Weekly Emmaus City Culture Q&As | Part 1, Q&A 8

EMMAUS CITY CULTURE Q&AS | PART 1: GOD, CREATION AND FALL, LAW CONTINUED

Each week, we are adapting Redeemer's New City Catechism with modern language, including the questions and answers, along with the commentary and prayer. Our goal is to make these easily accessible for all ages, as well as those with various levels of education in Worcester. 

Since we don't want this to be just information transfer, but life transformation by God's Word and Spirit, we purposely changed the word catechism to culture as we pray for God to help us creatively display and declare the good news of Jesus in our communities. 

Here are the previous weeks' Q&As:

• Q&A 1: What is our only hope in life and in death?
• Q&A 2: Who is God?
• Q&A 3: How many persons are there in God?
• Q&A 4: How and why did God create us?
• Q&A 5: What else did God create?
• Q&A 6: How can we glorify God?
• Q&A 7: What does the law of God require?

  
  

Cheers to 2014 and many becoming more like Jesus together. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

Emmaus City Culture | Part 1, Q&A 8

Question 8

What is the law of God stated in the Ten Commandments?

Answer 8

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not covet.

Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7
"You shall have no other gods before Me."

Commentary

The danger doesn’t lie in the breaking of one or two of these ten [commandments]. It lies in the disobedience of any one of them. As you know, a king gives ten commands, to be obeyed by his subjects upon pain of death; now, if any man disobeys any one of these ten, he commits treason, as if he had broke them all, and is liable to have the sentence of the law passed on him, as if he had broken each of them. These things are clear with the law of God: If a woman does fulfill nine of the commandments, and yet breaks one, it will shut her out from the joys of heaven, as if she had actually disobeyed them all. Though you should do all of these for a long time, ten, twenty, forty, fifty, or sixty years; yet if you slip, and break one of them before you die, you are lost. For, my friends, you must understand, that as they that are under the promise of grace will be saved by it, so those that are under law, they will surely be condemned by it. Again, you must consider that this law does not only condemn words and actions, but it has authority to condemn the most secret thoughts of your heart; so that if you do not speak any word that is evil, like lying or saying any other word that tends to sin, yet if there should pass but one selfish thought through your heart, one in all your lifetime, the law takes hold of it, accuses it, and will also condemn you for it.

Adapted from the poem “Upon the Ten Commandments” in A Book for Boys and Girls, or, Country Rhymes for Children  (London: Elliot Stock, 1890), 1. The quote is from “The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded” in The Works of that Eminent Servant of Christ Mr. John Bunyan, Volume 3 (Edinburgh: Sands, Murray & Cochran, 1769), 245–247. John Bunyan (1628–1688). Known as the tinker of Elstow, Bunyan underwent a dramatic conversion experience and became a leading Puritan preacher. As his popularity grew, Bunyan increasingly became a target for slander and libel and was eventually imprisoned. It was during his time in prison that he commenced his best known work The Pilgrim’s Progress, first printed in 1678.

Prayer
My God and Lord, help me by Your grace to learn and understand Your commandments more fully every day and to live by them. ... Keep my heart so that I will never again become forgetful and ungrateful, that I won’t seek after other gods or prize anything on earth above You, but cling truly and solely to You, my only God. Amen, dear Lord God and Father.

Adapted from Luther’s Prayers, edited by Herbert F. Brokering, from the translation by Charles E. Kistler (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 1967), 51. Martin Luther (1483–1546). A German Protestant pastor and professor of theology, Luther was the son of a mining family, intended to become a lawyer, and at first took monastic orders. On 31 October 1517 Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, sparking the Reformation. His refusal to retract his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X and Emperor Charles V resulted in his excommunication. Luther wrote many works, including his small and large catechisms, and preached hundreds of sermons in churches and universities.

Coming next week: 

Q&A 9: What does God require in the first, second, and third commandments?
Q&A 10: What does God require in the fourth and fifth commandments?
Q&A 11: What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
Q&A 12: What does God require in the ninth and tenth commandments?

– Sully

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