The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum My "Eleventh Commandment"

I hope it's not sinful to say it that way, but one of my early in life remembrances of verse is an important "watchword" on how I try to lead my life:

There is no argument that Matthew 6:1-4 is a worthy commandment why stop there? For ALL of God's precepts, judgments, statues, testimonies, commandments and laws, cf. Psalm 119, are worthy of observation. God doesn't grade on a curve for the Lord's brother, James wrote:

And so it is. If we go back to the previous chapter in Matthew, chapter 5, we can read where the Lord Christ made this truth very clear. Here is what He said with the authority of God, He being God Himself and the great Law Giver:

How glorious, how marvelous, how gracious God is that He sent His only begotten Son into the world to fulfill all the law in behalf of those who He came to redeem. Believers, although they are obligated to live a life of pure holiness by the perfect keeping of the whole law, yet incapable of doing so, have Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to their account so that they are no longer under God's wrath and judgment for failing to be perfectly holy as He is holy.

AMEN, Pilgrim!

There's a little trick question I used to ask new arrivals to the Reformed faith in the old e-mail loop:

TRUE OR FALSE: Our salvation is based upon perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments.

Lots of people tripped over it, including me the first time I considered it. Mostly, I think, because I was taught that "Law" and "Spirit" (or Law and Grace) are in opposition to one another.

"But we are not under Law, but under grace," I reasoned, and regarded the answer as "False."

The correct answer is "TRUE."

His death would have meant nothing if He had not perfectly obeyed the Law of God in every thought, word, and deed. Indeed, had He sinned even once in any way, the Father would not have raised Him from the dead, and our penalty would not have been paid. He Himself would have faced eternity in the lake of fire, as punishment for His own sin, no matter how small you or I would judge it to be.

The fact that God raised Him from the dead is proof that the Father accepted Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, the Son having perfectly, sinlessly, flawlessly, and whole-heartedly fulfilled the Law of God. On our behalf!

As we approach the season when much of the Church marks the Lord's passion and resurrection, we do well to remember that it was His lifetime of obedience that gave meaning and redemptive value to His death and resurrection.

Robin

I haven't ever read Psalm 119 so I'm off now to do a little reading...

Al,

Here's some interesting information about Psalm 119, other than David was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write it.

1. There are 21 sections that make up the Psalm.
2. Each section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
3. Each verse in the respective sections also begin with the same letter.

One would rightly conclude from how the Psalm is written that David truly loved God's revealed will (Scripture) more than one could even begin to imagine.