Coromandel Baptist Church

Sunday 26 July 2009 Ex. 20:1-6 and Romans 1:16-32

God's Ten Words (1)

On Sunday the focus of our time together will be the nature of the Ten Commandments as the universal law of life, with particular emphasis on the first two commandments. While we are not pausing to take each of the commandments in detail, we will take time to do an overview of them and to pick up some of the main emphases.

At the end of the last set of notes we said that in a very short hand way of speaking we can say that the commandments:

have an ontological foundation (in that they declare something about the very nature of God himself);

they have a creational expression (in that the commandments were inherent in the creation, and, while codified at Sinai, are in fact the way things have always been);

they have a sinful perversion (in that each of the commandments highlights areas of human sinfulness and self-righteousness);

they have a Christological fulfillment (in the Christ kept all and each of the commandments fully, and therefore lived as the True Man, completely free of sin and fitted to be our redeemer);

and they have an eschatological goal (in that the final goal of all God's plan and purpose is to have a redeemed humanity completely aligned to himself in every aspect).

Ontology (from the Greek participle ontos i.e. ‘being') is strictly the study of the being of God. By extension, that which comes from the hand of the Creator is ontological (i.e. it is congruent with him and is the expression of the way things really are, eternally). Thus the torah is the ontological way of life for human beings. It is what we are created for, and that which does not comport with this ontological way of life has no authentic existence...it belongs to the realm of death. Ultimately, all that is not from love and of love has no authentic existence (as highlighted in 1 Cor. 13, for example), and the Ten Commandments are essentially the torah of God who is Love. In them we see what it means to love God and what it means to love our neighbour. Any relational life outside of that is not ontological. Moreover, because we have been made in the image of God, the way God is in himself, and the way we are created to be is completely congruent. The image of God in humanity and the image of God in the ten words are an exact fit...to be truly human is to be in full accord with the character of God as revealed in his words.

In short compass these, the first two of the ‘words' that God spoke to Israel, rule out two things. Firstly the instruction that we are to have no other gods before him indicates that he is exclusively God. While we may have ‘gods many and lords many' these other entities are not God, as Yahweh alone is God. We are to have no gods of our imagination, or gods that we would like the true God to be. We only have one God, who has revealed himself in word and deed as our Creator and Redeemer. Luther says simply, ‘the simple meaning of this commandment is, You shall worship me alone as your God'. We only know who God is because of his self revelation. We are not at liberty to make up our own minds about what God is like. Only God can reveal who and what he is. Ontologically, then, any other ‘god' is not truly God. Any picture of God other than the way he has revealed himself to be is un-ontological.

Secondly, the commandment against images indicates that we are not to worship the God who has revealed himself as he really is, by devising any visible form or any crafted object. These can never be a true representation of God, and they render in ‘static' form one facet of God as we imagine him to be. But there is a deeper wickedness. Idolatry expresses our sinful, misplaced trust. The Heidelberg Catechism defines idolatry as ‘having or inventing something in which one trusts in place of or alongside of the only true God, who has revealed himself in his Word' (Q. 95). Luther says, ‘whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God' (Larger Catechism p. 10). The devastating effects of having some other so called ‘god' before God, and exchanging true worship for idolatry is given to us in great detail in Romans 1:18-32. The exchange of true faith (trust in God) for false faith (trust in our idols) leads to the breakdown of all relationships as it is totally against the ontological order of things. If we trust in some object, power or practice as our god, that false trust not only is a misalignment of our ontological nature, but it becomes the occasion in which demonic spiritual forces exercise their power (e.g. 1 Cor. 10:20f. cf. Deut. 32:16f.; Lev. 17:7; Ps. 106:7; etc.). Because that idol is bound to let us down it also becomes the cause of disillusionment, loss of hope and rise of superstition.

When we look at Moses' recounting the giving of the Law and the Law itself in Deuteronomy, it becomes clear that we are not to make images because God spoke to Israel. His Word is all we need. In contrast to the Word, a visual form will become a snare to us (Deut. 4:15ff. cf. Is. 40:18; 46:5; etc.). Also the transgression of the commandment means that the sins of the fathers are visited on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate him. If that generation no longer hates him, the sins are not visited. This principle is clearly expounded in Ezekiel 18 for example. But the weight lies in the contrast...the third and fourth generation of those who hate him feel his wrath, but thousands of generations of those who love him know his joy.