To all,

Another treasure! This very first Word (Commandment) struck me about two years ago as I had begun reading a lot of Luther and was beginning to see this idea of “Law and Gospel” (which was strange language to my ears at that time). I was actually shocked to look up in the Hebrew (which I do not know) that the 10 are referred to as Words, that alone changes the meaning from the traditional “Commandments”. Hearing about this Law and Gospel division is scary stuff though, really it is, especially at the beginning. Because our nails so desperately cling to the cliff of the Law that is deadly tall that we are afraid to let go, but when we do much to our surprise the Gospel catches us before we drop an inch and we are shocked at our foolish fear (this reoccurs many times, I think, in the Christian walk).

A brother in the faith whom I work with were discussing this as we often do on our lunch break walks a bit back. I was stunned to read that Luther saw Gospel in the ten commandments, that just ran backwards to my head gears. Frustrated I use to think and pray, “What did Luther see that gave him such peace and strong assurance, or was he just ‘out to lunch’”. Furthermore, when I pondered upon Luke 24 about Christ appearing and preaching Himself to the despairing men IN the Law and the Prophets (OT), I told my friend on one of our walks, “Doesn’t that stagger your mind?” “What”, he asked. “Well, how in the world is Christ in the Gospel in the OT declared. In most of today’s preaching if you get outside of the most obvious texts, there’s no more Jesus unless it’s a Jesus giving us more marching orders to not break. Have you ever thought about that? How many preachers today could do that, preach Christ from the Law and Prophets, how would you do that? Don’t you realize that during the genesis of the Apostolic church that they didn’t have any other Scripture but the OT. The NT we read about that time period was OCCURRING but not written down and certainly not in a nice neat little cannon in ten or so English versions you could run down to Lifeway and buy right off of the shelf chalked full of commentary if you so desire. Furthermore, have you ever thought about Romans 3:21 when Paul says that without the Law the Righteousness of God is manifest BEING WITNESSED BY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. How does it witness so”, I asked. It was a stunning thought back then when we first began to learn and talk about it. I was so shocked that I told him that this is almost lost in the church (broadly speaking) today, lost completely.

It stunned me to think of Christ (as CHRIST Redeemer) being preached from the OT Law and Prophets outside of the most obvious reference passages like Genesis 3:15 or Isaiah 53. But as I pondered the first command (word) it began to sink in. I told my friend in later discussions, “I don’t know exactly how to say it but there are two ways of reading or rather hearing that passage. One does thunder but the other is encouraging, it depends on how you “hear it”. Is God your God in all things and we are utterly incapable, OR do we garner His favor to engage Him?”. To me it’s like “election” (which I struggled with a lot a few years back), there are two ways to hear that; one is terror and death to Adam the incurable “doer” and religious fraud but the other way to hear it is life to the new man who is the “naked truster” in God’s mercy alone. To one it’s a Law and terror and death and it thunders, to the other it is a Gospel security greater than a mother’s arms.

Thanks again for a wonderful sermon outline!

Grace and Peace,

Larry Hughes
KY

PS: I appreciate all the kind words mentioned in the previous post, may we all be encouraged by this immeasurable grace “we do not deserve”.

Just last week on my radio program entitled “Law and Gospel” (see side bar) I made the point that the entire Bible has one purpose. Quoting John 20:31 that purpose is that we “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” Whatever the text from the Old Testament, the purpose the Author inspired His writers to pen it was to point again and again to the Christ, the Son of God.

On the one hand the Ten Words from Exodus 20 reveal how the faithful Christian will spontaneously obey the will of His Savior. On the other hand, due to our sinful nature, the Ten Commandments reveal how necessary it is for us to have God as our Savior since no other is capable of meeting the fulfillment of our salvation.

Tom

I believe I will venture forth again by posting my response to your response to Larry’s post about your teaching within this blog about the purpose of God’s Son coming and dying on the Cross, being buried and rising up after and sitting again in the Glory He left to come and die on the cross for Adam’s race.

Leave me off some liberty as I make my obvious point hereafter.

I want to make my point by pasting some verses hereon addressing the obvious point you made. You wrote: ” Whatever the text from the Old Testament, the purpose the Author inspired His writers to pen it was to point again and again to the Christ, the Son of God. ” and ” On the other hand, due to our sinful nature, the Ten Commandments reveal how necessary it is for us to have God as our Savior since no other is capable of meeting the fulfillment of our salvation.”.

My point should become obvious:::>

Exo 4:10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Exo 4:11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
Exo 4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

and

Lev 19:14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.

and

Lev 26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

and

Lev 26:44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
Lev 26:45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
Lev 26:46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

I would venture to add here that the deaf, dumb and blind heathen in those days missed what God did. Apparently what God did was for those who were not made deaf, dumb or blind by Him. These deaf, dumb or blind heathen I’m sure didn’t even bother with any of this?

Then I read this from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:::>

1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

For those of us not created by the Author to be blind, deaf or dumb or Jewish memory becomes a problem too without Him.

Thanks be to God though that He forgets what He forgets and He remembers what He remembers for us!

Without Him, well where would we be?

And for those who labor like Paul for the deaf, blind, dumb or seeing that don’t see that they too might receive, I pray the more:::>

1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1Co 15:11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Here’s an obvious question:::> How do you preach to deaf, dumb and blind sinners?

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Act 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Phi 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Phi 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

And to that I finally quote:::>

Mat 4:13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali:
Mat 4:14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
Mat 4:15 The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
Mat 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

and

Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Mat 4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
Mat 4:25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.

I would to God that in these days we would see that Great Light some more!

michael burke
G.O.
Eureka, Ca.

To those wonderful verses from Michael, I would add the closing verses of John, chapter 9 after Jesus had healed the man born blind. The unbelieving Pharisees ask Jesus whether they also are blind. He responds in verse 41, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.” Therefore your sin remains.”

The point is that the truly blind are those who imagine that they can see and understand apart from Jesus Christ while those who are physically blind but believe in Jesus Christ truly have sight. As the title of a recent book put it, “Blind Now–I See.”