealing of the New Covenant, as Jesus in declaring His blood which was about to be shed to be the ‘blood of the covenant’ asserts (Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22). From John 1:1 we learned that Jesus is THE WORD we can say that He is the anti-type of the tablets. Now the Law personified is now a fundamental part of the covenant just as Exodus 34 pictured and Jeremiah foretold. Thus when we are united by faith with Jesus and receive His Spirit Jeremiah’s vision is achieved – God’s law has been put within His people.

In Jesus all that God has revealed of Himself, of His nature, His character and His scheme of salvation is brought to full delivery – by Jesus.

The Decalogue of Exodus 20 is not just a set of rules from the austere authoritarian God of the Old Testament, but is the true outline of the character of God and of His salvation that was fully displayed by Jesus and bound into an unbreakable covenant at Calvary. This covenant cannot be broken because this time that which the tablets pictured – the power and the life of God (in Jesus) is the very centre of the New Covenant – and in Jesus all that God pledged in the Decalogue – forgiveness (release from the captivity of sin), the outpouring of God’s love upon us, justification, sanctification (perfecting), bringing into God’s own family, is made a reality.

The final relevance of the Decalogue/Covenant picture

The cutting or sealing of the Covenant in Exodus 24 was followed by a celebration meal (24:9-11). The New Covenant is not different – the next major event is the Covenant Feast – otherwise known as ‘the marriage supper of the Lamb’ (Revelation 19:7-9)

This is confirmed by Jesus when he instituted the ceremony that Christians call Holy Communion or The Lord’s Supper.

^{MT 26:27} And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." (See also Mark 14:23-25 and Luke 22:17-18.)

The Decalogue (The Word) has become flesh, and has sealed with His own blood a New Covenant that can never be broken because it imparts to men the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). And the Covenant relationship with God will mean that in God’s Kingdom no one will kill, steal etc. But the rule of God’s Kingdom has not appeared yet. Before it comes, there will first be the feast to celebrate the relationship of man and God in harmony. In Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22 Jesus declared that He is on a fast, He will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until that feast begins.

The only thing that is delaying its commencement is God’s forbearance to give mankind the opportunity to repent (2 Peter 3:3-9). But one day the waiting will be over, and then that which the Decalogue described and pictured will be achieved.

Now can we perhaps suggest that the reason why Jesus referred the young man in Mark 10 to the commandments was that He was directing the young man to appreciate the nature of the eternal life that he thought that he wanted to inherit. The Decalogue revealed the character of God and when the young man was presented with the implications of God’s character, and therefore the nature of the life that God gives – sadly he realized that he did not in fact want it.

Jesus confirmed in Mark 12 that the nature of or obligations from the commandments can be summarized in two quotations from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

^{MK 12:28} And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" ²⁹ Jesus answered, "The foremost is, `HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; <sup>30</sup> AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' <sup>31</sup> "The second is this, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

It was not that the price of eternal life was too high; it was rather that for him the nature of eternal life, being like God, now held no value. When he discovered what God was like, he did not want God.