Basic Christianity - Chapter 5 "The Fact and Nature Of Sin" Part 2

The Ten Commandments

I. You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

"This is God's demand for man's exclusive worship. It is not necessary to worship the sun, the moon and the stars to break this law. We break it whenever we give to something or someone other than God Himself the first place in our thoughts or our affections." For some people, it might be sports or hobbies; for others, money and possessions. These things aren't wrong or sinful in and of themselves. But it is wrong and sinful when we idolize them, and give to them the place that only God should have. To perfectly keep this commandment would be, as Jesus said, to love the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind; to seek His will and glory always; to give Him the first place in thought, word, and deed. No one has ever fully kept this commandment save Jesus of Nazareth. All others have failed utterly. "What someone wrote of the Englishman is true of everyman: he is 'a self-made man who worships his creator'."

~

II. You Shall Not Make For Yourself A Graven Image.

"If the first commandment concerns the object of our worship, the second concerns its manner. In the first, God demands our exclusive worship, and in the second our sincere and spiritual worship. For 'God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth' (John 4:24)." Although we may have never made a graven image with our hands, what gruesome mental image have we conjured up in our minds? And although this commandment doesn't prohibit the use of all external forms of worship, it does imply that they are futile except there be inward reality as well. "We may have attended church; have we ever really worshipped God? We may have said prayers; have we ever really prayed? We may have read the Bible; have we ever let God speak to us through it and done what He said?" It is pointless to approach the Lord with our lips if our hearts are not sincere (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6).

~

III. You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord Your God in Vain.

"The name of God represents the nature of God... His Holy Name can be profaned by our loose language and most of us could do worse than revise our vocabulary from time to time. But to take God's name in vain is not just a matter of words, but also of thoughts and deeds." Whenever we our actions are contradictory to our beliefs, or our practice is not aligned with what we preach, we take God's name in vain. If we call Him "Lord" and then disobey Him, we are taking His name in vain. If we call Him "Father" and then doubt Him, we deny His name. This is hypocrisy.

~

IV. Remember the Sabbath Day, to Keep It Holy.

"To set one day in seven apart is not just a human arrangement or a social convenience. It is God's plan... Man's body and mind need rest, and man's spirit needs the opportunity to worship. The sabbath is therefore a day of rest and worship." We are not only to keep it as such ourselves, for our own well-being, but we are to do everything we can for the common good to make certain that others do not have to work needlessly on this day. Sunday is holy, set apart unto God. It is His day, not ours. Therefore, we are to spend it in His way, and not in our way; we are to use it for His worship and service and not just for our own selfish pleasures.

~

V. Honor Your Father and Your Mother.

"... our parents, at least while we are children, stand towards us in loco Dei: they represent God's authority. Yet often it is in their own home that people, young people especially, are at their most selfish and inconsiderate." It is too easy to be ungrateful and negligent, and to fall short of giving our parents the respect, affection, and honor they deserve.

~

VI. You Shall Not Kill.

This commandment does not just prohibit outright murder. "If looks could kill, many would kill with a look. If murder can be committed by cutting words, many are guilty." In fact, Jesus clearly stated that to be angry with someone without a cause, and to be insulting, are matters just as grave. John writes, "Whoever who hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). "Every loss of temper, every outburst of uncontrolled passion, every stirring of sullen rage, every bitter resentment and thirst for revenge - all these things are murder. We can kill by malicious gossip... studied neglect and cruelty... spite and jealously. We have probably all done so." Note that this commandment also forbids the taking of one's own life. Since God controls all things, and has chosen each person's circumstances, to commit suicide is to rebel against His authority.

~

VII. You Shall Not Commit Adultery.

"... this commandment has a far wider application than just to unfaithfulness in marriage." It means that we are to be holy in heart, language, and conduct. This includes reading or watching impure things; speaking or jesting in a coarse, unseemly manner; or acting in any way that would compromise one's own purity or the purity of others. "This commandment in fact embraces every abuse of a sacred and beautiful gift from God."

~

VIII. You Shall Not Steal.

"To steal is to rob a person of anything which belongs to him or is due to him. The theft of money or property is not the only infringment of this commandment. Tax evasion is robbery. So is dodging the customs. So is working short hours. What the world calls 'scrounging' the Bible calls 'stealing'. To overwork and underpay one's staff is to break this commandment." Yet these negative commandments also entail a positive counterpart. To truly abstain from killing, we must do everything in our power - so far as it is lawful and God-honoring - to nurture the health and protect our own lives and the lives of our fellow men. It is not enough to merely refrain from the act of adultery. The commandment requires the proper, healthy, and honorable behaviour of each sex towards the other. "Similarly, to keep from stealing is no particular virtue if one is miserly or mean. Paul was not satisfied that a thief should stop stealing; he had to start working. Indeed, he had to continue in honest labor until he found himself in a position to give to those in need." 

~

IX. You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.

This commandment forbids not only perjury, but also slander, scandal, idle talk, lies, and deliberate exaggerations or distortions of the truth. "We can bear false witness by listening to unkind rumors as well as by passing them on, by making jokes at somebody else's expense, by creating false impressions, by not correcting untrue statements, and by our silence as well as by our speech."

~

X. You Shall Not Covet.

"The tenth commandment is in some ways the most revealing of all. It turns the decalogue from an outward legal code to an inward moral standard. The civil law cannot touch us for covetousness but only for theft. For covetousness belongs to the inner life. It lurks in the heart and the mind. What lust is to adultery and temper is to murder, that covetousness is to theft." When a man covets, he not only breaks this commandment, but the first commandment also. He is allowing his desire for someone else's property to usurp the place of God. This is idolotry (Colossians 3:5b). By contrast, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:6 that godliness with contentment is great gain.

~

Taking a careful look at these commandments has revealed a hideous catalogue of sins. Stott says, "So much takes place beneath the surface of our lives, in the secret places of our minds, which other people do not see and which we manage to conceal even from ourselves. But God sees these things. His eye penetrates into the deep recesses of our hearts (Hebrews 4:13). He sees who we really are, and His law shows up our sins for what they really are. Indeed, it was the purpose of the law to expose sin (Romans 3:20)... nothing can convince us of our sinfulness like the lofty, righteous law of God."

* * *

Persevero,

Basic Christianity - Chapter 5 "The Fact and Nature Of Sin" Part 1

Having examined and established the evidence for the unique deity of Jesus Christ, we will now move on to a new subject: the Fact and Nature of Sin. The reason why it is so essential that we examine this issue is simple: we not only need to know who Jesus was, but what he came to do. John Stott reminds us, "He is presented not simply as the Lord from heaven but also as the Saviour of Sinners. Indeed, the two cannot be separated, for the validity of His work depends on the divinity of His person."

~

Yet before we can appreciate the work which Christ accomplished, we have to recognize who we are as well as who He is. After all, the work He did was done for our sakes. "It was the work of a person for persons, a mission undertaken for needy persons by the only person compentent to meet their need." Christ's compentence is found in His deity; our need is found in our sin. We have thoroughly examined His compentence; we must now take a honest, straightforward look at our sin. "Only then, after we have clearly grasped what we are, shall we be in a position to perceive the wonder of what He has done for us..."

~

Of course, sin isn't a popular subject to deal with. Many would rather leave it alone. Christians are often critcized for giving the matter too much consideration. "But," Stott responds, "it is only because Christians are realists that they do so. Sin is not a convenient invention of parsons to keep them in their job; it is a fact of human experience." 

~

In fact, Stott points out further, a lot of what we take for granted in "civilized" culture is founded upon the assumption of man's sinfulness. "Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self-interest. A promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; we have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough; tickets have to be issued, inspected and collected. Law and order are not enough; we need police to enforce them." All of this owing to man's sin. We can't trust each other. We have to be protected from one another. It is a terrible reflection of human nature.

~

We will first touch upon the universality of sin. This fact is one which is clearly and strongly affirmed by the biblical writers. Here are a few examples:

• Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; 130:3; 143:2
• Ecclesiastes 7:20; 9:3
• Isaiah 53:6; 64:6
• Jeremiah 2:29; 16:12
• Micah 7:2
• Romans 3:10-12; 3:22 -23; 5:12;
• 1 John 1:8; 5:19

After reading such passages as these, the universal extent of sin is plain. But what is sin? What is its nature? The answer to this important question can be best summed up this way:

"Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the Law of God."

Thus, sin is both 1. a shortcoming (failure to conform or obey) and 2. a transgression (willful trespassing or disobedience). In other words, when we sin, we are not only falling short of God's requirements, but we are also willfully disobeying God's requirements. If I were to steal, my wrong would be twofold: first, I would be failing to love my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:39); second, I would be deliberately disobeying the 8th Commandment "You Shall Not Steal" (Exodus 20:15).

~

Of course, all this implies the existence of a moral standard, something by which we may measure ourselves and our actions. This standard is the Law of God, summed up in the Ten Commandments. But we fall far, far short of it. We are desperate sinners who have failed the test miserably.

~

There are many people who reject this idea. They have their own "standards", their own "ideals", and believe that they attain them more or less. They do not indulge in much inward examination, nor in undue self-criticism. They know they have lapses every now and then; they are aware of certain character deficiencies; but they are not especially alarmed by them, and they consider themselves to be no worse than other men. Stott says, "All this is understandable enough, until we remember two things. First, our sense of failure depends on how high our standards are. It is quite easy to consider oneself good at high-jumping if the bar is never raised more than waist-high. Second, God concerns Himself with the thought behind the deed and the motive behind the action. Jesus clearly taught this in the Sermon on the Mount. With these two principals in mind, it should prove a healthy exercise to take the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 as our standard and see how very far short of it every man falls."

To be continued...

* * *

Persevero,

More From Roosevelt On American Boyhood

"The best boys I know - the best men I know - are good at their studies or their business, fearless and stalwart, hated and feared by all that is wicked and depraved, incapable of submitting to wrong-doing, and equally incapable of being aught but tender to the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals. One prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy should have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need arises.

~

"Of course the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly straight and upright boy can have upon companions of his own age, and upon those younger, is incalculable. If he is not thoroughly manly, then they will not respect him, and his good qualities will count for but little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then his physical strength and force of mind merely make him so much the more objectionable a member of society. He cannot do good work if he is not strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to everyone else if he does not have thorough command over himself and over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of decency, justice, and fair dealing.

~

In short, in life, as in a football game, the principal to follow is:

Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!"

~ Theodore Roosevelt, The American Boy

* * *

Persevero,

Parental Discretion

Courtesy of Student News Daily