This shall be an essentially unsatisfying set of musings, minus one important set of musings. One important liturgical point: it has been and still is unacceptable to excise the 10 commandments from Holy Communion as is more-often-than-not is done in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Time to restore the 1662 practice. I haven't heard them in decades at Holy Communion. Nor who catechetizes in these things, but some Confessional Lutherans and the Reformed? I’d hate to see statistics on who can recite the 10 commandments these days, not to mention implications therewith, therefrom and therein. It doesn’t cut mustard.
• Humans, created by God, under God, as image-bearers, are not autonomous, but theonomous. This is not negotiable.
• Here are the difficult parts: (1) understanding the pre-Noahic law, law during the pre-Mosaic period, and the sundry moral, ceremonial, political, dietary and liturgical laws during the post-Mosaic period, and (2) the relationship of the Christian era.
• The Mosaic period was a “many-sided” expression of law. Politically and judicially, conquest was ordered up as judgment on Canaanite nations (a preview of the Final Judgment and the rise and fall of nations), yet, the Church does not take up the sword. Ceremonially and liturgically, there were seasonal memorials (Passover, Pentecost, Day of Atonement, etc.), animal sacrifices, priests, circumcision and more; these shadows gave way to the reality of Christ, the sum and substance of the Covenant of Grace. There were dietary regulations that were lifted vis a vis Acts 10. Hence, we are grumpily unhappy with our understanding here. On the other hand, reading the Mosaic legislation over and over: there is some very significant and serious wisdom in the laws that warrant further reflection. We’ll have to leave it at that.
• Yet, there are certainly abiding moral requirements for the New Testament saint.
Those once dead in sins and trespasses, being regenerated (2nd birth), justified and “a work in progress” (sanctification), by nature, seek godly living.
Jesus best exemplifies this perfectly, entirely, totally and completely (next time read Psalm 119 and Christ's entire life of reading, thinking and doing):
• John 4.34: “ Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” He is perfect, sinless, righteous and fulfills the law as the Second Adam.
• Psalm 112.1: “Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD,
that delighteth greatly in his commandments.” Jesus was this exactly, in His humanity, fearing the LORD and perfectly delighting in God’s commandments."
• Psalm 119.114: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.” We read of Jesus’ consummate skills in Biblical exposition.
• Psalm 119.16: “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
• Psalm 119.47-48: “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved;
and I will meditate in thy statutes.”
• Psalm 119.97-113: “97 O how love I thy law!
it is my meditation all the day.
98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:
for they are ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers:
for thy testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the ancients,
because I keep thy precepts.
101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way,
that I might keep thy word.
102 I have not departed from thy judgments:
for thou hast taught me.
103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste!
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through thy precepts I get understanding:
therefore I hate every false way.
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
106 I have sworn, and I will perform it,
that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
107 I am afflicted very much:
quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word.
108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD,
and teach me thy judgments.
109 My soul is continually in my hand:
yet do I not forget thy law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me:
yet I erred not from thy precepts.
111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever:
for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.
113 I hate vain thoughts:
but thy law do I love.”
• Psalm 119.127-128: “Therefore I love thy commandments
above gold; yea, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right;
and I hate every false way.”
• Psalm 119.163-167: “I hate and abhor lying:
but thy law do I love.
164 Seven times a day do I praise thee
because of thy righteous judgments.
165 Great peace have they which love thy law:
and nothing shall offend them.
166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation,
and done thy commandments.
167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies;
and I love them exceedingly.”
Like their Redeemer and Sovereign, Christians seek a life of grateful obedience:
• Romans 7.18-22: “18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man”
• Romans 12.1-2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
• The Holy Spirit leads them in this, Romans 8.4-6: “4 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
• There are 10 commandments, although, aside from some Reformed and Lutheran Confessionalists, who catechetize these days?
• There is the Sermon on the Mount: building on Jesus,’ the Rock, is commanded.
Westminster Confession of Faith: Chapter 19, “Of the Law of God”http://www.reformed.org/
I. God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.[1]
II. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables:[2] the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man.[3]
III. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits;[4] and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties.[5] All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament.[6]
IV. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.[7]
V. The moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof;[8] and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it.[9] Neither does Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.[10]
VI. Although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned;[11] yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly;[12] discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts and lives;[13] so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin,[14] together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of His obedience.[15] It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin:[16] and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law.[17] The promises of it, in like manner, show them God's approbation of obedience,and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof:[18] although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works.[19] So as, a man's doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law: and not under grace.[20]
VII. Neither are the forementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it;[21] the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done.[22]
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