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&As 9 – 12
Question 9
What
does God require in the first, second, and third commandments?
Answer 9
First, that we know God as the only true God.
Second, that we
avoid all idolatry. Third, that we treat
God’s name with fear and reverence.
Deuteronomy 6:13–14
Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
Commentary
God leads men to see that the God revealed in Scripture, who came as the Lord Jesus, is the God who made heaven and earth. Man fashions for himself a god after his own liking … out of what he calls his own consciousness, or cultured thought, a deity to his taste, who will not be too severe with his iniquities or deal out strict justice to the unrepentant. He rejects God as He is, and creates other gods, such as he thinks the Divine One ought to be. ... The Holy Spirit, however, when He illuminates our minds, leads us to see that Jehovah is God, and beside Him there is no other. He teaches His people to know that the God of heaven and earth is the God of the Bible, a God whose attributes are completely balanced, mercy attended by justice, love accompanied by holiness, grace clothed in truth, and power linked with tenderness. He is not a God who winks at sin or is pleased with it, but is a God who cannot look upon iniquity, and will not spare the guilty.
Adapted from the sermon “Heart-Knowledge of God” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons Preached and Revised by C.H. Spurgeon During the Year 1874, Volume XX (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1875), 674–675. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892). An English Baptist preacher, Spurgeon became pastor of London's New Park Street Church (later Metropolitan Tabernacle) at 20 years of age. He frequently preached to more than 10,000 people with no electronic amplification. Spurgeon was a prolific writer and his printed works are voluminous—by the time of his death he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, hymns, and devotions.
Prayer
You command "that I should have no other gods in Your sight."…that I should put all my trust in You, be thankful for You, love You, fear You, obey You, and call upon Your holy name in all my needs; so should I give this faith, love, fear, obedience, thankfulness, and invocation or prayer, to no one else. … All this with a joyful heart; for what an amazing thing it is that You would give Your Son for me and become my God! … But, dear Father, what should I say? I have broken Your law by trusting in Your creations, calling upon them, loving, fearing, and obeying many things besides You. … forgive me my idolatry done in times past, and those I do commit even now …[and grant] that I may serve no other God but You. ... help me not to take Your name in vain by cursing or by not reading or hearing from Your holy Word. … or by denying Your Truth and Word, or covering it when I could share Your glory and confirm Your Truth … in praying eagerly and praising You for Your great mercy … I do not do Your good commands. … Dear God, pardon my sins past and present, where this law accuses me; and let me be filled with Your Holy Spirit, to know and love Your Word, and Truth in Jesus Christ … to call upon Your name in all my need and to give thanks to You forever.
Adapted from “Godly Meditations: A Meditation upon the Ten Commandments” in The Writings of John Bradford, edited by Aubrey Townsend (Cambridge: University Press, 1868), 150–157. John Bradford (1510–1555). An English Protestant Reformer, Bradford studied at Cambridge University and was made royal chaplain to King Edward VI. He is most remembered for his statement, “There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford.”
What does God require in the fourth and fifth commandments?
Answer 10
Fourth, that on the Sabbath day we spend time in worship of God. Fifth, that we love and honor our father and our mother.
Leviticus 19:3
Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.
Commentary
The word of God commands things
against the grain which you don’t do. It tells you: Your God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4);
worship one God. What you want is to put away the one God. … You are told
to observe the Sabbath in a spiritual way, in hope of the future rest which the
Lord has promised you. … But you, the reason you want to rest is in order to work,
but you should be working in order to rest. You are told, Honor you father and
mother (Exodus 20:12). [But] you insult your parents, which you wouldn’t want your
children to do to you. In the Holy Spirit, everlasting rest is promised us… we
have already received this promise or pledge. That’s what the apostle says: Who
gave us the Spirit as a pledge (2 Cor 1:22). If we have received a pledge so
that we may be at peace in the Lord and in our God…we shall also in Him be at
rest forever. That will be the Sabbath of Sabbaths. So the commandment about
the Sabbath we should acknowledge in a spiritual way. God honored the seventh
day when He had made all His work, as we read it written in Genesis…God rested
from His works (Gn 2:2–3). It was not because God was tired that it had to say
God rested from His works, but that word contains a promise of rest for you as
you work. God rested so you will understand that you, too, will rest and rest forever.
Honor you father and mother (Ex 20:12). It’s your parents you see when you
first open your eyes. If anyone fails to honor his parents…is there anyone who
will be spared? Change your ways. You used to love the world; love God. You
used to love temporary pleasures; love your neighbor.
Adapted from “Sermon 9” in Saint Augustine: Essential Sermons, edited by Daniel Doyle, translated by Edmund Hill (New York: New City Press, 2007), 27–28, 30–32. Augustine of Hippo (354–430). Bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa, philosopher, and theologian, Augustine is considered a saint and Doctor of the Church by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He wrote an account of his conversion in his Confessions, his most known work, but he is also one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works with hundreds of separate titles (including apologetic works, texts on Christian doctrine, and commentaries) and more than 350 preserved sermons.
Prayer
With Christ nothing is
impossible. He can soften hearts which seem hard as a stone. He can bend
stubborn wills which for years have been set on pleasing the self, on sin, and
on the world. He can create and transform and renew and break down and build
and bring to life with irresistible power. Let us hold to this truth and never
let it go. Let us pray for a right understanding of the law of the Sabbath. Let
us keep the day holy and give it to God.
Adapted from Luke by J. C. Ryle, series editor Alister E. McGrath (Wheaton: Crossway, 1997), 187. John Charles Ryle (1816–1900). The first Anglican bishop of Liverpool, Ryle’s appointment was at the recommendation of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. As well as being a writer and pastor, Ryle was an athlete who rowed and played cricket for Oxford University. He also was responsible for the building of over forty churches.
Question 11
What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
Answer 11
Sixth, that we do not hurt or hate our neighbor. Seventh, that we live purely and faithfully. Eighth, that we do not take without permission that which belongs to someone else.
Romans 13:9
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Commentary
Man cannot even keep the Ten Commandments. And yet he talks proudly about keeping the Sermon on the Mount, and of imitating Christ. The Jews were a race of people to whom God had already given His law through His servant Moses and they could not keep it. They could not keep the Ten Commandments. Nobody has ever kept them perfectly … and if a man cannot keep the Ten Commandments, as he understands them, what hope does he have of keeping the Ten Commandments as they have been interpreted by the Lord Jesus Christ? That was the whole trouble with the Pharisees, who so hated Him and who finally crucified Him. They thought they were keeping the Ten Commandments and the moral law. Our Lord convinced them and convicted them of the fact that they were not. They claimed that they had never committed murder. Wait a minute, said Jesus. Have you ever said to your brother, 'You fool’? If you have, you are guilty of murder. Murder does not only mean actually, physically, killing a man, it means that bitterness and hatred in your heart. And He taught the same with regard to adultery. They claimed that they were guiltless. But wait a minute, Jesus says, you say you have never committed adultery? ‘But I say to you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart’ (Matthew 5:28). He is guilty; he has coveted, he has desired. A selfish thought and imagination are as awful in the sight of God as the act committed.
Adapted from The Cross (Wheaton: Crossway, 1986), 176–177. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981). A Welsh medical doctor and Protestant minister, Lloyd-Jones is best known for preaching and teaching at Westminster Chapel in London for thirty years. He would take many months, even years, to expound a chapter of the Bible verse by verse. Perhaps his most famous publication is a 14 volume series of commentaries on Romans.
Prayer
God and Father, who builds Your spiritual temple among us, not with wood and stone, but with the Holy Spirit, who abides in those that believe, grant, we ask You, that we won’t be left, under the power of any temptation, to defile Your temple by our sins, but yielding ourselves as Your dear children, may we continue to glorify You with obedience until we see Your glory, which we now only see reflected in Your Word through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from “A Prayer of John Calvin” in General Liturgy and Book of Common Prayer, prepared by Samuel Miles Hopkins (New York: Barnes, 1883), 47. John Calvin (1509–1564). A theologian, administrator, and pastor, Calvin was born in France into a strict Roman Catholic family. It was in Geneva however where Calvin worked most of his life and organized the Reformed church. He wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the Geneva Catechism, as well as numerous commentaries on Scripture.
Question 12
What does God require in the ninth and tenth commandments?
Answer 12
Ninth, that we do not lie or deceive. Tenth, that we are content, not envying anyone.
James 2:8
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
Commentary
You Should Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor. Lord, teach me in this commandment how I should talk about my neighbor and behave concerning his name without lying; You tell me not to do all kinds of slandering, lying, and hypocrisy. And why? Because You say we should "speak truth one to another," and be careful to cover each other’s weaknesses, and defend the names of others, even as we would want them to defend ours: so that in this commandment, as You forbid me all kind of evil speaking, so You command to me all kind of honest and true talk. This is good for me! If we consider the hurt that comes by lies, and by words that deceive many, we see Your wonderful care for us in this commandment. You Should Not Covet. Here You give me the last commandment of Your law teaching me what outward actions I should avoid, so I do not offend my neighbor with murder, adultery, theft, and false witness. Now You teach me a rule for my heart, from where all works and words proceed, that I should not desire anything that is my neighbor's. I know that if she has a better house than me, I should not wish for it; if she has a more beautiful husband than me, I should not desire him. I should not desire to take from her anything she has in her possession. So that, in the other commandments as You have forbidden all injuries and evil practice against my neighbor, so You also charge me to beware of thinking any evil thoughts against her. The apostle said it well, "Cast all your cares upon God, for He cares for you." You "care for us," and would have us "care for each other."
Adapted from “Godly Meditations: A Meditation upon the Ten Commandments” in The Writings of John Bradford, edited by Aubrey Townsend (Cambridge: University Press, 1868), 170–172. John Bradford (1510–1555).
Prayer
Almighty God, who is the Father of lights and who has promised by Your Son that all who do Your will will know Your teaching: give me grace to live so that by daily obedience I daily increase in faith and in understanding of Your Holy Word through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from a letter to Mrs Sonia Graham who had asked Lewis for a prayer, written from Magdalen College, 18 March 1952, in Letters of C. S. Lewis , edited by W. H. Lewis (Orlando: Harcourt, 1966), 419. C. S. Lewis (1898–1963). A fellow in English literature at Oxford University as well as chair of English at Cambridge University, Lewis wrote literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature, as well as theology. His most well known works are Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia. A member of the Church of England, his conversion to Christianity was influenced by his Oxford colleague and friend J.R.R. Tolkien.
Coming next week: Q&A 13: Can anyone
keep the law of God perfectly?
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