WSC Q&A #42

Q: What is the sum of the ten commandments?
A: The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.
Matthew 22:37-40: And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

I'm certainly thankful for how Jesus Christ summarizes the law for us here in Matthew 22. Remember the context of this passage. First the Sadducees came to Christ hoping to ensnare him over the idea of the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible as Holy Scripture, and because these books make, in their understanding, no direct reference to the resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees rejected the idea of the resurrection. So Christ, in his response to them, quotes Exodus 3:6 by saying, "Have you not read what was said to you by God: 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living." This response effectively silenced the Sadducees, and now the Pharisees want their turn at trying to ensnare Jesus. This all comes from an attempt at making Jesus look like a false teacher by entangling him in his words (Matt. 22:15). Which commandment in the whole law is the most important, the Pharisees asked him backhandedly. Christ's response here is beautiful. Instead of picking one commandment, he summarizes the first four commandments, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is exactly what the first four commandments teach us. They teach us how to worship and glorify God. Think about it. You shall put no other gods before the one true God, you shall not build idols or make graven images of God, you shall not take the Lord's name in vain, and you shall keep the Sabbath holy. These commandments instruct us on our attitude and posture towards God.

But Christ doesn't stop there. He then effectively summarizes the second six commandments, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." By doing this, he is showing that the commandments are all interrelated. Part of loving God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds includes loving our neighbors (which includes our enemies) as ourselves. The ten commandments can't be separated. It's, as we said before, a complete summary of the law of God. At it's most basic level, the question of the Pharisee is dubious because it is trying to get Christ, in essence, to quantify God's law. All of God's commands are related to one another, all of them teach us and instruct us how to live lives that bring glory and honor to God. None of God's commands are to be dismissed as a "lesser command". This is why Christ's summary is so helpful to us. He takes the ten commandments and summarizes them succinctly so that we can see and understand the very heart of God's commandments, and what role they are to play in our lives as we seek to live in a way that glorifies and honors him.

WSC Q&A #41

Q: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A: The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:13: And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

I think it is an important distinction as we move into the catechism's section on the Ten Commandments, that the commandments are viewed as a summary of the moral law. The Ten Commandments cover every sin imaginable, but they do this by painting with broad strokes. They are not only addressing outward actions (as I think the Scribes and Pharisees understood them), but also the underlining heart issues of a person. Jesus shows us this in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. He himself shows how the commandments are a summary. "You have heard it said, 'Thou shall not murder'...But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be made liable to judgment..." or, "You have heard it said, 'Thou shall not commit adultery'...But I say to you whoever looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart..." Christ was not adding to the Ten Commandments, rather he was getting to the core of what the commandments were summarizing. The catechism, just as Christ did in his teachings, will begin to expand upon each commandment and show us how comprehensive the Ten Commandments really are. When we begin to understand all that the Ten Commandments are summarizing and addressing, then we begin to understand how deep our sin truly goes, then we will understand all the more just how dependent we truly are on those indicatives in our desires and attempts to uphold and keep the imperatives of God's law!

WSC Q&A #40

Q: What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
A: The rule which God revealed at first to man for his obedience was the moral law.
Romans 10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

Now we're getting into the meat of God's holy and good law. Again, I remind us of our path up til this point. We've already talked about the Fall and mankind's depravity. We already know that we cannot earn our salvation by keeping the law of God. We've also talked about God's gracious act of election, justification, and sanctification. Remember, with sanctification, we talked about the indicatives and imperatives in Scripture. We have the promises of what God has already done and will do for us, and then the imperatives of how we are to act and live in light of those great truths. The indicatives empower the imperatives. You can re-read the post on sanctification here if you need a refresher.  It's in this light that we're now talking about obeying the law of God.

Because of what God has done for us through the life, death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ, God's law no longer becomes a burden for us, but rather, a delight. We should delight in and strive to keep the law of God so that we can live lives that are a sacrifice of praise.

God did not leave us without clear moral direction. The "moral law" of God that the catechism refers to here is, as we'll see next week, summarized in the ten commandments. So as we move forward the next couple of weeks, the catechism is going to begin unpacking the ten commandments with the hope that we as God's people would truly come to understand and love God's holy law. But as we go forward with this, again, I want to remind us that we do not keep the law in order to earn our salvation, but rather, we strive to keep the law because of our election, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification! If we want to avoid the trappings of legalism, if we want to avoid slipping into a works-based salvation, we must keep this distinction in mind. If we do not keep this distinction, God's law will become a burden to us. Jesus Christ has removed that burden from us, so let's not place it back on our necks!
 

WSC Q&A #39

Q: What is the duty which God requires of man?
A: The duty which God requires of man is obedience to his revealed will.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

I really appreciate the verse for this week. It seems that many, many times, we as Christians spend a lot of time pondering the "secret things of God". What does God have in store for my life? What am I "called" to do? Where should I go, what should I be, all these questions that Christians and non-Christians ask constantly. But the plain and simple fact is, we can only answer these questions in light of God's revealed will. And where is his will revealed? It is not revealed in some subjective impression or feeling that we may get. Statements like "I feel like God is telling me..." for example, are not a good guide for living our lives. It is not revealed in some special, secret revelation that God gives you. No, rather, God's revealed will is found in his Word. Deuteronomy 29:29 makes that clear, "but the things that are revealed belong to us...that we may do all the words of this law". God has revealed all we need to know concerning how to live lives in obedience to him, and it is found in his revealed, holy Word.

Now I realize this may seem like a cop-out, or at least it may seem like none of the questions we deem as "the big questions of life" are truly answered here. The Bible doesn't tell you whether or not to take that job offer. It doesn't tell you who to marry. It doesn't tell you where to go to college. But what it does tell you is how to live a life that is obedient to God. It tells you how to glorify and obey God in all walks of life, in all decision making, in all questions of calling and purpose, and this is what should consume our minds. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God". Can we trust God with them? Can we let God be God and trust that he has revealed all that we need to know? Can we trust that "the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law"? This is what God requires of us. He requires obedience to his revealed will. He does not require that we solve or figure out the secret things that belong to him, even as it concerns our own lives. Rather, he requires that we submit to and obey what he has revealed in his holy Word. When we strive to do this, when we strive to obey and submit to what God has revealed in his Word, then and only then are we truly living up to our calling as followers of Christ. Then, and only then, are we living up to the duty which God requires of us.

WSC Q&A #38

Q: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgement, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

We got into this a little bit with the last blog post when I reminded us that the final and great hope for the Christian is the bodily resurrection. This is because, again, mankind was not created to be merely a spiritual being, but rather, we were created to be spiritual and physical creatures. Or, to quote Leslie Newbigin, "The human person is not a mind attached to a body, but a single psychosomatic being." And, as last week's scripture reference reminds us, it is not only the elect who can expect a bodily resurrection, but also the reprobate. "An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement." (Jn 5:28-29)

This resurrection of the body is what this week's catechism is about. Believers in Jesus Christ will be raised up in glory and remarkably, before the great judgement seat of God himself, will be declared finally and wholly righteous before the just and holy God. But notice the full circle the catechism makes. Remember back to question 1 of the catechism, "What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." The catechism here has that chief end in mind when it says that believers shall be "made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity". On the final day, when God recreates the heavens and the earth, when God gives us new, glorified, perfected, resurrected bodies, then will we finally and perfectly experience that which we were created to do. Then we will finally know what it means to glorify and enjoy God perfectly, without the burden of sin laid upon our backs, forever!