The Lord is calling us to be his people, yet we break his commandments on a daily basis. Only Christ can write God's law on our hearts and change our sinful ways.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS
The 10 commandments judge – former Alabama Supreme Court judge Roy Moore – is considering a 2012 presidential bid. Moore was removed from the bench in 2003 when he refused to remove the 10 commandments from his court.
Roy Moore is exploring a bid for the Republican nomination for President. His first foray into the spotlight was as the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Federal Judge Myron Thomson ruled that a monument to the 10 commandments in the court rotunda was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Moore refused to comply with the ruling and both he and the 10 commandments were removed.
But here’s the real question. Whether the Ten Commandments are written in public places or not, the real question is whether they’re written on our lives.
We can defend the right to have the 10 commandments on public display but what’s really important is whether they’re on display in our lives.
Here’s the short history of the 10 Commandments: Moses came down from the mountain and before the ink was dry the people were breaking them – worshipping an idol – an image of a calf cast from gold. And things never changed. The Law of God was in the Ark of the Covenant but it was broken by his people over and over again – just as each of us have broken it over and over again.
This is the central problem of the Bible. The Lord wants a people for himself. He wants a people who will love him and keep his commandments. And they don’t.
What will solve the deadlock? It’s a much more impossible problem than a budget deadlock where Republicans and Democrats try to find common ground. There’s a great divide between God and his people because of their disobedience. He wants to bless them and yet his justice requires him to judge them. He wants them to love and obey him and they are powerless to do it. They – we – are corrupt by nature – lawbreakers by nature. We broke his first law in the Garden. We are law-breakers not law-keepers.
And then Jesus comes as God’s great glorious solution to the problem. Jesus comes and fulfills the Law. And he does it on two levels – the legal level and the heart level. There’re two sides to the problem and Jesus handled them both.
First -- THE LEGAL LEVEL
Paul’s writings are so clear on the legal issue especially in Romans. No one is righteous, no one will be justified by doing the Law because no one keeps it. Not Jews, not Gentiles. That’s the issue on the legal side – we’re all in trouble with the courts – and here’s the amazing legal solution:
The Lord put on Jesus all our transgressions, every breaking of his Law by us was put on his Son. And the Jesus bore the penalty on our behalf. Not his own penalty – because he lived a life of perfect obedience on our behalf. He earned absolutely no punishment – he was the truly obedient Son. Which means he could be judged as our stand-in. As Isaiah wrote 800 years before it happened -- the punishment that brought us peace was put on him and by his wounds we are healed.
The judgment we deserved has been poured out on Jesus – he drank it down to the dregs which means we don’t have to. We’ve passed beyond judgment -- with Jesus -- in the resurrection. We’ve been reborn on the other side of the Sea.
In the movie the 10 commandments there’s a great Hollywood depiction of the crossing of the Red Sea. Most of the movie was shot on location in Egypt but for that scene Cecile D. DeMille built a giant swimming pool in the Paramount parking lot in Hollywood – a 200,000 cubic-foot pool with 12 huge tanks on either side. They released 360,000 gallons of water to get the terrifying effect of the water pouring down on the Egyptian army.
That terror is a picture of the judgment of God – not the movie – the real thing – the destruction of the Egyptian army. But believers in Jesus are like the Israelites – we’ve passed through safely to the other side. Judgment’s behind us and we’re dancing with Miriam on the shores of the Sea. The only reason we’re dancing is Jesus – he pushed us to safety and took the weight of judgment on himself.
We need to believe this every day. Our sins are forgiven. We’re standing on the other side. John 5.24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
Jesus has fulfilled the Law on the legal level – he satisfied it’s demand for justice – he settled the matter in court. We don’t have to keep trying to settle it. We don’t have to obey the Lord in a feeble attempt to keep from being condemned. We’ve been justified – declared righteous in the sight of God.
“God has justified the ungodly.” – Romans 4:5.
And yet it wasn’t a miscarriage of justice – God upheld his own justice. Romans 3: 25 says the cross was a demonstration of his justice because he had left the former sins unpunished. God’s justice has been upheld. Paul concludes his explanation of the cross in Romans 3 by saying that God has upheld his Law. He hasn’t compromised it – justice has been done. Jesus became sin for us so we can stand forgiven – free and with no fear of punishment.
Hebrews makes a beautiful compare-and-contrast statement to remind us of the difference the death of Jesus has made. It’s the difference between two mountains:
Hebrews 12.18-22 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood cried out to God against Cain because Cain murdered him – his own brother. But the blood of Jesus is the blood of our own brother -- who died for us – even though we’ve all been as guilty as Cain. He died for us and his blood speaks a better word – not a word of condemnation – but a word of forgiveness. On our Facebook page, twice a day, we make a JESUS SPEAKS post – it’s always just the words of Jesus, nothing added. Last week we had more “likes” than ever for these simple words of Jesus: “Your sins are forgiven.” Too bad there’s not a “love” button. “Like” is a pretty inadequate word for such a magnificent thing –
Our sins are forgiven.
Because of what Jesus did for us on the legal level.
THE HEART LEVEL
What about the heart level? There’s still the problem of our hearts -- of a real change in us so we start to be law-keepers instead of law-breakers.
Jesus made it clear that the heart is the real issue when it comes to the law – not just outward observance but inward change. One day when he was teaching someone asked him which was the greatest commandment:
Matthew 22.3-40 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
Jesus didn’t pick one of the 10 commandments – he picked Deuteronomy 6.4-6 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.”
The heart is the problem – we need to love the Lord with all of our hearts and as you read the Bible you find out that God had a solution for this problem planned all along. He himself told his people what that solution would be -- in Jeremiah 31:33-34:
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
God had a plan to write his law on our hearts – to etch into our hearts a love for him that would change the way we live. And he did it through Jesus. Why do we love the Lord? Because he first loved us in Jesus. Through Jesus, God put new meaning into those ancient words, “I will be their God and they will be my people”. He’s been our God beyond anything we could ever have imagined by giving us his Son. And he’s made us his people beyond anything we could have imagined by adopting us as his own children.
The cross has etched his love for us into our hearts like the nails eternally etched that love into the hands of Jesus. And his deep love draws forth from his people a deep love for him in return. “They will know me,” he says, each and every one of them – from the “least to the greatest.” How do we know him? He answers the question “because I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.” In other words, the cross – that’s what reveals our Father’s heart. That’s what writes his law on our hearts. And that what makes it possible for us to have an intimate relationship with him. Every one of us – if we believe in Jesus – truly know our God, personally, one to one.
The first 4 of the 10 commandments are all about our relationship with God and the last 6 are all about our relationships with each other. I’m going to be looking at each one of them this week to see how Jesus has rewritten them at the heart level.
But first, the first three commandments – we’ll talk about the 4th tomorrow – the Sabbath command -- but here are the first three – sent down by God with Moses:
Exodus 20.3-7
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol
“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.“
Just think how Jesus has written these first three commandments on our hearts – whether they ever show up in a courtroom again or not.
“Have no other gods before me, do not make for yourself an idol” both of those commandments address our tendency to worship idols – things other than our God. That’s as true for us as it ever was for ancient Israel – we worship the idols of money or power or significance or approval – the list goes on and on. We all know how other things can capture us and push God out of our hearts – they become little gods that take precedence over the true God. But the cross contains the great re-orienting power of God to pull us back, to break our hearts in repentance, and to renew our love for the Lord all over again.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” is talking about calling yourself his, claiming him as your God and then living in a way that makes that meaningless. Israel called on the name of the Lord but again and again they lived like the people around them. Their lives made his name seem like an empty, powerless label. Their lives dishonored the name of the Lord. And the same is true for us so often.
But Jesus has given us a new and precious name for God – he’s our Father, our Abba – it’s a sweet childlike word -- like “Poppa.” It’s a name that speaks volumes about his love for us. And that name has the power to change our lives – when the Spirit writes that name on our hearts we begin to learn not to take it in vain but to live like his sons and daughters. The Law of Christ is the fulfillment of the Law of God – it’s God’s law fleshed out in his life and in ours.
Listen to how the Law sounds now that Jesus has come:
Ephesians 5.1-2 “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Isn’t it beautiful – what Jesus has done for us!? Justified us and written the law of God on our hearts. Lord, may we see the cross, the Law of love, and will you write it on our hearts – again and again.
