Years ago when our government began removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings such as schools courtrooms, city halls and even public parks; I heard a TV preacher say that he couldn’t understand why Christians were upset about that since we are under grace and not those laws. I wondered at the time which of those God-given rules of conduct Christians shouldn’t obey? Is it OK for us to put another God before our heavenly Father; create idols; use God’s name in vain; murder; steal; lie about our neighbor; commit adultery; covet what others have; or even fail to honor our earthly parents? I don’t think so! The only possible exception might be to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, but Christians still set aside one day each week for rest and worship, although it is normally the day of the week Jesus left the tomb (Sunday) instead of the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). I’m sure that preacher was trying to emphasize the fact that we are saved by grace and not by following the law, but (and it is a big but) those commands are still rules of conduct for obedient children of God who are born again by God’s mercy and grace.
As I’ve mentioned many times in my blog posts, Jesus doesn’t teach His followers that we can ignore the Old Testament. In His sermon on the mount that begins with Matthew 5:1, He tells us several times that we are to be held to an even higher standard than those rules of conduct laid out in the Old Testament. Jesus says that we must not only avoid the act of murdering another person; we are not even to hate them in our heart. He teaches that His followers must not only avoid the act of adultery, we must not lust after someone in our heart. Jesus requires us, as His followers and God’s children, to not only be pure in our physical actions, but also pure mentally and spiritually as well.
How can we ever live up to such a high standard? God knows that we could never do it on our own without His help. He provides that help through His Holy Spirit. When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and become a child of God, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our heart. He not only shows us how to live for our heavenly Father, but He provides us with the power to do it.
Are we perfect? No! Our salvation through God’s mercy and grace is immediate, but our sanctification is a process – a journey. As we draw closer to God through prayer, worship, study of God’s word and we learn to recognize and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we become more and more like our Father, who is perfect. I have been on this journey for 68 years and I’m still not perfect, but I am so much closer now than I was when I began my journey at the age of eleven. Never compare your journey to anyone else’s. Compare where you are now to your start to see how far you have come and then compare where you are now to the perfect likeness of your Father that you hope to achieve to make sure you are still traveling in the right direction.