Under Grace, the Ten Commandments are.....
.....More like a measuring stick, then a set of laws to keep (now that Jesus has given His life for our sins). The Ten Commandments are there to remind us that no one (even FAL) can keep each of them 100% of the time, 24/7!
Each Commandment reminds us that we need something more than a list and directions on how to make personal blood sacrifice to atone for our sins.
Jesus reduced (unheard of, "how dare He?") the Ten Commandments to two things: Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor (which is the overall objective of the Ten Commandments).
This change, or reduction from Ten to Two, came directly from His Son, and meant that a new age, the age of Grace, was ushered in with His presence in human form, eventual death and miraculous resurrection.
The day and age of holding one's life up to the Ten Commandments is gone. The day of salvation and blood atonement through the Son of God is upon us, and it is through Him that each of us is truly accountable.
My one question to FAL is simply this: Can you honestly tell us that you are not guilty of breaking these Commandments throughout each day of your life?
It is quite obvious that you have broken the Commandment to "not judge" numerous times, in this OP alone. So, what say you? Are you going to tell us that you would rather live under the age of the Commandments, or the age of Grace?
As for me and my house, I'd much prefer being under His Grace, because it leaves me accountable to the Father, not you, and that was the purpose of the Commandments in the first place.
As you know, in the simple form: Man sinned. Man needed to atone for the sin. God gave them a way back through blood sacrifices. This failed miserably. So they asked for specific directions, or laws to follow and obey! God gave them the Commandments (which man turned into thousands of little laws to simplify the major ten and help them obey). Along with blood sacrifices, the commandments proofed to much and again; man fell on his face in failure to get back into God's good graces.
So man asked for a king to come and judge and rule over them, and help them keep the Commandments and make the sacrifices on their behalf and for them. The kings proved to be corrupt and more difficult to live under than the personal sacrifices and the Ten Commandments.
Next, God sent them Prophets, and these guys were denounced and even killed, and not held up in the esteem an emissary of God should be held in!
Man just couldn't see beyond the tip of their nose when it came to their desire to get back to God!
So Jesus arrives, the honest-to-goodness King of Kings, and he had to die in order to save man. This brought us under a period of Grace, like it or not, and even Jesus summed up the ten commandments, making them into two. This should have been much easier to keep, but man still fails to follow God in rejecting their one last hope to gain eternal life and forgiveness of sin!
In a nut shell, give or take a few things, that is the history of a man's quest to get back into God's good graces. Even with a living Savior, they couldn't seem to grasp the message, or wrap their heart around the truth that would result in their spiritual redemption and freedom from sin and judgment. How sad and pathetic is it that man continues to seek favor with God, but they never recognize that favor when it is given.
I know this simple explanation may not be exact, and open for interpretation. I also know that some of you will probably vehemently disagree with me! This is inevitable, so have at it. :thumbsup: I was simply trying to reduce thousands of years of effort to gain God's forgiveness and favor into a few paragraphs. I think I did fairly well. However, please feel free to add anything you believe I left out, or reported wrong. :laugh:
Shalom,
Pastor Paul