“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Christ is the Author of my faith, the eternal God who established in me from eternity to my finite being. God is before and after me, God is with me now… all because of Christ.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.“
Through Christ, God has shown us mercy – Christ loved us and is the end of the Law – He made us obedient from the heart. We see no reason to make a carved image, or any likeness of anything in heaven or earth or the waters. We have no cause to bow to them or serve them – for we see the glory of God in all of creation; all that we see leads us to bow to the Creator, with gratitude and awe we serve under His power and peace.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.“
When we understand who Christ is and what He has done, believing in His divine nature, His lordship and His resurrection, then we understand that He abides in us, and we abide in Him – all the words we speak are in His name, and are said in substance, not based on our own performance, but because of Christ’s finished work.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
The rest that we have through Christ is a peace beyond all understanding, and as such is present to us in a sense beyond time, and therefore is present in us all the time. The rest we are in is not merely on the seventh day – though, with regards to productivity in this finite world, we would probably do well to rest once a week, it’s important to realize that we have a rest that never leaves us.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
We have not only been given life that has a chance to be abundant in this world, but through Christ we a life that is everlasting and eternal, one that we celebrate, of all things, by giving recognition to our parents who conceived for us to come into being.
To be honest I think I could spend more time meditating on this in particular. Why were our father and mother mentioned? God could have mentioned our spiritual leaders, our mentors… but why, of all people, were our father and mother involved?
“You shall not murder.”
Christ lay down His life, executed in the most brutal and twisted of fashions, with what I imagine was the greatest physical pain and the deepest mental torment. As we recognize that He took the death we deserved, and as we appreciate the Life He imparted upon us, we realize how preposterous it would be for us to proclaim anyone deserving to die; to call anyone ‘Raca!’ or much less to deliberately murder anyone is an insult to the death Christ became for us, and an affront to the Life poured out to us. We who are alive have no place to deal death, but it is in our nature as new creations to celebrate, share and impart Christ’s Life for many to be saved.
“You shall not commit adultery.”
By Christ’s finished work He has lavished His great love upon us. He died and rose again, reconciling us, reuniting us – now we are so close and so intimate to each other (God abides in us and we abide in God), and we are literally one. This is not to imply that we are god, but that we certainly will always HAVE God, just as God HAS us.
We not only celebrate this great love demonstrated by Christ giving everything, but we also celebrate His undying loyalty and more importantly, His willingness and commitment to be with us and to enjoy us, now and forever. As such we place the same value on our own relationships, and the relationships and connections other people have.
“You shall not steal.”
Because we have a God who knows us by name, and a Savior who knows all that there is to know about us but still gave everything up for us to have pleasure beyond belongings and joy beyond our finite imagination, we are (1) content with what we have and what we don’t have in this finite world, just as we are (2) respectful of whatever we have been made stewards, and whatever is given to others. We recognize that while we do not have provisions according to what we think we need, we do have an eternal Savior who has, more than anything else, provided us with all the provisions we DO need.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
As we have had all accusation taken away from us by the finished work of Christ, so we not only avoid accusing, and especially lying against our fellow man. In fact, God has publicly proclaimed, just as the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ with His encounter with John the Baptist, so we know God looks at us and announces, ‘This is also my Son/Daughter, in whom I am well pleased’.
There is no condemnation in Christ, only commendation. We speak well of our neighbors.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Considering just how intimate we are with Christ, and how He knows all there is to know about us, down to the gripes I’ve said in the past, among other things… So we not only are thankful for the blessings and experiences we have for how good they make us feel, but also because we know that Christ knew exactly what we needed in particular at any given moment. As such, we are not naturally envious of the blessings others receive, but we genuinely celebrate with them, understanding that they have what they have by God’s grace upon them specifically.
I’m obviously writing this on the fly, and I just think it was good to write it all down. I had it in mind in and out throughout this day, and it was good to put into writing. Gives us more perspectives as to just how Christ forgives us.
Until the next post, be blessed.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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