It is reported that in England,
40% of girls have sex before the legal age of 16. This is higher than in any
other of the 24 European countries surveyed.
We are a country that has morally lost its bearings. A cloud
of relativism has hidden the star we should navigate by. And as happens when
people walk in the dark – our culture is profoundly broken and confused.
We see this in the everyday things of broken relationships
and dishonesty in public life. But just think of the tidal wave of ethical
debates we’ve faced in just the last few years: Same-sex marriage, three parent
babies, gender selective abortion, trans-sexualism, assisted suicide.
They’re all signs that our culture has lost its moorings. Everything
is suddenly uncertain. And because God’s revelation has been rejected, people
have no firm grounding for deciding these issues. So those who shout the
loudest tend to get their way. Or whatever affirms our individualism becomes
the default. Little thought is given to the impact of these decisions on
community life or its consequences elsewhere.
And so as Christian we need light for two particular
reasons: First, so that as citizens of heaven we can stand apart from this
moral meltdown and live lives that truly honour God. Second, so that as
citizens of earth, we can speak into this moral meltdown, influencing the mind
of our society for good and showing just how wise God’s ways are.
This is why we are going to be studying the Ten Commandments
this term. They form part of what the Bible calls “God’s law.”
Now we need to understand this term. We’ll see that at one
level it refers to all God requires of people. But at another, it refers to the
specific commands God have Israel
through Moses. They’re recorded in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Numbers,
Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
You may have heard that there’s quite a diversity of material
in the Mosaic law. Sceptics often ridicule Christians as selective in applying
it today. They say we make much of what it says about things like sexuality,
but ignoring what it says about what food should be eaten.
So we’re going to establish some basic principles for how we
should read the law – and with it the Ten Commandments.
Rules on the fridge
If there is one image you take away as you think about the
law – I hope it is the image of a list of rules for children on your fridge
door.
Think for a moment about them. What might you include? You
shall not flick your food. You shall not burp. You shall not stand on the
table. You shall not climb out of the window.
Now this list is particular to your house isn’t it? Not
every house has a window by the table you can climb out of. And it’s particular
to you as children too. You need these strict rules when young because you’re
so out of control. But when you grow up you’re able to control yourself and
your behaviour will be much more nuanced.
So it’s right to say the list is not applicable as a
whole to other families or to you as an adult. But it is still applicable
in other ways. So far as their situation is similar, families would do well to
adopt it. And, even as an adult, recalling it will remind you of its deeper
concern with good manners, and politeness, and respect for others – moving you
not only to instinctively abide by its rules, but the attitudes they reflect as
well.
Well so it is with the Old Testament law. Speaking of Israel
in Galatians 3v24, Paul says “the law was like a child’s guardian until Christ
came.” In other words, like rules on the fridge, as a “package” it was only
temporary – keeping Israel
together so that Christ would be born.
The sense is that as Christians,
Jews have become grown up. So they no longer need this sort of regime. They are
filled with the Holy Spirit. So they are able to fulfil not only the principles
of the law but the attitude of the heart they reflected. Galatians 5v14: “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command:
“Love your neighbour as yourself.” If you bite
and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will
not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Well, let’s turn to Deuteronomy 4.
Here, we see three points that we can draw out about the law:
(1)
The law no longer applies
as a package for anyone
(2)
OT laws do still apply as a
proto-types for society
(3)
OT laws do still apply as
principles for the heart
(1) The law no longer
applies as a package for anyone
Listen to some of the laws still
current in the UK
that you need to be very aware of: It is an offence to beat or shake any carpet rug or mat in any street
in the Metropolitan Police District, although you are allowed to shake a
doormat before 8am. It is illegal to keep a pigsty in front of your
house (unless duly hidden). It is illegal to order or permit any servant to
stand on the sill of any window to clean or paint it. It is an offence to be intoxicated (drunk) and in
charge of a cow in Scotland!
We recognize that laws change
according to context. It’s obvious that these laws are ultimately concerned
with orderly conduct and health and safety. These are givens. But how they
should apply at different points in history will differ.
Well, take a look at Deuteronomy 4v5.
What time is the law Moses was giving for? For Israel’s
time in the land.
1) We see the law no longer applies as a package for
contextual reasons
We must realise God’s law wasn’t shaped for a western
technological society, but for a nation with a particular calling – to
be God’s holy people, in a particular culture – the Ancient Near East,
and a particular circumstance – forty years in a desert and then life
possessing another nation’s land.
So its laws reflected this. The laws about eating certain
foods were to emphasize that Israel
were to be different from the nations. Their festivals and sacrifices reflected
worship of God in an agricultural society. Their laws on war reflected what was
necessary to take Canaan.
2) We see that the law no longer applies as a package
for covenantal reasons
This couldn't be clearer than in Galatians 3v25: "Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." In their spiritual infancy, God's people needed the rigidity of the law for two reasons. First,it was to convict Israel
– so that the people would see just how sinful they were, and how in need of
the saviour the sacrifices pointed to (Romans 7). Second, it was to constrain Israel
– so the nation could remain stable and endure God’s special presence without
his anger breaking out at them (Galatians 3v23).
Paul's point is that the law anticipated the day when faith would be directly placed in Christ. And now that time has come, God's people have become spiritually mature. Now the Holy Spirit does these two
things, so there is no longer the need for such a tight regime.
(2) OT laws do apply as proto-types
for society
A third and often forgotten purpose in the law, was to commend Israel.
Have a look from Deuteronomy 4v6-8.
King Alfred the Great is credited as bringing the birth of
our nation into being. And part of that was a law code, called the “Doom” book.
It makes much of justice – of protecting the weak and dealing with people
fairly, whether poor or rich. And it is accepted that this had a significant
impact in ensuring subsequent British law has been just and fair.
Well there’s no surprise for guessing where Alfred got his
inspiration. Essentially he gathered and updated the laws from three other
Christian Saxon kingdoms. But he did it on the basis of God’s law. The Doom
Book began with an introduction containing the Ten Commandments in English, the
Mosaic Law from Exodus 21 to 23, Jesus’ call to do to others as you would have
them do to you. He even included a brief account of apostolic history and the
growth of Christian law among Christian nations.
Despite the way the law reflected Israel’s
particular calling, culture and context, God teaches there are aspects to it
that other societies should want to emulate. More than that, they are
accountable to him if they don’t live by these things.
So Leviticus 18v24-28 tells us the Canaanite nations were
driven out by God for sexual practices that contravened God’s laws earlier in
the chapter. This tells us that the law’s teaching on sex is different from its
teaching on foods. The teaching on foods applies only to Israel
back then, because it reflected her particular calling as a holy nation. But
the teaching on sex is more foundational, applying to other cultures and
contexts too.
Isaiah implies wider application should be our default
position with God’s law if it is not geared to Israel’s
special calling. So Isaiah 24v5 tells us the final judgment will come because
humanity have “disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the
everlasting covenant.”
The heart of God’s law is his concern that Israel
are like him: “Be holy as I am holy” he says again and again. Now he created
all humanity to image him and to rule or govern on that basis. So, it follows
that the laws that are not geared simply to Israel’s
unique calling, reflect his character. They show what it looks like to image
God in Israel’s
culture and context. And so, as long as we account for legitimate changes of
culture and context, these laws can and should be applied to any society.
Here, we must recognize that the Ten Commandments have a
central place. Take a look at Deuteronomy 4v12-13.
The importance of the Ten Commandments is highlighted in two
ways. First, can you see God declared them personally. At Mount
Sinai, the people heard him recite them himself. Second, God wrote
them personally. Can you see that? Elsewhere we’re told the “finger of God”
inscribed them on the stone. Now God doesn’t have fingers – so this probably
refers to some miraculous way Moses saw the words appear.
When you read through Israel’s
laws you realize that they are basically these Ten Commandments, but applied to
Israel
particular situation. And so its entirely fitting for us to consider ethics, by
considering these commandments – how they were applied to Israel’s
society, and then how they might therefore apply to our own.
We have become so used to secularism, that this truth,
assumed by Christians in the past, is so often ignored by Christians today. But
it is an historic fact that Western Society flourishes on borrowed capital from
Christianity. This is symbolised by the fact that British monarchs are charged at their coronation to keep "mindful of the Law and Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian princes." Even Angela Merkel
recognizes it, commenting that the problem with cohesian in Europe
is “not too much Islam" but "too little Christianity.” Again, in his book "Time of Transitions" the sociologist and thinker Jurgen Habermas writes: "Egalitarian universalism, from which sprang the ideas of freedom and
social solidarity, of an autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, of
the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is
the direct heir of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic
of love...To this day,
there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of
a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of
this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk."
We ignore the law of God as a society at our peril.
We ignore the law of God as a society at our peril.
(3) OT laws do apply as
principles for the heart
Turn now, would you, to our second reading in Matthew
5v17-20. Here we see the change Jesus has brought.
As elsewhere, we see his high view of the Old Testament.
Verse 18: It is accurate, authoritative and continually relevant down to the
least serif used in the Hebrew lettering. So, verse 19: Every single command of
the law must still be obeyed and taught in the church. But, there is a difference.
It’s there in verse 17.
The meaning of these words is much debated. But their sense
is most probably this: We are not called to obey and teach God’s laws as if
Jesus had never come. No we are to teach and obey it giving due weight to how
his life, death and resurrection confirm and deepen our understanding of them -
of their purpose, and of whether or not they are applicable in different
contexts.
Verse 17 implies Jesus fulfils the law in a similar to which
he fulfils the prophets. In other words, he is the point they were looking to –
their goal. Together they gave detail about God’s coming king and kingdom. So
no law is abolished in its relevance. But some are relevant in what they reveal
about God’s king and the nature of his kingdom. Whereas others are relevant in
revealing the way the subjects of that kingdom are to live.
It’s rather like looking at light rays refracted through a
prism. Every ray or law is significant. Yet we see the particular significance
of each so much more clearly and brilliantly through the prism of Christ.
Now key here, is understanding the nature of Christ’s
kingdom as opposed to the Old Testament kingdom
of Israel. Christ’s kingdom is one
in which the Holy Spirit is active, fulfilling the promise of Jeremiah 31 in “writing
God’s law on the heart” – which is described in Ephesians 4v24 as being
“re-created to be like God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
The logic is this: Acting according to the law written on
the heart is the same as acting according to God’s righteous character from the
heart.
The Old Testament law only applied the image of God
outwardly. But by considering the principle behind it, we are now to apply it
to Christians inwardly too.
So in what follows Jesus immediately teaches he is not just
concerned with the outer acts of murder and adultery, but the inner acts of
hatred and lust. This deepening of God’s law to a higher standard for
Christians is I think the key to the whole chapter. But note, its
not just what some term the “moral” laws that Jesus says must be taught and kept. It
is all God’s law. And so we find the NT apply the principle of generous
thankfulness in the OT offerings to offering ourselves and our money to God. It
applies the need for making an atoning sacrifice to our need to draw close to
God on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice. It applies the command not to touch
what is unclean to being set-apart from unbelievers.
And it is of course the standard of love that is at its
heart. Jesus made this so clear by saying that love for God and neighbour sums
up all the commandments. And Paul, said it to by saying “love fulfils the law.”
Personally, I think it is this that Paul means by “the law
of Christ” in Galatians 6v1-2: The law of Christ comprises the love
principles reflected in the Old Testament law applied to the Christian through Christ.
As we deal with each commandment then, we’re going to
consider the principles reflected in it, and not only apply them ethically to
wider society allowing for changes in context, but to our hearts as Christians too,
allowing for the change in covenant.
Our need of grace
But in this, we must never forget it comes to us through
Christ. And so we can’t consider the law without first considering grace. We
seek to obey it not to earn or deserve our salvation, but because we have
already received it. We’ve been forgive our sins, and brought into Christ’s
kingdom. We therefore obey because we love him as our King and are filled with
his own Spirit.
And so as the Ten Commandments convict us of our sin, we
must do two things: Seek Christ’s forgiveness in full confidence if we are
repentant. And pray for his help, recognizing that if we would be more faithfulness
to him, we can’t do it without the insight, energy and love for God and others only
his Spirit gives.