The God Who is There Legislates

One of the most common objections raised against Christians and Christianity in the West today is that
Christians are intrinsically narrow and bigoted. They hold that certain things are true and that their opposites are not true.

Today the popular secular view says that truth is shaped by community. Truth is merely what some particular group or any individual in the group perceives it to be.

All of these things have to be kept in mind when we come to the Bible and discover that God legislates, and He lays down laws. Most Western thinkers are offended by this. Yet in the Bible’s storyline, we discover that God’s law is actually bound up with the joyous freedom of life lived under the guidelines of the God who made us.

God’s Exclusiveness

The First Commandment speaks of the exclusiveness of God: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3 In this context God is disclosed as the Creator, the one who has made everybody and everything. As the Creator, He is the God to whom we are accountable, dependent upon, and the God who gives us life, breath, health, strength, and everything else.

Because of creation and because of God’s liberation of His covenant people, there is a repeated demand for allegiance to the God who is there. The very nature of the first rebellion was idolatry. What if God had said to Adam & Eve, ‘just make up your spirituality as you go along, it does not matter to Me.’ That would deny who He is, His role as Creator, and His exclusive function as sovereign sustainer of all of life.

That would not work. God is a Jealous God.

If mankind were allowed just to do what we wanted, we would all simply slide into endless self- justification, self-love, and self-focus. We would become completely indistinguishable from unbelievers all around us, and would soon be offering our children to the gods of this world.

God’s Transcendence

The Second Commandment directs us to recognize the supremeness of God. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (Exodus. 20:4). As soon as we start saying “God looks like this” (whether a fish or a mountain or a human being), somehow God gets reduced. He becomes something that we can domesticate, and control.

God’s Importance

The Third Commandment emphasizes the importance of God. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” (Exodus 20:7) For a person to misuse God’s name in some sense is to disrespect Him, to slur Him.

When we say, “Oh my God,” we say we don’t mean anything by it. That is precisely why the usage is “profane” —it makes it common. Using the name of God or of Jesus when you “mean nothing” by it is profane because it makes Him cheap, of no value. There is nothing common about God. When we are using God’s name, we must say and do nothing that in anyway diminishes or disregards Him.

Speaking in this way is at best disrespectful, ungrateful, and demeaning; and at its worst it denies His deity, and that sinks to the level of idolatry.

God’s Reign Over Us Includes Our Use of Time

The Fourth Commandment reminds us of God’s right of reign over every domain of life, including our use of time. Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you can work, but the seventh day is God’s.

This work and rest pattern was established in creation. God did His creative work in the six days, then rested, and that pattern establishes a cycle of time in the human order.

It is impossible to summarize the entire ritual structure God establishes in this law, but we need to grasp one big part of it. God ordains a tabernacle (a big tent, a predecessor to the temple) be built, and that it be built a certain way.

Given our modern, secular world, some of us cannot help but think, ‘what kind of religion is this with its bloody animals and wandering goats?’ Leviticus 16 describes many of the priestly sacrifices and what they signify, especially concerning the “Day of Atonement” as prescribed by the God who legislates.

God has displayed clearly that He holds His people accountable. He sent Adam and Eve away from His presence because of sin and they (nor we) could not be reconciled to God and His presence on their own. He must do it Himself; and He did, in Christ.

Exodus 33:14 Then Moses said to Him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

We must have and be in the presence of the living God. It is not enough for any church simply to have the right rituals, sermons, or music. If God is not present by His prescription, then what is the point of the whole exercise? The point is to understand what God has legislated to be done in order for fallen mankind
to be reconciled to the God who made us, and  Who holds us accountable. In Him there is life, and joy.