Friday, February 27, 2009

Friday with Spurgeon








The Decalogue. The Ten Commandments to most of us, should scream out "INABILITY" to all who take the time to read and consider them. Most end up looking at them and saying something to the effect of "at least I haven't done the worst of them." What is the purpose of the law, though? Is it to measure ourselves against other mortals, using it as the mediator between ourselves and them? "Although I've lied, I have not murdered, and so and so has killed someone; therefore all is well with me." Is it to actually help us live moral lives? After all, there are those who would say that because they try to live out the 10 commandments that they are "good people." Well, none of the above is correct. The first is not correct because the commandments put on display GOD's standard of perfection as it relates to ME. Yeah, the bad news is God doesn't look at my having kept more of the commandments than my neighbor as having any merit at all (Romans 14:12). In fact, my thinking in that direction is an affront to God. Everyone finds themselves in the middle when comparing self to others. Who doesn't know someone "worse" or "better?" The second is not correct because God's Word says that if you're guilty of breaking one aspect of the law, you're guilty of it all (James 2:10). So one lie constitutes my guilt as a law breaker. Wow, you mean then, God's law (as expressed in the Decalogue) doesn't help me at all? No, it doesn't. It does, however, show you you're helpless and leads you rightly to the only help available. That is, Christ Jesus. It is in this way that the law is a schoolmaster, to lead to Christ (Galatians 3:24). God's standard is perfection. We all fall short, so we are all guilty. What can we do about this guilt? Trust the only one who fulfilled this standard perfectly, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Spurgeon says this:

The Purpose of the Law
The business of the Law is first to teach us our obligations to God. Let us ask ourselves if we have ever heard the Law teaching us in that way. Brethren, read the Law of Ten Commandments, and study each separate precept, and you will find that in those ten short precepts you have all the moral virtues, the full compass of your accountability to God, and of your relationship to your fellowmen. It is a wonderful condensation of morals. The essence of all just decrees and statutes lies there. Perfection is there photographed, and holiness mapped out. No one has ever been able to add to it without creating an excrescence, not a word could be taken from it without causing a serious omission. It is the perfect Law of God, and tells us exactly what we ought to be; if we are in any degree deficient, we are to that extent guilty before God. Now, when the Law comes to a man's conscience, it reveals to him the divine standard of right -holds it up before him - makes him look at it - and apprises him that the Commandments do not merely refer to acts and deeds, but with equal force to the words and thoughts from whence they proceed.-Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from "Spurgeon Gold"

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