Should the
10 Commandments be posted in public places or on public buildings? There’s a controversial subject. Some think that they have no business in
these public places and some think that the fall of humankinds rests on where
they are posted.
For commands
that God gave to humankind, people have all manner of opinions about where to put
them but don’t seem to be asking God about what he said about where we should
post these. We need only but visit the
first part of the Shema.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you
lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind
them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your
houses and on your gates.
The Law has
purpose. It is among the many gifts that
God gave his people. He gave them an identity,
a sign in the flesh, a land promised to them from centuries before, a blessing and
a charge, and through them the Messiah as well. God also gave his people the law.
Paul goes so
far as to say that the law was entrusted to his people. It is more than a gift to his people. It is a trust. We should not just dismiss the law.
But God’s
own people didn’t follow the law very well.
They were unfaithful in many ways.
Paul notes that through his own people’s unfaithfulness, we know God’s
faithfulness even more. You might think
that the unfaithfulness of God’s own people would detract from God’s
faithfulness.
Not so. It sets the faithfulness of God in stark
contrast to the sinful nature of man.
Paul notes
that some would and surely have argued, “If my shortcomings and transgressions
make God’s righteousness and glory stand in such stark contrast and people can
see his glory even more; why should I be held accountable for my sin. It seems like I am doing a public service
here.”
“Let’s do
some more evil so that God will make some good come out of it.”
Paul tells
us that such human arguments are terrible thinking. Think back to Joseph’s 10 older
brothers when Joseph
told them what you intended for evil, God intended for good. What if they would have said, “That’s
cool. Let’s go do more evil.”
Paul said
that this sort of thinking is out there and needs to be condemned. It is stinkin’ thinkin’.
We are all
under sin’s condemnation—at least at this point in Paul’s build up to God’s
grace. Neither Jew nor Gentile measure
up.
Paul
reflects upon thoughts that we believe are rooted in Psalm 36.
No person is righteous—not a single person! The words that we know best are all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God.
The world
takes these words and says let’s just all have a big pity party. Let’s just wallow in how hopeless everything
is and do whatever we want because it really doesn’t matter anyway.
Paul’s
letter takes us somewhere else but first let’s bring this matter of the law
into perspective. This law given by God
to his own chosen people, entrusted to them, could never get his people to
right standing with him.
So what’s
the point?
Everyone has
fallen short. Everyone has missed the
mark. Everyone stands condemned. So what is the point of the law?
Through the
law we become conscious of sin. We are
aware of our transgression. We know that
we have fallen short of God’s glory.
Wow! We can now join the world’s pity party.
No. Now it’s time for Paul to lead his readers to
God’s grace—for there is right standing with God that comes from God but apart
from the law. Compliance with the law
could never bring about right standing with God but the law set the stage for
the acceptance of the greatest gift that the world has ever known.
And Paul
takes us from the total depravity of humankind as John Calvin would later
describe it to atonement, redemption, justification, and grace as he concludes
this chapter.
It was as if
at this point in the letter, Tertius, Paul’s scribe, stopped writing and said
to Paul, “Enough with the hopeless state of affairs among men. Do you have any good news?”
In this
constructive conversation, Paul would reply:
“You want good news? You want
good news? See if you can handle the
good news!”
We are made right with God by placing our faith in
Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s
glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his
sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for
our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.
People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his
life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he
held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he
would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness,
for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when
they believe in Jesus.
Romans 3:22-26
NLT
What’s our part in all of this?
To know that we have fallen short of God’s glory and
there was nothing that we could do about it, but God—by the blood of his one
and only Son—God made us right with him.
God was just.
He dispensed justice. We were
guilty. Court was held on us—on
humankind—after all these centuries and we were found and pronounced
guilty.
The sentence was death. The sentence was carried out. The sentence was executed. Justice was done.
But God’s sentence was carried out upon his own
flesh. Jesus—the only man who ever lived
a life without sin—was executed for our sin.
He took our place. Justice was
done.
Because of this, we may freely receive God’s
grace. We are made right with him, and
because we receive this gift freely by faith; we have nothing to brag about.
God did it all.
Make sure that we get this part. We could never make ourselves right with
God. It just was not going to
happen. Try as we may, we could never
fully comply with God’s law. There was
and is something missing in us.
What’s missing is not a personality trait. It is not self discipline. It is not something that a Law of Moses Boot
Camp would ever fix.
What is missing from us is a connection with God. Compliance with rules and regulations could
not connect us.
The rules could show us that we kept missing the
mark. The law was a good consultant and
could point out our shortcomings, but only the free gift of God could reconcile
us and restore the relationship for which we were made.
Sin is detestable.
Sin must be judged. Sin was judged and justice was done. On the cross, Jesus said: “It is finished.”
I like to ask people challenging questions. I’m not sure if that is my gift or some sort
of penance, but in either case; I often ask Christians who are firm in their
faith the following question.
Are you a sinner saved by grace?
Many will say that they are. I challenge them to claim their identity as a
child of God. You are exactly who God
made you to be.
Your story, well it surely includes being a sinner
saved by grace; but your identity is a child of God. Through faith alone, we have received a gift
that we never deserved but which God’s heart has longed to give us since the
foundation of the earth.
We are his kids, his children, his loved ones.
Sin is part of our story. All have fallen short of God’s glory.
The law is part of our story, not in the way it was in
Paul’s time, but we know that this law that was entrusted to God’s Chosen
People is fulfilled in our knowing our shortcomings and desiring the free gift
of grace.
But our identity has been restored to what it was
always meant to be. We are children of
our loving heavenly Father. Through
faith, we have received this gift of redemption and favor and reconciliation
and grace. Atonement for our sins has
been made.
We are justified by a just God. He didn’t skip any steps and bypass his own law.
We paid nothing but we are right with
holy God.
The law is important but faith is essential.
The law shows us where we failed to comply but faith
brings us to accepting the free gift.
The law was entrusted to a special people until a way
to right standing with God was given to all people by faith.
Back to my initial provocation—should we post the 10
commandments in public buildings or not?
If that’s your cause, then go for it. I would rather see monuments to faith in God
by people seeing their own transgressions and turning to God.
I would rather see a nation that seeks God’s kingdom
and his righteousness before any secular cause.
I would rather see what the writer of Hebrews called
the evidence of things not seen. I will
leave it to you to decide if that is a dichotomy, an oxymoron, or another one
of Tom’s paradoxes.
I would rather see faith than monuments or engraved
words.
Paul will talk more about faith in the chapters to
come. I ask that we understand where the
world knows it falls short and holds a pity party; we see that we too fall
short but have all been given a measure of faith to receive God’s free gift of
grace to us.
We have received forgiveness that we did not deserve.
We live in the favor that God has longed to pour out upon
us. Now he can and he does for he has justly
dealt with sin and has justified us.
It is time for us to live, fully live, in our right standing
with God and bring glory to his name.
Amen.
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