Hebrews 8:8-12; Deuteronomy 5:6-21 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
26 January, 2003
All Rights Reserved
I. VAYA CON DIOS
The ambulance arrived with full lights and the characteristic European hi-lo siren wail. The phrase “unconscious woman” from the dispatcher had kicked the paramedics into emergency mode. They blew in the front door with their big bags of medical equipment to find a young man leaning over a beautiful young woman on a hospital bed in the living room. “You’ll have to step back now, mate,” one of the medics said apologetically.
Nigel moved reluctantly to make room. He thought back to how he had come to this place by making the second biggest commitment of his life. The first was trusting Christ as a young boy in Sunday school. Not that he had followed through on it. Like many young people he had attended church with his family. It was not really his decision. And when he left the house he wandered away from the practice of his faith almost completely. The beliefs of a Christian were in his head but the behaviors were not to be seen.
Moving in with Sarah had pushed all thought of God aside--apart from occasional pangs of conscience about their living situation. Everything had flowed along beautifully on the wings of young love until the dread diagnosis of full-blown cancer landed on Sarah like a giant carnivorous bird of prey. Something stirred then in Nigel’s heart which had been silenced for a long time. A quiet inescapable voice had whispered up through his soul to give him guidance right at his point of crisis. So there in the recovery room of the hospital Nigel had made the second biggest commitment of his life by asking Sarah to marry him.
Sarah had never imagined being proposed to under those circumstances-who would? Nigel’s clarity of purpose had stunned her as she lay still partly under the effects of anesthetic from exploratory surgery. All of the shabby rationalizations for living together were blown away by the strength of her heart-cry to respond to those cherished words: “Will you marry me?” She had wept as she replied for the whole room to hear: “Yes, I will marry you, Nigel!” Muted applause had rippled through the medical staff of the recovery room.
Almost everything had changed in their lives from that moment. Nigel had tracked down the pastor from his youth who got in his car and drove hours to meet with them. Pastor Bob had led Sarah through a prayer of faith in Christ and Nigel a prayer of recommitment. These were no mere words. The wind of divine power had begun to blow through their lives. Nigel began to learn spiritual strength and grace by caring for Sarah and doing things he never imagined. Sarah learned the humility and spiritual power of receiving--first from Christ and then from Nigel every day as he was almost magically transformed from a handsome good-time boy into a caring servant.
None of this was by accident. Pastor Bob had brought them Bible study materials and given his standard warning: “It won’t do any good if you don’t use them. And just studying the Bible won’t help much either. You’ve got to do what you learn.” Nigel and Sarah hardly needed to be told. Their need for help from God screamed at them every day. They spent hours drinking in great draughts of truth from the Bible. “Is this normal?” they asked Pastor Bob. “Don’t worry until you stop thirsting!” he had replied with a laugh.
All of these thoughts passed through Nigel’s mind as he hovered helplessly beside Sarah’s unconscious form while the paramedics worked. Sarah had passed out right in the middle of a conversation and Nigel had been unable to rouse her. Wrappers from medical supplies lay strewn over the floor. The medics worked steadily taking vital signs, starting an intravenous line, and attaching leads for the heart monitor. They whisked Sarah onto the stretcher, packed all the gear, and headed out the front door with the love of Nigel’s life.
“Sorry again, mate,” the medic said as he shut the doors of the ambulance. “No room. You’ll have to follow us in your car.” The medic jumped into the driver’s seat and the ambulance moved off into the English rain. The old Nigel would have collapsed under the stress. The new Nigel found himself with an overwhelming resolve to stick by the beautiful creation which God had entrusted into his hands. “I guess this is my new normal,” he thought to himself. “Vaya con Dios*, Sarah,” he whispered softly into the street. “I’ll be with you shortly--one way or the other.” Then he ran for his car.
[* A traditional Hispanic parting which means: “Go with God.”]
II. A SINFUL HEART GOVERNED
We all begin life with sinful hearts. For many centuries God’s plan for dealing with all the wrong impulses of the fallen human heart was to govern it from the outside with moral and ceremonial laws. In the present time we call this the Old Covenant, or Covenant of Law. The history of Israel is the story of how this did not work! Having the knowledge of what God wants is a very different thing from having the power to do those things. While this may sound like a bad plan for God to do, the main purpose of the Law under this plan was to place us all under the penalty of judgment for our sins. He gave clear instructions about what he wants from us in the Law knowing that we could not do it. But since God is a good God, he saved people under that system because of their faith. They could not be righteous under that system, but God imputed righteousness to all those who put their trust in him.
There are many people today who are still trying to gain acceptance with God by obedience under this old system. Some think of themselves as Christians, but they are actually laboring under the Old Covenant. Hebrews 8:6b-7 explains that if this older covenant had worked Christ would not have introduced a new one: “He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.” Governing the human heart from the outside has always been a failure, but God did it to paint the picture of the Law keeping us all under judgment.
III. A HEART SET FREE
Thank God that He had a better plan brought to us by Jesus Christ! Hebrews goes on to read: “For finding fault with them, He says, "BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING,’ SAYS THE LORD, ‘WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM,’ SAYS THE LORD. ‘FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS,’ SAYS THE LORD: ‘I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE” (Hebrews 8:8-12).
In the Old Covenant the Law governed the heart from the outside. In the New Covenant the law guides us from the inside. God says he writes it on our minds and hearts. Through Christ we gain the forgiveness of our sins, the way to the personal knowledge of God is opened, and our hearts are set free! Because the nature of God is implanted there, our new heart now instinctively wants to do what God wants. Notice that the location of the Law has shifted from outside us to inside us.
What a wonderful gift of God! The righteousness of Christ is given to us by grace working through faith, and our hearts are set free from the Law and judgment. All Christians need to get a grip on this at the beginning of their walk with Christ or they will always be trying to gain acceptance with Christ through obedience to the Law. That acceptance has been granted in full. Thank God! But there is more.
IV. A HEART LEARNING TO BE FREE
There are different kinds of freedom--freedom from things, and freedom to do things. For example, a child born with excellent coordination has freedom from klutziness. But that same child will not automatically be free to win an Olympic sport. He or she will have to learn that through diligent effort. Some children are born with unusual intelligence. But what do we say when that bright child refuses to do his or her schoolwork? What if the near genius never develops his mind and ends up manning a ticket booth at an amusement park? We would all say the same thing: a mind is a terrible thing to waste! Even a brilliant mind must be educated, and that takes a lot of hard work.
It is the same thing with the wonderful gift from Christ of a heart set free. No longer do we labor under the law of sin and death. No longer must we strain to please God through obedience to the Mosaic law. No longer do we have to scrabble to find out every little thing about God! That is freedom “from.” So many Christians stop right there with relief. But there is so much more! The fullness of a Christian life well-lived must be found by learning to live a new way. The freedom to do a new thing, to live this new way, is now ours, but we must choose to do it! And it takes a lot of diligent effort.
Where do we look to find out how to apply ourselves to discover the fullness of a heart set free? It may seem odd, but we go right back to the same Law which previously kept us under judgment. Without the transformation of our hearts the moral Law kills us and drives us to Christ in search of a savior. After our hearts have been set free, the Law becomes an instrument of grace which sets us free as we learn to live by it.
I offer you the Ten Commandments one more time as the core of the moral Law of God. The current proper use of these Laws in Spirit-filled Christians is to protect our freedom in Christ.
Surprise! Take the first three, for example: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain” (Deut. 5:7-11). By listening to these commands and carefully following them we gain freedom from false religion and freedom to worship God in the manner which pleases him. What’s the big deal? The whole world is locked in fatal ignorance of God and in the clutch of a cafeteria of demonic false religions. Most people spend their whole lives in fear and bondage, but those who have hearts set free can follow the commands of God and live in freedom.
The fourth commandment gives us a day free of work and stress to worship God and be renewed in body and soul: “ 'Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day’” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). God says: “Stop, rest, and remember me for a full day every week.” I must confess that there have been periods of my life as a pastor when I was disobedient to these commands. I have no problem setting Sunday aside for worship and focusing on God. But Sunday is not a day of rest for a pastor. It is a day of service to others. So a pastor has to find another day to do the resting part of this command. I have had many weeks where I had no day of rest, and suffered for it in body and soul. How stupid of me! God gave me the life pattern by which all people function best and I ignored him! So I have endeavored to learn this freedom by obedience. It’s the only way to make it stick in my life because the demands of ministry are always calling. How about you?
When we all choose to follow these commandments we gain many wonderful freedoms as a group. The fifth commandment is, “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). Children who honor and obey their parents are protected from all kinds of abuse by other adults. For example, there is the problem of school counselors driving pregnant teen girls to abortion clinics without their parents’ consent. The teen can’t get an aspirin from the school nurse, but she can be taken for an abortion. That’s child abuse and it can prevented by the teen simply by honoring and obeying her parents. Sons can prevent this problem from ever happening by obeying their fathers’ instruction not to have sex before marriage. Again, obedience protects freedom.
The sixth commandment frees us from fear of bodily harm: “You shall not murder” (Deuteronomy 5:17). Since Jesus said that hatred is tantamount to murder, this also frees us from hate-filled lives--if we choose to obey! The seventh commandment defends our purity: “You shall not commit adultery” (Deuteronomy 5:18). The eighth defends our prosperity: “You shall not steal” (Deuteronomy 5:19). The ninth defends our reputation and our character: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Deuteronomy 5:20). And the tenth defends our secret thoughts, and the wives and property of others: “You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Deuteronomy 5:21).
But none of God’s commandments throughout the whole Bible can be of any help unless we learn to live by them. The freedoms they convey to us in Christ cannot be enjoyed without obedience on our parts. This may sound elementary but when was the last time you opened your Bible and prayed: “Lord Jesus, please reveal your commands to me that I may learn and do them”? This was Nigel’s failing. As a child he had been delivered from the judgment of the Law by faith in Christ. He had received a heart set free. But his heart was almost completely untrained in obedience. It was not until a health crisis shattered the fantasy world he had created with Sarah that he allowed the Holy Spirit to draw him into the true life of faith. It is hard for us to remember that there are many places in the New Testament where the words faith and obedience are used interchangeably. It is not a return to the failed obedience of the Old Covenant but a movement forward to obedience from a heart which rejoices to obey.
CONCLUSION
If you have never received a heart set free by faith in Christ, you can do so by confessing your sins to God, receiving the payment of Christ’s death on the cross for your sins, and moving into the gift of eternal life. The next step is to learn to use your new heart to live obediently by following God’s word. The old Nigel was a young man always on the verge of running away from difficulties. The new Nigel, after the application of God’s truth to his life in obedience, became a young man willing to serve his sick wife and suffer with her no matter what the cost. Our transformation in Christ begins with the gift of a new heart, but you and I must learn to live in the freedom which God gives only by obedience.