Category Archives: Christian Living

Born to Live

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Born to Live

Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Lesson 20: Romans 6:1-14

We are not just born to be born. We are born to live. It is monstrous to think that a parent would want children just to give birth to them. The whole idea is to love them, to care for them, and to help them grow up. It is equally unthinkable that God’s great goal for believers is only that they be born again. The whole of Scripture teaches that the “new birth” is to create God-honoring people. Even spiritually, we are born not just to be born. We are born to live.

The first five chapters of the book of Romans summarize how lost humans are justified. Every human (Jew and Gentile, educated and fool, slave and master) is totally fallen in sin, and depraved to the core of his being. It rules out the fantasy that anyone lost in sin could do anything truly good in God’s eyes. No natural descendent of Adam can grasp the actual truth about God, or rightly appreciate what he has done and made.

All who do what is truly good, or who trust in God’s promises, do so because God enables them by his mercy. The true children of God are those restored to fellowship with their Creator. Their separation of spiritual death ended when they were made alive spiritually having had their debt of sin paid if full by the work of Jesus Christ. He satisfied divine justice in their place.

In chapters six through eight Paul turns his attention to the results of this new birth. Now that a person is made spiritually alive, he is to live in Christ by becoming more like him morally. We call this “sanctification.”

The Shorter Catechism defines sanctification in its answer to question 35.

Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

There is one sense in which all true believers are holy already in Christ.

All Christians are declared “sanctified” in Christ. This is the judicial part of Sanctification. God declares us to be holy because he imputes the holiness of Christ to us. Sixty one times believers are called “saints” (holy ones) in the New Testament. In several places believers are directly said to be sanctified when they are born again.

1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:”
Hebrews 10:10, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

This does not mean they were free from sin and had become perfectly holy in their attitudes and behavior. These verses only have to do with the fact that the holiness of Christ is credited to them judicially.

There is another sense in which we are not yet sanctified.

We need to be growing in holy behavior and thoughts, and overcoming our habits of sin. In 1 Peter 1:14-16 the Apostle wrote, “as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ ” Here, Peter used the same word for “being holy” as the other verses referring to our having been sanctified.

This kind of “progressive sanctification” is what Paul is talking about in this next section of Romans. This is what the catechism is describing in question 35. The work of the Christian life is to be growing to be more and more holy, and less and less influenced by the corruption of sin.

As Paul develops this idea in Romans six through seven,
he brings up four questions.

Paul uses these questions to correct common confusions about our battle with sin.
Question 1, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (6:1)
Question 2, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (6:15)
Question 3, “Is the Law sin?” (7:7)
Question 4, “Has then what is good become death to me?” (7:13)

This section follows Paul’s telling about how God delivers us by grace from our deserved condemnation. Salvation has nothing to do with what we have done. It is based solely upon what Christ has done. It is not even our choice or decision that makes us believers. It is the change produced in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that makes undeserving sinners into humble believers. Grace is what enables us to repent, and to believe.

So then Paul raises a question that might come up in the confused mind.

Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

This is a common reaction of those who are confused about the biblical doctrine of grace. Their thinking goes this way, “If our behavior doesn’t cause God to save us, and if our wickedness becomes a backdrop that demonstrates the wonders of grace, then why stop sinning? Shouldn’t we keep on sinning so that grace will be displayed all the more?”

Paul immediately dismisses the idea implied by this question.

Romans 6:2, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

He uses a very strong expression here. He does not say “God forbid” as some earlier versions have it. Those words are in no Greek manuscript. They are not a direct translation. The words in Greek are mae genoito (μὴ γένοιτο). They literally mean, “let it not be!” It is like saying, “don’t even think such a thing!”

Then he gives his reason, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

But how is it that the believer is “dead to sin?”

We are certainly not dead to the influence of sin as some dare to imagine. Biblical examples and direct statement of Scripture show that we still get taken in by temptations, and need to be growing to become more holy. Those who teach some form of Perfectionism violate these clear statements of God’s word.

Some would speculate that we are merely dead to the penalty of sin, as if we can now sin without guilt or consequences. It is true that the power and penalty of sin is death, and that this is removed in Christ. But Paul is speaking of sinning less, not of getting punished less for it. It disproves his own point if Paul meant that we can now comfortably continue in sin with no concern for its consequences.

Some others teach that we should just think of ourselves as dead to sin, even though we are really not dead to it. Paul is not commanding that we live in some kind of mystical delusion. There is no hope or truth in that. There is much more here, something anchored in reality, a change in our nature. It is not something that simply “ought” to be, but something that “is.” We are in fact dead to sin.

These theories do not make much sense when you consider the context, and the point being made. These ideas have only been suggested to avoid what the Bible does in fact mean. Some of these interpretations imply that sin is not such a serious problem any more, that we need not concern ourselves over it much, it has been taken care of.

Other theories imply that we have the ability within ourselves to overcome sin. This reduces sin to our wrong attitude, rather than it being a real enemy. It shifts the burden onto the sinner. This produces depression and discouragement because it just isn’t so.

In this section of Romans Paul clarifies how our relationship with sin has changed. We do not need psychological theories of sin, or creative theological complexities to understand God’s promise. As the Apostle concludes his answer to this first question, he wrote;

Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you,”

The point Paul is making here is that we are dead to sin in a very specific way. We are dead to it as our master. Our former bondage to sin is a thing of the past. It no longer controls our moral inclinations.

Death in Scripture is primarily a “separation.” When a person dies physically, his body and soul are separated. When a person is spiritually dead, he is separated from fellowship with God. When we are dead to sin’s mastery (which is the context here) we are free from it’s blindness and dictatorship. If we are separated from the mastery of sin, then being alive in Christ in this chapter must mean coming under his mastery instead. The separation of the lost sinner from true righteousness has ended.

We will see how that is done more in our next study of this section. It is clear in this passage, that since we are dead to sin by being united with Christ in his death, and since we are now alive in him as our new master, there is a real hope and promise that we can make progress in overcoming sin.

This conquest does not rest in our own strength or determination. It does rest in a real promise and method given to us in Scripture. It explains our frustrations and failures to grow spiritually when we try any other way.

Being dead to sin directly answers the question in verse one. Those who are dead to sin are dead to it because they are alive in Christ. Those who are alive in Christ will not be looking for ways to excuse their sin. A person asking if he should sin all the more so that grace might abound, shows that he has not known the work of grace upon his heart at all.

The question raised is not a problem with the doctrine of grace. It is a problem with the sinner. Instead of the fear that grace would make us careless about sin, the change worked by grace makes us all the more concerned about our sin.

When the true believer sins he does not try to find a way to deny that it is wrong. He grieves before God that he failed his Redeemer. He humbly repents. He wants to overcome it. He finds comfort in the awesome suffering and death of Christ in his place. Though in this life he never fully eliminates sin, he is no longer bound to it as his lord and master.

The believer still sins to be sure. So how is it accurate for Paul to say, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” John’s first epistle helps us understand the situation.

1 John 3:6, “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”
1 John 3:9, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

Both of these verses, and the references by Paul in Romans 6, use forms of the Greek verbs that indicate a continuing or habitual practice. It is more accurate to translate it that the believer is “not continuously sinning.” There are other ways in Greek to say that a person does not sin at all. A person born of God cannot be sinning in this way; not as his way of life, not as that which rules him as his master.

So then, why do believers struggle so much against sin in this life? Though we are not under bondage to sin, we are not yet fully sanctified in this life.

There is a sin principle that is very much active in us.

Though we are not kept from ever sinning again, the living child of God is in the process of growing in sanctification. We are born not just to be born, but so that we might live in Christ, growing in holiness. It is part of what glorifies God in his church. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.

Romans 5:16, “… the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”
Romans 5:20, “… where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,”

However, it is not true that this should motivate us intentionally to sin more. Those reasoning that way really show no interest in seeing grace abound. It is just an excuse to cover up the serious offensiveness of sin.

Explaining this, and helping us discover the victory over sin which we have in Christ, is Paul’s purpose in Romans 6-8. That victory over our daily sins and sinful desires is the theme of this section. We need a more biblical understanding of the triumph that is ours in Christ.

The problem that challenges us is to know and understand the promise of God. We should no longer be deceived by an imagined false bondage to sin. Our growth in holiness should demonstrate God’s power in his maturing children.

We love to see our babies grow up into mature adults. That is every parent’s dream. We mark down when they first sit up on their own, when they first walk and talk. We remember that first day of school, the first date, the first job they have. We remember their struggles, their failures, the times we have with them of laughing and grieving together. No, we are not born just to be born. We are born to live. We are also redeemed in Christ not just to be redeemed by a moment of birth. God gives us life so that we might live for him! What a tragic life that is content to be merely born. It is also tragic when a Christian is content to simply be redeemed but has no evidence of growing up into mature Christ-likeness.

Sin is joyfully conquerable in Christ, not just in theory, but in truth and in practice. The Apostle John wrote this promise for us in the first chapter of his Gospel account,

John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

If you have no interest in growing in holiness, then you have cause to question if you are alive in Christ. In contrast with this, if you have an interest in holiness, and admit that it is a winnable struggle for you, then there is great hope in this promise of God. Our next studies will show how Paul develops this lesson for us.

(The Bible quotations in this article are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Today’s Sabbath

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Today’s Sabbath

(Westminster Shorter Catechism Q: 57-62)
(watch the videos: Part 1, Part 2)
by Bob Burridge ©2011

We each have 168 hours every week. We have to budget them for time to sleep, work, eat, buy things, and fix what breaks. We never seem to have enough hours to do all we want. As we develop our time budget, we need to remember that 24 of those hours are not ours to spend. They belong to God. He calls us to devote one seventh of our lives to him in a special way.

Exodus 20:8-11 explains this moral principle which God built into his world at creation. The 4th of the Ten Commandments says,

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 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.
11 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.

God commands one whole day out of every seven to be dedicated to him, and he carefully prescribes how that day is to be kept.

Like the first three Commandments, this principle is part of how God is to be honored in the world he made. Unlike the whole system of laws about sacrifices, feast days, diets, and ceremonies, the Sabbath was not set up to teach about our redemption through the work of Christ. It was mandated even before sin came into the history of the human race. It is a demonstration of God’s continuing Lordship over all as the Creator of everything.

Since it is that important, it understandably becomes a prime target of Satan. He takes advantage of the weaknesses and greed of us fallen people. Every one of the Commandments is twisted around by making up excuses to disobey them. The Sabbath is openly challenged by many churches which reject its place as a guide for godly living in our present world.

Some theorize that the Sabbath was only for Israel, that it was never intended for the church. Those who divide up God’s plan like that, attack his unchangeable decree for the ages. They assume that his purposes changed depending upon human decisions and rebellion.

Some misunderstand how it was that Jesus fulfilled all of God’s law. He fulfilled the law’s demands by paying the price demanded in our place when he died on the Cross. He also fulfilled the perfection of the law by obeying it perfectly. He fulfilled all that is needed for his people to be declared innocent based upon his death, and declared to be righteous because of his holy life as their representative. Nowhere are we told that Jesus came to eliminate the moral principles laid down at Creation. Jesus himself made this very clear in Matthew 5:17-20. Those who dismiss this 4th Commandment based upon the fulfillment argument are usually quite defensive about the other nine.

Part of the problem is the distorted way
this commandment is understood.

The word Sabbath is the Hebrew word shabat (שבת). It means to cease doing something.

It does not mean “seventh” as some seem to think. The word for seventh is shevi’im (שביעים). That word has a very different spelling and origin.

The word Shabbat does not mean the kind of rest where you recuperate or get your needed sleep. As a day of rest it does not mean that you should take it easy, sleep late, or get a good nap. The English word “rest” had a different meaning when the early translations were made.

One of the original meanings of the English word “rest” is the same as this Hebrew word. It means to cease. We still use the word rest that way in music notation. A rest symbol in a musical score does not mean the musician takes a nap or goes for a break. It means that the sound he was making stops for a specific count.

Certainly God was not tired out after his work of creation. He did not need to rest in that sense. In Genesis 2:3 it says that God “rested from all his work.” Today it is more literally translated that God “ceased from all his work.” The work he had been doing was that of creating things. When he finished he stopped creating. He rested, ceased from creating things. He did not take a vacation to get his strength back.

The expression Sabbath Day literally means “a day of ceasing”.

The 4th Commandment tells us what we
are to cease from doing on the Sabbath Day.

Exodus 20:9-10, “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.”

The word for labor here is ‘avod (עבד). It is the normal word for the work we do to earn our provisions. In verse ten it means we are to stop doing what we were just commanded to do on the other six days in verse nine.

Labor is not a penalty of sin. It is what God directed us to do while we were still an unfallen race. In Genesis 1:28 God told Adam to subdue the earth and to rule over it. This subduing and ruling means to make responsible use of it: to provide for our daily needs, and to act as God’s managers of the world to promote his glory.

Some try to excuse themselves from keeping Sabbath by saying that every day is the Lord’s Day. That sounds very pious, but it is not consistent with what God says. Certainly every moment belongs to him and must be used for his glory. It was God himself who set aside the Sabbath Day to be special from our other days of work.

God did not call us to become idle on the Sabbath Day.

The work you are to stop doing is that by which you earn your daily provisions. Your other moral duties continue on the Sabbath. There are three kinds of activities God specified to be done on the Sabbath. They are works of worship, works of necessity, and works of mercy.

We are to be busy with worship on the Sabbath.
The whole point of the Sabbath Principle is the honoring of our Creator in a special way. Worship involves many things that need to be done on the Sabbath. God commanded those who lead as Elders to be very busy on that day. However, their work was never considered labor in Patriarchal times, in God’s law, or in the New Testament church. They serve God’s Kingdom, and are supported from the tithes of those under their care. (That is a point taken up in our study of the 8th Commandment.)

The same is true for the worshipers. It is not labor to do all that is needed to go to church. God commands the gathering of his people under the Elders for worship on the Sabbath Day. It is a direct violation of this Sabbath Principle to use rest and recuperation as excuses to sleep in on Sundays, or to go fishing so that you neglect coming to church.

Works of necessity should continue on the Sabbath.
These are the things needed to preserve life. God’s word shows that it is expected of us on the Lord’s Day to feed and care for our families, house-guests, and animals. We are to defend against lawbreakers, and save those in danger. The things we think we need to make life more enjoyable or relaxing are not necessities of life.

Jesus illustrated these provisions of the Sabbath Principle in Matthew 12:1-8. The corrupted religious leaders accused Jesus and his disciples of breaking the Sabbath when they picked grain to eat while walking through a field. Jesus explained that eating and preparing food was never forbidden by God. It is wrong to buy food, or to sell meals or foods on the Sabbath, but it’s not wrong to prepare meals for yourself, and for the guests in your home.

It is also our obligation to keep the peace by protecting against crime and aggression. We are not to close police stations, or to give our armed forces a day off.

We do not cease from our kitchen work, let criminals run loose, or leave crashed cars dangerously scattered on roads until Monday. To avoid buying on the Sabbath, you can prepare before Sabbath comes. Be sure your car is gassed up, and your refrigerator and cupboards are supplied adequately. Peacekeeping agencies should avoid doing routine office work on the Sabbath, while they continue to protect the population against illegal activity. Even churches should do their regular office work on the other six days and restrict Sabbath activity to what is necessary to carry out proper worship.

The Sabbath should be a day for doing works of mercy.
These are activities that show our compassion and love for the truly needy. This includes helping or comforting the lonely, sick and infirm, or rescuing those in danger. Hospitals and nursing care centers do not close down all day on Sundays, and hope those under their care survive until Monday.

In Matthew 12:10-14 Jesus used an example to show that mercy was never forbidden in God’s Sabbath law. No one was expected to leave sheep that fall into a pit to suffer and die on the Sabbath. In Luke 13:12-17 he said that we do not stop caring for our ox or donkey because it is the Sabbath. In both passages Jesus was being criticized for healing someone on the Sabbath Day. There are emergencies that come up which ought to be taken care of.

These activities stand in contrast with our regular labor by which we earn our living. It’s that work that is forbidden on the Sabbath Day. To do it is open rebellion, and disregards one of God’s most basic commands.

The employer, not the worker, bears the greater responsibility for Sabbath. In Egypt, Israel was held as a nation of slaves. They were not permitted to keep the Sabbath holy. God held their captors and taskmasters guilty. For that they paid a heavy price. Workers should do their best not to work on the Sabbath. If they are required to do so by threats, the employer faces God’s judgment for this sin.

The Commandment holds you responsible if you cause others to break the Sabbath. Verse 10 of the commandment in Exodus 20 says, “… 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.”

It is your duty to see that all those you care for, host, or pay to serve you, keep the Sabbath Day holy to the best of your ability. This applies to your children, your servants (all those you hire to work for you, those you pay to serve you), even the animals you might use to get your work done, and any guest who is staying with you.

We should not support Sabbath labor that is performed for our own pleasure, rest, or personal gain. This was always the practice of God’s people until very recent times. The Reformers suffered greatly for opposing businesses being open on the Lord’s Day.

The rise of radically dispensationalized theologies have denied God’s continuing moral principles. They encourage people to violate this Sabbath Principle by paying others to work for them, or to serve them with pay on Sundays.

As much as it goes against our modern culture and the accepted practices in some churches, paying others to work for you when you go to restaurants, professional sports games, commercial tourist attractions, or stores to shop on the Lord’s Day is wrong, even if it is to take advantage of special sales or promotions. If all believers in Christ stopped paying others to serve them or to sell to them on Sundays, many businesses would find it more profitable to be closed on the Lord’s Day.

The reason for the Sabbath is to honor God as our Creator.

The Creation Sabbath is often confused with the Levitical Sabbaths.
The Levitical Sabbaths were set up under Moses as temporary holy days for Israel. They were about God’s plan to redeem us from sin and its devastating effects. The ceasing they promised was from the dominion and corruption of sin.

The Creation Sabbath is very different in God’s word. It was set up even before sin entered the human race. It was to be a ceasing from our labors to remember God as Creator for one day each week. It was not given to just one nation. There were no nations then. It was mandated to Adam as the representative of the whole human race.

Right after God created all things, he declared the Sabbath principle in Genesis 2:1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

In those first moments after creation was completed, God set our calendar in motion with a seven day cycle which was to last all through history. The seven day week is the basic time structure God gave us. It should govern all schedules. For one whole day, after every 6 days of work, we are to stop to honor our Creator.

What day of the week did God set aside? Saturday? Sunday?
The problem with that question is that there was no calendar with named week days back then. That came much later in human history. Even in today’s Hebrew language the days of the week are numbered, not named. The week begins with the Day One, and after that Day Two, and so on. After Day Six, the next day is not called Day Seven, but Shabbat, the day of ceasing.

There is no way of knowing which day of our present week the original Sabbath Day first fell upon. It was not until the time of the Roman Calendar, shortly before the Birth of Jesus, that the Jews fixed the Sabbath to what we call Saturday. Before the time of Moses, for thousands of years, people worked for 6 days, then stopped for one day to honor God. There was no other God-given calendar.

After the Exodus, God added Ceremonial Sabbaths along with the Creation Sabbath.
These Ritual Sabbaths taught about the rest God’s people would one day have in Christ, the ceasing of sin’s dominion. They represented the liberty believers will have by being set free from guilt at the Cross.

In that ritual system, according to Leviticus 23, there was a double Sabbath once each year. After two days of not working, the 7-Day Cycle would start up again. They would expect to work 6 days before they again stopped on the 7th. This means that if the Sabbath was on what we today would call Saturday one year, it would shift to Sunday for a year. Then when the double Sabbath came it would shift to Monday for the following year, and so on. If it did not shift, they would have only worked 5 days between Sabbaths that week. That would have directly violated God’s law that required 6 work days between Sabbaths.

The Rabbis actually were rejecting the calendar of Moses when they fixed the Jewish Sabbath to the Roman Saturday long after the Old Testament had been completed. God only allowed that corruption to last for a short time.

Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the Roman week.
For the first time in history God assigned the Sabbath to one specific calendar day, Sunday.

The 4th Commandment is not about those redemptive Levitical Sabbaths. At Mt. Sinai there was no call to do something new, but to “remember” the Sabbath, to “keep” it holy. Obviously he was talking about a day the people already knew and were honoring prior to the later giving of the Levitical laws and calendar. God made it holy from the beginning in Eden. He set that day aside as special. It was clearly based upon Creation, not upon the need for redemption which became the focus after the fall of humanity.

The Commandment as recorded in Exodus 20:11 makes this purpose very clear. It says, “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.”

When Jesus fulfilled everything the Ritual Sabbaths of the Levitical Period illustrated, their purpose was completed and they were no longer binding upon anyone. However, the purpose of the Creation Sabbath continues as long as creation exists.

This is what Paul was referring to in Colossians 2:16-17 where he said, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” This comment was about the end of the Levitical Ritual Sabbaths. They were the Sabbaths that were a shadow of what Christ would do. The weekly Creation Sabbath was to remember Creation, not the coming of the Messiah.

Once that redemption was accomplished at the cross, the church started gathering for weekly Sabbath worship on Sundays. The change was to remember the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. That marked a new start for the 7-day cycle. It did not end that cycle.

The Apostles appointed by Jesus directed the New Testament Church to meet on the first day of the week for Sabbath worship. We see this practice in effect in several passages in the New Testament.

Early records from the first centuries of the church confirm that this apostolic practice continued.

Ignatius of Antioch (who personally knew the Apostles) said, Christians were, “no longer observing the seventh day, but living in the observance of the Lord’s day,…”

Justin Martyr said, “the day called Sunday is an assembly of all who live either in cities or in rural districts … because Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead upon it.”

It is not a minor thing to make excuses to break this 4th Commandment.

When people abandon the Sabbath, or just celebrate it for a few hours on Sunday mornings, they miss the blessings God promises that go along with honoring him in his way.

When you reclaim God’s ways and honor the Sabbath for one whole seventh of your life, you will find greater peace and happiness than the world can ever understand, greater satisfaction than if you took God’s time and spent it on yourself.

Honor your Creator, your Redeemer — even in the management of your time. Love him without limits. It is always best to enjoy his promises in the way he prescribes. When you do, God is honored, and his promised covenant blessings are advanced in your life.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

A Most Special Name

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A Most Special Name

(Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 53-56)
(watch the video for an expanded commentary)
by Bob Burridge ©2011

It has always been one of Satan’s tactics to make wrong things seem acceptable. In our imperfect condition we are often very willing to go along with the deception. We tend to pay more attention to our own comforts and pleasures, than to why we are here as those God created for a special purpose in his Creation.

Since we are all heirs of Adam’s corrupt nature, we tend to think of God in terms of what we selfishly want him to be, instead of what he is and reveals about himself in his word. Other interests become the real gods of our lives. We also tend to look for satisfaction of our wants in things we can see, instead of trusting in the invisible but very real God who is behind it all. Images and objects we make can distort the way God himself teaches us to worship him. These principles are summed up in the first two commandments.

The Third Commandment is about how seriously we should take all our mentions of God. Question 53 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism quotes from Deuteronomy 20:7, the wording of the Third Commandment.

Deuteronomy 20:7, “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.”

Sadly, this commandment, like all the others, is often misunderstood.

First, we need to understand what it means
by the “name of the LORD our God”.

There are two words used here; LORD and God.

1. The word LORD translates the Hebrew name “Jehovah”, YHVH (יהוה). It’s often referred to as the “Tetragrammaton” which means “four letters”.
Instead of using the word “Jehovah” many translators used the all upper case word “LORD”. There is a very ancient tradition behind this. In ancient times, the Israelites did not want the sacred name of God to be read carelessly. When readers came across the four sacred consonants (the Tetragrammaton) they would say the Hebrew word Adonai (אדוני), which means “Lord”. At a later time when vowels were added to the written language, the vowel markers for Adonai were adjusted to fit into the letters “YHVH” giving us the word “Yehovah”. When the Bible was later translated into the Germanic languages the sound “Y” was represented by the letter “J”. This is how the common English word “Jehovah” was born. A closer pronunciation to the original name of God would be “Yahveh”.

When Israel was set up as a modern nation after World War 2, a lot of research went into restoring the ancient Hebrew pronunciation. More accurate research in the field of Orthoepy shows that the ancient Hebrew pronunciation was probably “yăh-VĔH”. (See: “Ben-Yehuda’s English-Hebrew Hebrew-English Dictionary” first printed in 1961 based upon the pronunciation guide in the “Merriam-Webster Dictionary” of 1947, 1951 – “Conversation Manual: Hebrew” a Living Language Course text book first printed in 1958, and “Hebrew in 10 Minutes a Day” by Sunset Series printed in 1992. Article at “Hebrew for Christians” about pronouncing this name of God. Watch the video on the pronunciation of “vav” as opposed to “wow” by Nehemia Gordon.)

In the New Testament the Holy Spirit led the writers to use the Greek word for “Lord” when the Tetragrammaton appeared in the Old Testament texts they were quoting. The Greek word “Lord” is “kurios” (κύριος). For example, Jesus in Matthew3:3 said “Lord” (kurios) when quoting Isaiah 40:3 where the Tetragrammaton appears. The same word was used by the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:29 when quoting Isaiah 1:9. In each case where this covenant name in verses from the Old Testament are quoted in the New Testament the Holy Spirit led the writers to use this Greek word for “Lord”. This is how the God-Inspired writers taught us to handle the Tetragrammaton.

This name is combined in the Bible with others words that describe God. They were used as if they were descriptive titles. He’s called:
YHVH Yir’eh [Jireh] (יהוה יראה) “The LORD will provide” Genesis 22:14
YHVH Nissi (יהוה נסי) “The LORD my banner” Exodus 17:15
YHVH Shalom (יהוה שׁלום) “The LORD is peace” Judges 6:24
YHVH Shammah (יהוה שׁמה) “The LORD is there” Ezekiel 48:35
YHVH Tsid-kenu (יהוה צדקנו) “The LORD our righteousness” Jeremiah 23:6, 33:16
YHVH Tse-va’ot (יהוה צבאות) “The LORD of hosts” 1 Samuel 1:11

2. The word God translates the Hebrew word El (אל).
The plural of that word is Elohim (אלוהים). This form is often called the “Majestic Plural” because it was used to show things of grandeur and wonder. The word for “heaven” and other such words are usually found written in this same Majestic Plural form.

He is called El Shaddai, which means “God Almighty”. In Isaiah 9:6 he is called, “… Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Sometimes God is called Lord in the Old Testament, using the Hebrew word, Adon (אדן), or Adonai (אדוני).

In the New Testament the common word for “God” is Theos (Θεος). He is also called “Lord” using the Greek word Kurios (κυριος). Our Savior was given name Jesus Iaesous (Ιησους). In his own language of Aramaic his name was Yeshuah (ישוע). It would be brought into English by using the name Joshua.

The title of “Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos (Χριστος), which means “the Anointed one”, like the Hebrew Old Testament word Messiah.

It would be wrong to limit this Third Commandment to only these words. God himself expanded on what his name is in Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Martin Luther called this verse in Exodus, “God’s own commentary on his name.” The name of God includes all the perfections and judgments that identify him. The commandment is not just about particular titles or proper nouns. It applies to all our references to him, and to whatever words we use to represent him as we speak.

God’s name must not be use in vain.

Before we can understand the teaching of this commandment, we also need to understand what it means to take up something in “vain”.

The most obvious offense to this moral principle is when people speak of God with open anger or disrespect. Blasphemy is when people show anger toward God, ridicule him, or degrade him in some way. Some angrily blame God for the wrongs they see in our world. However, that is not all this commandment forbids. The original Hebrew word translated “vain” is shav’ (שוא). It means to use something carelessly, without meaning, or thoughtlessly.

Today it has become very acceptable and common to use God’s name this way. His name is disrespected if it is use as an expletive. That is when people use his name to express their emotions. They use his name when they are surprised, frustrated, or hurt themselves. They might say things like, “Oh my God!” or “My Lord!” Or they blurt out the name of “Jesus”, or the word “Christ” when they are shocked about something.

In situations like this they are not really addressing God or Jesus. Most times it is just a habit, something people pick up because they hear it so much. They say, “Oh, I’m not being disrespectful. I don’t mean anything by it.” That is exactly what this commandment is forbidding.

God’s name, all the words that identify him or describe him, are not to be used carelessly or without thought or meaning. It degrades and offends him. It violates this Third Commandment.

There are many ways this commandment is broken every day.

One way this moral principle is violated is in profanity. The word “profane” means to treat something sacred as if it was common, or not important. It is when holy things relating to God and his work are degraded as if they were not special.

God alone is holy and all glory should go to him. People speak of “holy cows,” but they do not really mean that the cows are actually sanctified or set aside as special to God. They exclaim “Heavens!” or “for heaven’s sake”, but certainly they are not thinking about God’s place of glory. When they use those words without thinking of their awe, holiness, and glory, they are being used vainly. These are not to be treated as common things. They are things that should humble us before our Maker.

People might laugh at such an idea, objecting, “what could possibly be wrong with such innocent expressions?” They say, “Nobody really means anything by them.”

That’s exactly the point. God wants us to speak of him with thought and respect. His name and the words that describe what he is and does are holy. They should never be used in vain, carelessly, or without meaning.

The commandment also forbids vulgarity. Every language and culture has acceptable ways to describe normal things. They also develop crude, distasteful words for the same things. Every believer needs to avoid words that are offensive and in bad taste. These words degrade things God made for honorable purposes.

Vulgarity includes those words that are obscene. That means they offend with excessive immodesty or sexual indecency. God created us male and female to have children, and to love each other for life. That is the model God uses to show our relationship to Jesus Christ as his bride. Therefore it is wrong to use crude words about our sexual relationships.

Today, society is confused about the proper way to satisfy normal and good desires, so it perverts them into degrading offenses against God’s law and human respectability. Foul terms and descriptions fill music, movies, books, radio, video games, and TV programs. They even get into a child’s or teen’s vocabulary. They show disrespect for what God designed to be good and honoring to him.

This commandment forbids cursing. Cursing is when a person dares to call down God’s judgment upon someone or something. Damnation is a prerogative unique to God. Words like “hell” and “damn” are serious biblical words about the horrible consequences of sin. Only God has the right to pronounce eternal judgments and condemnations.

When people use words like that in anger, to impress others, or they just stick them in sentences meaninglessly, they degrade this fearsome penalty of sin, and trivializes God’s judgments.

People say, “It’s just a habit, I don’t mean anything by it.” That is exactly what this commandment forbids. Cursing, is when someone speaks about God’s wrath and judgment in a vain, thoughtless way.

Another area we need to be careful about is humor. Everyone appreciates a good joke. There is a lot to laugh about in God’s world. However, we need to show good judgment in not letting ourselves laugh at God or at what is holy.

Jokes about hell should not be thought of as funny if we appreciate the horror and reality of it. People would not think of making jokes about those who died in the 9/11 attacks, or the victims of a serial killer, or a child molester. It is considered bad taste to make light of things like that in jokes. But there is no greater horror than what people will face in the final judgment. To laugh at heaven, hell, Satan and eternal judgment is crude and blasphemous.

The world makes it popular to ridicule or satirize God and holy things. That sense of humor should not be acceptable to God’s people.

Of course they say, “Come on, where’s your sense of humor. We don’t mean anything by it.” Again, that is exactly what this commandment forbids. We should never make meaningless references to God and his glory. When people profane God’s name and glory, they become Satan’s unwitting accomplices.

Most surprisingly, sometimes God’s name is used in vain in worship. It is so easy to let our minds wander while our mouths keep on speaking or singing. People sing of the glories of Jesus and of God’s power, or recite creeds, while they think about their schedules, the temperature of the room, how their hair looks, or what somebody else is thinking or doing during worship.

No one should say God’s name as an empty, vain repetition. Yet, it happens in the gathering of the churches every Sunday during their times of worship. Do not be busy in your mind with your schedule, plans, or some little project while you speak or sing about God’s glory.

Our children also need to be taught to pay attention to God’s honor during worship. They should not be just entertained or kept distracted in church while worship is going on. They need to learn how to sing the hymns at a very young age. Encourage them to pay attention to the words and to listen to the sermon. Teach them to join in praying for the needs of the church, and to see themselves as a part of the family of God gathered together for this special purpose.

One idea is to have them try to draw something the pastor mentions or teaches. Use the drawings later to talk about the sermon topic. This will encourage them to broaden their attention span. Later they can graduate to writing down the main points of a sermon, or the ways it can apply to things they see or struggle with in their own lives.

We all need to be careful not to use God’s name in vain while in worship. We need to pay attention to everything said and sung.

The Commandment shows us how serious this matter is to our God.

It says, “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”

Did you notice the effects this has upon our children when this principle is mentioned in Exodus 34? When God explained his name to Moses, he said he is “by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

What the little ones hear around home and from adults will shape their own way of speaking. This is why it says this sin stays with offending families from generation to generation.

To please the God who made us, and who loves us in Christ, we should never take up his name in an empty, vain, or meaningless way. we should never degrade holy things or speak lightly of what God uses to display his truth and glory. The names of God represent what he makes known to us about himself. So to disgrace his name is to disgrace him.

On the positive side, we ought to honor God’s name.

Psalm 19:14 teaches us to speak of God very carefully. It says, “let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (KJV)

As a believer, you bear God’s name in all you say and do. You were baptized into the name of the Triune God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is your duty to bear God’s name well. We are called “Christians”, the “People of God”, “Christ’s Church”. What the world sees in you, should be evidence of the power and wonder of Christianity.

You bring dishonor to his name if you speak frivolously, using God’s name in a vain way, or if you contradict what God’s name stands for by your attitudes, words, and actions. Along with offending God, you bring spiritual and moral disaster to yourself and to those you say you love.

It is sad if those who have the power of the living Christ in their lives, live as if he was not there. They are convinced by those around them that to appear to be assertive, confident, and grown-up they should use crude language. By trading in their moral convictions to get the world’s acceptance they show themselves to be weak and very immature. To use words about God, or about his works and glory in an empty way, is a criminal act against our Creator and Redeemer.

We are put here in this world, and given life, resources, and health to represent God as his ambassadors. When we live honorably, reflecting the words and work of Christ, our humble gratitude toward our God and Savior honors his name.

We are the light of the world. We need to make sure that our conversation does not dim that light. In Matthew 5:16 Jesus said, “Let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (KJV)

In Matthew 6:9, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught you to pray, “hallowed be thy name.” “To hallow” means to set something aside as special, to mark it out as holy. Pray that God’s name is not taken up in vain: neither in profanity, nor in the careless use of it. Pray that God’s people will display the honor of his name by using it respectfully and often. Pray that the glory of all that his name represents will be proclaimed faithfully by you and others to your neighbors, friends and daily contacts.

When you appreciate all that God’s name includes,
it stirs you to love and to honor him more.

Right after God proclaimed his name to Moses In Exodus 34:6-7, the next verse describes how Moses responded. It says in Exodus 34:8, “So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.”

The 23rd Psalm says that God leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. This is why he gives us life and calls us to love him. Our obedience honors his name because we represent him to the world.

When you live obediently, God is served well, you promote his glory, and you grow spiritually. God promises great benefit for using his name honorably. You will reap the great blessings that God attaches to spiritual obedience.

It is an awesome privilege to be able to take up God’s name in ways that honor him. When you do, his grace is at work in you. You grow in Christ, and enjoy his blessings. Use God’s name as often as you can, but use it with meaning and respect. Be a beacon of light in this dark world.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

What Happens When Someone Dies?

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Bible Basics

by Bob Burridge ©2011, 2021
Lesson 12: What Happens When Someone Dies?

The primary meaning of death in the Bible is “separation”. When a person dies his soul is separated from his no longer functioning body. The soul part of the person continues to function and is aware of things.

Death happens to all humans because of sin. It’s not just each person’s own sins that bring about that penalty. When Adam sinned the whole human race was condemned to die because Adam represented all who would descend from him. Our own sins continue to confirm that we have earned that well deserved penalty. In Romans5:12 it says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

But there are two kinds of death in the Bible:
– Physical Death: the body stops working and the soul is separated from it
– Spiritual Death: a person is separated from fellowship with God

When Adam sinned he didn’t die physically right away, but he immediately died spiritually. He experienced that tragic separation from fellowship with his Creator. This is the condition from which we need to be delivered before physical death ends our time in this world where we now live and are called to live for God’s glory.

When we are born as new babies we are already spiritually dead because of that sin of Adam. He represented all of us in Eden. The guilt of Adam’s sin, and our own guilt when we sin, offends God. It becomes a barrier that keeps us from enjoying his comfort and promises. If we die physically when we are still dead spiritually we cannot go to Heaven and be with God forever.

The Gospel is that good message that those who are transformed by God’s grace are restored to fellowship with their Creator. When Jesus died he paid the penalty of sin in the repentant sinner’s place. All who sincerely trust in that saving work of Jesus Christ have the spiritual barrier removed. The separation ends. Romans 6:23 tells us that spiritual death can be overcome, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When someone who trusts in Jesus as his Redeemer dies, his soul goes immediately to be with the Savior. He will enjoy God’s blessings forever.


When people who trust in Jesus die, their soul goes immediately to be with their Savior. He paid the penalty of sin for his people. He died in their place. They will enjoy God’s blessings forever.

Resurrection is the rejoining of things separated in physical death. After Jesus died on the cross his body was laid in a tomb while his human soul went to that spiritual dimension where all go as they await the great day of resurrection. But Jesus was resurrected three days later on that Resurrection Sunday. At that time his human body was changed into a glorified form and re-joined with his human soul again.

When the end of our present world comes, Jesus will come again and the bodies of all his people will be resurrected too. Their glorified bodies will be joined again with their souls in Heaven. There they will live forever with God and all the other believers. This is physical resurrection.

There is also a spiritual resurrection when a person separated from God is re-joined in fellowship with their Creator. This is the Christian life we can enjoy here on earth while we are still alive. Jesus removed the barrier of our guilt so that we will enjoy fellowship with God again, and we will enjoy his blessings while we live here.

When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, we are raised up from spiritual death and are alive in a new way. Romans 6:4 explains that this is what Baptism represents, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Those who are made alive by the Gospel should live as those who are again made right with God. Their lives should show how thankful they are for God’s mercy and love.

The sad part of this is that those who are not changed by faith in Jesus Christ are left in their spiritual death. They have no spiritual resurrection as they struggle here on Earth. In the final day of judgment they will suffer tragic un-ending agony with no hope of deliverance. They are forever separated from the God they offended.

Those who are spiritually alive have the privilege of taking the Gospel to those still lost. Some will come to love the one true God who makes them alive too. It’s a wonderful thing to be used by God to bring life to those who are spiritually dead. When they sincerely trust in what Jesus did, God promises that they will be with him and all of us believers forever in glory.


(Bible verses are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible)
Index of all our lessons on Bible Basics

The Way to Hope

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The Way to Hope

Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Lesson 17: Romans 5:1-5

Our world is filled with insecurity, uncertainty, and fear.

There are a lot of things people generally worry about. They wonder what calamities or accidents might be ahead for them. They know that sometimes they will become ill, will it be serious the next time? They sometimes wonder how long they have left to live, and how their lives will eventually come to an end. In a world where economies balance upon fragile markets and perceptions they wonder if the day will come when they will not be able to pay their bills and keep all their things. Some live in fear of embarrassment, or loneliness, or of crowded elevators.

It doesn’t help much when false hopes are offered in the infomercials and ads that promise quick fixes for all the little things in life that concern us. Misguided or intentionally misleading preachers promise things God never promised. They build up people’s hopes with irresponsible assurances, ask for money, and if things don’t work out they blame it on their victim’s own lack of faith.

So many experts, so many needs, so many claims to examine. Can we ever be sure we will not be disappointed? really 100% sure?

When people usually speak of having hope it doesn’t mean much. Hope has come to mean little more than a wish, a dream of things imagined. Empty promises are made, and with a pleading sigh people say, “Oh, I hope so!” Since they hope in fallible things, or in the promises of mere men who cannot deliver what they offer, deep inside they know that it is little more than a wish.

Most troubling is the dreaded feeling many have deep inside when they wonder if they will be accepted by God when they stands before him to be judged at the dawn of forever.

The Bible uses the word “hope” in a very different way. There, it is connected with the promise of God. The word “hope” appears 3 times in the short passage of Romans 5:1-5. The Greek word used there is elpis (ελπις). It means, “to anticipate with confidence, faith, trust”. Here it builds upon the solid foundation of the first four chapters and paves the way for a realistic optimism.

Paul begins Chapter Five by declaring that
believers have peace with God.

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

The first three chapters of Romans lay out the reason for our fears and insecurities. There is good cause for them. All have inherited the guilt of Adam because they were represented in him when he sinned. The spiritual death he brought upon himself was passed on to all of future humanity. By birth we are enemies of God.

Fallen man twists God’s truth into a religion that pretends that a person can control his own fate. However the Bible teaches that in his fallen estate there is no one who can do anything that is purely and truly good (Romans 3:12). As Jesus said of the unbeliever in John 3:36, “… the wrath of God abides on him.”

However, there is the good news. Paul tells us here that those enemies who come through Christ can have peace with God. The world seeks peace by hoping in vain to avoid bad things happening. The gospel tells us that there is a peace which is different from the empty hope the world imagines. Instead of promising deliverance from calamities, sickness, and adversity, the gospel promises a peace even in the midst of our troubles.

It is that peace of which the ancient prophets spoke. Jesus promised it in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

We have this peace when we are restored to fellowship with God by grace. This section starts with the connective, “therefore”. It builds upon all that Paul had been explaining up to this point. We are all unworthy and unable to do anything that is purely and truly good. There are no exemptions because of our nationality. Jews and Gentiles stand together as part of this fallen and condemned race. There are no ceremonies that have the power to deliver us independently of the promises of God’s covenant which has always pointed to the work of our Savior.

It is obvious that this peace cannot be found by keeping God’s law or by doing good deeds. These are unable to remove the existing guilt that separates us from our Creator. No one can do anything that can make him who is lost to become right with God.

Since the obedience and intentions of the sinner cannot help him, salvation can only be the work of God’s grace. Jesus paid the debt by his own suffering and death in place of his people. That salvation is applied to the sinner by the work of the Holy Spirit. In this deliverance the righteousness of Christ is given to the sinner, and the guilt of the sinner is placed upon Christ. When the sinner’s guilt is removed by grace, he is also given faith to confidently rest in the provision of Christ alone. By that graciously implanted faith he is declared to be justified. With the barrier of moral guilt removed, he is “reconciled” with God. The former enemy at war with God, becomes a child at “peace with God.” When men are at peace with God, a sense of true inner solace emerges.

So the gospel of Christ delivers from turmoil, uncertainty, and insecurity. We do not have peace by being delivered from bad circumstances. They are a part of living in this present world and age. We instead have a peace independent of our circumstances, a peace that passes our understanding.

By the gospel we have a gracious hope.

Romans 5:2, “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

The peace we long for is not a vain dream or wish. It is not based upon the questionable promises of men, or in a vain hope that nothing can go wrong. It is a firm and certain confidence based upon the promise of God himself. This is the kind of hope spoken of in the Bible. It gives us a firm promise to stand upon.

This verse tells us that the hope we have is in “the glory of God.” In our natural state, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (3:23) When we studied that passage we noted that the word for glory, “doxa” (δοξα), has several meanings. It speaks here of a glory that comes from God. In this kind of construction it most commonly means to approve of something.

Jesus said in John 12:43 when he spoke to the Pharisees, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” The same word is used. The Pharisees received the “praise”, the approval (glory) of men, but they will not get the same from God. Here we find by grace, that we can stand firmly knowing that we have God’s approval. We appear in his sight not clothed in our own offensive garments, but clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

This is why we rejoice triumphantly in that hope which we have in Christ. As the Reformer Martin Luther pondered this truth he wrote, “Where Christ is truly seen, there must needs be full and perfect joy in the Lord, with peace of conscience, which most certainly thus thinketh: Although I am a sinner, by the law, and under condemnation of the law, yet I despair not, I die not, because Christ liveth, who is both my righteousness and my everlasting life…” (Haldane on Romans 5:2 pg. 187 of his commentary).

The joy, hope, and peace that comes out of this graciously implanted faith is a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian. He rejoices even through situations he would not have expected he could survive.

This triumphant rejoicing extends also to our tribulations.

Romans 5:3, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;”

This peace is not tied to just good circumstances. No Scripture denies that bad times come, or tells us that they are not unpleasant. However, for the child of God trials have a good purpose, even when that purpose is not seen. Hebrews 12:11, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Paul wrote later in this same book, Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

In the Beatitudes Jesus spoke of the blessedness of those who endure trials (Matthew 5:4,10-12).

This is the kind of joy and peace that strengthens us in hard times and trials. The confident hope we have in the love of the God who redeems us leaves no grounds for uncertainty or fear of judgment. While in prison and wrongly accused, The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content”

As he wrote to the troubled Corinthians he said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”

Beyond our contentment and comfort in trials there is more promised here. The tribulations produce perseverance. James wrote about this in James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

When we confidently rest in what God has said by the faith Christ implants in us by grace, we learn that good will emerge to accomplish its greater ends, even when how it all fits together remains unseen.

Patience is hard to learn. We often have to wait for things we long for. We often fail at things and have to keep trying again and again to accomplish them. The good things we set about to do in our lives often take a long time to realize. We do not lack opportunities to practice patience. What we need to learn is that the source of growing in patience is that we better appreciate the promises and power of God. We need to grow in our confidence in the gospel, that which makes unworthy sinners into forgiven children by Christ. We learn to rest in the wisdom and love of an all powerful and all knowing God who loves his children dearly.

Verse 4 adds that this perseverance produces proven character and hope.

Romans 5:4, ” and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

The first words are often translated as “proven character.” It means that virtue which is proven by trial. Dr. Haldane comments, “trial may detect a hypocrite as well as a manifest saint.”

It is when we persevere through trials that the power of the gospel is seen in us. The world sees that work of God which testifies to the truth of our message. We see it in ourselves, and become confident of God’s love, that he will not give up on us. It is not “perfection” that shows us that we are his. For in this life no one is perfect. It is this repeated coming in humble petition to Christ for help that evidences a living faith. James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

That proven character produces real hope. Our confidence grows as we find Christ’s power in us to bring us joy even through trials.

Fallen religion takes the evidences of being made right with God, and make them into causes of being made right with God. It teaches the error that man’s works, his obedience, his rituals, his innate goodness, or his sincerity become the confidence in which he stands before God.

In reality it is God’s undeserved grace alone that causes us to be made righteous in Christ. If truly redeemed, there will be these evidences: a confident faith in Christ alone for our righteousness, and a perseverance in pursuing the joy God has promised to his children.

Verse 5 concludes: this is a hope that does not disappoint us.

Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

This hope will not fail us. It will not leave us abandoned before God to stand on our own. It is not like the vain hope of the world that rests upon uncertain things. That is just wishful thinking. It will instead bring with certainty that which is hoped for. It is not only a hope for blessings in the final judgment. It is there for us in life’s daily and special trials as well. There is no disappointment when we rest in the truthfulness and greatness of God.

The promises at the root of our hope flow from the love of God. That love is not simply seen by us at a distance. It is poured into our hearts. It is given in a flood of abundance. It comes by the Holy Spirit himself, who was given to us who are the redeemed in Christ.

When you face those trials, when patience is tried, when hope seems a mere dream: rather than living in denial, getting angry, hoping in vain things, or imagining how things could have been worse, turn instead to the heart of the gospel. Hope in the promise of God.

First we remove the fear that we have not done enough or lived holy enough. We are not made right with God by our attitudes, choices, or works. It is God’s grace that implants a simple faith in our hearts to find confidence in Christ alone.

Then we trust the promise of his continuing love as ministered by the Holy Spirit. That teaches us to find joy in knowing that we are approved in Christ by the Almighty God. That implanted life helps us through the trials. It shows us joy even in the midst of calamity. It comes by knowing the God who is Lord over all. It drives us to persevere, strengthening our character, and strengthening the hope that cannot fail.

Paul recorded an ascription of glory to God in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

(The Bible quotations in this article are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans

We Need to Help Other Believers

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Bible Basics

by Bob Burridge ©2011, 2021
Lesson 11: We Need to Help Other Believers

We need to help each other live in ways God says are right and pleasing to our Sovereign Lord. God calls us to be a family. Believers should look after one another just like brothers and sisters. We should pray for one another and try to find ways to stir up other believers to live the way God prescribes for his children. We are told in Hebrews 10:24, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works”.

We need to be good friends and good examples toward other believers. When someone does a good thing, or lives the way God says we should, we should encourage him.

We should also help other believers when they sin. When someone does wrong things, Christian friends should encourage him to repentantly admit his sins and to change his ways. Go to the person kindly and in private to help him do what’s right. If the person does not listen to what you tell him, then you should get another friend to go to him with you. It’s often good for the person you bring to be a Pastor or Elder from your church. They are specially able to help the person overcome his sin. We should never talk about other people’s sin with others in the form of gossip. This would hurt the person rather than helping him.

Jesus told us to help other believers this way in Matthew 18:15-16, “… if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ ”

Sometimes when the person sinning is a Church member, and he still will not listen to personal warnings about his sin problem, the officers of the church may have to try to help him more formally. Be sure you go to the officers privately and with a kind heart. The officers should try to help the person overcome his sin. If he will not listen to the church leaders, they might tell him not to receive the Lord’s Supper until he is ready to change his ways and admit to God that he has done wrong. He eventually may even have to be removed from membership in the church. Jesus explained in Matthew 18:17, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

When a member has to be removed in this way, we still must treat him kindly. The difference is that he should then be treated as someone who needs the life changing work of Jesus Christ. We should continue to pray for him, and do all we can to encourage him to sincerely repent, trust in the redeeming work of our Savior, and to live in a way that honors God. Our goal is always to help the person back to where he is living as God has commanded us.


(Bible verses are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible)
Lesson 12:What Happens When Someone Dies?
Index of all our lessons on Bible Basics

Aware of Our Firm Foundation

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Aware of Our Firm Foundation

(Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 41-44)
(watch our video)
by Bob Burridge ©2011

God’s creation is beautiful, vast, and amazingly complex.

Our Creator’s nature and glory are infinite and eternal. The immensity of his power and purpose is stamped upon everything he made. As Psalm 19:1-2 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.”

We were created with the ability to observe and to be a part of that declaration of God’s glory. There is a lot to take in, so much to understand.

Knowing our limitations as finite creatures, God made to be able to group things together, and to sum up complicated ideas. Our ears take in sounds people make, and our brains are able to organize them into words that make us able to communicate. We can see marks people make on paper, then turn them back into sentences. We learn to recognize people from a quick glance at their facial features. We have learned how to teach and to remember the flow of history, the findings of science, and relationships in mathematics. We summarize what we learn with charts, diagrams, and generalized rules.

After long conversations people often have to ask, “What’s your point?” When we have read all the details in business contracts we often ask, “So what’s the bottom line?” Parents often teach simple rules to children like, “Don’t talk with strangers,” “Ask permission before you go somewhere,” “Bed time is at 9:00,” “Eat your vegetables.”

Without going into all the reasons behind them, simple rules help us. We need to simplify things to be able to make fast judgments and daily decisions.

God also summarizes the things he reveals
so we can remember and handle them better.

There are parts of the Bible that summarize the long history of God’s people. Our main duties and God’s grace are summarized in simple verses we can learn. His redemption is summarized in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Our obligations to our Creator/Redeemer are summarized in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”

These summaries are not meant to be exhaustive. They are given to us to point out main principles to help us organize God’s truth and to remember what he teaches us.

It is reasonable to expect the moral principles God
built into His world would be summarized too.

Question 41 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?”

Answer: “The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.”

God made himself known by giving us his word in the Bible. His basic moral principles are summed up in the 10 Commandments.

When asked, Jesus summed up the moral law even more concisely in Matthew 22:37-40. There he gave us two general principles that sum up what is right: ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Answer to Question 42 of our Catechism quotes this comment by Jesus. It says,

“The sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.”

The Bible regularly links love and obedience. We were created to live morally, doing the things that show respect to our Creator. When we live that way, intent on truly honoring God and helping the people around us, we are being loving and therefore are keeping his commandments inwardly as well as outwardly.

Love for God and others is expressed by keeping his moral commandments. In the commandments God defines what things are loving.

This connection was made by Jesus many times in his ministry. For example, the Gospel of John records some of his direct comments about this.

John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…”
John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:14, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
John 15:17, “These things I command you, that you love one another.”

Then in 1 John 5:2-3 the Bible says, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”

Love does not mean much if we do not show it by our attitudes, thoughts, and actions. John 13:35 says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

God’s summation of his moral principles help us remember and obey what honors him. It is how we fulfill what we were created and commissioned to be. It is how we love. It is what real “love” looks like.

This summation by Jesus fits exactly with the order of the Commandments God gave through Moses.

The Ten Commandments divide into these two main sections.

The first section is about our loving God above everything else. When Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” he was quoting from the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5.

This sums up the first 4 commandments. It is always wrong to worship other gods, to make images of God who is pure spirit, to use God’s name without respect, or to forget honoring the Creator’s work on the Sabbath. These first 4 Commandments show us who God is, and how we should worship and live for him.

As the second great commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Again he was quoting the words of Moses, this time from Leviticus 19:18. We must love our neighbor as we already look out for ourselves.

This sums up the last 6 Commandments. It is never right to show disrespect to those God puts in authority over us, or to murder. No one should be unfaithful in marriage, steal, lie, or covet. These last 6 Commandments show how God designed us to live together.

Moral law is the way things ought to be in a place created by the one True God. They show that we submit to his lordship as our Creator and King, and they teach us how to live lovingly with those God puts around us in our lives.

God’s moral principles are not just baseless rules.
They are founded upon the fact of God.

God introduced his commandments through Moses by explaining his right to issue commandments. Question 43 of the Catechism asks, “What is the preface to the ten commandments?”

The answer simply quotes from Deuteronomy 5:6. This verse leads into the giving of the Ten Commandments. It says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

The preface leads into these moral principles by laying out the foundation for them. Israel was a defeated nation of oppressed slaves in Egypt. There was no hope for them by any efforts they could make on their own. Since God delivered her, and gave her back her nationhood, he alone had the right to say how she should live as a nation.

However, there was more. God was the Creator. He made all things for his own glory, so he alone knew what would honor that glory in a moral way. He also made the promise of a Redeemer, a Messiah who would die for the guilt of his people. Since all deserve eternal bondage to sin and unending separation from their Creator, only he could describe what freedom from sin and fellowship with God would be like.

Just as Israel owed her life to God alone, we all owe ours to him also. He created us to promote his glory, and redeemed us to be his children forever, therefore only he has the right to say what he made and redeemed us to be. That lays out the preface and foundation to this summation of God’s Moral Law.

When I worked in a commercial laundry the employees often complained. We worked hard under rough conditions. They would see the managers in air-conditioned offices and often asked, “who do they think they are to tell us how to do our job?” But, they owed their jobs to the owners and managers. It was what went on in that office that enabled them to earn their living.

Similarly, we owe our lives and salvation to God alone. He is the only one who has the right to describe our purpose and what is right.

In Romans 9:20 Paul put it this way, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ ”

Catechism question 44 explains the reason for this preface to the Commandments. It says,

Answer. “The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, that because God is the Lord, and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.”

That is how important these commandments are. They were not first given to Israel. They were summarized for Israel. Every moral law in them goes back to creation itself. They show us how we can show our love for our Creator, our Redeemer.

Do you say you love Jesus Christ dearly?

Do you do what he says and live morally as God describes it for you? That is what it is to love God. Do you treat those you meet and work with the way our Creator says you should? That is what loving your neighbor is about.

Satan is subtle and knows how to play to our imperfect nature. He will suggest that such moral ideas have exceptions, and do not always apply. Like Israel in the wilderness we are easily persuaded to set these principles aside, and to take on the standards people accept in our fallen culture.

Since God created us, gives us life day by day, redeemed us, and blesses us, he alone has the absolute right to tell us how he made us to live.

It is not only unwise, but evil, to fail to see this important foundation to all that is right. We need to read these Ten Commandments with the prayerful intent of conforming our lives to them.

In each one, as we peel away the deceptions that hide the moral principle behind it, we see how short we fall in bringing glory to our God. We also see how much our Savior suffered as he took on our guilt. We see a loving light shining on an otherwise dark and confusing path.

God shows us how to be better children in his family. These summary principles teach us to see Grace at work in our otherwise disobedient hearts. They are not laws by which we merit salvation or blessings. We imperfect creatures could never keep them without God’s Redeeming Grace. They light up the unseen opportunities that would otherwise be hidden in the dark. They teach us what glorifies God, and how we enjoy living as his loved children.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

We Need to Worship

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Bible Basics

by Bob Burridge ©2011, 2021
Lesson 10: We Need to Worship

God made everything to display all that he is. Psalm 19 directs us to see God’s wonders and glory in all he created. When we see how wonderful God is we should thank him and worship him. The Bible tells us how we should worship.

The words translated as “worship” in the Bible mean to bow down to someone, to show reverence, submission, and respect. Literally bowing down was how this honor was shown in those ancient times. This is brought out clearly when Psalm 95:6 says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”

In other cultures, and particularly in the world of this age, actual bowing to the ground is not how we display that. Often this respect and submission is simplay a bowing of the head or no outward body positions at all. The attitude in our heart is the most central and important part of worship.

Our worship must always honor the one true God and him alone. This is one of the imporant ways where we can show how much we love and respect our Creator, Savior, and Lord over all that is. This is what the first four of the Ten Commandments teach us.

We show how much we honor God by doing things in worship that his written word tells us please him. When we worship we should sincerely pray to God. We should repentantly and humbly admit our sins. We should openly confess our trust in all God has made known to us in his word. We should sing about the wonderful things he is, has promised, and done. We are told to attentively read his word, and listen to lessons from those called to be our teachers and Pastors in the church.

When we gather for worship as a church we come together as a congregation to take part in the Sacraments. When we see someone baptized we should remember that we who were baptized must renew our trust in Jesus as our Savior and that we are part of the covenant family of Christ. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper together we should keep our thoughts centered on God’s grace in shedding his blood on the cross where our Savior’s body was offered as a sacrifice for our own sins. We should humbly receive the blessings promised to us when the leader of worship pronounces the benediction at the end of our times of gathered worship.

Worship on our own, as a family, or as a gathered church, should send us forth to faithfully live for our Heavenly Father, to bear the title “Christian” responsibly as lights shining in our sin darkened world, and to daily care for and encourage one another as God’s children. God promises special blessings to his people when they worship him in these ways. It helps us to be spiritually healthy.

We can worship God at any time by praying to him, singing his praises, and thinking about the wonderful things God tells us in the Bible. 1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, and Psalm 96:9 all say, “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!”


(Bible verses are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible)
Lesson 11: We Need to Help Other Believers
Index of all our lessons on Bible Basics

Profitable Obedience

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Profitable Obedience

(Westminster Shorter Catechism Q: 39-40)
(watch our video)
by Bob Burridge ©2011

Even before sin came into human hearts,
we had a purpose.

God created us to live for his glory and to enjoy doing so forever. That’s how our Westminster Shorter Catechism begins.

Sin did not change that purpose, but it separated us all from fellowship with God. It made us unable to be all we were made to be. In our frustrating fallen condition we cannot do anything truly good in the eyes of God, therefore we lost all hope of true joy forever.

For us to fulfill that purpose again, God sent the Messiah to redeem and to restore his people. This redemption is purely by grace. It clothes the unworthy with perfect righteousness, and enables them to joyfully glorify God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us what the Bible principally teaches. In Question 3 it organizes it all into two major categories. It asks, “What do the Scriptures principally teach?” The profound answer is, “The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”

These are the main things God tells us about in his word. What we believe about God and about who we really are effects how we put things into practice in our everyday lives. Belief and duty need to stay together. They can never really ever be separated. You have to know what to do, and you must put into practice what you know.

The first part of the Catechism, questions 4-38, are about what we ought to believe concerning God. This next section is about how we go about the duties he gives us to do.

God requires us to obey his revealed will.

Question 39 introduces this next part of the Catechism. It asks, “What is the duty which God requireth of man?” This is the answer:

“The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.”

We often hear people worry about being “out of the will of God”. They fret over every decision and circumstance thinking they might mess up God’s plan. The confusing part is that God does not tell us all that he planed to do. Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us that much of God’s plan is kept secret from us. It says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

We cannot know how all things work together to fulfill his purposes. However, his word does tell us to focus on the things he has made known. That is our duty.

God’s decrees are unchangeable. Nobody can ever make a choice or do anything that makes God deviate from his eternal plan. Nothing can frustrate that eternal will of God.

This the consistent teaching all through Scripture. It could not be more clear.

Job 42:2 “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

Psalm 115:3 “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.”

Psalm 135:6 “Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.”

Even the wicked things people do are part of how his plan works out. It does not excuse their evil, but evil cannot operate independently from God’s decrees.

When Joseph’s brothers conspired to kill him and to sell him into slavery, Genesis 45:7-8 says, “And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

In Genesis 50:20 Joseph explained this to his wicked brothers. He said, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

This is not an isolated text. It is the pervasive center of all Scripture. Psalm 76:10 says, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself.”

God employs men’s sins for his ultimate glory. However, sin is never condoned, and remains contrary to the moral principles God reveals.

The things he calls us to do are the things we need to be concerned about:. He reveals what is right for us to do. When that is violated, it is called “sin.” While we can never change God’s eternal plan, his decreed will. We can and do at times violate this revealed will of God.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul reminded Timothy how we know God’s will for our lives: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

This means that all of the Bible is God’s word, and therefore is profitable for these 4 duties:

1. It is profitable for teaching: It offers us a complete curriculum of all God wants us to know. There he tells us about himself and about how everything else relates to him.

Psalm 119 illustrates how God’s word is our teacher. Verse 24 says, “Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.” Verses 98-99 say, “You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.”

2. It is profitable for reproof: The Bible warns about errors and shows us the truth which exposes them. There is no other standard against which what we learn can be compared.

Psalm 119:21 says, “You rebuke the proud — the cursed, Who stray from Your commandments.”

3. It is profitable for correction: Once error is exposed, the proper path needs to be found. Only the Bible as God’s word can show a person that right path.

This is also well summarized throughout Psalm 119.

9 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”
30 “I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.”
105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

4. It is profitable for training in righteousness: Righteousness is when we live according to the things that please God. Deuteronomy 6:25 defines righteousness as obedience to God’s revealed will. It says, “Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.”

Biblically, righteousness means innocence before God’s law. There is no other standard than God’s own word for knowing what pleases him.

Again we turn to Psalm 119:

40 “Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.”
116 “Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.”
117 “Hold me up, and I shall be safe, And I shall observe Your statutes continually.”
142 “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.”
160 “The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”

This pastoral advice to Timothy points out these four ways God’s word is profitable. God’s revealed will enables his people to be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Bible is a book of content. It is not just interesting reading material. We need to learn and then to do what it says in order to live in a way that pleases our Redeemer. This is the only way to enjoy fulfilling what we were made to be.

The standard for our obedience is the moral law of God.

Question 40 of our Shorter Catechism says,

“The rule which God at first revealed to man, for his obedience, was the moral law.”

It is one thing to say we should live morally, obeying what God says is right and what truly satisfies our real needs. It is quite another thing to know which attitudes and behaviors are really moral.

There are many different views about morality. Some things are universally accepted as right and wrong. God built into our nature an awareness that it is evil to commit murder, and to steal. Most agree that it is wrong to be unfaithful in marriage, to be greedy, and to lie. Most agree that it is good to help others in need, to worship, and to be kind to others. However, there is a lot of confusion about when some of these things are binding upon us. There are many views about how worship should be done, and when ambition becomes greed.

To clear up the confusion in our fallen nature God gave us his written word. The Bible tells us what is good and acceptable in the eyes of God. These principles are called God’s moral law. This is not a set of baseless rules made up for us as tests, or for earning our way to heaven. Moral law is the way things must be in a universe created by the one True God.

It is always wrong to worship other gods, to make physical images of God who is spirit, to use God’s name without respect, or to forget honoring the Creator on the Creation Sabbath. It is never right to show disrespect to those God puts in authority over us, or to murder. No one should be unfaithful in marriage, steal, lie, or covet.

The Ten Commandments were not just laws for Israel.
Not one of them was made up in the time of Moses. They all go back to creation itself. They are a summation of these ethical principles that can never be annulled. The first four tell us about how the Creator should be worshiped. The last six tell us how we should live together as his creatures designed to live for his glory.

In our era, even some churches teach that not all of God’s revealed moral principles apply today. They explain away one after another of these universal standards, making excuses or loop holes to justify violating what remains.

That is exactly what many of the people of Israel did in the time of the prophets. It is what the Pharisees were doing in the time of Jesus and the Apostles. It is what corrupt churches have done since the time the Bible was completed.

Some are quick to point out that Jesus fulfilled all of God’s law. This is certainly true. But we need to let Scripture alone tell us what it means to fulfill the law.

It certainly does not mean that he eliminated any of these moral principles. Jesus made an important contrast in Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

The word translated “to fulfill” is “plaero-o” (πληροω) which means to make something complete. Jesus makes it clear in verse 17 that this does not mean he destroyed the law.

The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament given in the time of Moses were completed in Christ. He fulfilled what they were teaching. They showed in advance that God would send a substitute to pay for the sins of his people. To continue the sacrifices, washings, and dietary rituals, the priestly system, or the added ceremonial Sabbaths, would be to deny that they all pointed to Jesus Christ as the final sacrifice, as our High Priest, as our only washing from sin and clothing of righteousness. He did not end the principles taught in these ceremonies. He brought them to completeness and satisfied their demands for us.

Jesus also fulfilled the moral law for us. He paid the penalty demanded by eternal justice for us. We deserve death for violating the Creator’s moral principles. Jesus suffered and died in place of those who come to him trusting in his Atonement.

He also perfectly kept the moral law in our place, fulfilling all its demands as our representative. The legal benefits of his obedience are credited to us. We are clothed in his Righteousness. By his completed work he brings believers back into fellowship with God. This makes them able to do things that are truly good. He breaks the chains of sin so that it is no longer our master or motive. This moves us to want to honor our Creator out of gratitude. Jesus never made it acceptable to dishonor God’s name, break the Creation Sabbath, murder, steal, or lie. Only unbelief or dispensational extremism could eliminate any one of the moral laws of God.

Jesus and the Apostles often spoke of God’s moral principles as still binding. For example, in Romans 7:7 Paul said, “I would not have known sin except through the Law”

We who love the Lord know we are saved by grace alone, not by our obedience. Our desire in response is to honor our Creator and Redeemer, and to enjoy doing so forever. Our great passion is to hunger to know what God says is right and good. We prayerfully work to do those things, and to say “no” to thoughts and actions that offend him.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

We Need to Pray

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Bible Basics

by Bob Burridge ©2011, 2021
Lesson 9: We Need to Pray

God tells us to come to him in prayer.Talking with God is important. He tells us in the Bible that he hears all the prayers of all his people all the time. This is one of the ways we can show our love to God. We thank him for all the wonderful things he created, and for the way he takes care of us. We thank him for paying for our sins so that we are forgiven.

The Lord’s Prayer In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus gave us an example for us to use when we say our own prayers. This is called “the Lord’s Prayer” because our Savior is the one who gave it to us. It shows us how we approach God, and gives us a form to follow as we come to him in personal worship and present our needs repentantly to him. It’s good to know this prayer by heart.

Many churches use the King James Version of this prayer when we worship together on Sundays.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

What Is Prayer? Question 98 in the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is prayer?” The answer is, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.”

This means that we come to God to pray for things that are good and right. We should not pray selfishly. Philippians 4:6 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;”

We should offer our prayers in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. In John 14:13 Jesus said, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

This does not mean you just add the words “in Christ’s name” to your prayers. It means you come to God with your sins covered and forgiven by Jesus our Savior. When you admit your sins to God and trust that Jesus died in your place, your Heavenly Father is pleased to hear all you have to say to him. In James 5:16 the Bible makes this promise to us, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

We should thank God for our food and other blessings as we enjoy them. We should ask him to help us understand the Bible when we read it. We should ask him to help us to worship with a pure heart, and to guide us in everything we think, say, or do all day long.

How often should we pray? We can pray any time from anywhere. A healthy Christian should pray throughout the day. Psalm 5:1-3 says, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.”

What does the word “Amen” mean? We often end our prayers with the word “Amen.” It’s a Hebrew word that means “Truth” or “True.” It ends our prayers remembering that all God promises is true and that we have prayed honestly to him. It shows that we want God to know how sincere we are when we come to him with our praises and needs.


(Bible verses are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible)
Lesson 10: We Need to Worship
Index of all our lessons on Bible Basics