Baptist Catechism - Lesson 25 - Questions 54, 55, 56, and 57

Baptist Catechism - Lesson 25 - Questions 54, 55, 56, and 57

Lesson 25: Questions 54, 55, 56, and 57 In our last lesson we considered the first commandment. We saw that God requires us to have no other gods before Him, which means we must know and acknowledge Him as the only true God and our God, and worship and glorify Him accordingly. We also saw that the first commandment forbids atheism, false worship, idolatry of the heart, and giving to any creature the honor due to God alone. Now the catechism turns from Whom we worship to how we worship Him. Question 54: What is the 2nd commandment? * Which is the second commandment? * The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. The 1st commandment teaches us that we must worship the only true God.  The 2nd commandment teaches us that we must worship the true God only as He has commanded.  That distinction matters. Many attempt to worship Him in ways He has forbidden.  We are not merely forbidden the worshipping of false gods, but also worshipping the true God falsely. Then comes the reason: “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God”. God’s jealousy is not petty insecurity. He is not like a sinful man threatened by rivals. God’s jealousy is His holy zeal for His own glory and for the covenant purity of His people. He alone is God. He alone redeemed His people. He alone has the right to define His worship. This commandment also warns that false worship has generational consequences. This does not mean children are punished for their fathers’ sins, but it does mean that corrupt worship does not stay private. A father’s worship teaches his children. A church’s worship forms its people.  One generation’s drift can lead to disorder in the next and then to defiance. But mercy has the final emphasis. God shows mercy “unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Judgment is to the third and fourth generation; mercy is to thousands. So the 2nd commandment is not only a prohibition. It is also a mercy. God does not leave us to invent worship. He tells us how He is to be honored. Question 55: What does the 2nd commandment require? * What is required in the second commandment? * The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word. The catechism now opens the positive requirement of the 2nd commandment. It is not enough to say, “Do not worship God by images.” We must also receive, observe, and keep pure and entire the worship and ordinances God has appointed in His Word. The phrase “as God hath appointed in his word” is the heart of the answer. The 2nd commandment requires appointed worship.  We are not free to invent worship and then ask God to bless our creativity.  We are not free to take whatever seems moving, impressive, ancient, modern, beautiful, emotionally powerful, or culturally attractive and make it part of God’s worship.  God regulates His own worship by His Word. This is sometimes called the Regulative Principle of Worship. The basic point is simple: in the worship of God, we may only include what God has appointed. That does not answer every practical question automatically, because we still have to distinguish between elements of worship and circumstances of worship. A church must decide on circumstances like:  * When/where to meet * Hymnals or projected lyrics * Whether to use microphones * What order of service is most fitting But the elements of worship themselves must come from Scripture. And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 32:45-46, ESV) That is the posture required by the 2nd commandment. We receive God’s words. We take them seriously. We teach them. We obey them. This is why the catechism says we must receive God’s appointed worship. We do not decide whether God’s appointed means are enough. We receive them as gifts. The reading and preaching of Scripture, prayer, singing, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, giving, confession, fellowship, discipline, and the gathered assembly of the saints are not man-made entertainments. They are God’s appointed means for His worship and for the building up of His people. The catechism also says we must observe God’s appointed worship, not simply affirm correct principles on paper. We must actually worship according to God’s command. The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) There is a beautiful simplicity there. The church did not need religious theater. They devoted themselves to the Word, fellowship, the ordinances, and prayer. This should challenge us. If we say Scripture is sufficient, do we trust God’s appointed means?  Do we believe preaching, prayer, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper are enough?  Do we believe the ordinary gathered worship of the church, ordered by Scripture, is enough?  Or do we secretly think God’s worship needs our additions to become “more effective”? The catechism then says we must keep God’s appointed worship pure and entire.  “Pure” means we must not corrupt worship by adding to what God has not commanded or by mixing His worship with superstition, manipulation, entertainment, or idolatry.  “Entire” means we must not corrupt worship by subtracting from what God has commanded. We must not remove hard preaching, public prayer, congregational singing, the ordinances, confession of sin, or reverent seriousness simply because they feel uncomfortable to modern people. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. (Matthew 23:16-22, ESV) Jesus is directly rebuking oath gamesmanship, but the principle matters: man does not get to manipulate sacred things for his own purposes. God’s worship is not a prop in our religious performance. So Question 55 teaches us that the 2nd commandment requires us to receive, observe, and keep the worship God has appointed. The true God must be worshiped in the true way. And the true way is not discovered by imagination, tradition, preference, or pragmatism, but by the Word of God. Question 56: What does the 2nd commandment forbid? * What is forbidden in the second commandment? * The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images or any other way not appointed in his word. The catechism now opens the negative requirement of the 2nd commandment. It forbids “the worshipping of God by images or any other way not appointed in his word”.  The first phrase addresses images directly; the second broadens to all unauthorized worship. First, the 2nd commandment forbids worshiping God by images. Again, the issue is not simply paganism. It is possible to claim that an image represents the true God. That is exactly what happened at Sinai. Aaron made the golden calf and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord” (Exodus 32:5). Notice that. This was not presented as Baal worship. Aaron blasphemously connected the calf to the Lord. He used an unauthorized practice in the worship of God. Ask Nadab and Abihu (Aaron’s sons) how that went for them! (Leviticus 10) God’s verdict was not, “Their hearts are in the right place.” His verdict was that they had turned aside, made an idol, worshiped it, sacrificed to it, and attributed redemption to it (Exodus 32:8).  Good intentions do not purify forbidden worship.  Calling something “for the Lord” does not make it acceptable to the Lord. This is one of the most important lessons of the 2nd commandment. Sinners are very good at baptizing disobedience with religious language. We say: * This helps me worship. * This makes God feel more real. * This reaches people. * This is beautiful. * This is meaningful to me. But the question is not first, “Does it move me?” The question is, “Has God appointed it?” “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” (Deuteronomy 4:15-19, ESV, emphasis added) This text grounds the prohibition in God’s own revelation at Sinai. Israel saw no form; therefore, they must not make a form. That is profound.  God’s people may not replace the form of worship God gave with the form of worship man prefers.  God gave His voice. God gave His Word.  Man wants an image. Man wants something he can see, touch, carry, and control.  The 2nd commandment forbids that exchange. The catechism then adds, “or any other way not appointed in his word”. This is where the 2nd commandment reaches beyond statues and paintings. Images are not the only way to corrupt worship. We may corrupt worship by adding unauthorized ceremonies, manipulative techniques, priestly mediators not appointed by Christ, entertainment elements treated as worship, mystical practices, superstition, drama as a substitute for preaching, or anything else introduced as worship without warrant from Scripture. When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. (Deuteronomy 12:29-32, ESV) That is the principle in plain form: do not worship God by importing the practices of false religion; do not add; do not subtract. This does not mean worship must be ugly, careless, or lifeless. Sometimes people hear “regulated by Scripture” and imagine joyless minimalism. That is no more true of biblical worship than it is of lawful obedience to the Law. Biblical worship should be reverent, joyful, hearty, thoughtful, and full of faith. But its beauty must be the beauty of obedience, not the beauty of human invention. Question 56 also protects the church from tyranny. If worship is governed by human creativity, then the strongest personalities, the loudest preferences, the most persuasive leaders, or the most successful trends will rule the church. But if worship is governed by Scripture, then Christ rules His church through His Word. That is where true worship is found. So the 2nd commandment forbids images in worship and every other unauthorized way of worshiping God. The true God may not be worshiped according to man’s imagination.  He must be worshiped according to His Word. Question 57: Why the 2nd commandment? * What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? * The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship. Question 57 asks what reasons God attaches to the 2nd commandment. The catechism gives three reasons: God rules us, He owns us, and He is zealous for His worship. FIRST, God has sovereignty over us. God is not our consultant. He is not waiting for worship suggestions from His creatures. He is King. Psalm 45 speaks of the King in beauty, majesty, truth, meekness, righteousness, and everlasting rule. You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips;  therefore God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. (Psalm 45:2-3,6-7a, ESV) The catechism applies this royal language to God’s sovereignty. He has authority to command. He has authority to define what pleases Him. He has authority to reject worship He has not appointed. That cuts against a deep impulse in fallen man. We want to be sovereign over worship. We want to decide what feels meaningful, what seems effective, what attracts people, what expresses our personality, or what preserves our tradition. But worship is not self-expression. Worship is obedience to God’s self-revelation. Because God is sovereign, worship must begin with obedient surrender. SECOND, God has “propriety in us”. This older usage of this word means He has ownership of us. Psalm 45:11 says that He is Lord. The church belongs to Christ. The individual believer belongs to Christ. As Question 47 taught us, heart, soul, strength, and mind, all Christians belong to Him.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV) We are not our own. Therefore, our worship is not our own. Worship is not about us! This is especially important for Christians. God owns all men by creation, but He owns His people by redemption as well. We have been bought with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19; see Lesson 23, Question 49). That means the church does not have the right to reinvent worship according to the market, the culture, the pastor’s personality, the congregation’s nostalgia, or the preferences of the age. We belong to Christ. His Word governs His house. THIRD, God has zeal for His own worship.  You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. (Exodus 34:13-16, ESV, emphasis added) God’s jealousy is not incidental. His Name is Jealous. He is fiercely committed to His own glory and to the purity of His people’s worship. So Question 57 gives weight to the whole matter. We worship God as He commands because He is sovereign over us, because He owns us, and because He is zealous for His worship. Worship is not a playground for religious invention. It is the holy privilege of drawing near to the living God through the mediation of Christ, according to the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Conclusion Questions 54 through 57 teach us the 2nd commandment. The 1st commandment tells us to worship the true God alone. The 2nd commandment tells us to worship Him only in the true way. 54. The commandment itself: no graven images, no likenesses made for worship, no bowing down to or serving them, because the Lord our God is a jealous God Who judges covenant hatred and rewards covenant fidelity. 55. What the commandment requires: receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all the worship and ordinances God has appointed in His Word. 56. What the commandment forbids: worshiping God by images or in any other way not appointed in His Word. 57. Why this matters: God is sovereign over us, owns us, and is zealous for His own worship. So take this lesson with you in two ways. FIRST, let it correct how you think about worship. Worship is not mainly about what feels meaningful to us. It is about what God has commanded. The church does not gather to express religious creativity, but to meet with God through the means He has appointed. SECOND, let it encourage you. God has not left His people in the dark. We do not need to invent ways to draw near to Him. We do not need images, gimmicks, spectacle, or unauthorized helps. We have Christ, the perfect image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).  We have His Word.  We have His Spirit.  We have His ordinances.  We have His gathered people.  We have access to the Father through the Son. That is enough.  Because it is enough, we should receive it with gratitude, observe it with care, and keep it with joy.

Baptist Catechism - Lesson 24 - Questions 50, 51, 52, and 53

Lesson 24: Questions  50, 51, 52, and 53 In Lesson 23, we began to work through the Ten Commandments by considering the preface to the law. We saw that God identifies Himself as the Lord, the covenant God Who redeemed Israel out of bondage, and that His authority to command is grounded in Who He is and what He has done (Q47-49). That order matters. God does not present His law as an abstract code floating in the air. He speaks as the redeeming Lord. Now, having considered the preface, we come to the 1st commandment itself, which establishes the foundation for all true worship and all true obedience. Question 50: What is the 1st commandment? * Which is the first commandment? * The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The 1st commandment is short, but it is not small.  You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3) This commandment is first for a reason. Before God tells us how to worship Him (2), use His Name (3), remember His day (4), honor authority (5), preserve life (6), pursue chastity (7), respect property (8), speak truth (9), and order desire (10), He first commands exclusive allegiance to Himself.  The first issue is God Himself. That is because sin is never merely behavioral. Sin is worship gone wrong. When man turns from God, he does not become neutral. He gives his heart to something else. He fears something else, trusts something else, loves something else, serves something else, or seeks final satisfaction in something else. The 1st commandment confronts the root: you shall not have another god. This matters because idolatry is not only a pagan problem involving statues and temples. It is a human problem involving the heart. A man may not bow before an idol of wood or stone and yet still live as an idolater. He may live for money, reputation, pleasure, control, comfort, family, politics, success, intellect, sex, self-expression, or even religious usefulness. Anything that receives the trust, love, fear, obedience, or glory due to God alone has become a rival god. We should also notice that the 1st commandment is not merely negative. It says, “You shall have no other gods before me”, but the negative command implies a positive duty. If we must not have other gods, then we must have the true God as God. We must know Him, trust Him, love Him, worship Him, obey Him, and glorify Him. The 1st commandment is not satisfied by deism, vague spirituality, or bare monotheistic correctness. The commandment calls for covenantal allegiance to the living God. This is why the 1st commandment is foundational. If we fail here, everything else collapses. A man may externally avoid murder, adultery, theft, and lying, and yet still be a covenant-breaker at the deepest level if he does not worship the true God (see discussion on Matthew 19:16-22 from Lesson 22). Moral respectability without true worship is not righteousness. It may restrain certain sins, and that is a mercy, but it does not fulfill the 1st commandment. So Question 50 introduces the 1st commandment as the great command of exclusive worship and allegiance. The Lord alone is God. He alone is worthy. He alone must be trusted, loved, feared, served, worshiped, and glorified. No rivals. No replacements. No substitutes. No hidden gods before His face. Question 51: What does the 1st commandment require? * What is required in the first commandment? * The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly. The catechism now opens the positive requirement of the 1st commandment. It is not enough merely to avoid obvious idolatry. The 1st commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly. Notice the order. First, we must know God. Then we must acknowledge Him. Then we must worship and glorify Him accordingly. True worship is not built on ignorance. God is not honored by vague religious energy detached from His self-revelation. We must know Him as He has made Himself known. And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. (1 Chronicles 28:9, ESV) David’s charge to Solomon is deeply personal and covenantal. “Know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind.” That is 1st commandment religion. It is not mere outward compliance. It is knowledge of God, wholehearted service, and willing obedience before the God Who searches hearts and understands thoughts. That is searching. God does not merely see the outward action. He searches the heart. He knows whether worship is sincere or hollow, whether obedience is glad or grudging, whether public religion is joined to private love for Him. The 1st commandment reaches into the inward man. It asks not merely, “To whom do you bow?” but, “Whom do you love? Whom do you trust? Whom do you seek? Whom do you fear? Whom do you serve?” This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19, ESV) That is covenantal acknowledgment. Israel declared the Lord would be their God and they would walk in His ways, keep His statutes, and obey His voice. The 1st commandment requires not only that we confess there is one God, but confess He is our God. It requires personal, covenantal allegiance. This matters because there is a kind of bare orthodoxy that says true things about God but does not embrace Him as God. The demons know there is one God, and they tremble. A man may affirm monotheism, defend theology, and win arguments, and yet not worship and glorify God as his God. The 1st commandment requires more than correct vocabulary. It requires the heart’s allegiance. Then the catechism says we must worship and glorify Him accordingly. Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” (Matthew 4:10, ESV) Jesus speaks these words (cited from Deuteronomy 6:13) to Satan in the wilderness. Satan offered Him the kingdoms of the world and their glory if Jesus would fall down and worship him. Jesus answers with Scripture: worship belongs to the Lord God alone. Here we see the 1st commandment obeyed perfectly by Christ. Where Adam failed in a garden, Christ succeeded in the wilderness. He refused the shortcut of idolatry. He would not receive a kingdom by worshiping another. He would worship and serve God alone. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. (Psalm 29:2, ESV) To glorify God is to ascribe to Him the glory due His Name. That word “due” matters. Worship is not something we generously decide to give God. It is owed. God is infinitely worthy, and therefore worship is not optional. The creature owes worship to the Creator. The redeemed owe worship to the Redeemer. The child owes love, reverence, and obedience to the Father. And notice that worship must be “accordingly”. If God is the only true God and our God, then we worship Him as such. We do not worship Him casually, as though He were one interest among many. We do not worship Him selectively, as though He may command some areas of life but not others. We do not worship Him pragmatically, as though He exists to serve our goals. We worship Him as God. This includes public worship, but it is not limited to public worship. The 1st commandment reaches all of life. We must glorify God in our homes, work, speech, money, bodies, thoughts, desires, relationships, and plans. The 1st commandment requires whole-life allegiance. So Question 51 teaches us that the 1st commandment requires true knowledge, true confession, true worship, and true glorifying of God. We must know Him as the only true God. We must acknowledge Him as our God. And we must worship and glorify Him accordingly. Question 52: What does the 1st commandment forbid? * What is forbidden in the first commandment? * The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God, as God and our God, and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due unto him alone. The catechism now opens the negative requirement of the 1st commandment. Question 51 tells us what the commandment requires. Question 52 tells us what it forbids: denying God, failing to worship and glorify Him, refusing Him as God and our God, and giving His worship and glory to another. FIRST, the commandment forbids denying God.  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. (Psalm 14:1, ESV) The Bible does not treat atheism as intellectual neutrality. It treats it as folly. That does not mean every atheist is unintelligent. Some are very intelligent. But Scripture’s category of folly is moral and spiritual, not merely intellectual. The fool denies what is most fundamental: God is God. This denial may be philosophical, but it may also be practical. A man may say he believes in God and yet live as though God does not see, does not speak, does not judge, and does not matter. Practical atheism may sit in church, sing hymns, and speak orthodox sentences. The question is not only, “Do you affirm that God exists?” The question is, “Do you live before Him as God?” SECOND, the 1st commandment forbids not worshiping and glorifying the true God.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23, ESV) Notice the order. They knew God, but did not honor Him as God or give thanks. That is 1st commandment rebellion. God revealed Himself, and man refused to glorify Him. Man’s problem is not merely lack of information. It is suppression, ingratitude, and refusal to honor God as God. This should correct the way we think about sin. The root problem is not that man needs a little more self-esteem, organization, or religious inspiration. The root problem is that man does not glorify God as God. He takes gifts and forgets the Giver. He receives life, breath, food, pleasure, beauty, intellect, family, and strength, and then refuses gratitude. Ingratitude is not a small sin. It is an assault on the 1st commandment. THIRD, the 1st commandment forbids refusing the true God as “God and our God”.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. (Psalm 81:10-11, ESV) That is tragic language. “I am the Lord your God”, and yet “my people did not listen”. God presents Himself as their Redeemer, the One Who brought them out of Egypt, but they would not submit. Their sin was not merely that they failed to believe certain doctrines about God. They refused covenantal submission to the God Who had claimed them. This is a warning to religious people. It is possible to be near the means of grace, near the language of covenant, near the worship of God, and still resist God. External nearness is not the same as inward submission. The 1st commandment requires that we receive the Lord as God and our God. FOURTH, the 1st commandment forbids giving any other the worship and glory due to God alone.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:24-27, ESV) This is the logic of idolatry: exchanging the truth about God for a lie, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. Idolatry is not harmless spiritual creativity. It is a lie. It takes the glory due to the Creator and gives it to a creature. And notice what follows. Disordered worship leads to disordered desires. When man exchanges God for the creature, his loves become corrupted. The sexual revolution, the cult of self, the worship of comfort, the obsession with money, the hunger for approval, the sacrifice of children to the god of convenience, the frantic need for control: these are not disconnected sins. They grow from disordered worship. False gods always deform their worshipers. That should make this commandment deeply practical. What do you fear losing most? What do you run to for refuge? What do you believe will make life worth living? What makes you angry when it is threatened? What do you sacrifice for? What do you daydream about? What do you obey even when God says otherwise? Those questions often reveal the functional gods of the heart. So Question 52 teaches us that the 1st commandment forbids agnosticism, practical atheism, ingratitude, false worship, covenant refusal, and idolatry. It forbids every attempt to deny God, neglect God, minimize God, replace God, or give His glory to another. Question 53: What does “before me” mean? * What are we especially taught by these words before me, in the first commandment? * These words before me, in the first commandment teach us, that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God. This final question presses the commandment into the conscience. “Before me” teaches that God sees all things, takes notice of idolatry, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other god. Idolatry is never hidden from God. Exodus 8 tells of the 2nd (frogs) and 3rd (gnats) plagues. The crux of the story is found in verse 10: Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.” (Exodus 8:10b, ESV) In Exodus, the plagues are not random displays of power. They are judgments against Egypt and Egypt’s gods. Pharaoh and Egypt had false gods, false worship, false confidence, and false power. The Lord exposed them all. He showed that He alone is God. That context helps us understand “before me”. Pharaoh did not merely hold mistaken religious ideas in private. He stood before the living God in defiance. Egypt’s gods stood, as it were, before the Lord, and the Lord judged them. He saw. He took notice. He was displeased. And He acted. However, “before me” does not merely mean “where God can see it”, as though the main issue were secret idolatry versus public idolatry. It means no other god may be brought before Yahweh’s face. No rival may stand in His presence. No supposed lesser deity may be treated as though it has a legitimate place beside Him, under Him, or alongside Him. The Lord does not merely require first place among many loves. He requires exclusive worship. We, like the Israelites of old, must heed the call of this commandment. It is not enough to proclaim that God is God. We must hold to Him and Him alone as God, clinging to no other.  If we saw a man who claimed to love his wife, yet he was cheating on her with other women, we would call him a liar. He could not say “I love my wife the most.” Loving his wife means excluding all others. So, too, we must not simply love God first, we must honor Him alone. Conclusion Questions 50-53 bring us into the 1st commandment. God commands, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the foundation of all obedience. Before we ask how to worship, speak, or order time, authority, life, marriage, property, truth, and desire, we must ask: Who is God? Who has my worship? * FIRST, we should believe differently. We should stop thinking of idolatry as merely an ancient or pagan problem. Idolatry is the great human problem. The heart is always worshiping, always trusting, always seeking refuge somewhere. The 1st commandment teaches us that God alone must be known, acknowledged, worshiped, and glorified as God and our God. * SECOND, we should examine ourselves differently. We should ask not only, “Do I believe in God?” but, “Do I live before Him as God?” What do I fear, trust, love, obey, and glorify? What competes with Him? What would I sin to gain or sin to keep? Where am I giving creaturely things the worship and glory due to God alone? * THIRD, we should run to Christ. The 1st commandment exposes us all. None of us has loved God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But Christ has. He is the faithful Son, the true worshiper, the perfect commandment keeper. And by His grace, He not only forgives idolaters; He teaches us to worship the true God. So let us come to this commandment humbly.  No other gods before Him. No rivals before His face. No hidden idols in the heart.  The Lord alone is God.  He alone is worthy.  And in Christ, He is not only the true God; He is our God.

Baptist Catechism - Lesson 23 - Questions 47, 48, and 49

Lesson 23: Questions  47, 48, and 49 In Lesson 22, we began our introduction to the Law of God. We saw that the duty God requires of man is obedience to His revealed will (Q44), that the rule God first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law (Q45), and that the moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments (Q46). That means we are not approaching the Ten Commandments as a ladder by which sinners climb into justification. We come as people who have already been taught the doctrines of sin, Christ, redemption, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, death, resurrection, and judgment. Now, standing in that doctrinal context, we ask how the Ten Commandments are summarized and how God Himself introduces them. Question 47: What do the Ten Commandments teach? * What is the sum of the ten commandments? * The sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourselves. The catechism begins its treatment of the Ten Commandments by asking for their “sum”. That is important. Before it walks through each commandment one by one, it teaches us the inner logic of the whole moral law. The Ten Commandments are not a random list of divine rules. They are the moral law summarized, and that moral law is summarized in love: love for God and love for neighbor. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40, ESV) The first and great commandment is love for God. The second is like it: love for neighbor.  And on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. That means love is not a replacement for God’s commandments. Love is the heart of God’s commandments. The law shows us what love requires. This matters because modern people often pit love against law. They assume that love is flexible, spontaneous, and sincere, while law is rigid, external, and cold. But Scripture does not give us that opposition.  Biblical love is not lawless emotion. Biblical law is not loveless control.  God’s law teaches us the shape of love, and true love gladly walks according to God’s law. The first table of the law teaches us how to love God. We love Him by having no other gods before Him (1), by worshiping Him as He commands (2), by honoring His Name (3), and by keeping His appointed rhythm of worship and rest (4). The second table of the law teaches us how to love neighbor. We love our neighbor by honoring lawful authority (5), preserving life (6), pursuing chastity (7), respecting property (8), telling the truth (9), and governing our desires (10). So when someone says, “Christianity is about love, not rules”, we should ask, “What kind of love?” If love is detached from God’s revealed will, then love becomes whatever fallen man wants it to mean. It becomes sentiment, preference, permission, or self-expression. But if love is governed by God’s law, then love is holy. It seeks what God says is good. Notice also the totality of love required. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That leaves nothing outside. God does not ask for a small religious compartment within an otherwise self-governed life. He requires the whole person: affections, desires, thoughts, will, body, energy, decisions, habits, relationships, and worship. This exposes us. If the sum of the law is love for God with all that we are and love for neighbor as ourselves, then who among us can say, “I have kept the law”? We may compare ourselves favorably to other people, but the law does not ask whether we have been more outwardly decent than our neighbor. It asks whether we have loved God perfectly and loved our neighbor rightly. That is why this question must not become sentimental. The summary of the law in love does not make the law easier. In one sense, it makes it much more difficult. God does not require mechanical rule-keeping only. He requires love. He does not merely command the hands, but the heart. He does not merely forbid outward law-breaking. He requires inward love toward God and neighbor. At the same time, this question also protects us from treating the commandments as bare externalism. The law is fulfilled by love. A man may avoid certain outward sins because of pride, fear, reputation, convenience, or self-interest. That is not the obedience God requires. God commands love. Here again we see our need for Christ. Christ alone loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, strength, and mind. Christ alone loved His neighbor perfectly. Christ alone fulfilled the law from the heart. And those who are united to Christ are not only justified by His righteousness (i.e., His law-keeping), but also renewed by His Spirit so that we begin to love what God commands. So Question 47 teaches us how to read the whole moral law. The Ten Commandments are not less than commandments, but they are more than bare commands. They are the revealed shape of love: love for God first, and then love for neighbor under God. Question 48: What is their preface? * What is the preface to the ten commandments? * The preface to the ten commandments is in these words; I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Question 48 turns from the summary of the Ten Commandments to their preface. That may seem like a small detail, but it is not. God does not begin the Ten Commandments with, “here are My rules.” He begins with Himself: “I am the Lord your God”. He identifies Himself before He commands. And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Exodus 20:1-2, ESV) This preface teaches us that the commandments come from the covenant Lord and Redeemer. God’s law is not an abstract moral code floating above God. It is the revealed will of the living God Who speaks to His people. The authority of the commandments rests on God’s authority. The first thing God says is, “I am the Lord”. This is Covenant Name language. God is not merely a vague deity, a higher power, or a religious concept. He is the Lord, Yahweh (YHWH), the God Who is, the God Who has spoken, the God Who keeps covenant, the God Who reveals Himself, the God Who rules, saves, and judges. The law comes from Him. That means obedience is personal. We are not obeying an impersonal rulebook. We are obeying the living God. This is one reason sin is so serious. Sin is not merely breaking a principle. It is rebellion against the Lord. To disobey God’s law is to disobey God Himself. Then God says, “your God”. That is covenant relationship. He is not only the Lord in the abstract; He is the Lord Who has taken a people to Himself. He has claimed them. He has bound them to Himself. He has set His Name upon them. The commandments come in the context of covenant. That matters because some people imagine law and relationship are opposites. They think relationship means warmth without command, and law means command without warmth. Scripture does not speak that way. God’s covenant relationship includes commands, and His commands come within covenant relationship. The God Who says “your God” also says “you shall” and “you shall not”. Then God says He brought them “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Before Sinai, there was redemption. Before the commandments were written on tablets of stone, God had delivered His people from slavery. That order matters enormously. Israel was not given the law so that they might earn deliverance from Egypt. God did not say, “Keep these commandments, and if you do well enough, I will bring you out of bondage.” No, He redeemed them first. Then He commanded them. Redemption came before Sinai obedience. This does not mean Israel was redeemed in exactly the same way we speak of redemption accomplished by Christ in the New Covenant. The Exodus was a historical redemption from Egyptian bondage and a type of the greater redemption to come. But the pattern (type) is still important: God’s commands come to a redeemed people. He saves, then He instructs. He delivers, then He commands. This guards us from legalism. The law is not a ladder out of Egypt. God brought them out. They did not climb out by obedience. But it also guards us from antinomianism. The same God Who redeemed them also commanded them. Grace does not mean, “I brought you out, so now live however you want.” Grace means, “I brought you out; therefore, you belong to Me and must obey Me.” This is exactly why the preface matters for Christian obedience. We must not detach commandment from redemption. If we do, we will either turn them into a system of self-salvation or reject them as if they were hostile to grace. But when we read them in light of redemption, we see them rightly: the redeemed life has a shape. God saves His people and teaches them to walk before Him. The Exodus also reminds us that sin is bondage. Egypt is not only a geographical memory; it becomes a picture (type) of slavery from which God delivers. The Israelites were not brought out so they could invent their own freedom. They were brought out to worship and serve the Lord. Likewise, Christ does not redeem us from sin so that we may become autonomous. He redeems us from slavery to sin so that we may become servants of righteousness.  What is righteousness? The opposite of sin. What is sin? Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4, ESV) It follows, then, that the righteousness after which we strive is lawful obedience. So Question 48 teaches us that the Ten Commandments begin with God Himself: the Lord, our God, the Redeemer. The Law comes from the One Who has authority to command and has given grace to redeem. Therefore, the preface prevents us from reading the commandments as cold legalism. They are covenant words from the redeeming Lord. Question 49: What does the preface teach? * What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us? * The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments. Question 49 explains the theological meaning of the preface. Because God is the Lord, because He is our God, and because He is our Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments. That word “therefore” matters. Obedience is not detached from God’s identity or God’s saving work. It flows from both. FIRST, we are bound to obey because God is the Lord. He is Creator, King, Judge, and Sovereign. He does not need to ask permission to command His creatures. The Lord has absolute authority over everything He has made. His commands are not suggestions. They are binding. This is where modern man often stumbles. He wants a god who advises but does not command, comforts but does not rule, forgives but does not judge. But God is the Lord. We are bound to obey. SECOND, we are bound to obey because He is our God. That brings the matter closer. The commandments are not merely imposed from outside, as though God were an unknown ruler issuing distant decrees. He is our God. For Israel, the preface reminded them that the Lord had taken them to Himself in covenant. For believers in Christ, the point is even richer. The God Who commands us is the God Who has made us His people in Christ. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1:68-75, ESV, emphasis added) Zechariah speaks of deliverance in order that God’s people might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days. Notice the purpose of redemption: service, holiness, righteousness. God delivers His people so that they may live before Him. This is deeply important. Redemption is not merely rescue from consequences. It is rescue unto worship and obedience. Christ does not save us so that we can remain devoted to the same sins that enslaved us. He saves us so that we may serve God without fear. That phrase “without fear” matters. Gospel obedience is not servile terror. The believer does not obey in order to make God merciful. God has shown mercy in Christ. The believer obeys as one delivered, forgiven, adopted, and loved. But “without fear” does not mean without reverence, holiness, or seriousness. Zechariah immediately says “in holiness and righteousness”. Freedom from condemnation does not produce freedom from obedience. It produces freedom for obedience. THIRD, we are bound to obey because God is our Redeemer.  Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:13-19, ESV) Peter grounds holy conduct in both God’s holiness and Christ’s redemption (by precious blood).  That is exactly the logic of the catechism.  Because God is holy, we must be holy.  Because Christ has redeemed us, we must live with holy conduct. Notice how Peter speaks. He does not say, “You were ransomed, therefore obedience no longer matters.” He says the opposite. You were ransomed from futile ways. You were bought with precious blood. Therefore, be holy in all your conduct as obedient children. This means redemption strengthens the obligation to obey. It does not weaken it. Since God made us, He has authority over us. Since God redeemed us, He has claim upon us twice over. We belong to Him by creation and redemption. The Christian is not less obligated to obey because he is saved by grace. He is more deeply bound, but now gladly, as one who has been bought with blood. This is where we must be careful and pastoral. Some people hear “bound to keep all His commandments” and immediately fear legalism. That is understandable, especially if they have seen God’s law abused. But legalism is not the same as obedience. Legalism uses obedience as the ground of acceptance with God. Gospel obedience rests on acceptance in Christ and responds with love.  It’s also important to note that it’s not legalism if it’s right. It’s not legalism for me to be faithful to my wife. It’s not legalism for me to be honest on my taxes. It’s not legalism for me to honor my Father and Mother. Others hear “grace” and assume that commandment-keeping must be contrary to the gospel. But that is antinomianism. Grace does not make God’s will irrelevant. Grace writes God’s law on the heart and teaches us to walk in His ways. Grace does not destroy obedience; it enables it. Listen to what Jesus says: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. (John 14:21, ESV, emphasis added) What commandments would His hearers have heard? The Ten Commandments! So the preface to the Ten Commandments teaches gospel-shaped obedience.  God is the Lord, so He has authority.  God is our God, so obedience is covenantal.  God is our Redeemer, so obedience is grateful.  We obey not as slaves trying to earn release from Egypt/sin, but as those already redeemed. This also means partial obedience is not the goal. The catechism says we are bound to keep “all his commandments”. We do not get to choose our favorite commands and ignore the rest. God’s authority is not selective. His Word does not come to us as a buffet. We are not permitted to obey where obedience is easy and then negotiate where obedience is costly. At the same time, we must remember that our obedience in this life remains imperfect. We are not justified by the quality of our commandment-keeping. Christ is our righteousness.  But imperfect obedience is not the same as indifferent disobedience. The believer’s obedience is real, growing, Spirit-wrought, and grateful, even though it is not yet perfect. Q49 teaches the foundation of Christian duty. God is the Lord, our God, and our Redeemer, so we are bound to keep all His commandments. Authority, covenant, and redemption stand together. Conclusion Questions 47, 48, and 49 prepare us to walk through the Ten Commandments rightly.  47. The sum of the law: Love God with all that we are, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  48. The preface summarized: The God Who commands is the Lord our God, Who brought His people out of bondage.  49. The preface explained: Because God is the Lord, our God, and our Redeemer, we are bound to keep all His commandments. So, let’s take this lesson with us this week in a few ways: FIRST, we should believe differently.  We should stop thinking of law and love as enemies.  The law shows us the shape of love.  Love for God and neighbor is not a vague feeling; it is obedience ordered by God’s revealed will. SECOND, we should read the commandments redemptively.  God does not bring His people to Sinai before bringing them out of Egypt.  Redemption comes first.  The commandments are not a ladder into salvation.  They are covenant instruction for those whom God has delivered. THIRD, we should obey differently.  We do not obey to become justified.  We obey because God is the Lord, because He is our God, and because He has redeemed us.  Our obedience should therefore be humble, grateful, serious, and joyful. So as we move into the commandments themselves, we should come neither as legalists nor as antinomians. We come as redeemed people, trusting Christ’s righteousness, depending on the Spirit’s help, and desiring to love the God Who first loved us.  The Lord has brought us, His people, out of bondage.  Therefore, we are bound to keep all His commandments.

Baptist Catechism - Lesson 22 - Questions 44, 45, and 46

Lesson 22: Questions  44, 45, and 46 In Lesson 21, we considered what happens to the wicked at death and at the day of judgment. We saw that the souls of the wicked are cast into the torments of hell at death, while their bodies lie in their graves until the resurrection and judgment of the great day (Q42). We also saw that, at the day of judgment, the wicked will be raised, sentenced body and soul, and punished forever with the devil and his angels (Q43). Those are heavy truths.  Question 44 is an inflection point in the catechism.   Question 6: What is the Bible about? 17. What things are chiefly contained in the holy scriptures? 1. The holy scriptures chiefly contain what man ought to believe concerning God, and what duty God requireth of man.   Questions 7 through 43 have fleshed out “what man ought to believe concerning God”. Now, with Question 44, we begin the second part of that answer: “what duty God requireth of man.”   Before we begin, I want to say something frankly. Faithful Christians have disagreed about aspects of the Law of God, especially how the moral law relates to the Christian life under the New Covenant. I want to give grace to brothers and sisters who disagree with me, and I am willing to discuss and even debate those questions outside of class. But in class, we do not have time to chase every side trail. Clarifying questions are welcome, especially if you are trying to understand what is being taught. But I do need time to teach the material without turning the class into an extended debate.   Question 44: How then shall we live? 17. What is the duty which God requireth of man? 1. The duty which God requireth of man is, obedience to his revealed will.   This is a simple answer, but it is not shallow. After teaching us about salvation, death, resurrection, judgment, and eternal destiny, the catechism now asks: what does God require of man? The answer is “obedience to His revealed will.” That word duty is important. The catechism does not ask what man finds inspiring, what man prefers, what man feels is meaningful, or what man considers spiritually useful. It asks what duty God requires.  Man is a creature.  God is the Creator.  Man is not autonomous.  He is not self-defining.  He does not get to invent his own moral universe.  God made man, and therefore God has the right to command man.   This is already offensive to the modern mind. We live in a time when many people treat obedience as a threat to authenticity. They assume freedom means self-rule. But Scripture teaches the opposite. True freedom is not freedom from God’s will. True freedom is life ordered under God’s will. When a fish is “free” from water, it is not flourishing. When man is “free” from God, he is not liberated. He is dying. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8, ESV) Notice that this passage does not treat obedience as mysterious. God has told man what is good. He has revealed what He requires. Man’s duty is not to speculate upward into the clouds, trying to discover a hidden moral standard. God has spoken. He requires justice, mercy, and humility. That phrase “to walk humbly with your God” is essential.  Biblical obedience is not mere external conformity, though external conformity matters.  It is not simply keeping up appearances, though appearances matter.  It is the life of a creature before the face of God. Humility is built into obedience because obedience begins with the confession that God is God and I am not. And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23, ESV) This comes after Saul had disobeyed the command of the Lord while trying to preserve a religious-looking excuse. He claimed the spared animals were for sacrifice (i.e., worship). Samuel’s response is devastating. God does not desire religious performance as a substitute for obedience.  “To obey is better than sacrifice.” That matters because sinners are very skilled at religious substitution. We would rather do something impressive than submit to something plain. We would rather offer a grand gesture than obey a clear command. We may prefer dramatic sacrifice, public intensity, emotional display, or theological talk over simple obedience. But God is not fooled.  The duty God requires is obedience to His revealed will. This also helps us understand the role of doctrine. True doctrine never exists to make us clever rebels. Sound theology should make us obedient worshipers. If our doctrine increases our confidence while leaving us careless about obedience, something has gone wrong. Knowledge and obedience are not enemies. The Bible presents true knowledge of God as the root of faithful obedience. Now we must be careful. When the catechism says God requires obedience, it is not saying fallen man can render that obedience in his own strength. It is not saying obedience is the ground of our justification. We have already learned that justification is God’s gracious act of pardoning all our sins and accepting us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. We do not obey in order to become justified. We obey because we are justified. But that does not mean obedience becomes optional. Grace does not cancel duty. Grace restores us to God so that we may begin, however imperfectly, to walk in His ways. Christ did not redeem a people so they might remain lawless. He saves rebels and makes them sons, servants, and worshipers. So Question 44 teaches us a foundational principle: God requires obedience to His revealed will.  Not obedience to human tradition.  Not obedience to personal preference.  Not obedience to cultural fashion.  Not obedience to private impressions that contradict Scripture.  Obedience to His revealed will.  And that means the Christian life must be governed by the Word of God. Question 45: What rule do we obey? 17. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience? 1. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience, was the moral law.   Question 45 takes the general principle of Question 44 and applies it more specifically. Since God requires obedience to His revealed will, what did He first reveal to man as the rule of that obedience? The catechism answers: “the moral law.” This is where controversy often increases.  Many Christians hear “law” and immediately think “legalism”.  Others hear “moral law” and assume we are retreating from the gospel, weakening grace, or putting Christians back under Moses in a way that undermines the New Covenant.  We need to slow down. Legalism is a real danger. We should reject it. Legalism treats obedience as the ground of acceptance with God, adds human traditions as though they were divine commands, or uses law without Christ and without grace.  But the moral law itself is not legalism.  God’s commands are not the enemy.  Sin is the enemy.  Self-righteousness is the enemy.  Misusing the law is dangerous; the law itself is holy. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:12-16, ESV) Paul teaches that even Gentiles, who did not receive the law in the same covenantal form as Israel, still show “the work of the law” written on their hearts. Their consciences accuse or excuse them. This does not mean fallen man has saving righteousness by nature. He does not. It does mean man remains a moral creature living before God’s moral order. This is why all human beings have some sense of right and wrong, even when that sense is corrupted, suppressed, inconsistent, or misdirected. Men may deny God, but they cannot escape moral reality. They still accuse. They still defend. They still appeal to justice. They still condemn betrayal, cruelty, theft, and dishonesty when those sins are committed against them. Their conscience bears witness that they live under moral obligation. That matters because the moral law is not an arbitrary list God invented at Sinai. The moral law reflects God’s own righteous character and the moral order He built into creation. Man is not a blank canvas morally. God made man in His image, obligated to love, worship, trust, and obey Him. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. (Romans 10:5, ESV) Paul is contrasting righteousness based on the law with righteousness based on faith. The one who would be justified by law must do the law. That is a crushing word to sinners. The law does not grade on a curve. It does not say, “Try your best and perhaps God will accept you.” If you seek life by law-keeping, the demand is obedience. Perfect, unerring, perpetual obedience.  This is why the law exposes our need for Christ. The moral law tells us what righteousness requires, and then our sin shows us that we have not met that requirement. The law is good; we are not. The problem is not that God’s standard is defective. The problem is that man is guilty and corrupt. So we must hold two truths together:  * FIRST, the moral law remains a true rule of obedience.  * SECOND, the moral law cannot justify sinners.    If we confuse those two truths, we will fall into error.  * If we deny the law as a rule of obedience, we drift toward antinomianism.  * If we use the law as the ground of justification, we drift toward legalism.    The Reformed path is neither lawlessness nor self-righteousness.  It is gospel obedience: justified by Christ alone, and then taught by grace to walk in God’s ways.   This is why the sequence of the catechism matters.  It does not begin with the law (what we do). It begins with God, Scripture, creation, providence, sin, Christ, redemption, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, death, resurrection, and judgment (what we believe).  Only then does it unfold the moral law in detail. That order is pastoral and theological. The law is not being introduced as a ladder into God’s favor. It is being introduced as the revealed rule of obedience for creatures before God, and for redeemed people who now belong to Christ. It is not optional for any human, but true obedience is only possible for redeemed believers. So Question 45 teaches us that God first revealed the moral law as the rule of man’s obedience. That law condemns us when we seek righteousness by it, but it also teaches us what obedience looks like.  For the unbeliever, it exposes guilt.  For the believer, it remains a duty, lived through Christ, by the Spirit, in gratitude, faith, and love. Question 46: Where is the moral law summarized? 17. Where is the moral law summarily comprehended? 1. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.   Question 46 now tells us where the moral law is summarized. The catechism says it is “summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.” That phrase means the Ten Commandments summarize the moral law. They do not exhaust every possible application, but they give the central summary. “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.” (Deuteronomy 10:1-5, ESV) The Ten Commandments were written by the very finger of God on tablets of stone. That alone should make us slow to treat them lightly.  They are not merely Israelite cultural artifacts.  They are not moral suggestions.  They are not an embarrassing older stage of religion that Christians must outgrow.  They are the summary of God’s moral law. Now, we need to say this carefully. The Ten Commandments were given at Sinai within the Mosaic covenant. That historical setting matters. We must not flatten all biblical covenants as though nothing changes from Moses to Christ. The New Covenant is not simply the Mosaic covenant reprinted. Christ has fulfilled the law. The ceremonial and civil aspects of Israel’s covenant life are not binding on the church in the same way they were binding on national Israel. The catechism is not saying the Mosaic Law remains over the Christian as a covenant. I do not believe the Mosaic Law remains over the Christian as a covenant. It is saying the moral law is summarized in the Ten Commandments. That is an important distinction. The moral law did not begin at Sinai. Sinai gave a covenantal publication of the moral law, written by the finger of God, summarized in ten words. But the moral law itself is rooted in God’s character and creation order. And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22, ESV) Jesus points the rich young man to commandments from the Decalogue: murder, adultery, theft, false witness, honoring father and mother, and loving neighbor. Jesus does not treat the commandments as morally irrelevant. He uses them to expose the man’s understanding of goodness, obedience, and his own heart. In context, the man was claiming perfect righteousness for the second table of the Law, those commandments that govern relationships between man and man. He was wrong about this, so Jesus then goes back to the first table and exposes how this man’s wealth is a god competing with God, violating the First Commandment.  This is one use of the law: it exposes sin. The rich young man thought he had kept these commands. But when Christ pressed him, his idolatry was revealed. He loved his possessions. The law did not save him. It exposed him. That should teach us how to study the Ten Commandments. We must not study them superficially.  “You shall not murder” does not merely forbid the physical act of murder while permitting hatred.  “You shall not commit adultery” does not merely forbid the outward act while permitting lust.  “You shall not steal” does not merely forbid robbery while permitting greed and exploitation.  The commandments reach the heart. Jesus shows this in Matthew 5. (We’ll unpack these later.) At the same time, we should not study the commandments only as instruments of condemnation. For the believer, the law also teaches the shape of love. Jesus says the whole law hangs on love for God and love for neighbor. That does not make the commandments disappear. It shows their inner logic.  The first table teaches love for God. The second table teaches love for neighbor. This is why we should not pit love against law. Biblical love is not lawless sentiment. If I say I love God while worshiping idols, taking His Name in vain, and refusing His appointed worship, I am lying. If I say I love my neighbor while dishonoring authority, hating, lusting, stealing, lying, and coveting, I am lying. Love fulfills the law because love gladly seeks the good that God commands. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4, ESV; emphasis added) Here, John makes the explicit point that “sin is lawlessness.” Do you wish to avoid sin? The Law, even the Mosaic Law, especially the Ten Commandments, shows us the pattern for lawful obedience. So as we begin this section, we need the right posture.  We do not come to the Ten Commandments trying to earn justification. Christ is our righteousness. We do not come as autonomous critics sitting over God’s law. God is our Lord.  We do not come as legalists looking for ways to feel superior. We are sinners saved by grace.  We do not come as antinomians looking for loopholes. We are children learning our Father’s will. Conclusion Questions 44, 45, and 46 bring us into a new major section of the catechism. We have considered salvation in Christ, the benefits believers receive, the destiny of believers, and the destiny of the wicked. Now we begin to consider the duty God requires of man.   FIRST, we should believe differently.  We should stop thinking of obedience as a threat to grace.  Biblical obedience is not the enemy of the gospel.  Self-righteousness is the enemy.  Legalism is the enemy.  Lawlessness is the enemy.  Obedience to God’s revealed will is our duty and the grateful calling of every redeemed child.   SECOND, we should understand the law rightly.  The moral law reveals God’s righteous standard.  It exposes our sin.  It shows our need for Christ.  For the believer, it serves as a rule of grateful obedience.  We are not justified by law-keeping.  We are justified by Christ alone.  But the Christ Who justifies us also teaches us to walk in His ways.   THIRD, we should come to the Ten Commandments humbly.  We should not come eager to argue, looking for loopholes, or trying to soften God’s commands.  We should come ready to listen.  We should come as people who: * know our weakness * trust Christ’s righteousness * depend on the Spirit’s help * desire to please our Father   So as we enter this section on the moral law, let us remember the catechism’s order.    Grace has come first.  Christ has come first.  Justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and resurrection hope have come first.    Now, standing in that grace, we ask: “Lord, what do You require of us?”    And the answer begins here:  * obedience to His revealed will * according to the moral law * summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments

Baptist Catechism - Lesson 21 - Questions 42 and 43

Lesson 21: Questions  42 and 43 Last week’s lesson was heavy because Questions 39, 40, and 41 dealt with significant issues in the life of the believer: the benefits we receive now, what happens to believers at death, and what believers receive at the resurrection. This week’s lesson is also heavy, but in a different way. Questions 42 and 43 turn from the destiny of believers to the destiny of the wicked. We are dealing with death, hell, resurrection, judgment, and eternal punishment, so we must speak carefully, humbly, and biblically. Question 42: What happens to the wicked at death? * But what shall be done to the wicked at their death? * The souls of the wicked shall, at their death, be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.   Question 42 is deliberately parallel to Question 40. In Question 40, the catechism told us that at death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory, while their bodies rest in the grave till the resurrection. Now we are told what happens to the wicked at death. The contrast is sobering. The believer’s soul passes immediately into glory. The wicked person’s soul is cast into the torments of hell. That is not easy to say. It should not be easy to say. Christians must never speak of hell with cruelty, levity, or fleshly satisfaction. But we also must not speak more softly than Scripture speaks. The catechism is not inventing a doctrine to frighten people. It is summarizing the Bible’s own teaching.   FIRST, the catechism teaches that death does not bring unconscious nothingness for the wicked. Jesus teaches this in the account of the rich man and Lazarus: “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ (Luke 16:19-24, ESV) Now, there are debates about how to classify Luke 16. Some call it a parable; others see it as an account using real persons. But either way, the teaching is plain enough for our purposes. The rich man dies and is in torment. He is conscious. He is aware. He desires relief. Death has not brought peace, repentance, or communion with God. It has brought him into misery. That should sober us. Many people imagine death as a universal soft landing. They assume that when life ends, accountability fades and everyone enters peace. Scripture does not teach that. For the believer, to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord. For the wicked, death brings the soul into torment.   SECOND, the catechism says that the bodies of the wicked “lie in their graves, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day”. In other words, the wicked are not finished with judgment at death. Their souls are in torment, and their bodies remain in the grave until the final resurrection and judgment. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell. (Psalm 49:14, ESV) The wicked may follow many guides in this life: pride, ambition, pleasure, money, reputation, false religion, self-rule. But if they die outside of Christ, death becomes their shepherd. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” (Acts 1:24-25, ESV) That phrase, “to go to his own place”, is sobering. Judas did not simply vanish into nothingness. He did not pass into peace. Having turned aside from his apostleship and betrayed the Lord, he went to the place fitting for one who died outside of repentance. The verse does not tell us every detail about the intermediate state, but it does teach that death does not erase accountability. The wicked dead are not simply gone. They remain before God, awaiting the resurrection and judgment of the great day.   THIRD, Question 42 reminds us that God’s judgment is not theoretical. Jude gives several historical examples of divine judgment.  Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 5-7, ESV) These examples teach us that God’s patience is not permission. God may delay judgment, but He does not forget sin. Sodom and Gomorrah are not merely ancient moral warnings; they are examples of divine judgment. They show that unbelief and rebellion end in destruction and fire. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (1 Peter 3:18-20, ESV) We do not need to settle every question about that passage here. Good interpreters have debated the details. But the catechism is drawing on a broader biblical pattern: Scripture can speak of departed spirits as imprisoned, awaiting the fullness of divine judgment. The wicked dead are not simply gone. They are not dissolved into the universe. They remain accountable before God. Question 40 teaches the intermediate state of the righteous (those united to Christ). Question 42 teaches the intermediate state of the wicked. At death, their souls are cast into torment. Their bodies lie in the grave. And, like believers, both body and soul await the resurrection and judgment of the great day, though with very, very different outcomes. This should shape the way we think about death and evangelism. If these things are true, then death is not a small matter. And if Christ is the only Redeemer, then refusing Christ is not a small matter. We do not warn people because we are harsh. We warn because Scripture warns. We plead because Christ is merciful. We preach because there is salvation in no other Name. And we must remember this personally. It is possible to talk about hell as though it were merely a doctrine “out there”. But Scripture presses it upon the conscience. The question is not only, “What happens to the wicked?” The question is also, “Am I in Christ?” The only safe refuge from the judgment of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Question 43: What happens to the wicked on judgment day? * What shall be done to the wicked, at the day of judgment? * At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked, being raised out of their graves, shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels for ever.   Question 43 moves from what happens to the wicked at death to what happens at the day of judgment. Again, notice the parallel with Question 41. Believers are raised in glory, openly acknowledged and acquitted, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God forever. The wicked are also raised, but not unto glory. They are raised unto judgment. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:25-29, ESV) There is one resurrection event in view, but two destinies.  1. Those who are united to Christ are raised to life.  2. Those who remain in rebellion are raised to judgment.  That means the Christian doctrine of resurrection is not automatically good news for everyone. Resurrection is glorious news for those in Christ. It is terrifying news for those outside of Christ. The catechism is careful to say that “the bodies of the wicked” are raised out of their graves.    Believers are saved body and soul. The wicked are judged body and soul.    Human beings are not souls merely trapped in disposable bodies. God created man body and soul. Sin has corrupted the whole person. Judgment comes upon the whole person. The same body that served sin will be raised to stand before God. Then the catechism says that the wicked “shall be sentenced, together with their souls”. Judgment is not arbitrary. God does not rage irrationally. He sentences. He judges according to truth. He brings every work into judgment. The final judgment is not chaos; it is the public administration of divine justice. “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46, ESV) Question 43 clearly enunciates the doctrine commonly called eternal conscious torment (ECT).   It is not temporary correction.  It is not purgatory.  It is not mere nonexistence.  It is punishment “for ever”, as the catechism says.   This has recently become a hot-button issue again. In recent months, Kirk Cameron publicly questioned the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment and has expressed sympathy for annihilationism or conditional immortality, which holds that the wicked are ultimately destroyed rather than punished consciously forever. That discussion stirred significant debate among evangelicals, including responses from those defending eternal conscious torment (ECT) as the historic and biblical view.   We should not treat that debate as unimportant. We should also not treat it as though the church is free to choose the view that feels most emotionally manageable.    The question is not first, “Which doctrine do I find easiest?”  The question is, “What has God said?”   And this is where we must be honest. We do not take joy in the thought of hell. We should not relish the suffering of the wicked. There is something deeply wrong with the heart that talks about eternal punishment with a smirk. God Himself says He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but calls the wicked to turn and live:  Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11, ESV) And yet, in a qualified way, we do rejoice in this doctrine, not because we enjoy misery, but because we love justice. Eternal punishment means that God’s justice finally triumphs over sin.  Every evil hidden in the dark is brought into the light.  Every rebellion against God is answered.  Every oppression, blasphemy, cruelty, and impenitent sin is judged by the righteous King. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, ESV) That is weighty language: vengeance, punishment, destruction, exclusion from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His might. We should not try to sand off the edges. Scripture speaks this way because sin against God is more serious than we naturally imagine. This is one of the hardest lessons for modern people to receive. We tend to measure guilt by our own feelings, not by the holiness of God. We assume that finite creatures cannot deserve everlasting punishment. But that assumes sin is measured mainly by the duration of the act rather than the glory of the One sinned against. Sin against the infinite, holy, eternal God is not a small thing. Still, we must be careful. The doctrine of eternal conscious torment is not a license for speculation beyond Scripture. We do not need to describe hell in grotesque detail beyond what God has revealed. The catechism itself is restrained. It says “unspeakable torments”. That is enough. In these realities, we must faithfully say what God has said and teach what the Scriptures teach: no more, no less. So Question 43 teaches several things. The wicked will be: * Raised bodily * Judged publicly * Sentenced justly * Punished eternally   This should humble us. No Christian believes this because he is morally superior to the wicked. By nature, we also were children of wrath. If we are saved, it is not because we were wiser, softer, or more deserving. It is because God had mercy. The doctrine of hell should never produce pride. It should produce worship, trembling, evangelistic urgency, and deep gratitude for Christ. Conclusion Questions 42 and 43 are heavy, but they are necessary. The catechism has shown us the destiny of believers in life, death, resurrection, and glory. Now it shows us the destiny of the wicked in death, resurrection, judgment, and eternal punishment. At death, the souls of the wicked are cast into torment, while their bodies lie in the grave until the resurrection and judgment of the great day. At the day of judgment, their bodies are raised, reunited with their souls, and sentenced to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels forever.   * FIRST, we should believe differently. We should stop thinking of death as a harmless transition for all people. For those outside of Christ, death is not peace. It is entrance into judgment. We should also stop thinking of hell as an embarrassing doctrine to hide. We teach it because Scripture teaches it. We affirm it because God affirms it. * SECOND, we should live differently. We should plead with sinners, pray for the lost, warn without cruelty, and speak of Christ with urgency. Hell is real, judgment is coming, and Christ is merciful. The same Bible that teaches eternal punishment also proclaims a mighty Savior.   So let this lesson make us sober, not harsh; urgent, not manipulative; humble, not proud.  We were not saved because we deserved rescue.  We were saved because of Christ, Who bore judgment for His people.  Therefore, let us flee to Him, cling to Him, and proclaim Him. And let us worship the God Whose mercy is deep and Whose justice is perfect.