How should Christians respond to the 10 Commandments?
Christians should seek to obey them and be thankful that God has spoken to His people so clearly, R. Albert Mohler Jr. argues in his new book, “Words from the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments” (Moody).
The very fact that God spoke to His people Israel through the commandments and that God still speaks today through His Word is evidence of His grace, Mohler asserts.
“This is not a God who is seen, but a God who is heard,” Mohler writes in the introduction. “The contrast with idols is very clear – the idols are seen, but they don’t speak. The one true and living God is not seen, but He is heard. The contrast is intentional, graphic, and clear – we speak because we have heard. And the voice of God is not something Israel deserved, nor do we. It is sheer mercy.
“God mercifully lets His people hear. Thus, intellectual pride is the enemy of any true knowledge of God, any real theological education. There is nothing we can figure out or discover. Here is no “Aha!” moment where, in some theological laboratory, a new element of divine truth gets discovered.”
Mohler examines each of the 10 Commandments in separate chapters beginning with the first which forbids God’s people to “have any other gods before Him.” The first command communicates God’s exclusivity, and like the remainder of God’s law, it also points to a sinner’s need for Christ and His Gospel, Mohler points out.
Some Christians have argued that Jesus abolished the law, but He did not, Mohler writes; Jesus came to fulfill the Law as He asserts in the New Testament. The Law is also crucial as a teacher of the holiness of God, Mohler asserts; it is a guide to sanctification for Christians.
“The didactic use of the Law asks the question – does the Law now teach us?” Mohler writes. “That is, does the Law now teach Christians? Are we to look to the Old Testament to see a pattern for godliness, which is to be replicated in us? And the answer has to be, in some form, yes.”
For an extended excerpt from the book, please see Mohler’s blog at http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=4416