As our obedience to God is born out of His love for us so to is our desire and center of our being born out of the amazing grace of the cross, the empty tomb, and the risen Lord. As you go about life today remind yourself of the beauty and assurance of what the Savior has done, remember His power, and be sure to order all things so as to give glory to God in His name in the way you do all in thanksgiving for who He is and what He is for you.

Of the many things I love about the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechism one of the most important in my mind is the way the authors help us to see the way in which the law of God applies to more than just bare “Don’t do this” pronouncements. There is an elegance and reason to every word found in the Holy Scriptures and none more than what we have in the Ten Commandments. We see in these statutes the beauty of God, His order, and the wisdom of His truth. They are evidences for why it is we should worship Him and alone reserve our obedience unto Him as the only one worthy of such. Regardless of whether one is a “Christian” is almost besides the point. These testimonies are given for every human being made in the image of God, which means everyone. All men are to read the commands and see in them their purpose, the end of their existence, and due to that reality are then to see to it that their lives are grounded and formed by what the Lord reveals therein. So when we get to examining what exactly they promote (and what they deny) we need to make sure that we approach them with the correct mindset. We are receivers of truth, not the determiners of it. As Israel was at the bottom of the mountain looking up as Jehovah wrote His law on the tables and gave them to Moses so to are all humans to come to the Ten Commandments and understand that they are neither up for debate or discussion. This is the way things are, not pragmatically organized for our benefit, though they are beneficial, they provide a description for reality. Disregarding their teaching not only can be described as sin, but foolishness as eating a urinal cake is foolishness, it is self-evidently so.

As we continue to look at the commandments as they are presented to us in the Shorter Catechism let us especially pay attention to what the Lord would have His people to know not only about Him, but the way in which they are a blessing to those to whom God loves in His grace. Not to detract from what I wrote above, but it is important for those who have been saved to see the law in the positive light of the redemption purchased by Christ in His mercy, even when they talk in the negative.

Here are our catechism questions for this week:

Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?

A. The first commandment forbids the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.

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