Dear Cornerstone family,
Months ago, when I was breaking down the various sections of Exodus for preaching, I wrestled long with how to tackle the part of the book we’re looking at today: the Ten Commandments. Do I go slowly through the commands and do a sermon on each one? Do I do one sermon on the whole section? For a variety of reasons, I landed on two sermons for Exodus 20, believing I could get to some of the text’s richness while not wading in too deep to all the ins and outs.
About a minute after I decided on this path, I wondered if it was the right decision. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt compelled to not miss this opportunity to do a command-by-command walk through this very important, foundational section of Scripture. But, instead of Sunday morning, I opted for Wednesday nights. So, on Wednesday nights this fall, we’re taking a slow pass through the Ten Commandments, trying to sit in and soak up as much of the richness of this section as we can.
On Wednesday night this past week, I asked the question, “Why take ten weeks on Wednesday night to teach through the Ten Commandments?” Three things came to mind:
First, the Ten Commandments are neglected in our time. Mark Twain once said, “A classic is a book that everyone praises, and no one reads.” I’m afraid the same could be said for the Ten Commandments. Yes, people generally know them – don’t murder, steal, etc. – but increasingly people do not have a sense of their meaningfulness or significance, and that’s really needed. In fact, that’s my next point.
Second, a thorough treatment of the Ten Commandments is needed in our time. Did you know that next to the Gospels, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments have been considered by the church historically to be the most important sections of Scripture for the training of disciples of Jesus Christ? For instance, nearly half of the questions in the Westminster Shorter Catechism are devoted to the Ten Commandments. The reason is that our forefathers understood the Christian life as a following Christ life, and since Christ’s life was marked by law-keeping (see Matthew 5:17), our life must, too, or so the reasoning goes.
Thirdly, the Ten Commandments are often misunderstood in our time. At Cornerstone, we never want to wrongly present or emphasize the law in a way that undermines or subverts the primacy of grace. At the same time, we wouldn’t want to wrongly present or emphasize grace in such a way where God’s law or obedience was treated as if it was irrelevant or optional. What’s the relationship between law and grace? Can law and grace be harmonized in some way? Well, you should be able to tell by the title of my Wednesday night series, “God’s Gracious Law: The Ten Commandments” that I’m convinced that the Bible provides a beautiful harmony of grace and law. But in saying that, there’s still a lot of questions to answer.
So, we’re going to pursue those questions, and dig around in some of the complexities. Why? Because it’s important. It’s worth our time. And hope you’ll join us as we explore together the grace of God’s law and the law of God’s grace in the Ten Commandments this fall.
