Why has God given His laws?
Why has God given His laws? What is the purpose
of the Ten Commandments? Did God promulgate them on Mount Sinai
simply to provide a subject for discussion in a debating
society? Are they simply intellectual matters on which you and I
express our opinions? What is the purpose and the object of His
statutes? There is only one answer: They are not to be discussed
- they are to be kept. They are not
even to be applauded - they are to be
applied. God does not want our opinion upon His laws.
There is no credit to us if we stand against the modern tendency
that goes lower and lower and just say, "No, no, the law of God
says this and that." That is not what God wants;
He wants us to keep these laws. We are to worship
Him, and nobody and nothing else: not our country, not our
possessions, not our children, not anything - it must be God
alone. There are to be no idols. We are not to bow down to any
graven image. We are to honor God's day. We must not kill. We
must not steal. We must not commit adultery. We are not to
discuss these things, we must not do them.
God has given His laws and His statutes that they might be kept
and lived and practiced. God is to be glorified by our
obedience to Him and by our honoring of His holy laws. That was
the purpose in giving them.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, excerpt from sermon
entitled, "Dead Religion"
Anti-lawism
There is an old rhyme that serves as something of
an antinomian theme song. Its says,
"Freed from the law,
Oh blessed condition;
I can sin all I want,
and still have remission."
Antinomianism literally means "anti-lawism." It
denies or downplays the significance of God's law in the life of
the believer. It is the opposite of the twin heresy, legalism...
Antinomianism's primary error is confusing
justification with sanctification. We are justified by faith
alone, apart from works. However, all believers grow in faith by
keeping God's holy commands - not
to gain God's favor, but out of loving gratitude for the grace
already bestowed on them through the work of Christ.
- R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the
Christian Faith
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"I am the light of the
world" John 8:12
