Do Christians must keep the Ten Commandments?

Are the Ten Commandments mandatory or not? There are not many people who can accurately answer the question. Why? This is due to a lack of understanding of the relationship between the law and the gospel.

 

First, let's take an example. Suppose a couple has 10 children, and the parents have set strict rules for their children to grow up in a healthy way. The parents discipline their children when they break the rules, such as don't lie, don't hit others, don't cheat on their parents, don't steal money, and so on. These rules made by parents are really made out of love for their children. However, although this rule is for children, children will resent their parents. Young children try to be strict, but if they break, they will be beaten.

 

However, when one of the children reaches the age of majority, the parents make an exception to the application of this rule to the adult child. This is because parents no longer have to enforce these rules for adults. Parents give their children the freedom to act on their own. The law and the gospel have the same concept. Children symbolize those who have not been born again, and adults represent those who have been born again by water and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God no longer accuses those who have been born again of sin as in Romans 8:1.Those who are born again of water and the Spirit refer to those who died on the cross with Jesus Christ and were born again by the Spirit, as in Romans 6:3-6. From this principle, we must understand the Law and the Gospel.

 

What is the situation in the church today? Those who have entered the gospel of Jesus Christ are often confused as to whether they should keep the Ten Commandments or not. In Matthew 23:23, we know that God, righteousness, and seal are in the law, but we do not understand the relationship between the law and the gospel. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

The law is a total of 613 regulations. Among them, the people had to obey the ten commandments of the moral law, as well as the ceremonial law and the civil law. The Ten Commandments can be regarded as representatives of the law. This commandment was given by God to the people through Moses at Mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost to be kept. However, the gospel means that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross for all the sins of mankind, and it is the good news that frees us from sin and leads to salvation. Both the law and the gospel are the Word of God.

The law was a command that God gave to the people of Israel, and it was a command that had to be kept. If the people failed to comply with any one of them, they would become mortal to God, so it was a rule so strict that their sins were forgiven by slaughtering animals and sprinkling their blood on the altar. God made the people of Israel to keep the law in order to make them realize their sins through the law. Ultimately, sin means departing from God, and like Eve who wanted to be like God, every human being has his own righteousness, that is, the greed to become like God, as an idol in his heart.

The purpose of the law is that in the repeated process of people committing sins, offering a sacrifice to God for forgiveness of sins, and offering sacrifices after sinning, humans are like fish caught in a net that cannot escape from the bondage of sin. to realize that. The law was to look forward to the coming Messiah, who would offer the eternal sin sacrifice. Galatians 3:23-24 says, “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

In Hebrews 7:11-12, “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” The gospel is God's promise to set those who are in Christ free from sin, and it is the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the gospel is the word of God that gives us the strength to overcome sin.

Do those who are in Christ have to keep the law or not have to keep the law? We may be asked the question. As we analyze each of the ten commandments of Exodus 20, we must consider the meaning of God's words. Therefore, we must realize how low elementary education is the dichotomy of whether or not to obey the law. A believer must break away from the obsession with keeping the law and the nature of the law, which is the net of sin, realize the true meaning of God's words in the law, and move forward with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The true meaning of the law is that ultimately all human beings are sinners who have turned away from God. The law tells us that we have the sinful nature of greed to become like God, and that we cannot escape from the bondage of sin unless we look to the coming Messiah. Therefore, believers should not be bound by the rules of the law, but discover the true meaning hidden in the law, and enter into the word of the gospel of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is to be united with the cross of Jesus Christ, dead to the world, to sin, and to the law.

The law symbolizes the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the gospel symbolizes the tree of life. The tree of life is hidden in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, the gospel (Messiah: Christ) is hidden in the law. Jesus told his disciples several times that the Old Testament testified of me. The Old Testament is the word of God's covenant, and the law is also the word of the covenant. Jesus came in the flesh and said to himself, “I was also in the Old Testament”. He said he was with Abraham. Abraham was a person about 2000 years before Jesus was born. In John 8:55-59 it is said, "I was before Abraham was born". And he said he was with them too. In Genesis 14:18, “And Melchizedek king of Salem came out with bread and wine, and he was a priest of the Most High God.” In Hebrews 7, the Bible says that this Melchizedek is Jesus, and that Abraham met Jesus.

John also said that Jesus existed in the Old Testament times. In John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word became flesh, Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said the same thing. John 1:15 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He was first.

Hebrews 11:24-26 says that Moses met Christ. After Jesus was resurrected, in Luke 24:27, while on the road, he was having a conversation with two disciples, saying, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” And Galilee The same is said at the seashore in 24:44. 『And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. After all, it is Jesus Christ who is Jehovah God in the Old Testament times.

In John 5:39, Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

The scriptures here mean the Old Testament. What the Old Testament is talking about is the story of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 34:16, “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.” The Book of Jehovah means the Old Testament. If you read all the Bibles, you will know that Jehovah God is Jesus Christ.

The law contains the secret of being born again. The theme of Leviticus is holiness (separation). Holiness does not mean a clean life, but a life given to God. To be offered to God is to be destroyed. It is in the same context as Jesus said, “Deny yourself.” So holiness means life as a being different from life in the world. Leviticus 11:44-45 says, “For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. Here, the word “separate your body and sanctify it” is understood in the way that the people of the church must live with a sincere heart.

However, in the sense of being holy, they are not beings born of parents, but beings born of God for God. The former indicates that it is dead. This is the secret to being born again. Regeneration speaks of a change in existence, not a state of mind. 『neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.』 Creepeth upon the earth defiles the body no matter how clean a human being. Likewise, those born from parents are talking about living without abandoning their attributes.

In John 3:3-10, Jesus has a conversation with a man named Nicodemus, a teacher of the law. He saw Jesus performing miracles and realized that he was the Son of God. However, when Jesus said that he cannot see the kingdom of God unless he is born again of water and the Spirit, he did not understand these words at all and went away.

Water symbolizes that the body he received from his parents is dead. The Holy Spirit is to receive new life from God. It means that the dead will soon be reborn into new life. In John 3:10, Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

That is, when the people sinned against God and offered sacrifices, they had to realize that they were the dead animals. So, knowing that he was dead to sin, he was told to be a person who confessed to God that human beings themselves cannot escape from sin. But no one realized that truth. In other words, God was telling them to discover the Messiah through the sacrifice, but they did not know.

In Genesis 3:15, God clearly promised the Messiah, the offspring of the woman, the promise of the seed. However, the people of Israel did not realize this promise. The prophet Malachi said that God did not accept the sacrifices of the people. The Bible says that they sacrificed in vain at the temple gate.

We must meditate deeply on what God wants to say in the Ten Commandments. Therein lies the word of truth. Therein lies the message that God wants to send. Those who participate in the New Covenant should not be bound by the ordinances that are obligatory, but understand the word of God according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, repent and turn to God. Based on this great premise, the saints should look at the Ten Commandments.

Those who try to keep the Ten Commandments raise the question of whether they should keep anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. They say they keep the Ten Commandments, but they change the rules of the Sabbath at will.

Those who say that they do not have to keep the Ten Commandments feel like they are disobeying the Word of God. So, how many drunken people confuse the believers by saying that the sacrificial laws are no longer needed, but that observing the moral law helps them live their religious life. Rather than this dichotomy, we must understand God's word to become a person who discovers the truth of the gospel in the law and enter into the truth. In this dimension, we must examine each article of the Ten Commandments.

 

First, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Why did God say these words after bringing the Israelites out of the land of Egypt? In Exodus 20:2, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

The Lord God says that he brought the people out of the land of Egypt, where they were slaves. How much do we know about God? If we do not realize that the God Jehovah is the one who brought the saints who were Satan's servants out of this earth, which is Satan's world, we believe in other gods.

This world is the kingdom of Satan. God allowed Satan to rule for a certain period of time. In Luke 4:5-6, “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. Jesus also spoke before the work of the cross. In John 18:36, “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”

Also in 1 John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

If a believer loves the world while saying that he believes in the Lord God, he becomes a follower of Satan, the ruler of the world. It is like the Israelites who made a golden calf and bowed down to the idol as Jehovah God when Moses went up to Mount Sinai after the Exodus. 『Thou shalt have no other gods before me』 is a warning message that the people will have other gods besides God. That is why God placed this command as the first commandment.

Those who are in Christ are one with God through Christ. Those who are united with Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, become one with God, so this regulation is practically meaningless. It would be ridiculous to live like this, thinking that since there are these rules of the Ten Commandments, I have to see whether I worship other gods or not. Consequently, he who is not dead to the world is not in Christ. It may have some meaning when one who is not in Christ looks at this commandment.

 

Second, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

 

This means that man should not make an image for himself. For, through the outward form, they create a divine image in their mind. this is an idol

Believers live only for the image of God. The image of God is Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1:15, 『Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:』. Jesus is the one who appeared in the visible form, the image of the invisible God. In John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” In John 14:9, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hat seen me hat seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Those who are bound by this commandment and think that it must be observed can make a logical leap in the need to exclude all forms of appearance. However, it can be said that those who are not united with the image of God, that is, Jesus Christ, are without the image of God. No matter how much you say you believe in Jesus, if there is no union with Him on the cross, the image of Satan is inherent in that person. The image of Satan is the man himself the master. If Jesus does not become the master, then he is the master of all. What is important is not the commandment itself, but the image God speaks in the commandment, that is, faith that denies self and is united with Jesus Christ. For this work, we must engrave the words of the Apostle Paul, who said that we die every day.

 

Thirty, Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

 

Regarding this word, it is easy for people to think in such a way that the people of the church should not use the name of God in vain. So, this may be the reason why people in the church do not call on God's name or are careful. In the past, the Israelites did not use God's name in vain. When writing the words of the Bible on parchment, the name part was left blank. Then, when making the 70-inch Bible, it was written YHWH, and it is said that the name was called Adonai. Then, the Jewish diaspora living in Alexandria at that time combined the vowels a and ai with YHWH in the English transcription of Adonai to make YHaWHai and started calling it Yahweh. When translated into English, it was written as Jehovah,today in the English Bible it is translated as LORD.

However, through these words, God wants the people to live a life that is right in God's eyes. Even in the world, if people live in sin regardless of the Father's will, others will criticize or criticize the Father's name. Likewise, if the people who claimed to be God's people live contrary to God's will, if other nations see the people and laugh at God, then the people of Israel are taking God's name in vain. If they claim to be Christians and commit sins worse than those of the world in the eyes of the world, it will be the result of taking the name of God in vain.

We can see them saying that they are Christians, going to other religious events and bowing down. Of course, there are various reasons, but even if they make excuses by saying that their heart belongs to God, they are criticizing God's name in the eyes of others. At a time when religious pluralism is rampant today, those who claim to be Christians are putting the name of God in vain if they say that there is salvation in all religions.

If they are God's people, they must show their fragrance internally and externally. Inwardly, he must be united with Jesus Christ to become a born-again man, and he must show the fragrance of Christ externally as well. If the preacher is immersed in worldly stories rather than the kingdom of God, he will become a stench rather than the fragrance of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:To the one we are the save of death unto death; and to the other the save of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

Fourth, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

We need to look at how the Bible describes the rest. In Hebrews 4:8-10, if Joshua gave Israel rest, it is the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is a shadow that symbolizes the kingdom of God.

It's not really a rest. So it means that the time of rest remains for God's people. The true rest is to enter the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. Because God is the true rest. When connected with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, it means “a state of rest.” Such a person has already entered rest. The Bible says that he will give rest to those who believe in Jesus Christ, and he gives the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. When a believer's body collapses, the spirit comes out, and putting on the body of the spirit is the rest of the kingdom of God.

In Ephesians 2:6, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”. Those who believe in Jesus Christ will have their old self die with Jesus Christ, and a new person will be raised with Jesus Christ into a new life. The new man will be seated with Christ in heaven. Those who died with Jesus will be seated in the kingdom of God. Similarly, in Colossians 3:3, it says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

The dead are the old ones. And it is said, “The life of the new man is hid in God.” Hebrews 4:10 says, “For he that is entered into his rest his, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Those who are born in a new life with Jesus Christ have already entered into rest.

Those who have entered the rest, God says, “Do not do his own work.” The word “one’s work” means “love the world.” Today, those who say, “We must keep the Sabbath,” or “We must keep the Sabbath that replaces the Sabbath day holy,” are like confessing that “I am not yet in the rest.” Because they think that they will enter into rest if they keep it holy.

It is not so different from the case where Jesus Christ has come and we are still waiting for Christ. Those who wait for Christ are not yet in Jesus Christ, so he is not in the rest of the kingdom of God. Only those who are in Jesus Christ can be said to have entered into rest.

If the saints regard the Lord's Day as one day of the week and the members gather to study the Bible and worship, there will be no problem. Those who are to keep holy must think that they are not resting in the kingdom of God. The saints should not keep holy, but have a heart of gratitude for having already entered the rest of the kingdom of God. Those who seek to keep the Sabbath holy are those who are in the law to find Christ.

In the Old Testament we could say that the Sabbath is today Saturday. So, since the Sabbath is Saturday, those who say that they should worship on this day are obsessed with it without knowing the meaning of the Sabbath. With the words of Galatians 4:10-11, 『Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, least I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” This is what the apostle Paul lamented. Today, people in the church who keep these days, months, years, and feasts believe in Jesus and believe that they are saved, but they do not have the Holy Spirit and we can see the ecology of those who believe according to their own thoughts.

 

Fifth, Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

 

Living on this earth, people grow up with the protection and love of their parents, and they also grow up and live with their parents as precious beings. Of course, not everyone will live like this. However, in general, the relationship between parent and child is a blood-related relationship that cannot be artificially changed. In the same way, this is the case between parents and children in this world, not to mention the relationship between God and humans.

God is a spirit, and man has a spirit. This is because man is a being created by the union of flesh and spirit. However, man does not know God. for the spirit is dead to God. God wants the spirit to come back to life, and He is waiting for the return to the kingdom of God. John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Through these words, the Bible lets us know that the spirit in the body is dead. People do not understand very well about spirit, soul, and body. In Ecclesiastes 12:7, 『Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.』. The dust is expressed in this way because man’s body was made of the dust.

In Genesis 2:7, 『And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.』“Living beings” is called “Nefishihai” in Hebrew. However, in Greek it is translated as pushke. When a person dies, the body returns to the dust and the spirit returns to God. It is the Spirit that God breathed into his nostrils. Life is the Hebrew word for neshama (breath).

In Luke 8, the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, died, and Jesus raises the girl from the dead. In 8:55, “And her spirit, she came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.”

It is the same thing that God breathes life into and the Spirit returns. The Greek word pneuma (spirit) returned. The spirit returned and became a living creature. When a spirit enters dust, it becomes a living organism. When spirit and soil meet, it becomes a “living creature (soul)”. When a living creature dies, the spirit and body separate and go their separate ways. Since a living creature (soul) means a combination of spirit and earth, when a person dies, the spirit is expelled from the body, and the phenomenon of life called the soul disappears.

God tells us through the Bible that all who live in this world are strangers. Leviticus 25:23 says, “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.”. Hebrews 11:14-16 also describes a stranger. 『For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

The subject who returns to the kingdom of God is the Spirit. It is not a man made of dust, but the spirit in man, a living being, wearing a spirit body and returning to the kingdom of God. Believers can only return to the kingdom of God by putting off their earthly bodies and putting on their spiritual bodies. This is because God and the angels as creatures are all spirits. Like the parable of the prodigal son, those who have left God repent and return to God. John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Because the spirit is confined to the ground, the spirit is dead to God. So, the spirit must come back to life and return to the kingdom of God, but in order to return, the spirit must not be naked. In this world, it is the shadow that wears clothes to cover the body. If the spirit does not put on the clothes of the kingdom of God, he cannot return to the kingdom of God.

To say that the spirit is trapped in the dust means that the spirit is clothed with dust. We can see that God caused Adam and Eve to sin and leave the Garden of Eden and clothed them with skins. Leather clothes are not animal skins, but leather clothes made of dust. The world we live in is like a prison. Besides what Jude 1:6 and 2 Peter 2:4 say, we can understand this from the law as well. In Galatians 3:22, “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Only those who believe that they are imprisoned under sin can receive the promise.

Being imprisoned under sin has the same meaning as being imprisoned for sin in this world. Those who are imprisoned must obey the rules of the prison unconditionally. The rules of the prison have the same meaning as the laws of this world. Sinners realize their sins through the strict rules and realize the importance of the outside world. The only way to get out of this land is to die and get out. But with God's pardon, it would be possible to be a free man while alive. It is the way to be united with the death of Jesus Christ. Romans 6:7 says that the dead are freed from sin.

In order for a dead spirit to come back to life, the physical body that encloses the spirit must die. The state of the spirit dead is expressed as a prisoner, a blind person, etc. That is why Jesus came to release the prisoners, open the eyes of the blind, heal the demon-possessed, and lead those in darkness into the light. Those who are united with Jesus Christ will receive this grace. To be united with Jesus Christ, he must die with Jesus.

If Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless.” The believers should focus on these words, but they are indifferent. If they only care about the body, they are ignoring the words of Jesus. Since the spirit is in the body, the spirit is dead to God. It says that Jesus came to save the spirit. In order for the spirit to come back to life, the body must be destroyed. Anyone who enters into the cross of Jesus is stripped of his body. God is not interested in the body, but in the spirit. That is why food from heaven becomes eternal life.

Why are people not interested in the Spirit? This is because the soul, which is derived from the flesh, is the master. The soul is a living organism, given emotions from the moment it is born, and knowledge and values are formed as it grows. This is called self. Jesus said that only by denying self can we see the kingdom of God. In other words, the soul that originates in the flesh plays the role of killing the spirit. In order to save the spirit, you must deny yourself before the word of God.

 

Sixth, Thou shalt not kill.

 

This is a word about the shedding of blood. The blood comes from God. Blood must not be spilled anywhere. Leviticus also mentions the shedding of blood. Man's first murder was when Cain killed Abel. All life comes from God, and no one can take it by force. The will of God is hidden in that life. All life is limited life. So he makes us realize that there is eternal life. It is to seek the eternal life of God through blood. That is the promise of seed. The seed is the source of life. The seed of promise becomes the source of eternal life. The seed of promise is Christ (Messiah). It is to seek the Christ who is to come, which God promised to Abraham.

In murder is hidden the greed to show one's righteousness. Regarding the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, God did not accept Cain's offerings, but accepted Abel's offerings. What Cain brought was the produce of the earth. The word Adam is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word adamah (earth). The product of the earth is the product of Adama. In other words, it means the fruit produced by grinding the earth, the root of man. It refers to the fruits of hard work with the intention of becoming like God without God.

According to the Law, even grains, which were products of the earth, were acceptable to God as sacrifices. Since the produce of the earth mentioned here is made by himself without God, God did not receive it. Abel gave the firstborn, a symbol of Jesus Christ. In Genesis 3:15, God promised the seed of the woman, and the seed of the woman is Christ, the seed of promise. Both Cain and Abel must have heard of and knew about the Promised Seed. However, Cain did not believe the promise. Not the sacrifice of the promised seed, he offered to God what he had produced, and Abel offered the sacrifice of faith in the promised seed.

Sodom and Gomorrah were judged before God. This is one of the grounds when God judges the world. And even in Noah's flood, the world was destroyed. This also showed the model of judgment for those who have departed from God. It shows how God judges through the sacrifices of Cain and Abel.

God does not accept things produced by those who depart from God "with a heart that can be righteous like God without God." Even in this day and age, we must not approach God with the same intentions as Cain. Those who have the same intentions, thoughts, and efforts like Cain cannot approach God. After all, Cain, like Abel, did not like to abide in God's promise of the seed of promise. The result was anger and wrath, which appeared in the form of striking Abel to death.

Inside the murder, there is a greed to become like a God who overpowers the opponent with force if it interferes with the expression of one's righteousness. In Genesis 4:7, “And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and he plucked it out of his bosom his, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh his.

Sin is a departure from God. In other words, what a person who has left God wants is nothing but the desires of the flesh. All the desires of the mind and desires of the flesh are the desires of the flesh, and these are called sins. The desire to become like God without God was manifested in the flesh.

The same is said in 1 John 2:15-16. The phrase “Thou shalt have control over sin” means “Control the lusts of the flesh.” The Apostle Paul is saying in Romans 7:7, 『What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. People don't really know what the body wants. However, God said to Cain, “Do not do what sin wants you to have dominion over.” However, people should realize it and know it, but it was not.

What the Apostle Paul is saying is, “Recognize that you cannot do good in the flesh, but you will do evil.” God tells us that we shouldn't do what the flesh wants us to do. God tells us to kill the heart that comes from the flesh. The heart that comes from the flesh is the temptation to become like God without God in the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul described this as the old man. The old man must die, so that the saints can see God.

Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” God gave the people of Israel the law to achieve righteousness through the law, but in fact, He made them realize that they cannot achieve God's righteousness unless they discover sin through the law and abandon their fleshly self.

If you give up your carnal self, you will discover the seed of promise (Christ). As it says in Genesis, it means to seek the fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden.

Cain did not understand the word of God and killed Abel according to the demands of the flesh. Those who live on this earth and are crucified with Jesus Christ are divided into those who are not crucified. It's the difference between dying and not dying. God tells us to die with Jesus on the cross and return. Otherwise, you will grow to crucify Jesus. Those who do not die with Jesus have the lust that follows the flesh in their heart, and that greed leads to their own anger.

Cain plows the ground according to the desires of the flesh, but eternal life is not given in it. Cain and his descendants lived according to their own flesh, and as a result, in Genesis 6:5-6, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

 

Seventh, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

 

In addition to the fact that adultery took place at the site where it actually happened, the Bible considers anyone who has lust to commit adultery. The Ten Commandments tell us not to commit adultery, so even if we decide not to commit adultery, there is nothing we can do about adultery that happened in our hearts. The cause of adultery in the heart is that the old man of greed does not die. In the commandment not to commit adultery, God is telling us to discover the lust of the heart to commit adultery. God is sending the message of spiritual adultery through carnal adultery.

There are two types of adultery: carnal adultery and spiritual adultery. Regarding fleshly adultery, Jesus clearly states, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, except for the cause of fornication, commits adultery.” By the way, Jesus is talking about physical adultery in response to the Pharisees' question, but he is also talking about spiritual adultery. The Bible compares Christ and the saints as husband and wife. So the parable of the ten virgins is similar. Christ and the saints become one by the Holy Spirit. However, those who say they are in Christ but still believe that they must keep the law are those who commit spiritual adultery. The Pharisees say they are God's people, but they think they must keep the law.

Jesus compared the law to the law of the Holy Spirit through the parable of the ten virgins. The five foolish virgins said that she lit a lamp but she did not prepare another barrel of oil, and the wise virgin lighted her lamp and prepared another barrel of oil. Lighting a lamp means that you have been invited to the church. However, the other oil barrels represent the Holy Spirit. The five foolish virgins who did not prepare another oil barrel are still in the law. Like Nicodemus, they do not know the meaning of being born again, but they think they are saved and are bound by the law.

There are two kinds of people in the church today. Those who are bound by the law and those who are born again. Unless we are born again in a spiritual body, we are all bound by the law. So the old man must die. The flesh he received from his parents is to be crucified with Jesus. In Romans 6:8-9, “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hat no more dominion over him.”

Jesus Christ did not die in his fleshly heart, but in the body he received from his parents on the cross. We must believe that the one who died with him is not dead in mind, but dead in body. It is not that it will happen when the future body dies, but that it will become so in the present of faith. In 1 Corinthians 15:44, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Those who have not been reborn as a spiritual body cannot enter into Christ. However, all those who say they believe in Jesus and still focus on the flesh they received from their parents are committing the sin of spiritual adultery. Those who say they believe in Christ but love the world commit spiritual adultery.

 

Eighth, Thou shalt not steal.

 

Some stealing is actually done, but there will be people who don't put it into action and live with it in their hearts. It is greed in the heart. The act of this greed turns into theft. Through this commandment, God allowed us to discover the sinful nature of greed within man.

Satan is the one who tried to steal from God because he wanted to become like God. Those who followed Satan are thieves. In the Garden of Eden, breaking God's command and eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is an act of stealing the kingdom of God. Satan is stealing the Word of God. He is using the Word of God to test man. It can be seen that the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness by stealing the words of the Bible. Satan takes the form of an angel of light. Those who twist the Bible and say it as if it were the truth are all thieves of the Bible.

What Satan wants is to deceive his children so that they cannot return to God again. He must hide all the truth. We cannot realize all the truth except what the Bible tells us. The truth is Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth; no one can come to the Father except through me." Satan prevents the spirits in all human beings from entering the rest of God. But God gives rest to those who come into Christ. That is God's work. In John 5:17, 『But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.』. What is God's work? In John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The Bible says that it is God's work to believe in Him whom God has sent. Satan makes us not believe in the one God has sent. Satan sows a false heart that he refuses to believe the one sent by God, and that he can achieve his own righteousness. The Bible says that if he only believes in the words of his Son, he can achieve righteousness, which Satan can never achieve. Even though God has spoken, humans follow Satan's words with their physical eyes. Satan makes us want to solve the world's sin problem on our own. He makes people look at the law to see if they are sinning or not. And people make decisions and make efforts to avoid sinning. So, in their opinion, if we sin, we must repent of our sins repeatedly every day in order to receive the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus. It's like seeing with your physical eyes.

To “believe in the Son” means to believe in dying with Jesus Christ and being resurrected together. To remember to die daily with Jesus is to free yourself from Satan's delusions. When our old self dies, we enter into Christ, and God will bruise Satan's head. In Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed her; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel his.”

The Bible is the book that testifies of Christ. The Old Testament predestined Christ to come, and the New Testament testifies of the coming Christ. The Bible is God's promise and covenant that He will restore us back to the kingdom of God once we enter into Christ. Satan deceives all human beings so that they cannot return to the kingdom of God. They deceive themselves that there is a way to salvation even if it is not Christ. And he says that you can be saved simply by believing in Christ. However, if you do not speak the word of repentance, you become a deceiver. You are a deceiver unless you say that we must die on the cross with Jesus.

Repentance is realizing that you have departed from God and turning back. God said that the spirits of the kingdom of God who entered the world following Satan's delusion should take off their physical body (the old man) and return to their spiritual body while their physical body is still alive in this world. This is because there is an old man (greed) who wants to become like God in his fleshly body.

 

Ninth, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

 

The attribute of lying is due to greed in the heart. People lie to achieve a decision of the mind called greed. Satan is a deceitful, deceitful, and liar. Satan is a being who opposes God. Satan casts a shadow of evil over men. So he makes people sin. The reason is to make them slaves of Satan. In John 8:44, Jesus told the Pharisees captured by Satan, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it.

In 1 John 2:18, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” In 1 John 2:22, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anticrist, that denieth the Father and the Son." 1 John 4:3 "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anticrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” In 2 John 1:7, “For many deceives are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Most Christianity today is walking a very different path from the Christianity of the Puritans 100 years ago. False Christians do not have the Word of God dwelling in them, but they are perverting the Word into a convenient way of thinking and making it false. False Christians today are spreading the false gospel in the way that they can be saved if they just believe, and that they can be saved if they pray. They become what they think Christianity is. The reason for this was that he was not born again. They learn and experience with knowledge and thus think they are Christians, but unless they are born again, they become false Christians. Don't be fooled by the Christianity created by people. A believer must confirm the words of the Bible and abide in those who claim to believe the words.

As a Christian who has been adapted to the world, he cannot be born again. In Christianity, where believers say baptism is the washing away of sins, they cannot be born again. Romans 6:4 clearly states, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” And in 1 Peter 3:21, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ :” he says. People say that if you confess your sins and ask for forgiveness, you can be forgiven by the blood of Jesus, but Romans 6:7 says, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” It is not that the Bible is distorted, but false Christians are distorting the Bible. Those who have not been born again are twisting the Bible. So the blind is leading the blind.

In this day and age when the cross is thought of as an ornament on a necklace, we cannot say that we are in Christ unless we die on the cross with Jesus who died on Golgotha. Even if you know the phrase "in Christ", you cannot say that you are in Christ unless the Word abides. Only the new man who has put off his old physical self and put on a spiritual body from heaven will become a true Christian. Otherwise, he is a false Christian.

 

Tenth, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

 

Colossians 3:5 says, “Covetousness is an idol.” A covetous person is an idolater. In Luke 4, we see Satan boldly tempt Jesus when he tempts him to covet God's place. This is because Satan is fundamentally the core of the covetous desire to become like God. Covetousness is a matter of conscience before the law. Covetousness defiles the conscience and causes us to fall into sin. That's why the Bible says to kill covetousness.

Covetousness is the love of the world. That is why the Bible tells us to die to the world. In 1 John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” In 1 John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” No one can overcome the world except those who are born again. saying there is no. Those who are born again mean those who deny themselves and are born again by the power of God.

In Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “Avoid all covetousness.” And he figuratively said in Luke 12:16-21, “People store up riches, but if God takes away their life, it is of no use.” Continuing, Jesus warns us not to worry about wealth. But if you don't have enough money, you can't live in a world. God tells us not to covet wealth, and humans believe that accumulating wealth is the only way to be satisfied. This is because the greed of Satan leads to ruin. If you follow Satan, you will surely die.

 

Summarizing the Ten Commandments

 

All human beings are sinners to God and cannot escape from sin. So, although human beings needed a law made up of rules of command, those who enter into Christ are no longer slaves to sin, so they are not obligated to rule, but to approach God's Word with an autonomous heart. So, unless you enter into Jesus Christ, you are not guaranteed to be autonomous. Autonomy is achieved through the power of the Holy Spirit.

For example, in response to the words of the Ten Commandments, 'Love your neighbor as yourself', people consciously try to love because there are rules to love. To love your neighbor is to raise a dead spirit. To save the spirit, do it as if you loved your body. No one in this world can love his neighbor as himself. But if you do not do this, you are breaking the Ten Commandments. So, he became a mortal existence to God, and in order to escape from that situation, he had to sacrifice an animal by killing it. A dead animal is a sinner. But because Jesus Christ died on the cross for atonement, the sacrifice is no longer needed.

Remembering the meaning of this regulation, we should think about what is essential to live the Spirit. The members voluntarily participate in revitalizing the spirits of their neighbors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, rather than being regulated by detailed regulations. Since Jesus Christ has already died to the law and the power of the Holy Spirit has taken its place, the sense of legal obligation to keep these detailed regulations has disappeared. It is not to keep the ordinances out of a sense of duty, but to break away from the ordinances and do it with the power of the Holy Spirit to set us free spiritually.

The fact that believers are obligated to pay tithing, which is one of the laws, is not an obsessive duty, but must be considered with the heart of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it should no longer be replaced with a tithe of duty, but with an offering of love.

Also, believers should not view sin as a sense of duty or compulsion to "repent of their sins, ask for forgiveness, and repent of their sins every day." Since God has freed the saints from sin through Jesus Christ, the saints must come to God while thinking about the nature of that sin. The essence of sin is the old man's greed to become like God. That is why the old man died with Jesus because of sin. If a believer believes that he has no choice but to commit sins against sin every day and confesses his sins daily and asks for forgiveness, he is not dead to sin, but is alive to sin. They will not believe in the words of God's new covenant.

When a person says, "Christian, stop worrying about sin in the church of the world and free yourself from sin," he is treated as a heretic from that moment on. Who is right? They will really be tested. Man is bound to sin. Should we repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness every day? Then, will God forgive us if we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness every day as if we are chanting a mantra? Or would you believe that because Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world and went to the kingdom of God, those who are in Christ died with Jesus to sin and became free men free from sin? Whether it is the law or the gospel, both have the meaning of what God says. Human beings are sinners and cannot be freed from sin.Those who believe in Jesus must enter into Christ.

The law is established as a rule so that we can understand God's will, and the gospel is about being set free from sin and following God's will by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now God tells us to break free from the law that is like the net of sin and move forward with the power of the Holy Spirit. Why do people insist on obligatory provisions of the law? This is because they do not believe in the word of God in the new covenant. The new covenant is not a written law, but God's promise to unite with Christ and lead to new life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Always, thinking of God's will, whether it's the law or the gospel, it's not about obsessive laws, but with the guidance of the Holy Spirit as a free person from sin.