In the Old Testament the Ten Commandments relationship pathway created order and righteousness and wisdom and faith (trust). This was able to enrich their lives in Spirit, soul and body (Psalm 19).
The first four Commandments deal with our relationship with God, and that the next six deal with our relationships with one another. From this develops purpose, meaning, sacrifice, responsibility and fulfillment.
In the New Testament this pathway works through faith and grace (Romans 8:4). In this ...
In the Old Testament the Ten Commandments relationship pathway created order and righteousness and wisdom and faith (trust). This was able to enrich their lives in Spirit, soul and body (Psalm 19).
The first four Commandments deal with our relationship with God, and that the next six deal with our relationships with one another. From this develops purpose, meaning, sacrifice, responsibility and fulfillment.
In the New Testament this pathway works through faith and grace (Romans 8:4). In this ge the Law is written in the heart, where through grace and faith they can be fulfilled and not broken (3000 killed in Exodus 32/3000 made alive in Acts 2)
The children of Israel had been in bondage in Egypt for four hundred years, and they had lost any understanding of God, not to mention a loving God and that meant that they could not relate to or trust a lawgiver (Just make more bricks). So Moses had a task ahead of him - how to get these people to not just relate to a law, but rather to relate to a loving Father behind that law (just the same today).
The advantage in the Old Testament was that they were confronted daily with the Law and the Sacrifices.
The disadvantage was that they did not have the life of God in the Holy Spirit within them.
A Divine Design for the pathway.
God had concealed an amazing design within the structure of His Ten Commandments, as a sequence of steps where success in any one commandment leads to an understanding of the next. Obedience to the first Commandment gives competence and understanding of the second Commandment, and in the same way, failure in say, the sixth Commandment means a lack of competence and understanding in the fifth.
A Proper Expectation
The Commandments can then be seen to serve as some kind of a map like that of a main roadway, or a railway line, where a person always knows what the next destination will be because they have passed through the last destination. As we go through the Ten Commandments one by one, we will see that there is a principle of growth involved in each Commandment and an experience of faith that will stay with us as we apply ourselves and are obedient to the revelation that we receive at each 'stop' along the way. God intends all growth to be established on a firm basis of experience.
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