NCC Q8: The awesome gift of the Ten Commandments

New City Catechism Question 8

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

A: You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below—you shall not bow down to them or worship them. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not covet.

Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

As John Yates shares in the catechism material, the Ten Commandments truly are a love gift from God. They truly are a treasure, and as such Christians should commit them to memory, reflect on them, and seek the follow them each and every day. And the reason they are such a treasure is that they are so foundational and critical to every aspect of the Christian life. The Ten Commandments teach us how to relate to God and how to relate to others, and therefore they are the perfect commentary on the Great Commandment: Love God and love others. Therefore the Ten Commandments serve as the basis for Christian ethics; we are given the roadmap for how to live and navigate the Christian life, and to know what is right and what is wrong.

But the Ten Commandments go deeper than a simple primer in Christian ethics; they also point us to the heart of the Christian faith. No one has perfectly kept the commandments as we are required to do so (See New City Catechism Question 7). And even if we claim that we have followed the Ten Commandments perfectly (which is impossible, see Question 13), Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 that our heart breaks these commandments on a regular basis even if we are keeping them externally. We have all broken God’s law, and we cannot stand before God on our own. The Ten Commandments therefore remind us of our desperate need for someone who has kept God’s law perfectly, who can stand in our place…and point us to the one who has done just that: Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.

So the Ten Commandments are indeed a treasure, and every Christian should know them, memorize them, and obey them. Doing so will only lead to a deeper and more fruitful relationship with our loving creator God. But in addition to the rich spiritual benefits of obedience, the Ten Commandments also provide us with an incredibly practical tool for making life decisions, both big and small. For example if we are faced with a situation where one decision would lead us to lie and be deceitful and the opposite decision would allow us to be completely truthful, then it becomes readily clear which decision is right in God’s eyes. And even if there are seemingly compelling reasons to lie, God does not give us exceptions in Scripture where it would be permissible to break the ninth commandment. So the Ten Commandments help us in our decision making.

The Ten Commandments also help us cut through competing motivations and desires surrounding any given decision and help us to see with clarity a situation that may at first seem murky and clouded. For example when we face a major life decision such as a career change, we may think that our true motivation is to want to provide more for our family, and we move forward in that decision even if there are major roadblocks in the way. But reflecting on the commandments may reveal our true heart motivation is actually covetousness (wanting what someone else has), or perhaps an idolatry of money (placing a desire for wealth above God).  So the Ten Commandments not only help us make God honoring decisions more easily, they also help us see our true heart motives so that we can make God honoring decisions with clarity and confidence.

The Ten Commandments truly are a gift from God and a treasure that every one of us should store away in our hearts. Do we truly see the Ten Commandments in this way? Do we see them as life giving truths to be written on our hearts that will strengthen our relationship with God and others? Or do we see them as bothersome legalistic reminders written on old stone tablets to be dragged out and consulted every few years? My prayer is that these commandments would be seared on each of our hearts, and that they would radically transform every aspect of our lives. 

NCC Q7: Loving "that" neighbor

New City Catechism Question 7

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Q: What does the law of God require?

A: Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves. What God forbids should never be done and what God commands should always be done.

Matthew 22:37-40

“And Jesus 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 of the Law and the Prophets.’”

This passage, what we often call the Great Commandment, is actually two commandments: Love God, love neighbor. But the second is as John Wesley puts it, “inseparably connected with the first.” You cannot love God without loving your neighbor. And this Great Commandment truly does summarize the entire law of God: Love God, love neighbor. As New City Catechism moves into studying the Ten Commandments in the material ahead it is easy to see that the Ten Commandments are simply an expanded commentary on this Great Commandment that Jesus gives us: Love God, love neighbor. This truly is the foundation of God’s entire law.

Now clearly we cannot be saved through the obedience to the law, we are saved by grace through the cross of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the cross of Jesus Christ does not do away with the law; rather the cross ushers us into a relationship with God where we can follow and obey his law. So our goal as followers of Christ should be to perfectly obey this law: Love God, love neighbor. And this side of heaven we will always have opportunity to grow in this, because we clearly aren’t perfect yet! We can always grow in our love and devotion for God, to grow in surrendering more and more of our lives to him, and to give God access to the dark closets of our hearts and mind and let the Holy Spirit do his powerful, cleansing, and purifying work. 

We can also grow in loving our neighbor. But this seems to be where we start to add exemptions to this law. Just as the lawyer in Luke 10:29 tries to get a neighbor “exemption” from Jesus, we also try to qualify who our neighbor is by restricting our neighbors to those people who we like, who we get along with, who agree with us, and who love us in return. But Jesus gives us no such exemptions! The parable of the Good Samaritan that follows the lawyer’s inquiry teaches us that 1) we need to love others even when it is inconvenient, and 2) our neighbor is everyone, even people that we despise. Wesley eloquently puts it this way in the catechism material:

“Your neighbor—not only your friends, kinfolk, or acquaintances; not only the virtuous ones who regard you, who extend or return your kindness, but every person, not excluding those you have never seen or know by name; not excluding those you know to be evil and unthankful, those who despitefully use you. Even those you shall love as yourself with the same invariable thirst after their happiness. Use the same unwearied care to screen them from whatever might grieve or hurt either their soul or body. This is love.” (italics added)

There can be no qualifications or exemptions when it comes to God’s law. We must love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and not just part. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves and not restrict who our neighbor is. And if our neighbor seems too difficult to love, then let us simply reflect on Jesus, who died for us: miserable, wretched, unlovable sinners. We are that neighbor who is difficult to love and doesn’t deserve love! But despite that, Jesus loves us with a self-giving, self-sacrificial, self-emptying love. And he calls us to love in the same way (1 John 4:10-11).

NCC Q6: Glorify God...like a restaurant?

New City Catechism Question 6

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Q: How can we glorify God?

A: We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and by obeying his will, commands, and law.

Deuteronomy 11:1

“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.”

The catechism answer and passage from Deuteronomy is pretty straightforward. We glorify God by enjoying him, loving him, trusting him, and most importantly by obeying him. If we want to glorify God we shouldn’t just listen to him, we should obey him. Or as it says in James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Obedience is a critical way we can glorify God on a daily basis. Often the first step towards a life that glorifies God is simple obedience. If God says something in the bible, then do it.

But glorifying God can still be difficult, even if we are obeying, and I think it is because our hearts and minds are not in it. Now often the heart and mind can follow an action, so obeying God even if we are not “feeling it” can lead to our hearts and minds coming around and falling in step with our acts of obedience.

But glorifying God may require us to also reassess what else in our lives we glorify over and above God. As Joshua Harris points out in the catechism material, the problem isn’t that we don’t know how to glorify God. Harris makes this excellent point: “The fact is that we all know how to glorify something or someone…because we do it all the time.” He goes on to show how we talk passionately and endlessly to others about our favorite restaurant, new phone, and significant other. I recently found this to be true in my own life when my wife and I had a friend from out of town stay with us for a few days. She and another friend were planning on going to a local restaurant that I had been to and really enjoyed, and so I eagerly showed her the menu online (the pictures on the online menu alone were mouthwatering!), told her about my favorite item on the menu, and told her what was unique about that restaurant. I glorified that restaurant without even trying. And we all do that on a regular basis. So we already glorify people and things in our lives, and often we devote more energy to glorifying those things instead of to glorifying God.

So then the question becomes, do we feel and talk the same way about God? And if not, why not? Why is it so easy for us to talk on and on about our favorite smart phone and yet not talk that way about God? It may be that we have too many other things in our lives that we already put so much energy into glorifying (restaurants, phones, careers, spouses, kids, cars, sports…the list could go on and on!), and we need to redirect that energy away from those things and focus it on glorifying God. But it may also be that we need to spend more personal time reflecting on who God is, how great he is, and the wonderful things that God has done for us. God has saved us from our sin through sending Jesus to die for us, and he also continues to provide for us on a daily basis. And the more we remember who God is and what God has done for us, the more we will glorify God, through our obedience to him and by proclaiming him to others. 

NCC Q5: A Personal Response to God's Creation

New City Catechism Question 5

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Q: What else did God create?

A: God created all things by his powerful Word, and all his creation was very good; everything flourished under his loving rule.

Genesis 1:31

“And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
                             

This is a very simple, yet mind blowing truth. God created everything. We often water down this discussion of what God made with the tangential discussion of how God made it. Was it in seven literal 24 hour days? Are the days in Genesis 1 referring to ages that account for the seemingly old age of the earth? The list of questions goes on and on. Now while it is not necessarily a bad thing to reflect on how God made everything, it can distract us away from the more foundational (and certain) truth… God made everything. And everything he made was good. What Genesis 1 draws us to is not a scientific debate but to a powerful statement of God’s power and might and rule… God made everything and it was very good. God made each and every galaxy that exists, and he made each and every one of the hundreds of millions of stars in every single one of those galaxies. And he made each and every thing in those galaxies, down to the smallest atom and particle. And in the New Testament we see more specifically that all things are made by, through, and for Christ, God the Son (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-17). All things are created through the cosmic Christ. Kent Hughes explains it well in the catechism material when he says that if he commandeered the starship Enterprise from Star Trek and travelled at warp speed past galaxy after countless galaxy, and ended up in some remote corner of the universe, even the smallest piece of stellar dust would be created by Christ and sustained by Christ.

And such a powerful truth should evoke a powerful response from those who love God. And yet this is where so many Christians stand underwhelmed looking at creation and the work of the cosmic Christ. Maybe we simply don’t think enough about the awesomeness of God’s creation, or maybe we just don’t allow enough time for such a powerful work of God to shape our minds and our hearts. But if we do allow ourselves some reflection on the cosmic Christ, at least two responses become very clear.

First, the cosmic Christ leads us into deeper worship. When we are overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of all of God’s creation, then worship will naturally follow. Focusing on the vastness of God’s creation while at the same time reflecting on the intricate details of that creation takes us away from ourselves and the daily stresses we face and prepares our hearts to truly cry out “How Great is Our God!” It is not surprising then, that Kent Hughes in the catechism material notes that he often begins his time of daily devotion and prayer by reflecting on the universe and God’s creation. The glorious work of the cosmic Christ truly does lead to deeper and more heartfelt, genuine worship.

Second, the cosmic Christ challenges us to let go of our anxieties. Christ has created and continually sustains very part of our vast universe. Everything is sustained by his loving care. And when we compare that to the situations in our lives that cause us anxiety, they are relatively miniscule. This is not to say that these situations are trivial; certainly many of the situations that cause us anxiety are very real situations with very serious problems. But the cosmic Christ reminds us that those problems that seem so big and terrifying to us are not a problem for him! Our difficulties and struggles are not a problem for the one who creates and sustains even the smallest piece of stellar dust light years away! So when Jesus exhorts us not to worry about our lives, about what we will eat, or drink, or wear, this is not some a motivational pep talk (Matthew 6:25ff). This is not about us simply being positive in the face of tough circumstances. This is the creator God who loves us and died for us telling us that whatever uncertainty we face, he has it taken care of and we don’t need to worry about it!

Certainly there are further responses we can have to the cosmic Christ, all of which are worth times of deep reflection. We can reflect on the divine power and authority that Christ has in all things and over all things. And we can reflect on how there is order and purpose in creation, and not randomness. But if we can just begin by allowing the cosmic Christ to lead us into deeper worship where the focus is off ourselves and on our great creator God, and then respond by casting our anxieties on him, our lives will be radically transformed. Will you do it? 

NCC Q4: Human beings and the Image of God

New City Catechism Question 4

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Q: How and why did God create us?

A: God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.

Genesis 1:27

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.”

What an awesome truth that we as human beings are made in the image of God! The more we understand that we are made in God’s image; that we are made to reflect something of God, the more we will be motivated to live fully for God and for his glory. The catechism material will further explore how we can glorify God in the weeks to come, and rightly so.

However before we can dive into a discussion of how we can glorify God, it is well worth reflecting on the significance of the truth that we are made in the image of God. God made us to image himself! What a staggering concept! And while the image of God has certainly been marred in sinful humanity, there is nothing in the bible to indicate that the image of God is gone in human beings, or that some people have more of the image of God than others. Therefore we can safely say all human beings are made in the image of God, which means that we should view every single human life as sacred. And with that comes several powerful implications:

First, the sacredness of human life should shape our understanding of current events and issues. That human beings are sacred should shape how we view what is going on in our world today, from war to poverty to global pandemics such as AIDS. It should also shape how we think about hot button issues of our day, such as abortion, euthanasia, and modern technologies such as stem cell research and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Often Christians support or oppose such events and issues because of what a few public Christian voices argue for, or because it just “feels” right or wrong. But the sacredness of human life coming from being made in the image of God gives us the ability to think critically and to make a real contribution to public discourse surrounding these events and issues. It allows us to state why we believe what we believe, not just what we believe.

Second, the sacredness of human life means that we should NEVER dehumanize another human being. Sadly, so much of the public debates in our world today are dehumanizing debates…instead of actually discussing an issue on its merits, pundits attack each other and try to portray their opponents as evil or idiotic for holding a different view (and yes this happens on both sides of the political spectrum!). And what is even sadder is that Christians are often guilty of engaging in the same dehumanizing behavior. For example, while we rightly advocate for the rights of an unborn child we can easily dehumanize the woman who is considering an abortion or who has had an abortion. While rightly arguing for a deep commitment to Christ and obedience to the Scriptures it is easy to dehumanize individuals and denominations that have moved away from such commitments. While we rightly grieve some of the directions our culture is heading in, we also attack that same culture as evil and hopeless instead of trying to transform that culture through being salt and light for Jesus Christ in the world. And while we rightly take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, it is easy to judge and stereotype and dehumanize people of other religious faiths, the very people we are trying to reach.

Finally, the sacredness of human life means that we should have a healthy view of ourselves. Certainly we cannot become arrogant or self-centered. But being made in the image of God means that we are incredibly valuable to God! In such a competition driven culture, our self worth often comes not from the God who made us in his image but from comparing ourselves to others or looking to others for affirmation, which usually leads to us feeling inferior and in turn drives so much of the depression, anxiety, and stress that we experience. But being made in God’s image means we can be confident in who God made us to be, and strive to live more for God and not to please others or to get their approval.

Every human being is made in the image of God. Every human life is sacred. How does that challenge how you view the people, events, and issues in your life and in the world today? If we are to truly glorify God then we must uphold this awesome truth and let it daily impact how we view ourselves, others, and the world around us.

NCC Q3: Triune Community

New City Catechism Question 3

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Q: How many persons are there in God?

A: There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

2 Corinthians 13:14

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Pastor Kevin DeYoung rightly points out that the Doctrine of the Trinity is “the most important Christian doctrine that most people never think about.” And those who do think about the triune nature of God can get confused very quickly. How is it that there is one true God, that is three persons, where each person is fully God, and each person is not the other person (in other words there is no Clark Kent to Superman transformation in some divine phone booth!)? And yet even if we cannot wrap our mind around the Trinity, the bible clearly affirms every part of this doctrine, from the oneness of God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), to the three persons of God (2 Corinthians 13:14, Matthew 3:16-17) to the divinity of all three persons (John 1:1-2, 8:58, Acts 5:3-4). And each part of this truth is critical to the Christian faith. For example, if Jesus Christ is not fully God, how can the atonement have any power to save us from our sin? And so even if we cannot fully wrap our finite minds around the triune nature of God, we must clearly affirm what the bible clearly teaches, that there are three persons in the one true and living God.

But even when we accept that God is a triune God and accept that this truth is critical to our Christian faith, there is still the problem of applicability. What practical meaning does the Trinity have for us in our day to day lives? DeYoung does a great job in the catechism material outlining three areas where the Trinity practically applies to our lives. 1) We can have unity within diversity, we don’t have to settle or push for one at the expense of the other. 2) The Trinity teaches us about the role and importance of community. And 3) we learn about what DeYoung calls the eternality of love; that love is not some construct created by human beings, but it has always existed in the perfect community of the triune God.

Each of these areas of application is worth further study and reflection. However given the increasingly individualistic understandings of spirituality in our culture today (both Christian and non-Christian), the area of application that possibly requires the most immediate attention is the nature of community found in the Trinity. God has always eternally existed in community, and God’s creation reflects that community. Human beings were made to be in community, not in isolation (Genesis 2:18-25). In the Old Testament God calls a people (not individuals) to himself as his chosen covenant community (Genesis 12:1-3). The early church existed as a tight knit community of faith (Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-37). And the Scriptures refer to the Church as the body of Christ, a community that is intertwined and interdependent on each other for health and survival (Ephesians 4:1-16).

Therefore the Trinity teaches us that community is foundational and critical for every aspect of the Christian life. The take home message then is this: You cannot be a lone-ranger Christian. You cannot experience any significant spiritual growth as a Christian outside of Christian community. You cannot effectively develop and use the gifts that God has given you outside of Christian community. You cannot be an effective witness for Christ if you are cut off from Christ’s body. I will go so as to suggest that you cannot even survive spiritually outside of Christian community, because without the community of faith supporting you and speaking truth into your life, you will be carried off to wherever the waves of our culture are heading. To be a healthy Christian means to be in community.

So what is keeping us from experiencing this kind of community and growing in this kind of community?  Some will shy away from being invested in community because of problems they see in their local church. Ironically, sinless perfection in churches then becomes the standard by which sinful imperfect people invest in community. But there are no perfect churches because every church is full of sinners! Others will shy away from community because of sin in their lives, either because they are afraid it will get exposed or because they know it will get exposed and they don’t want to let go of that sinful part of their lives. But the reality of sin in each of our lives means we actually need community more, not less! And others will shy away from community because investment requires time, and time is too precious of a commodity to spend in our already very busy over scheduled lives. And the list of reasons goes on…

But none of these reasons even come close to justifying us giving up on the community that we were created to be in, that flows out of the community of the triune God. And since an intimate, loving, community is at the heart of the triune God, then our hearts should be set to invest ourselves and dive deeper into our local church community, and not to move away from it. Are there difficulties about growing in community? Absolutely! But those difficulties pale in comparison to the rich blessings we receive from growing in community. And ultimately, growing in community prepares us for the perfect community we will one day experience, when we are finally home with our Heavenly Father.

NCC Q2: Our Amazing God

New City Catechism Question 2

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Q: What is God?

A: God is creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.

Psalm 86:8-10, 15

“There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God… You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

This is one of the more frustrating questions in New City Catechism for me…not because of the content in the answer, but because of the amount of content. There is so much here, trying to take it all in is like participating in a food challenge that various restaurants have, where if you eat an insane amount of food in a certain period of time you get a t-shirt and get on their wall of fame. There is just so much to take in it is impossible to do in one sitting! In this statement, we see God as a creator God. We see who God is, evidenced in his attributes. We see that all of those attributes must be held together; we cannot pick and choose what parts of God we like and don’t like (when we engage in such picking and choosing we actually cease to talk about the God of the Bible!). And we see what God does in how he sustains all things and governs all things according to his will. So within this one question and answer there is a lifetime of truth that we can reflect on and feed our souls with.

But while we may not be able to take it all in at once, we can go a little deeper with part of this awesome truth. So here I want to look at the first and last parts of this answer: that God is the sustainer of everyone and everything, and that nothing happens except through God and by his will. These are bold statements, and really are only possible because of who God is. It is only an eternal, infinite, perfect, powerful, good, glorious, wise, just, and true God who can sustain and govern everyone and everything. And these bold statements form the foundation of what is known as the Doctrine of Providence: God sustains and governs all things. And all things means…all things. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that the laws of physics will remain the same tomorrow as they are today. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that regardless of what happens to us, that our lives are sustained by our creator God. It is because of Providence that we can be confident that when we face struggles and situations that seem to have no solution, God is working in that situation and he works all things together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). God sustains and governs all things, which is one of the most comforting and practical truths for Christians in our world today.

Now whenever God’s Providence is affirmed as it is here in Question 2, there is invariably some pushback in the form of this question: But what about _________________? What about this evil we see in the world today? What about this pain and suffering I’m going through? What about this senseless killing? What about this tragedy in my life? Because of the brokenness of this world that is marred by sin, we will see these things, and yes, God in his wisdom does allow this evil, even though he does not cause it. Evil, pain, and suffering do fall under God’s Providence. And philosophers and theologians have offered excellent responses to this problem of evil as it pertains to God’s Providence and can be explored more in deeper study. But in this space, let me offer a few brief pastoral responses to these questions that get raised:

When we see or experience pain and suffering, it is far better to have a God who is in control than a God who is not. The alternative to a God who sustains and governs all things is a world of chaos and despair, where evil wins the day and there is no hope. While we may not understand why something happens, affirming God’s Providence in light of the pain and suffering we see and experience means that we take hope in the fact that evil does not have the final word. Evil is not greater than God! God is in control, and a day is coming where there will be no more pain and no more suffering (Revelation 21:1-4). What a glorious hope! We may never get the answer to those “why?” questions, but we know and trust and believe in a God that does know why. And that is enough.

And so God’s Providence stands firm, and we can rest and take comfort in his Providence, even in the midst of pain and suffering. How will this awesome truth about God impact your lives this week? My prayer is that the following words of the Heidelberg Catechism would be the cry of our hearts now and for the rest of our lives:

“We can be patient when things go against us,
thankful when things go well,
and for the future we can have
good confidence in our faithful God and Father
that nothing in creation will separate us from his love.
For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand
that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.”[i]

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[i] Heidelberg Catechism, Question 28.