The presupposition of the first commandment—“You shall have no other gods before Me”—is that, regardless of the fact that man worships a vast array of idols he calls gods, other than the triune God of the Bible, no other gods exist. In fact, the Hebrew word for an idol literally means “a nothing,” “a non-entity.” (712)

"His forbidding us to have other gods means that we are not to give to another than himself what belongs to God… that we are to worship him alone; we are to rely upon him with complete faithfulness and hope; whatsoever is good and holy we are to recognize as received from him; and we are to direct all praise for goodness and holiness to him." 4 ​I. John Hesselink, Calvin’s First Catechism: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1997), 11. (714)

God’s Law is covenant law; it defines the relationship between the Creator and His friends in Christ....We do not obey God’s Law in order to be redeemed or to enter the covenant (Gal. 3:24). When a person is rightly related to Jehovah through the sacrifice and intercession of the Mediator of the Covenant, obedience to Biblical Law by believers for Jesus’ sake enhances covenant life. (717)

Since the God of the Bible is the only true and living God whom we are to serve with all our heart, we are obliged to know all we can know about Him from His written Word, and on the basis of that Word know Him personally as our God. (718)

This true knowledge of God is the foundation of all life, thought and behavior: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). (718)

...Packer brings out some helpful points regarding the knowledge of God:
(1) A person can know a great deal about God without knowing God.
(2) A person can know a great deal about living the Christian life without knowing God.
(3) Those who truly know God exert great energy for God: “the people who know their God will display strength and take action” (Dan. 11:32). ...
(4) Those who truly know God have great thoughts of God which fill their minds. ...
(5) Those who truly know God show great boldness in serving and witnessing for God.  ....
(6) Those who truly know God have great contentment in God. ...
(7) “Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing, as is all direct acquaintance with personal beings. Knowing God is more than knowing about Him; it is a matter of dealing with Him as He opens up to you, and being dealt with by Him as He takes knowledge of you.”11
(8) “Knowing God is a matter of personal involvement, in mind, will and feeling. Otherwise, it would not be a fully personal relationship. To get to know another person, you have to commit yourself to his company and interests, and be ready to identify yourself with his concerns.”12
(9) Knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God—as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on His favour by our sins. We do not make
friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know Him by making His love known to us.13
(10) “What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me.… All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me.”14 
11. Packer, Knowing God, 34.
12. Packer, Knowing God, 35.
13. Packer, Knowing God, 36, emphasis added.
14. Packer, Knowing God, 37.
(719-721)

The command to “swear by His Name” is the command to confess our faith in God and to declare our total loyalty to Him. Swearing by God’s name is a confession of faith in the Old Testament, and our confession always includes the renewal of our vows and our devotion to our God. (721)

The one true and living God has commanded all His intelligent creatures to worship Him in sincerity and according to His Word, with all their heart and soul. (723)

In the broadest sense, worship is the giving of praise, honor, adoration, devotion and service to the one true and living God who is our God in Jesus Christ. (724)

The loyalty and devotion Almighty God demands of us is total and all encompassing, for “He will not share His glory with another.” (725)

The true worship of God is both internal and external. It is INTERNAL and INWARD in that, in essence, it consists in fearing, loving, praising, calling upon, trusting in and serving the Lord with all the heart, all of which show themselves in holiness of behavior. It is EXTERNAL and OUTWARD in that faith without works is dead. Adoring worship in the heart will manifest itself in the public worship of God according to the way He has commanded in His Word. (725)

The INWARD always expresses itself in the OUTWARD. The outward expression of worship is governed by several Biblical principles. (1) God accepts only that worship which is in accordance with what He has commanded in the Bible regarding how He is to be worshipped (Deut. 12:32). (2) God may not be worshipped with the help of visual representations of Him (Deut. 4:15, 16, 23). (3) God condemns the attempted worshipping of Him in any other way not prescribed
in the Bible (Matt. 15:9). In other words, in the worship of God, if it is not commanded, it is forbidden. (726)

Human beings exist to glorify God and to delight in the God of glory. Humankind
has been predestined to be the instrument of the Divine glory, to reflect that glory in their own consciousness and to enjoy God as the all-glorious One. In other words, glorifying God and enjoying God are inseparable. (727)

So then, we can say that honoring God or glorifying God involves appreciation, adoration, submission and witness.

First, APPRECIATION. We glorify God when we recognize God’s “impressiveness” in His self-revelation and have God-admiring thoughts about Him. Second, ADORATION. We glorify God when we praise Him and adore Him for His “impressiveness” as revealed in Christ, the Bible and creation. Third, SUBMISSION. We glorify God by submitting to the supremacy and finality of His revelation in total dependence and obedience. Fourth, WITNESS. We glorify God when we hold and give a good opinion of God by the witness of our lives and mouths to others. Therefore, “whether… you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). (727)

The worship of God is the conscious and deliberate glorifying and enjoying of God regulated by His Word. (728)

[1: Thinking of Him]
 Among the evils that bring down God’s most severe judgment upon an individual or a people is not wanting and refusing to have God in all their thoughts. (729)

In stark contrast to the reprobate, the true believer in Jesus understands that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,” and so in all his thinking he starts with God as the source of all life, truth and morality. To say that the fear of the Lord is the starting point and foundation for all wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs
1:7; 9:10) is to say that true knowledge is acquired, not rationalistically, existentially, or empirically, but revelationally; therefore to know anything from physics to theology, one must begin with God and His verbal revelation, as the only basis for knowledge and morality....If in our thinking we do not begin with God, we will never end with God. (730)

[2: Meditating on Him]
"Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us…as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ.… And it is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength, and our joy. 28 Packer, Knowing God, 18–19. (732-733)

[3: Remembering Him]
Time and again in the Bible we are urged not to forget the Lord, but to remember Him, whether we are enjoying prosperity or suffering poverty. ...
"Then let us mark, that the remembering means the reverencing of Him." 29. Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, 284. (733)

[4: Highly Esteeming Him]
The Hebrew is that they “thought upon His name,” in the sense that they “esteemed” it and “prized” it, in contrast to those aroundthem who had come to “despise” that holy name. (734)

[5: Honoring Him]
We honor God when, in our hearts we know, recognize and love all the revealed perfections of God: His justice as well as His grace, His wrath as well as His mercy, His righteousness as well as His love, His sovereignty as well as His patience. (736)

[6: Adoring Him]
It manifests this loving reverence in verbal expressions in worship to him in whom these glorious perfections reside. The language of adoration is accompanied with praise, which arises from our consciousness of the delight we enjoy in the contemplation of these divine perfections. (738)

[7: Choosing Him]
A true Christian is not one who makes only one “decision for Jesus,” rather he is one who seeks to make “every decision for Jesus.” (739)

[8: Loving Him]
Choosing God means loving Him. (741)

What is it to LOVE God? Love is emotional, but it is more than emotion. Emotions cannot be ordered to act on command; but God commands us that we love Him with all our heart. This means that we must:
"see love as a choice. Because only Yahweh is God, Israel and we must choose for Him. To love means to stick with your choice. When a marriage gets into trouble, the only path to resolution is the choice to love. The emotional element in that love may be wholly or partially absent, but faithfulness must come out. Concretely, then, love means that husband and wife form no relationships with third parties, but maintain the choice they made for each other with their wedding vows. The same is true of our relationship with the Lord. He covenanted Himself to Israel, and Israel to Him. The first commandment demands a love that is faithful to the covenant. Here, too, no third party may come between them. Love cannot be shared between Yahweh and Baal, between God and Mammon.… To love is to stick with your choice, regardless of whether it feels good." 42 Douma, The Ten Commandments, 21. (741-742)

[9: Desiring Him]
For those who love the triune God, nothing they desire equals the intensity of the longing of their hearts for fellowship with the one true and living God, who is their God in Christ. (743)

Therefore, we will have no intense desire for God unless we have the following. (1) A thoroughly Biblical understanding of His being and perfections, including His self-sufficiency (Ps. 115:3). If we are convinced He favors us because He needs us, we will more highly esteem ourselves, and will not be overwhelmed with the greatness
and blessedness of His being. The believer loves God because of who He is and what He has revealed of Himself. (2) A thoroughly Biblical understanding of our total need for Him and His willingness, ability and generosity in meeting all our needs in Christ (Phil. 4:19). Until we recognize that in and of ourselves we lack everything that is good and honorable and pleasing to God, that we have no spiritual resources to live life the way God meant for it to be lived, we will not have any proper and intense desire for God, because we will not see or feel our total need of Him. (745) 

[10: Fearing Him]
The source of the true worship of God is the fear of God....This fear of the Lord
is reverential awe, adoration and submission in the conscious presence of the triune God, which creates in us a deep and profound humility before God, without which no one can come to God and be accepted by Him. (745)

The fruit of the fear of God includes: (1) Faith and Repentance, without which it is absolutely impossible to do anything that pleases God (Heb. 11:6; Isa. 1:10–17). (2) Humble Submission to God, because the God we worship is the Lord God Almighty, the Sovereign of the universe. (3) Joyful Praise, in the celebration of redemption
God has given us in Christ. (4) Intense Delight, because in the worship of God our great and glorious God manifests Himself and His glory to us. (747)

[11: Believing Him]
Believing in God and believing God are inseparable. In fact, unless we believe God we will not believe in Him....True faith “believes in,” the Lord, i.e., trusts in and commits to the Lord (John 3:16) and it also “believes that,” God has spoken, persuaded by the Spirit that all He has spoken is true: “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9). (747)

[12: Believing in Him]
Hence, believing IN God denotes “a steady, resting repose, reliance upon, and a fixedness of confidence in” God in Christ. (749)

[13. Trusting in Him]
To “trust” in the Lord involves renouncing all confidence in self or in any other human being, and relying solely upon the Lord alone for life and salvation. (749)

In faith the believer not only TRUSTS God in Christ for salvation, he also ENTRUSTS himself to Christ forever. He relies upon Him, rests and leans upon Him, and commits all he is, has, and ever will have to Christ. (750)

[14. Hoping in Him]
Those who trust in God hope in God, because they know that their God is a faithful God, and they are assured that He will fulfill all the great and glorious promises He has made in His Word, however, in His own time and schedule, which means that sometimes they have to wait in faith through many difficulties to see the promise
realized. (750)

Hope has certainty in it. Because faith rests in the Promiser, hope waits confidently and expectantly for the promises. Faith hopes with anticipation and certainty regarding the blessings of God to the believer in the future because it knows that God has promised: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). (751)

(1) Salvation is oriented to hope; and (2) Hope produces perseverance.
First, salvation is oriented to hope....This refers to the fact that the salvation
bestowed in the past, the salvation now in possession of believers, is characterized by hope....In other words, possessed salvation cannot be separated from the certainty of its consummation. Salvation—past, present and future—is one salvation. ...
Second, hope produces perseverance. Hope has a two-fold effect on the believer. (1) It makes him wait on God in patient, eager and joyful expectation: “we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). (2) It gives him patience, endurance and constancy while he is waiting in faith for God to fulfill His promises: “and not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations; knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint” (Rom. 5:3–5). (751-752)

Here is a picture of a Christian person: he is a person of hope, who can combine eagerness and patience at one and the same time. He is neither impulsive nor phlegmatic. Therefore he is stable and reliable. (752)

[15: Delighting in Him]
For those who know God loves them in Christ, there is profound delight in the enjoyment of His love. We delight in the character of Him whom we love. (753)

[16: Rejoicing in Him]
The Bible abounds with references to joy and rejoicing. It speaks of gladness, contentment, satisfaction, mirth, cheerfulness, peace, serenity, the joy of faith and rejoicing in hope....From a study of...Old Testament words, we can learn several things about joy. (1) Shouting is associated with joy: “shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart” (Ps. 32:11b). (2) Over against paganism, joy is coupled with righteousness: “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones” (Ps. 32:11a). (3) Joy has God as its source and object. Psalm 32:11 calls upon us to “be glad IN
THE LORD” (emphasis added). (4) God is a joyful God: “Let the LORD be glad in His works” (Ps. 104:31). (5) “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). “True joy is based on knowledge of and submission to God’s Word.”66 (6) In God’s presence is “fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). (754-755)

The New Testament has about six words for joy and rejoicing. (1) It refers to joy as a gift of God to His children: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” (Gal. 5:22). (2) It is the response of the believer to the gospel of Christ: “And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:10–11).67 (3) It is future-oriented for perfected joy and is a feature of life in the consummated universe: “Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of
many things, enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21). (4) The joy of Christians is the joy of Christ, who said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11)....(5) This joy is unknown to the unbelieving world—“A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor. 2:14). (6) The believer can rejoice in afflictions and sufferings with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (Acts 5:4; 2 Cor. 6:10; 1 Pet. 1:6, 8; 4:13).  (755-756)

[17: Being Zealous for Him]
One who loves God will be zealous for God, because “zeal is the fire of love, active for duty, burning as it flies.” What is zeal? It is “an ardour of mind, a fervent affection for some person or thing; with an indignation against everything supposed to be pernicious and hurtful to it.” 72 John Gill, Body of Divinity (Atlanta, GA: Turner Lasseter, 1965), 824. (757)

True zeal is “a zeal for God.”...Because true zeal has as its object the true God and His honor, it also has as its object the worship of God and the Word of God, including all the truths contained therein. (758)

Moreover, the cause of Christ is also the object of true zeal. Those who are possessed with the zeal of love for God, seek not their own things, but the things of Christ (Phil. 2:21). They are intensely concerned for the welfare of Christ’s churches, for the advance of the gospel of Christ in the world and for the faithful administration of the ordinances of Christ in His church, along with the loving practice of church discipline. (758)

[18: Depending on Him]
God is independent of His creation, and at the same time He has made His creation and everything in it totally dependent upon Him for its continued existence. (760)

The conscious recognition of our total dependence upon God is highlighted in Jesus’ statement: “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Mark 10:15). In this call to discipleship, Jesus demands of those who enter His kingdom that they realize their total helplessness in their relationship to His
kingdom. (760)

Philippians 4:6 presupposes our dependence upon God and instructs us on how that sense of dependence will manifest itself in our lives. (1) It excludes worry and anxiety, knowing that God cares for us, that He will not let anyone hurt one hair on our head without His will, and that He causes everything that happens to us to happen for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). (2) It moves us to live by prayer, by consciously and continuously petitioning God to give what we need according to His will, believing that He is willing and able to do so: “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). (3) It moves us to be thankful to God in everything that happens to us, knowing that He does all things well, and therefore that everything that happens to us has purpose and meaning. (4) It means the trusting of God to guide, protect and provide for us, as we seek to serve Him in all we do, resting in the knowledge of His providential care and governance of us: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Phil. 4:11b). (5) Depending upon Him, knowing that He will not fail us, produces in us “the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7), so that we can “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil. 4:4), even in the midst of hardships and tragedy. (761)

[19: Obeying and Submitting to God]
1) What Obedience is: 
The obedience and submission that pleases God is the obedience and submission that grow out of faith in Him as Lord and Savior. Such obedient submission consists in acknowledging in adoration the majesty and infinite worth of Him who is to be obeyed; in the joy of subjecting ourselves to His righteous and kind government; with the willingness to do and be whatever He is pleased to command, and to seek His counsel and His will in every decision and situation of life; motivated by gratitude to God in Christ for saving us from sin; and depending upon the Spirit of Christ to enable us to do whatever He has commanded. (762)

2) What Obedience is Like:
The obedience to God which the first commandment demands of us is a yielding of all obedience and submission to Him with the whole man. Four truths should be observed in this statement. (1) This obedience is demanded of all those who know and acknowledge the Triune God to be their God and who glorify Him as God. (2) We are to yield all obedience to God. (3) We are to yield all submission to God. (4) We are to yield all obedience and submission to God with the whole man. (763)

3) Pleasing God:
The believer in Jesus lives for the pleasure of God....From the moment He gives us new hearts in regeneration, He gives us the desire and the ability to live in a way that is pleasing to Him....These are not two different things: obedience to God’s commandments and pleasing the Lord. Rather they are one and the same responsibility and privilege of the Christian: he lives for the pleasure of the Lord by doing what He commands from the heart, thus pleasing Him.
Our obedience to God for Jesus’ sake really does please God. (766)

[20: Grieving at Offending God]
A believer in Jesus has a tender conscience. When he sins his conscience smites him, and so he grieves over offending the God that loves him. This godly grief moves him to go to Jesus for continued forgiveness and cleansing, to confess his sins to God, to hate his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments (WCF, XV, ii). He grieves over his sins because of their filthiness and odiousness in the sight of God, because they are contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God. (768)

The difference between “sorrow according to the will of God and the sorrow of the world” is an important one. The former is a grief for sin because of the heinousness of sin as an offense and rebellion against the living God. The latter is the experience of sorrow “because of the painful and unwelcome consequences of sin. Self is its central point; and self is also the central point of sin. (770)

[21: Daily Commnuing with God]
Because the believer has been brought into saving, vital union with Jesus Christ, he communes (fellowships) with the triune God daily as friend with Friend... (771)

(1) We are to “do justice” (mishpat), i.e., to govern all our decisions, evaluations, thoughts and expressions by the perfect standard of righteousness, justice, and judgment in the written Word of God. (2) We are to “love kindness” (hesed), i.e., to love and cherish faithfulness to God and loving loyalty to the bond of God’s covenant. (3) We are to “walk humbly with our God.” (772)

Our “daily walk” is our daily lives day by day and week by week. In the Bible we are told that Christians walk “after” God in imitation of His character as revealed in His Word. We walk “before” God, conscious of the protection and care of His Face and providence. We walk “under” God in glad submission to His sovereignty over us. We walk “with” God in daily conscious fellowship with Him as friend with Friend. (773)

How may we walk with God everyday? (1) We walk WITH God when we walk BEFORE God and AFTER God, i.e., when we make as our goal to please our Father who is in Heaven, and when we follow wherever He leads us in the Bible. (2) We walk WITH God when we walk WITH God, i.e., when we communicate freely with Him and meditate on His self-communication to us in Christ and the Bible, and pray for His enlightenment of our hearts with His Spirit and His presence. (3) We walk WITH God as we REST in Christ alone for salvation. One’s walk with God does not begin until he puts his faith in Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior. Our motive and power to walk daily with God is sustained by faith in Christ. If we do not believe ourselves to be reconciled to God in Christ, our walk with God will be interrupted by our guilt. (4) We walk WITH God when we raise our children to walk WITH God. (5) We walk WITH God when we bear witness to others about judgment and salvation in Christ. (777)

     Racheal

​God himself descended from heaven and by a supernatural voice promulgated to man the Moral Law, the expression of his will, the reflection of his nature, the immutable standard of right, the inflexible rule of action for his accountable creatures, containing every essential principle of duty, and embodying the grounds of all the future rewards and punishments to be enjoyed or suffered throughout the ages of eternity. 2. George Bush, Notes on Exodus (Minneapolis, MN: James Family Christian Publishing Co., 1852), 250. (680)

God gave us His Law, among other reasons, to teach us His will for our lives. (680)

The condemnation of God’s Law on our sin is removed forever from those who are united to Jesus Christ by grace through faith....The Law of God could not save them or forgive them for their transgressions against it, but God saved them and forgave them because of the atoning sacrifice of His incarnate Son, taking their condemnation upon Himself in their place and on their behalf. And, God did all this for us with the goal in view that “the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us,” that is, in our own lives and daily experience, as we depend upon the power of the indwelling Spirit of God, rather than trusting in our own strength. In other words, the goal of God’s regenerative and redemptive work in Christ by His Spirit for us was that we might live righteous lives before Him in obedience to His Law from our loving hearts. (682)

James calls God’s Law “the perfect Law, the law of liberty” (James 1:25, reflecting Ps. 119:44–45)...When Paul declares, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free,” and then exhorts us to “keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1), he is calling upon believers to stand fast in the truth of salvation that we are justified by faith in Christ alone and not by the works of the Law, which faith is a living faith that manifests itself in obedience to God’s Law and which refuses to allow the conscience to be bound by the regulations of man seeking to achieve his own salvation. (683)

It should be noticed what Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, received from the Lord and gave to the covenant people: (1) The Ten Commandments; and (2) Statutes and judgments which would teach God’s people how to apply the Ten Commandments in their every day living. These statutes and judgments, commonly called “case-laws,” are inseparable from the Ten Commandments, being practical applications of the Decalogue to the life of the people of God. The Ten Commandments set forth the basic principles; the case-laws, proverbs, exhortations and ethical teachings develop the implications of those principles.

The Ten Commandments are not the extent of God’s demands on His people, they summarily comprehend the moral law of God. They are the broad, sweeping moral principles that are foundational to all of God’s demands, proverbs, exhortations, and ethical teaching found in the Bible. (684-685)

The Catechism says that the first four commandments set forth our duty to God, and the last six our duty to man. This is correct, but can be misleading, for all Ten Commandments set forth our duty to God in all our relationships, and the motive for obeying all Ten Commandments is our love for God and our desire to glorify God. (686)

These two tablets contained the “ten words,” as the essence and summary of the covenant of the LORD with His people....More than likely, the two stones were duplicates of the same information, i.e., the essential ingredients of a covenant—preamble, prologue, commands, blessings and curses, making each stone a complete summary of the covenant in itself....It was common in treaties of that day to make exact duplicates of the covenant-treaty, and then each party received one copy, so as to be a permanent, legal witness to the faithfulness of the other, thus assuring the continuance of the treaty. However, in the O.T., both copies were deposited in the ark of the covenant in the Tabernacle of the Lord (Ex. 25:16, 21; 40:20; Deut. 10:2). This implies that Jehovah alone took upon Himself the work and responsibility of maintaining the covenant relationship between Himself and His people, as well as acting as the witness-rewarder-avenger to the oaths of the
other party. (688)

The Ten Commandments are comprised of three elements: the preamble (Ex. 20:1–2), in which is given the revelation of God as the motive for obedience to these commands; the substance of the commands themselves, i.e., our duties implied in them and the sins forbidden by them; and the reasons, along with promises and curses, that are given in some of them, which are graciously given the more to enforce them. (696)

In the Ten Commandments, the address is made in the SINGULAR, not the PLURAL number.  ....
The nineteenth century Bible commentator, George Bush, gives one possible answer: “The design of this is, undoubtedly, to render the language in the highest degree emphatic. Every individual to whom this law comes is to consider himself as being as directly and personally addressed as though it had been spoken to him alone.” 18. Bush, Notes on Exodus, 259. (696)

Why are the commandments stated mostly as prohibitions: “Thou shalt not?” Answer: to be a sharp reminder to believers of the antithesis that must always be maintained between our way of life as the people of God and the way of life of the fallen race in rebellion against God. (697)

The preamble of the Ten Commandments contains the motives for obedience: (1) The Lawgiver is our Creator; (2) The Lawgiver is Jehovah; (3) The Lawgiver is our covenant Friend; (4) The Lawgiver is our Redeemer. (698)

According to Mark 12:29–30, Jesus began His answer with these words: “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord.’” ....
"Jesus demands a decision and readiness for God, and for God alone, in an unconditional manner.… The love which determines the whole disposition of one’s life and places one’s whole personality in the service of God reflects a commitment to God which springs from divine sonship. This commitment finds expression in a similar commitment to men.… A whole-hearted love for God necessarily finds its expression in a selfless concern for another man which decides and acts in a manner
consistent with itself." 25
Jesus concludes His answer by emphasizing that, “on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
25. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 432–33. (704-705)

Henry Krabbendam, (in classnotes from Covenant College), has
concisely described how love fulfills each of the Ten Commandments:
1. The first commandment requires us to love God alone as He
has revealed Himself in the Bible.
2. The second commandment requires us to love God in all that
He has revealed concerning Himself.
3. The third commandment requires us to love God in all that He
does, by reverencing everything connected with His Name.
4. The fourth commandment requires us to love God on the day
He has set apart for rest and holy convocation.
5. The fifth commandment requires us to love our neighbor by
honoring the authority God has given him.
6. The sixth commandment requires us to love our neighbor by
honoring the life God has given him.
7. The seventh commandment requires us to love our neighbor
by honoring the marriage and home God has given him.
8. The eighth commandment requires us to love our neighbor by
honoring the property God has given him.
9. The ninth commandment requires us to love our neighbor
by honoring the reputation God has given him, and by honoring
the truth in all our relationships with our neighbor
and with God.
10. The tenth commandment requires us to love God and our
neighbor from the heart.
(705-706)

In Jesus’ statement on the greatest of the commandments, reaffirmed by Paul that love is the fulfillment of the law, we have
"one of the strongest affirmations of the abiding relevance and validity of God’s Law. It is summarized in love, and love is the Christian’s perpetual duty. Certainly a summary does not nullify the contents of that which it summarizes! The law of God is the standard of Christian love, so that one who does not follow the Law can never be said to love.… As explained by Jesus, love entails a totalitarian and all-embracing surrender to God;… as such it corresponds to the demand of radical obedience and service to God contained in the statutes of the Law of God." 29. Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, 243. (707-708)

      Racheal

Are the Old Testament Dietary Laws Binding on the Christian Today? No.
Does the Bible Advise Christians Today to Use the Dietary Laws in their Daily Diet? No.
Were the Dietary Laws Given for Hygienic & Nutritional Reasons? No. (653)

For centuries Reformed Christians have not asked these questions because they knew the answer to them before they thought to ask them. Had they asked them they would have answered “No” to all three. Today, however, some Christians have different answers....Some Christians, desiring to be healthier by eating nutritional foods and avoiding substances harmful to the body, hold that the Bible teaches that the observation of dietary laws of the Old Testament will make one’s diet more nutritional, and that God either commands or advises us to keep them. (653)

"Their ethical, judicial, and geographical holiness was to be manifested by what they ate and did not eat: primarily at the Passover meal and secondarily by the dietary laws. This holiness or separation was ritually reinforced by the Passover meal and the special dietary restrictions.… With the abrogation of the Old Covenant order came the abrogation of the Mosaic food laws: Passover and “pork” laws. This abrogation ended with the abrogation of the Promised Land’s historically unique
position as an agent of God’s sanctions.… Prior to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Promised Land was said to spew out evil-doers.… The Israelites would drive out the Canaanites; if they subsequently rebelled, other nations would drive them out. After A.D. 70, the land of Israel lost its special covenantal status. The Mosaic sacrificial system was cut off." 169 Gary North, Leviticus: An Economic Commentary (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994), 345, 348, 349. (654-655)

The argument of those who hold the view that the dietary laws are still obligatory upon or advisory to the Christian today is based on their assumption that these laws were given to Israel by Jehovah for hygienic and nutritional purposes, i.e., unclean meats are hygienically unclean and therefore non-nutritional and unhealthy, while clean meats are hygienically clean and therefore nutritional and healthy. (655)

(1) When God allowed mankind to eat meat, He said that all meat may be eaten: “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant” (Gen. 9:3)....This contradicts the view that the restrictive dietary laws were based on hygiene and nutrition. ....

(2) The dietary laws which distinguished Israel nationally were ceremonial laws that had no meaning apart from the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. ....

(3) If their purpose was hygienic and nutritional, in order for that goal to be achieved in a healthy diet for the Israelite, the list of clean and unclean foods would have to have been exhaustive and all-inclusive, and it is not. ....

(4) The Bible NOWHERE says that the purpose of the dietary laws was hygienic and nutritional. ....

(5) If the reason for the prohibition of certain animals to be eaten was hygienic, because they are so detrimental to one’s health that they should never be eaten, Jesus would never have pronounced all these foods clean in His day....
(655-659)

The New Testament clearly teaches that these Old Testament dietary laws have been disengaged since the death and resurrection of Christ, and therefore Christians are neither commanded nor advised to keep them for the purpose of good health or for any other reason. (659)

First, the dietary laws along with the rest of the Old Testament ceremonial rites in the Levitical sacrificial system were “shadows” that “foreshadowed” the glory of Christ and the New Covenant. Colossians 2:16–17 teaches us that the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were “a mere shadow of that which is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (emphasis added). (660)

Jesus’explanation to His disciples of His comments to the Pharisees as indicating that the clean-unclean distinction between meats was no longer in effect.
"And He said to them, “Are you too so [uncomprehending]? Do you not see that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him; because it goes not into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man” (Mark 7:18–20; emphasis added)." (660-661)

Third, the temporary nature of the dietary laws is seen in God’s calling of Jewish Peter to bring the gospel of grace to non-Jewish Cornelius in Acts 10:9–16, 28. (661)

Fourth, these dietary laws symbolized God’s choice of Israel from the Gentiles as we have seen. (664)

Fifth, the apostle Paul refers to the passing authority of the Old Testament ceremonial laws in 1 Tim. 4:1–5, Rom. 14:14–15 and Col. 2:20–23. (666)

The threatenings and penalties of God’s Law show us what sin deserves and what we can expect if we disregard or transgress that Law (Ezra 9:13–14; Ps. 89:30–34)....Without these sanctions, i.e., a measure, either a threat or a promise, used to enforce it, law is mere suggestion.....When a Christian feels the power of indwelling
sin beginning to assert itself, he can reflect upon the threats and promises of God’s word and thereby be motivated to resist temptation.
God’s Law, when obeyed and enforced by the civil government, also restrains sin in a society, even in the lives of unregenerate people. (669)

Because God’s Law restrains sin in the believer and the unbeliever, although only in the unbeliever’s outward behavior, the enforcement of God’s moral law and its civil sanctions by the civil government are indispensable in the deterring of crime, lawlessness and immorality in a society. (670)

However, not only the state must enforce God’s Law (in its civil sanctions), the church must obey and enforce God’s Law in its ecclesiastical sanctions through the preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments and the practice of church discipline (Matt. 16:19; 18:15–20; 1 Cor. 5:1–13). The family also has a
central role as it obeys and enforces God’s Law in all its relations and activities in the disciplining, training, instructing, and counseling of children (Eph. 6:4; Prov. 22:6; 29:15). (670)

The ORIGINAL PURPOSE of God’s Law was and is TO GUARD AND PROMOTE LIFE. (671)

Choose Christ and His Law and you have life. Choose His Law without Christ, or
Christ without His Law, and you have death. However it must be clearly understood that the Law does not and cannot give life, only Christ gives life; but the Law does protect and enhance life in Christ when obeyed by believers. (672)

...sin, which abuses God’s Law, that same law now promotes death in all those outside of Christ in that it gives occasion to sin (Rom. 7:9–12). But in Christ believers are restored to a right relation to God’s Law, so that it no longer condemns us or aggravates our sin; rather it now guides our living, thinking and loving in this world, and we gladly submit to its authority, since God has written His Law in our hearts by regeneration. (673)

Biblical Law “constitutes a plan for dominion under God.”187...In the New Testament God renews His covenant with a new people in Christ (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25)....They are called to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it under Christ. 187. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 8 (674)

      Racheal

We have learned that the believer in Jesus will obey Biblical Law for Jesus’ sake. (645)

Some critics of Biblical Law like to quote Romans 6:14 to defend their viewpoint that the Christian is not obligated to obey the laws of the Old Testament, but simply to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to live in a way that is consistent with grace, which is antithetical to law, in their opinion. (645)

We know this is not the correct interpretation [of Romans 6:14] for two reasons: (1) In verse 15 Paul anticipates this error by telling us that we may not “sin”, i.e., we may not break God’s Laws simply because we are under grace: “May it never be!” (2) In the context of Romans 6–8, the Christian life is NOT freedom from the
Law as a rule of life, but freedom from the Law as something that indicts us and condemns us for our sin, and which aggravates our sin as long as we remain in unbelief. (645-646)

What verse 14 IS saying is that, since the believer is under the power of God’s grace in Christ which delivers us from bondage to sin (6:1–2), and enables us to live a new life in Christ, we are no longer under the condemnation (8:1), and the sin-aggravation of the Law (7:9–11), for these reasons: “he who died is freed from sin” (6:7), and “having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness,” i.e., conformity to God’s Law (6:18), because “when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (6:20). (646)

Or as Paul said in Galatians 2:19: “I through the Law died to the Law so that I might live to God.” We must notice carefully that it is NOT the Law of God that dies! It is NOT the Law of God that is dead! We, in Christ, are dead to the death sentence of
the Law (Rom. 8:1) but the Law of God is not dead. (647)

According to Romans 7:4, there is a death that releases the bond of condemnation of God’s broken Law...That death to which Paul refers is our death to the claims of
God’s Law against us for our sins in the vicarious death of Jesus Christ, and our union with Him in that death. (647)

Christ died on the cross for one reason: to satisfy the claims of God’s Law against His sinful people. If His people were to be accepted with God, the demands of the Law against them had to be silenced and its just judgment satisfied....The Law as
that which condemned us for our sins is now silenced. Because of the sacrifice of Christ and through faith in Him we are dead to the claims of the Law against us. (648)

Having died to sin and the claims of God’s Law against our sin, we are raised to newness of life in Christ and we are no longer slaves of sin, i.e., habitual Law-breaking; rather we are now “slaves to righteousness,” i.e., habitual Law-keeping. (649)

     Racheal

The unregenerate are those unbelieving people who are still in rebellion against God, dead in their trespasses and sins, who have not been born of God (John 1:13), and to whom the Holy Spirit has not applied the benefits of redemption. (587-588)

The Law of God is used by the Holy Spirit in the lives of unregenerate (but elect) people convicting them of their sin and misery, awakening their conscience to flee from the wrath of God by repentance and faith in Christ, giving them the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of (their) sins,
as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God, moving them to apprehend God’s mercy in Christ and to grieve for and hate their sins as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavouring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments (WCF, XV, ii). (588)

When the Holy Spirit convicts unregenerate (but elect) people, he awakens their consciences to the profound awareness of their necessity to flee from the wrath of God which abides on their sin. He convinces them that: (1) The Law of God is good; (2) The Law must be used for the purpose for which it was intended, i.e., to condemn our sin and drive us to Christ; (3) When the Law is used properly it condemns us for our specific transgressions against the Ten Commandments and against “whatever else is contrary to sound teaching;” (4) It condemns us for our unbelief in “the glorious gospel of the blessed God,” which unbelief is inexcusable disobedience to God’s command (588-589)

Two words in the Catechism’s statement must be clearly understood, when it tells us that in unregenerate people the use of the Law of God is to awaken their consciences to flee from wrath to come…
First, the word consciences. God has placed a conscience in all human beings (Rom. 2:15) with “the work of the Law written in their hearts,” to which that conscience bears witness, “and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending themselves.” The conscience functions as a Law, prescribing the path of duty, and as
a Judge, in pronouncing sentences against transgressions, “a conscience which impresses every man with a sense of right and wrong, and which often visits the sinner with the inward pangs of conviction and remorse.”  105
However, the conscience, while it serves many beneficial purposes, is not sufficient in its present condition, corrupted by sin, to awaken the heart and soul of a person to a full sense of his true condition before God, although it is able to render that person responsible to God as his Judge. The reasons the conscience cannot awaken the soul of a person to a due sense of his own depravity are: (1) The conscience has been affected, as has every other human faculty, by the ruinous and degenerative effects of man’s fall into sin; and the spiritual blindness and darkness caused by sin prevents the conscience from seeing its own moral corruption. (2) The tendency of habitual sin to sear and deaden the conscience, whereby the conscience becomes weaker as sin grows stronger in a person, until the sinner may arrive at the point of depravity at which God gives him over to a reprobate mind. (3) It is most difficult to focus the human mind on any proper consideration of the wickedness and danger of sin. Hence the sinner’s conscience needs
to be, not only convicted, but enlightened and awakened from its spiritual darkness and sleep of spiritual death in sin. 
Second, we need to understand the Catechism’s use of the word awaken....He awakens the unconverted to the EVIL of his sinful state and to the DANGER the sinner is in because of his sin, therefore, it is really an awakening to sin itself, as well as to the danger of sin.
105 James Buchanan, The Holy Spirit (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1843] 1966), 59. (589-590)

Conviction of sin by the Law in the power of the Spirit has good results when it incites those who experience this conviction to flee from the wrath of God their sins deserve to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, their only refuge from the wrath of God, resting in Him alone for salvation. (594)

"Whenever the preaching of the law is positively objected to, and the preaching of the gospel is proposed in its place, it will be found that the “gospel” means that good-nature and that easy virtue which some mortals dare to attribute to the Holy
and Immaculate Godhead! He who really, and in good faith, preaches the Cross, never opposes the preaching of the law." 112 W. G. T. Shedd, Sermons to the Natural Man (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1886), vii. (598)

Those people who continue in their unbelief, impenitency and rebellion against God are completely inexcusable for all their sinful thoughts and actions, and if they die in that condition their judgment will be just because it is deserved. (598-599)

Romans 1:18–32 tells us that persistent rebels against God are all inexcusable for their sinful way of life. (1) They deliberately are working to suppress what they know is true in unrighteousness, to deceive themselves into believing that they do not believe what they do believe. (2) The will and glory of God are clearly evident in their conscience and very constitution as human beings made in the image of God. (3) The glory of God is clearly and unmistakably revealed in every atom of this universe, so that if a person does not see it or understand it through this creation, he is “without excuse.” (4) Although the unbeliever “knows” God, he suppresses what he knows to be true so as not to “honor Him as God or give thanks.” (5) All human beings have been made in the image of God with consciences that “know the ordinance of God.” (6) They also know that those who break the ordinance of God are “worthy of death.” (7) And yet they are not content to damn themselves, they want to damn others along with themselves. (599)

"We like to think of a God who blesses rather than of a God who curses. Some people have tried to escape the dilemma by pointing out that Paul writes not of the curse of God, but of “the curse of the Law” (verse 13). It is very doubtful, however, if the Biblical authors would have recognized this distinction. The Law can never be isolated from God, for the Law is God’s Law, the expression of His moral nature and will. What the Law says, God says; what the Law blesses, God blesses; and what the Law curses, God curses." 113. Stott, The Message of Galatians, 79. (600)

Jesus promised His disciples that He would send His Holy Spirit to “convict the world of sin” (John 16:8–11)....Since that time He has been active, convicting, enlightening, liberating and transforming people, and His power has not in the least diminished.
Biblical Law by itself cannot bring conviction of sin without the work of the Holy Spirit of God....The Holy Spirit takes the Law of God and opens up to us the sinful pollution of our lives, so that we may come to deep conviction, humiliation and grief for our sin, and may see our great need of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
By God’s Law, the Spirit convinces us of sin’s presence, criminality, danger and deserved consequences (Rom. 7:9–10). (601)

The awakening of the conscience to the peril of sin is the work of the Holy Spirit using the Law of God. (603)

Regenerate people are those who have been “born of God” (John 1:13), given new heart (Ezek. 36:26), passed from death to life, and who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and who are therefore believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. (604)

In fact, believers not only remain under the obligation to obey the Law of the Creator, as do all human beings, but their obligation is increased by God’s grace, not diminished by it. Although we are freed from the curse of the Law, we are not freed from obedience to it. Now with new hearts and the indwelling Spirit we have the desire and ability to obey God from the heart, because His Law is written
on our new hearts (Ezek. 36:26; Jer. 31:33)... (604-605)

"The moral law is to be considered in two respects, as a rule of life, and so no one is delivered from it [as such]; or as a covenant of works, in the same sense in which it was given to man in innocency [before the Fall], the condition of which was his
performing perfect obedience, in default whereof he was liable to a sentence of death. In the latter respect a believer is delivered from it." 134. Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:304. (411-412)

The Law is the same but the Covenants differ. In the Covenant of Grace in which the believer lives, God’s Law is as lasting as God’s Grace, and the believer not only has the work of that Law written on his conscience by virtue of his creation, nor does he only have that Law “written on tablets of stone,” but he also has that Law written on his new heart by the power of the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:26; Jer. 31:31). (412-413)

No one can earn forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God by obeying God’s Law. Doing the right things does not “make points” with God. We are justified by faith in Christ alone and not by the works of the Law. The Law has no power to justify, only condemn when it is transgressed....Salvation is by grace through faith and not by works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8–9). (613)

Christ’s perfect obedience to the Law of God secures our release from the necessity
of personally keeping the Law as a condition of justification....His righteousness is credited to us so that we will be accepted in Him with God and no longer condemned by Him. (614-615)

[1] The more convicted a believer is of the remaining wretchedness of indwelling sin in him, the more he recognizes and rejoices in his total dependence upon Jesus Christ and in His active and passive obedience to God as the basis of his eternal salvation. Jesus obeyed all the “jots and tittles” of God’s Law in our place so as to credit his
life of perfect righteousness to our account with God, because all our righteousness is as filthy rags. Jesus died on the cross in our place to bear the full penalty of the Law our sins deserved, and to satisfy God’s Law and God’s justice as our Substitute and Redeemer. (616)

[2] Consciousness of the perfection of God’s Law and its fulfillment in Christ’s life and satisfaction in His death for all who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior moves (provokes) the believer to more thankfulness for he has greater inducements to gratitude than any other human beings. (618)

[3] Believers’ awareness that salvation is by sheer grace and not by the works of the Law and that they are eternally secure in Christ not only provokes intense gratitude in them, but that gratitude stirs them to greater care, greater determination, consecration, diligence and perseverance in conforming themselves—inside and outside—to God’s Law as the rule of their obedience, for when Christ became their Savior He did not cease to be their Sovereign, whom now they love with all their hearts and whose glory is the chief end of their lives....“The Law does not cease to be the Law now that the Christian has come to love it.” 144 Kevan, The Grace of Law, 217. (621)

Those who have received the saving mercy of God in Christ are enabled and motivated to present themselves in the entirety of their being to God as “a living and holy sacrifice.” In doing so they are not to be “conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of [their] mind, that [they] may prove what the will of God is.” In other words, the reception of mercy in Christ and our consciousness of being recipients of that saving mercy should motivate believers to submit to Christ out of gratitude, and to separate from the pressures to sin in this evil culture. (623)

A person thankful for God’s mercy in saving him from the condemnation of God’s Law in Christ, will continually be in the process of transforming himself in a Christian direction, in his outlook, dispositions, worldview, habits, preferences, priorities, behavior, relationships and forms of self-expression. This spiritual
and ongoing transformation grows out of the Spirit’s thorough conforming of us into the image of Christ, as God’s goal for all Christians (Rom. 8:29). (623)

The means of this continuing transformation in the believer, which are pressed on us here as a duty which we perform in the strength of God are: (1) The renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:3–8), and (2) The renewal by the Bible (Rom. 6:17). The point is that believing Bible study, put into practice, does something to us. It shapes and molds our lives and minds in more ways than we can count. (624)

Biblical Law guides our sanctification. God’s Law offers positive, infallible, and specific direc tions for Christian living. (625-626)

[4] Some have said that Christians should only obey the laws of the New Testament; others have said only the laws of the New Testament after the Day of Pentecost; others say only the Ten Commandments have to be obeyed in the Old Testament along with the principles of the New Testament, while others want only
nine of the Ten Commandments, excluding the Sabbath commandment as ceremonial and not moral in nature. (626)

The Christian is to take seriously all the laws of God found anywhere in the Bible. The entirety of Biblical Law is to be studied, interpreted and applied in different ways, but all of the laws of the Bible are to be taken seriously. The ceremonial laws
are to be studied to grasp their underlying gospel-principles, although, as we have seen, their literal observance is no longer obligatory for us. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of Biblical morality and Christian ethics. Every case-law, proverb, exhortation and ethical principle in the entire Bible is based on
them. The case-laws of the Old Testament, being practical applications of the Ten Commandments to every day life, are also to be included in the moral law of God to which Christians, and all mankind, today are responsible. (626-627)

This book [De Regno Christi] presents a strategy whereby human society can be genuinely Christianized by the gospel and the application of God’s Law, including the Old Testament case-laws, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It shows how Biblical Law deals with everything from the reform of the church to the reform of marketing, from the celebration of nuptials to the care of public inns. (627-628)

The general equity of the Old Testament case-laws that we are still required to obey refers to
"the underlying moral principle which is illustrated by the particular cases mentioned in the judicial laws.… For the Westminster Puritans, the substance of the judicial laws was just as binding as the Ten Commandments. The judicial laws
served to give definition to the Ten Commandments; to invalidate the former would therefore be to invalidate (or alter) the [latter].… Notice, next, that the writers of the Westminster Confession were quite precise in their declaration about the judicial laws of Moses. According to them these laws were not “abrogated,” which is the language used of the ceremonial law (19.3), which was set aside due to the change of covenantal administration from Old to New Covenants, (7.5–6). The Confession teaches us, not that the judicial laws were abrogated, but rather that they “expired” due to the expiration of Israel as a “political body.” When the particular political body for which they were worded passed away, the literal wording or specific form of the judicial laws was put out of gear. Only the underlying principle (“equity”) of those historical illustrations continues to be obligatory. “Expired” cannot mean, in Confessional context, that modern Christians
are free from obligation to the judicial laws.… Their equity was taken to be perpetually binding. 151 Greg Bahnsen, “The Westminster Assembly and the ‘Equity of the Judicial
Law,’” Penpoint, Vol. 4, No. 7 (Southern California Center for Christian Studies, CA: October, 1993). (629-630)

When He used the phrase, “the Law or the Prophets,” He was focusing on the ethical stipulations contained in the entire Old Testament....As He begins His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), He is defining the relation of the Old Testament Law to His own doctrine, to His teaching ministry. In other words, He will not teach anything that will have the effect of abolishing the ethical stipulations of “the Law or the Prophets,” i.e., the Old Testament. (634)

The Bible presents us with one system of morality—the “jots and tittles” of Biblical Law. (635)

First, the foundational laws, i.e., the Ten Commandments, are always applicable and are to be obeyed in every situation (Ex. 20:1– 17).
Second, the underlying principles of righteousness, i.e, the general equity, of the case-laws are always applicable, since they are practical applications of one or more of the Ten Commandments (Deut. 25:4; 1 Cor. 9:9, 10, 14; 1 Tim. 5:17, 18). This point is the central one in interpreting case-laws. When the Christian today interprets Old Testament case-laws, his primary concern is not the literal law itself, but the underlying principle of righteousness which the case-law was meant to apply and illustrate. ....
Third, where the historical, cultural context of the interpreter is similar to the historical, cultural context of the case-law, the literal case-law itself is applicable. ...
Fourth, the ceremonial laws and rituals have reached a termination point in Jesus Christ, therefore they are not to be literally observed in the Church.
Fifth, the underlying gospel truths of the ceremonial laws still remain in full authority and are to be believed (Heb. 9:2–10).
Sixth, in some instances even these ceremonial laws illustrate moral principles of abiding authority (Lev. 2:1–16; 1 Cor. 5:7).
Seventh, the case-laws are to be applied wisely and progressively as the historical situation allows. ....
Eighth, the case-laws are “often illustrations of the extent of the application of the law; that is, by citing a minimal type of case, the necessary jurisdictions of the laws are revealed [1 Cor. 9:9–14].” 159 Rousas J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 11. (637-640)

...since God’s holy character is unchanging, His Law, which is a written revelation of His holy character, is holy and perpetual. (640)

...when the Divine Lawgiver (Isa. 33:22) issues a law, only He may dictate the duration or termination of our duty to obey it....Only God may set the boundaries of His law, and unless He has clearly done so in His written Word, we must assume His laws continue in force....Jesus Christ expressly states that the coming of the New Testament dispensation (the Christian era) in no way abrogated the Biblical morality of the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17–19); rather, Christ came to confirm Biblical morality and to put it into effect. (640)

Ceremonial law is comprised of all those rituals and regulations that had as their purpose to teach the covenant people what to believe about redemption from sin and reconciliation with God and how it is accomplished in Christ. These laws are highly symbolic, figurative, and “typical;” in one way or another, they taught the people about Christ and His salvation. (641)

It is not always easy to distinguish ceremonial laws from moral laws in the Old Testament. One reason is that there are moral principles to be found among some ceremonial laws (Lev. 2:1–16). But one principle of interpretation which may be helpful in identifying ceremonial rituals is this: if a law or regulation, such as those laws involving the release of blood or bodily fluids, is meaningless apart from the sacrificial system, it must be viewed as a part of that system. (641)

The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were “shadows” that pointed God’s covenant people to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is the “substance” or reality symbolized by all these Old Testament ceremonies and rituals....As the apostle Paul describes the relation of the Old Testament ceremonies to Christ: they are “things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance
[literally, “the body”] belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). (641)

"With Christ’s obedient life, sacrificial death, and the accomplishment of salvation under the New Covenant, the ceremonies have been finally observed for all God’s people." 162. Bahnsen, Theonomy and Christian Ethics, 207–10. (643)

      Racheal

The presupposition of Christian ethics is that God has revealed His will to mankind which is to be the standard and rule of man's moral actions and thoughts. This verbal revelation or declaration of the will of God is God's moral law written in the Bible....The point is that Biblical Law is Gods Law; it is God's revealed will in words and sentences which God spoke to Moses (ad the prophets and apostles) and which Moses (and the prophets and apostles) recorded under the inspiration of the H0ly Spirit, so that Biblical Law is the revealed will of God for mankind. (538)

We have learned in our study of the Catechism dealing with God's perfections that God is His perfections. Evert Divine perfection is identical with God's Being...Whatever God is, He is completely, simultaneously, consistently, perfectly and eternally...Therefore God's Will is one with God's Being. (539-540)

It is for these reasons that the law of God is called the testimony of the LORD (Ps. 19:7), because it testified to God's character of which it is a written description. Being "the transcript" of God's holy character and will for mankind, it is a perfect guide for all thought and behavior:  "The law of the LORD is perfect" (Ps. 19:7).... (540)

"We are not autonomous. That is, we may not live according to tour own law. The moral condition of humankind is that of heteronomy: we live under the law of another. The specific form of heteronomy under which we live is theonomy, or the law of God." 38. Sproul,Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, 17-18. (541)

Because God our Creator, Sovereign and Redeemer DIRECTS all His image-bearers to live according to His revealed will, it is humankind's BINDING DUTY to submit to and obey that divinely revealed will. (541)

Therefore, obedience to Biblical La must begin with saving faith in Jesus Christ, for our obedience to the Las is not accepted with God outside of Christ (Rom. 8:1-4). Even after we become Christians, our obedience is not accepted by God because of any inherent qualities in it, but solely because of the merits of Jesus Christ in whose grace we stand before God (Rom. 5:10). (543)

(1) Our believing obedience to God's Law must be personal. That obedience God requires of us must be preformed by us. It cannot be done by another in our name or on our behalf....Furthermore, the obedience which Christ has performed for us, does not exempt us from our obligation to yield sincere obedience to God's law. (543)

(2) Our believing obedience must be perfect. The same obligation Adam had in the beginning--to yield perfect obedience to God, remains in force today, although we are not able in this life to perfectly obey God's Law. This is not to imply that we obey the Law as a Covenant of Works; rather, we obey it as the rule of obedience for our lives motivated by love for Christ for saving us from our sins. (544)

To be perfect our obedience must be from the heart and not merely external...Furthermore, perfect obedience is universal obedience, i.e., it does not pick and choose which moral laws of God it will obey...And, as we have seen it must be evangelical obedience, arising from faith in Christ, performed not to merit God's favor, but rendered out of gratitude and the desire to please God. We must not attempt to perform i in our own strength, but in the power of the Spirit and all our obedience must be rendered with a proper sense of our imperfections. (544-545)

(3) Our believing obedience must be perpetual, "without backsliding from God, or the least remissness in our duty to Him..."

(4) Our believing obedience must be in conformity and obedience to the revealed will of God in the Bible. Obedience to God is obedience to specific commands given by God in the Bible. (545)

Obedience to God's Law is obedience of the whole person, soul and body, External obedience in the behavior of the persons body without the involvement of a sincere heart is condemned by Christ... (547)

"God is not satisfied with outward forms of religion. He has not only ordered man's material existence but as also created his inner life and soul. He is therefore the rightful Lord of man's spiritual life, and for this reason man must serve Him in an inward and spiritual manner through purity of heart, devotion, love and holiness." 51. Norval Geldenhuys, New International Commentary on the New Testament: Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans [1951] 1966), 341  (547-548)

However, although obedience to God must originate with the heart, it nevertheless will include the body and physical behavior. (549) 

Carefulness and strictness in our outward behavior is the manifestation of carefulness and strictness in our inward, spiritual and mental frame of mind and disposition. In other words, obedience must be obedience of the whole person, otherwise obedience is hypocrisy.  (550)

Catechism Q. 93 makes the point that the Law of God binds everyone, and especially Christians, to obedience in the performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owes to God and man. Holiness describes the nature o our relationship and duties to God, and righteousness describes the nature of our relationship and duties to other human beings. (551)

We are righteous when our actions and dispositions toward other human beings, in the various relationships we have with each other in human society, are in careful conformity to what God commands us regarding how are to relate to one another in love and justice. (551)

The Magnificat and the Benedictus make clear that the salvation Jesus brings is COMPREHENSIVE. Because the effects of sin are comprehensive, salvation from sin is comprehensive. (552)

Question 93 concludes by saying that the Law of God promises life upon the fulfilling of it and threatens death upon the breach of it. (556)

This promise of life upon obedience and threat of death upon disobedience are generally referred to as the sanctions of the Law...Sanctions are the Law's teeth, without them laws are mere suggestions...As Puritan Anthony Burgess picturesquely states it: "The tame horse needth a spur, as well as the broken colt." 67. KEvan, The Grace of Law, 187. (556)

The reasons for these curses and blessings annexed to God's demands is that even in the believer much sins remains, and he needs many "goads" to keep him on the straight and narrows...And "[i]f we have respect to all the commandments, and labour faithfully to keepe them...then shall wee constantly enjoy all those blessing and graces which God hath promised to his righteous servants." 71. John Dod, quoted in Kevan, The Grace of Law, 189. (557)

God's promised rewards for faithfulness to His Law are all of grace, far more than we deserve...."The reward is bestowed 'for the faithfulnesse of the Promiser, not for the desert of the worke,' and thus it is that 'the Lord will richly of His free grace reward these workes with glory and happinesse in His Kingdome' although 'the strength of our title stand upon God's free gift [John Downame]." 72. Kevan, The Grace of Law, 190 (557-558)

After having said that God promises certain blessing to those who obey His Law, it must be understood that the true believer, while he enjoys God's blessings at heart, obeys God's Law because He loves God.  (558)

At the same time the believer does not dismiss all love of divine and gracious rewards as if such love was evidence of a "mercenary spirit". There is nothing unchristian about hoping for a promised reward from God. (558)

A] Before Adam's fall into sin, the Law of God was the means by which Adman would obtain unloseable life and indefectible holiness... (559)

B] Since the fall of the human race into sin, human beings cannot attain to unloseable eternal life and indefectible holiness by means of obedience to God's Law--a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus. The reasons that eternal life is through faith in Christ and not by obedience to Law is explained in Romans 8:3: "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son." The Law of God commands and condemns but it cannot forgive justify, remove the condemnation of sin nor destroy the tyrannical power of sin over the sinner. It can promote and guard life once given to the believer by grace; but the Law cannot give life. It is impotent to justify or  regenerate or liberate from sin because of the depravity of spiritual deadness of fallen man's sinful nature. (560)

C] Although life and righteousness cannot be attained by the Law of God since the Fall, yet there is great use thereof to all human beings without exception. ...
First, it is possible to apply the Law of God unlawfully.
"[T]he law becomes anything but good to those who misuse it. It becomes a burden too heavy to bear....Christ delivers the sinner, not from the spiritual obligations of God's holy Law, but from the evil that he has brought upon himself by his misuses of the Law. Man's fundamental abuse of the Law is to put it into opposition to Christ for justification, and to regard Law-keeping as an alternative ground  of acceptance before God. 77. Ernest F. Kevan, The Moral Law (God's Law) (Pennsylvania: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1963), 16. 
Second, when the Law of God is applied lawfully it is of great use to everybody. ...
Third, the Law of God and the Gospel of Christ are in full agreement. Disobedience to the Law of God and the unlawful use of God's Law are both contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God....
In fact the Law of God has a variety of functions in the life of the human race. It offers abundant blessings and has a wide range of practical uses. This multi-functional nature of God's Law is important to bear in mind when we consider that "the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ....But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor," i.e. God's Law (Gal. 3:24-25). This verse, often used wrongly to show that the Christian is no longer under Biblical Law, speaks of only one of the many functions of God's Law. (561-564)

     Racheal

Behind the Law stands God, the source of that Law, whose character is reflected in that Law....because God is God He has the right to command whatever He will of His creatures. (515-516)

"The moral Law in man is a copy of the Divine nature, and what God wills in the moral Law is so “consonant to that eternall justice and goodness in Himself,” that any supposed abrogation of that Law would mean that God would “deny
His own justice and goodnesse” [Burgess]. “To find fault with the Law, were to find fault with God” [Venning], for “the original draft is in God himself” [Manton]." 
4. Kevan, The Grace of Law, 63, partially in quotation of Burgess, Venning, and Manton. (516)

Our obligation to obey God is rooted in our creaturehood before our Creator: “O come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Ps. 95:6). However, our obligation is intensified, not lessened, by virtue of our redemption in Christ by grace, because “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Lk. 12:48). Having been bought with the price of Christ’s precious blood, we are not our own, therefore we are now to glorify God in the entirety of our lives (1 Cor. 6:20). (517)

The will of God is one, and yet the Bible teaches us to distinguish between the secret things in that will and the things revealed, therefore we speak of the secret will of God and the revealed will of God, always conscious of the fact that we are not speaking of two wills, but of revealed distinctions in God’s will. God’s “revealed
will” is that which prescribes WHAT WE SHOULD DO (Matt. 7:21; 12:50; John 4:34; 7:17; Rom. 12:2); and God’s “secret will” is that which declares WHAT GOD WILL DO, or WHAT GOD HAS DECREED (Ps. 115:3; Dan. 4:17, 25, 32, 35; Rom. 9:18, 19; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; Rev. 4:11)....This “expressed will” is the moral law of God which is to be our rule of life forever. (517-518)

In no way are God’s secret will and His revealed will working against each other or in opposition to each other. They are two harmonious aspects of the will of God. (518)

Those who are recipients of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ are urged to present [their] bodies a living and holy sacrifice to God. Obedience in behavior means nothing without this presentation of our bodies to God, i.e., everything we are inside and out—the whole person—must be devoted to the God of mercy and to His service. (520)

“It is a body alive from the dead that the believer is to present, alive from the dead because the body of sin has been destroyed.… It is possible that the word “living” also reflects on the permanence of this offering, that it must be a constant dedication.” 8. Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, 2:111. (521)

Our devotion an obedience do not begin with behavior, but with the very center of
our consciousness. (522)

"He has told you, O man, what is good,” i.e., what the Lord requires of you, [Micah] 6:8. (524)

The central point here is that man knows for certain what God requires of Him, he knows the good he is to do and the evil he is to avoid, because God has told him, i.e., He has revealed in His written Word what He requires of man, what is good, and what His will is for us to follow. What has God told us to do?
First, He has told us to “do justice.” The Hebrew word here is mishpat, “to judge.” To judge, or to do justice is an activity of discrimination and vindication. It is the process of discerning between right and wrong, condemning what is wrong and obeying and vindicating what is right. More specifically, since the judgment is God’s
(Deut. 1:17), the standard by which we distinguish between good and evil and identify what is required of us is in what He has revealed, i.e., in the Biblical revelation. ...

Second, He has told us to “love kindness.”...We are not only to be kind, show mercy, and be faithful, but we are to love to be kind, to show mercy and be faithful, so as to take pleasure and delight in it. And it is kindness (chesed) that we are to love. ...

The Hebrew word chesed is one of the most important words in the Old Testament, translated a variety of ways into English: kindness, mercy, love, lovingkindness, loyalty, righteousness, faithfulness, devotion. It denotes “loving covenant-bond loyalty and faithfulness.” ....
Third, He has told us to “walk humbly with [our] God.”...We walk with Him not so that He might be our God, but we walk with Him because He is our God by grace through faith....To walk with God humbly is to walk with Him submissively and obediently, recognizing His glorious majesty and beautiful holiness, and our depravity and wretchedness and need of His Son as our Savior. (524-527)

God-honoring moral conduct is more than correct ceremonial form. It is futile to attempt to rely on rituals and sacrifices when what God requires of us is obedience to His revealed will. (528)

Because the Law of God originates with a rational God, that Law is rational and reasonable, although fallen man, unaided by revelation, cannot discover or submit to it—because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for “it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Rom. 8:7). (531)

Human beings not only stand in accountability before God’s Law, they have an inner moral awareness that they so stand before that Law. This is saying more than the fact that human beings are created self-conscious beings. In addition to self-consciousness and rationality, human beings were created as recipients of the revelation of the moral relation in which they stood. They were given a
conscience.....That Law was “engraved,” “imprinted,” “written,” as an “inscription” on their hearts. (531)

All human beings since Adam possess a conscience that condemns them when they go against it and defends them when they follow it, because the work of the Law [is] written in their hearts. “Man’s inherent sense of right and wrong, [although blurred by sin and suppressed by him in unrighteousness], is due to the fact that
he cannot escape the claims of the Law of God [written in his conscience].” 27. G. I. Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith For Study Classes (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1964), 138. (532)

"There is therefore a two-fold writing in the hearts of men; the first, of knowledge and judgment, whereby they apprehend what is good and bad: the second is in will and affections, by giving a propensity and delight, with some measure of strength, to do this upon good grounds."  29. Anthony Burgess, quoted in Kevan, The Grace of Law, 59. (532)

God revealed His Law to Adam. He spoke the creation mandates to him, and He inscribed His Law on his conscience. If, as Romans 2:14–15 teaches, human beings after the fall have the work of God’s Law written on their consciences, how much more clearly and perfectly would unfallen Adam have that Law written on his
heart. (532-533)

...according to the Confession, the Law God gave Adam was the Law of the Ten Commandments, later published in stone. (533)

This Law given to Adam, in its moral demands, has never been abrogated and stands for all people everywhere as summarized in the Ten Commandments. (534)

     Racheal

The point Paul emphasizes here is that belief in a physical resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked is a part of Old Testament orthodoxy which most Jews of his day believed, and which all believers in the divine authority of the Old Testament should believe. This resurrection for which Paul hopes is one, general, singular resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Paul could have quoted Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt”—to make his case. (413-414)

Jesus made this point about a single and general judgment of all people—both of the just and the unjust, on the last day in John 5:28–29: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”...The point is that at a specific time, all those who are dead, whether Christians or non-Christians,
will hear the voice of Christ and be raised from the dead. No indication is given that this “resurrection of life” is separated by time from the “resurrection of judgment.” (414)

Those who are alive at the time of the Second Coming shall in a moment be changed. (416)

No one, not even those who are alive at Christ’s Second Coming, can in this present body, enter the perfection of heavenly life in the consummate kingdom of God—“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:50). (417)

At the sound of “the last trumpet” announcing the coming of Christ and the end of the world, the dead will be raised imperishable and those alive at the time will be transformed completely into the spiritual, Heavenly image of the resurrected and
glorified Christ, along with the total transformation of the rest of the universe. (418)

In physical resurrection the self-same bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave [are] then again united to their souls forever. Our resurrection bodies will be the bodies we have now, only glorified, perfected and “eternalized.” (418)

This doctrine of the resurrection of our present bodies is a terror to the unbelieving and ungodly 
"for the very body, which they now cherish so much, and for which they slave so much to satisfy and beautify it, will eternally bear unbearable pain in hell. Those eyes which you now misuse so greatly to stir up filthy lust… will behold with terror
the Lord Jesus, the righteous Judge, and will never see light any more. Those ears which are now ready to receive vanities… immoral language, foolishness, and backbiting will hear with terror the sentence of the Judge: “Depart from Me, you cursed,” and to all eternity your ears will be filled with the howling of those who are damned together with you… That mouth and tongue which you now misuse to
curse, lie… carouse, [and] drink… will then howl and scream, and in grief you will chew on that tongue.… Those hands which…you now misuse in unrighteousness.., you will then wring in pain. Yes, all those members [of your body] which you are now using as weapons of unrighteousness…will eternally be in the flames.… May the terror of the Lord persuade you to believe!" 115. Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 4:336. (421)

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer is a pledge from God that the believer’s body will be raised from the dead, “because it would be unseemly
that any thing thus honored by the Spirit should remain under the dominion of death.”118 Hodge, A Commentary on Romans (London: The Banner of Truth Trust,
[1835] 1972), 260. (423)

Not only does the Catechism bring out the role of the Spirit of Christ in our physical resurrection, but it also emphasizes the relation of Christ’s resurrection and the resurrection of believers. The bodies of believers shall be raised from the dead by virtue of His resurrection as their Head. (424)

Because of the believer’s union with Christ in His life, death and resurrection, whatever happened to Christ happens to him, whatever was true of Christ is true of him, whatever Christ did, he experiences the consequences of. (425)

On the last day the bodies of believers will be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body. (426)

The bodies of the wicked raised from the dead on the last day will be raised up in dishonor. Their “dust… will awake… to disgrace and everlasting contempt, [i.e., eternal abhorrence by God]” (Dan. 12:2). (428)

The Larger Catechism makes the point with reference to the wicked reprobate that they shall be raised up in dishonour BY HIM, [Christ], as an offended Judge (emphasis added)....By resurrection Christ summons them to His tribunal that He may render to everyone of them what their evil lives deserve. (429)

Christ commands the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, but in different relations and for different purposes. The righteous are raised in Christ by Christ; and the wicked are raised by Christ but not in Christ. (429-430_

Judgment Day immediately follows the general resurrection of all people. (431)

The exact time of the Day of Judgment and the Coming of Christ is so secret that neither the angels in the very presence of God, nor the Son of God incarnate, i.e., in His humanity, know the time. (432)

Immediately after the resurrection shall follow the general and final judgment of angels and men. It is called general because all fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, 7), along with all human beings without exception (Jude 14, 15), will stand before that judgment bar of Christ.   ....
It is called final judgment because Judgment Day is the day of final judgment after a history of the human race full of interventions of God to judge sinners with temporal judgments. Judgment Day is not the beginning of judgment it is the completion and consummation of judgment. (4343-434)

With these words [Matt. 15:32,33] the stage is set for the final Judgment Day,
and the first act of the Judge on that Day will be the final and complete separation of the goats from the sheep and the tares from the wheat (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43)....After that day the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, will never mix or intermingle again in all of eternity. (437)

The reprobate on Christ’s left hand on Judgment Day will be sentenced by Him to leave His favorable presence and to go to hell forever, having been cursed by Him for their sins. (438)

The standard by which all people will be judged on that day will be the will of God revealed to them in Biblical Law, the gospel, and in the human conscience (Rom. 2:12; John 12:48; Luke 12:47; John 15:22). (439)

 The consciences of the wicked will fully, completely and inescapably condemn them and convict them of the evil of their sins and the justice of God in condemning them, although they will continue to try to suppress this truth in unrighteousness. (440)

The Larger Catechism says that upon sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by Christ, they thereupon shall be cast out from the favourable presence of God, and the glorious fellowship with Christ, his saints, and all his holy angels, into hell… (441)

First, Christ casts out the wicked reprobate from His presence and from fellowship with Him, and in being cast out of His presence they are totally cast out of God’s favor, goodness, mercy, common grace, longsuffering, and kindness; and are excluded from the glorious fellowship of perfected believers and all the holy angels. (442)

“The solemnity of this thought should not be minimized. Those who oppose
the things of God here and now are not engaged in some minor error which can easily be put right in the hereafter. They are engaging in that defiance of the will of God which has eternal consequences.”146 Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, 206. (442-443)

"A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated
from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned.
They will know Him as an all-consuming fire." 148. R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), 286. (443)

Second, they are designated and treated as those “accursed” by God, for “cursed is every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them” (Gal. 3:10). (445)

Third, Christ casts them into the eternal fires of hell with Satan and the demons from which there is no escape forever.  (446)

Since the torments of hell involve the body and the soul, Jesus is presupposing the resurrection of the body. “Destroy” does not mean annihilate; rather it means ruin. (447)

“[T]he moral character of sinners will in itself, and in its effects, constitute much of their misery in the future world. It ought to be observed, that the text, literally rendered is They shall be utterly corrupted in their own corruption.”164 How so?
First, sinful desires in those in hell will be exceedingly powerful, wholly unrestrained and completely ungovernable. ...
Second, sinful desires in those in hell will be forever ungratified and unfulfilled. ...
Third, sin in hell will be seen for what it really is. Their consciences will pronounce them guilty more sharply than ever before, but that pronouncement in the damned is an odious thing to them, they hate it and suppress it and harden themselves in their impenitency. ...
Fourth, the impenitent in hell will be the subjects of extreme and eternal remorse of conscience. ...
Fifth, the impenitent in hell become the instruments of extreme suffering to each other. In this present world sinners often care for each other. ...
Sixth, there can be no security in hell. The wretched inhabitants of hell will be surrounded by only enemies and deceivers out to do them harm. In the multitude of the damned not a single individual will be found who possesses a shred of natural affection, benevolence or sincerity.
164. Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons, 5 vols. (Middletown, CT: Clark & Lyman, 1819), 5:493.
(454-456)

From these comments two exhortations must be drawn. (1) See how great an evil sin is!...(2) Since these things are true, everyone who reads these words should immediately flee from the wrath to come and lay hold on eternal life through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (457)

Its [Hell's] torments are without intermission and its punishments are without relaxation forever: “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (Rev. 14:11). The wicked reprobate will “go away into eternal punishment,” just as the righteous will go “into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). (458)

Those who deny the endlessness of the torments of hell can be divided into three groups: Annihilationists, Restorationists, and Universalists. (1) Annihilationists, as we have seen, believe that the punishment of the wicked is simple annihilation, while only the redeemed are raised from the dead to eternal life....(2) Restorationists believe that there are future punishments in the hereafter in some measure, according to what people deserve, but these punishments are meritorious and when they lead to repentance, even after a long interval, the sufferer will be delivered from his punishment. Some who hold this view believe
that even Satan and the demons will someday be saved....(3) Universalists believe that the only “hell” a person experiences are the sufferings of this life, which satisfy all the essential demands of God’s justice. Therefore, there are no
punishments and no hell after death. At death every human being will be saved and enter the bliss of heaven. (458-459)

     Racheal

At death, the soul of the believer is then made perfect in holiness, when the life-long process of sanctification is completed. When the soul of the believer leaves this world, it arrives at perfection immediately. (382)

The believer’s physical body is glorified with the resurrection of the body at the Return of Christ (Rom. 8:18, 23). His soul is glorified with his physical death and entrance into the glory of Heaven, where he will be “present with the Lord.” (382-383)

Since the believer is perfected in holiness at death, several applications follow.
First, the believer should shake off any spiritual sluggishness knowing that “he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Tim. 2:5)....The completion of the work of sanctification implies that sanctification has begun and is
gradually progressing. If nothing is begun, it is absurd to speak of a finishing stroke. ....
Second, the believer should be encouraged in his race and warfare in this life by remembering that he is not destined to run or to fight forever. ...
Third, knowing that God will eventually complete and perfect the work of sanctification, the believer ought never be discouraged or despairing about the final outcome of his life. (386-387)

Free access to the presence of God and to the Heaven of God is now open to all believers because of the reconciling death of Jesus Christ in our behalf. Believers’ prayers and worship enter the very Throne room of God. At death their spirits enter that Holy of Holies; and at the resurrection, with their renewed physical bodies reunited with their perfected spirits, they will live in the Holy of Holies with God
throughout all eternity, when Heaven and earth will be one (Rev. 21:1–3). (388)

The very moment a believer dies he enters the Holy of Holies, Paradise, the heavenly Home of God, the third heaven, the highest heavens, the immediate and glorious presence of God, for “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). (390)

At death the souls of believers, when they enter the highest heavens, will behold the face of God in light and glory, and after their resurrection on Judgment Day, when they, body and soul, shall be received into heaven, where they shall be… especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity (WLC, Q. 90). (392)

"One does not theorize about this from the sidelines: the beatific vision affects our life in the here and now every day.” 73. Berkouwer, The Return of Christ, 368. (394)

God’s face is seen by faith in the Word of God in this life and by perfected vision
in the next. (397)

Although the spirits of the believers go to be “at home with the Lord” upon death in perfect bliss beholding God, nevertheless, as the Catechism says, they are waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. (398)

In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul tells us that death is not the consummation and goal of salvation; rather it is resurrection and life. Even after death and before resurrection, believers, although perfected spiritually in holiness, still long for the goal and completion of the salvation Christ purchased for them and the Holy Spirit
began in them in regeneration. He says that as wonderful as life after death will be for the believer, it is still incomplete, and being without a resurrected physical body, it is a condition of “nakedness.” The human spirit without the body is unnatural. (401)

The whole person of the believer—body and soul—is united to Christ. Death itself cannot break that union with Christ either of the soul or the dead physical body. (402)

Believers will be raised from the dead because they are united to Christ, body and soul; and because He arose, so will they. (403)

Paul makes this case as follows:
First, Paul is rejoicing in the complete victory over sin and death Jesus Christ has won in history for His people. Christ’s resurrection from the dead was the great historical event that demonstrated that death was really conquered. It is the basis of the believer’s hope in his own resurrection and victory over the grave (1 Cor. 15:17–19). 
Second, it is “through Jesus,” which is a more accurate translation than “in Jesus” in 1 Thess. 4:14, that is, through what Jesus has done, that Christians have peace and rest (“sleep” used metaphorically) in death and do not undergo the horrors of death.
Third, those who have died in Jesus before His Second Coming will have their share in the events of that great day. ...
Fourth, the one coming back on the Last day is none other than “the Lord Himself.”
Fifth, the Lord’s Second Coming will be one of majesty and glory.
Sixth, those dead bodies of believers will be raised from the dead before those who will be living on earth at the time of the Second Coming of Christ. (404)

The bodies of believers rest in their graves as in their beds, but the bodies of unbelievers are kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection
and judgment of the great day (WLC, Q. 86). (405)

However at various times in history the false doctrine of “soulsleeping” has made an appearance. It is the viewpoint, based on a literal interpretation of verses like those above, that after death the soul sleeps in unconsciousness until the resurrection. However, the verses we have mentioned, along with many others, do not teach that the soul falls asleep at death, but that the person who dies physically
falls asleep. Death can be described metaphorically in these words because of the similarity between a dead body “resting” in a grave and a living body asleep on a bed. Death for the believer is a break with this evil world around us, and therefore is a rest in peace from it. This language describing death as restful sleep could also
be used to remind us of the comforting hope of physical resurrection. (405-406)

On the last day, when Jesus returns and believers experience physical resurrection, the physical bodies of believers will be again united to their souls. (407)

Immediately upon death the souls of the wicked are cast into hell in continued conscious existence. (408)

According to the false doctrine of Annihilationism, there is no existence at all after death, conscious or unconscious....However, when the Bible speaks of the wicked dead being “destroyed” or as “perishing,” these words do not imply a reduction to nonexistence. (408)

Furthermore, (1) the Bible teaches that the wicked as well as the righteous continue to exist forever (Eccl. 12:7; Matt. 25:46; Rom. 2:8–10; Rev. 14:11; 20:10); (2) the wicked will suffer eternal punishment, which involves eternal consciousness of eternal pain which they receive as the just wage for their rebellion against God;
and (3) there will be degrees of punishment in hell for the wicked, while extinction of being or consciousness admits of no degrees (Luke 12:47, 48; Rom. 2:12). (409)

First, God does not annihilate anything He has created, howeverHe may change its form. ...

Second, wicked people often consider the extinction of being and consciousness a very desirable thing, when they grow weary of life. (409)



Immediately upon death the souls of the impenitently wicked are cast into hell fully conscious and alive, where they remain in torments and utter darkness. (409)

     Racheal

In discussing the basis of assurance of salvation, we are speaking of the ways in which the true believer in Jesus comes to this assurance of his salvation, not the basis of his eternal security....our assurance of our possession of this eternal salvation rests on and grows out of: (1) The Divine authority of the promises of God in the Bible and our faith in them; (2) The inward evidence of a sanctified life, i.e., the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made; and (3) The testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God (WCF, XVIII, ii). (276-277)

If a person is to attain infallible assurance of salvation, he must believe the gospel promises of God revealed in the Bible; and it is by faith in these promises of salvation that assurance of the possession of eternal salvation is attained. (277-278)

The Old Testament believers looked in faith beyond their deaths to fulfillment of the promises of God, assured that the Word of God was true and would not fail.
"So real were God’s promises to him [Abraham] that their fulfillment, though not yet, was as certain to him as something already and inalienably possessed. Thus the existential power of faith made the distant hope a present reality, and these
believers of the ancient world “saw” and “greeted” the promised consummation, even, and indeed especially, in the hour of death, as though already face to face with it." 31. Philip E. Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977), 478. (279)

Such graces—faith, repentance, love, submission, obedience, hope, hunger after righteousness—are gifts of the Spirit in the life of the believer, and therefore are signs of His presence and work in the believer’s life, as well as evidences that the promises do in fact belong to him. (281)

According to the texts listed above, the witness of the Spirit has two aspects: (1) A work of the Spirit upon the heart enabling the believer to cry “Abba! Father!” to God in Christ; and (2) The testimony and certification of the Spirit in the believer concerning His work in his heart. (283-284)

Because of the work of the Spirit on the heart, regenerating it, and placing the gift of faith in it, the believer is brought by the Spirit to the consciousness of that intimacy of relationship between himself and God the Father so that the believer spontaneously gives expression to it in the words, “Abba! Father!” (284)

Along with the work enabling the believer to know and bear witness to his intimate sonship to God, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16). (284)

Two things should be noticed in this statement: (1) The Spirit’s witness is a joint-testimony; and (2) It is a witness to our spirit. (285)

Keeping the commandments of God is proof that the believer makes his home in God and God makes His home in him. We can have certain knowledge that we are thus related to God because of the Holy Spirit which God gave to us in the moment of our regeneration by that Spirit. He is the source of our sure knowledge of
salvation because He is the source of our ability to obey the commandments of God from the heart. (287)

Jesus “came by water and blood… not with water only, but with the water and with the blood” (1 John 5:6)....it appears that it is referring to the two decisive events in the life of Christ defining His person and ministry: His Baptism in the Jordan River and His death on Calvary.....At Christ’s baptism, God Himself spoke out of Heaven declaring Him to be His Son: “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). And with that declaration God poured out His Holy Spirit on Him. This is not only the beginning of Christ’s ministry, it is the explanation of His ministry as well as the Divine certification of all His claims. Christ’s bloody death on the cross of Calvary is not merely the close of His earthly ministry, it is the explanation of His suffering by which He obtained our eternal redemption, reconciling us to God. (289)

“It is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth” (1 Jn. 5:7). Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God (vs. 10). And it is that indwelling Spirit that continually brings the truth of the Incarnation and of the Atonement home to the souls of men. (290)

The two historical, objective witnesses to Christ—His baptism and crucifixion, and the subjective witness to Christ—the indwelling Holy Spirit “are in agreement.” Together in perfect harmony they accomplish one object: establishing the truth of Christ in the heart of the believer. (290)

If we trust the apostolic witness of men who accompanied Christ in His days on the earth (1 Jn.1:1–3), the witness of the Spirit of God to Christ in the heart is an even greater witness....John does not say that God witnesses verbally and audibly, but that every believer is convinced that Christ is true and that his faith in Christ is real, because God is its author; and being its author He will without doubt be its finisher. (290)

The person who receives Christ as He is presented in the Bible, and rests upon Him alone for salvation has the witness of God to the truth of Christ in himself as an abiding possession. (291)

The witness of God in the believer not only convinces the believer of the truthfulness of Christ’s claims, it also convinces the believer that having accepted the objective witness of God to Christ in the Bible by faith, eternal life is now his present and eternal possession (John 3:16, 36). (292)

The Holy Spirit gives the regenerate heart the spiritual gifts, graces, virtues, and “fruit,” and excites them to lively activity. He then illuminates them so as to give a joyful assurance of a true sonship to the believer in Jesus. (293)

This testimony of the Holy Spirit to the believer’s sonship is always in concurrence with the witness of the believer’s own spirit to his sonship with God. It is NOT, as Wesleyanism teaches, “an independent revelation by which the Holy Ghost reveals immediately to the convert’s mind, without a mediate process of self-examination
and comparison that he is now reconciled.” 50. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 711.  (294)

Presumption, or taking one’s salvation for granted, is a dangerous sin. Self-deception about one’s standing with God is possible and frequent. (297)

"In the meantime, the faithful are taught to examine themselves with solicitude and humility, lest carnal security insinuate itself instead of the assurance of faith." 54. Calvin, quoted in Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 709. (297)

First, self-examination and soul-searching must be done with a due regard for the presence and assistance of God. ...
Second, self-examination must be done deliberately. It cannot be done effectively and reliably in a hurry. ...
Third, self-examination must be done frequently, and not just occasionally or haphazardly.
Fourth, self-examination must be done diligently. Arriving at a true knowledge of ourselves requires diligence, care and honesty of heart.   ....
Fifth, self-examination is to be done with the greatest impartiality.  ....
Sixth, self-examination must be done with the determined resolve that by the grace of God we will “make a right improvement of that judgment which we are bound to pass on ourselves.”58    ....
Seventh, self-examination must be done with judgment.
58. Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:204.
(298-299)

What are some of those marks or evidences of God’s gracious work in us by which we may discern that we are truly and eternally saved from sin?
First, a strong impression of feeling that we are saved is not to be considered a mark of grace....Intense emotions are like iron heated in the fire. When it is taken out of the flames it grows cold again.
Second, a profession of faith in Christ, and the correct performance of external rites of worship are no certain marks of grace. Many have had the form of godliness but have denied the power thereof. ...
Third, the mere performance of external moral actions are not certain marks of grace in the heart. A person may obey God’s demands externally only out of self-interest rather than for the glory of God. ...
Fourth, the true and genuine effects of faith and all the godly virtues that accompany or flow from faith are sure marks of God’s saving grace within us....Faith tends to “purify the heart” (Acts 15:9), enabling us to abhor, flee from, strive against, guard our hearts against everything and anything that tends to corrupt and defile the heart and life. (300)

It increases spiritual joy....
How could an infallible assurance of infallible salvation keep from bringing to the believer a deep sense of joy and peace? ...
It promotes usefulness in God’s work and stimulates us to the work of evangelism. Knowing for certain that we belong to God and joint-heirs with Christ has the effect on us of stimulating us to more diligent service to God. Knowing that we have victory over sin and death in Christ we will be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:55–58). ...
It opens the heart to love and praise to God...
It lifts us above the seductions of this world and assists us in resisting sin, enabling us to beat back temptations and to triumph over them. ....
It will make us contented with the certainty, eternity and all-sufficiency of God’s grace regardless of how much or how little material things we possess in this life....It enables the believer to persevere with patience and joy in the midst of sufferings. ...
Assurance of salvation strengthens us in the face of death. ...
It does NOT, however, raise the believer above conflict with sin nor does it encourage self-righteousness. ....
Some have considered such assurance of salvation to be an arrogant boast producing pride. If we expected to save ourselves, it would be arrogant boasting and pride. “To be in suspense whether Christ is able, and willing, and faithful, surely is no mark of our humility; but on the contrary, it is a dishonor to Him.”71 ...
"The facts are that the more intelligent, the deeper and the more unwavering the assurance of salvation is, the humbler, the more stable and the more circumspect will be the life, walk and conduct."72
71. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 712.
72. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 712-13.
(300-305)

Saving faith is not the belief that we are saved; it is an act of entrusting ourselves to Christ and resting upon Him alone for salvation as He is freely offered to us in the gospel, IN ORDER THAT WE MIGHT BE SAVED FROM OUR SINS....The assurance of faith proceeds from the assurance that we are saved by faith, while faith proceeds from the conviction that we are lost and in need of a Savior. And, although the two may be distinguished, and some believers may wait long before they obtain assurance, that does not mean that assurance must always be separated in time from the primary act of faith. (306)

At the same time, while a measure of assurance is implicit in saving faith: “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1), a full and infallible assurance of faith doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it (WCF, XVIII, iii). (307)

This failure to attain to a full and infallible assurance even when faith in Christ is present in the heart is due to several things. (1) Immaturity in knowledge of the nature and effect of the grace of God. (2) A lack of reflection or spiritual development because of inexcusable misconceptions and misapplications of the truths of the gospel and the nature of salvation in Christ. (3) A weakness of faith arising from negligence in the cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit. (4) Disobedience
to the commandments of God. (5) Backsliding. (6) A failure to be on guard against Satan’s assaults and to guard one’s own heart. (7) The excessive care for material and social things. (8) A serious lack of prayer. (9) A love for this evil world. (10) Manifold distempers, sins, temptations, and desertions. (307)

...it must be made clear that, although full assurance does not always accompany true faith in Christ, nevertheless true faith has no lack of certainty regarding the Object of that faith. Every true believer is most certainly assured of God’s reality,
of the truth of the Gospel and the claims of Christ, of the Divine authority of the Bible. (308)

Be diligent and constant in your use of the means of grace instituted by God: the reading and preaching of the Word of God, the Sacraments, prayer and worship, Christian fellowship and obedience to God. ...
Meditate every day on the spiritual and eternal privileges and blessing that belong to all believers in Jesus: regeneration, effectual calling, justification, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, glorification (1 Pet. 2:9). You will find that concentrated and frequent meditation on the things of Christ will tend to strengthen and maintain your assurance.
Make sure that “your hearts run more out to Christ than to assurance; to the sun than to the beams, to the fountain than to the stream, to the root than to the branch, to the cause than to the effect.”92 Assurance of salvation is precious; but Christ is more precious. No assurance can be compared to Christ. ....
Make sure that your heart is more taken up with Christ than with the evidences of the Spirit’s work in your own life. ...
Make good use of your assurance of salvation. Let it fortify your heart and mind against temptations, increase your resolve to live like a Christian, inflame your affections for Christ, and improve your daily walk as a Christian. ...
Walk humbly with your God. ....
Be on guard against the particular sins by which others have had their assurance diminished. Beware of presumption and the neglect of self-examination. (See Psalm 30:6, 7.) Beware of the neglect of the means of grace. Beware of spiritual carelessness, sluggishness and stubbornness. ...
Consider the sorrow and misery that accompany the loss of an infallible assurance of salvation.
92. Brooks, Heaven on Earth, 307.
(315-317)

Strive to find out what sin or sinful habit or sinful pattern robbed you of your infallible and full assurance.
Mourn over those sins that have turned your day into night and your rejoicing into weeping (Ps. 51). ...
Do not sit paralyzed by despair. Get up, do what it takes to recover infallible assurance. “Repent and do your first works” (Rev. 2:4, 5). ...
Wait patiently on the Lord with persevering faithfulness to Him. (317)

God never has failed those who wait on Him, nor will He ever fail them. (318)

John makes a sharp distinction between “they” who left and “us” who remain. Their defection gave clear evidence of their true character. Their apostasy was proof, not that they were believers who had lost their faith (which is impossible), but that they were never regenerate believers at all. (320)

So then, here we have the two safeguards against being deceived by heresy: the preaching of the Word of God and the anointing of the Spirit of God. John says “you heard” the Word (v. 24), and “you received” the Spirit (v. 27). The Word came from the inspired Apostles (1:2–5); and the Spirit came directly from God (2:20, 27). (322)

First, we learn from 1 John 2:18–20 that perseverance in faithfulness to Christ and His Word is the hallmark of those who are eternally saved and secure in Christ. They will not apostatize, nor will they “totally and finally” fall away from faith and salvation. ....
"He, in short, means that they who fall away had never been thoroughly imbued with the knowledge of Christ, but had only a light and a transient taste of it." 108. Calvin, Commentaries on the First Epistle of John, 192. (323)

Second, how does it happen that many who seemed to have faith in Christ often fall away into apostasy and heresy? John Calvin answers:
"there are three sorts of those who profess the Gospel: there are those who feign piety, while a bad conscience reproves them within; the hypocrisy of others is more deceptive, who not only seek to disguise themselves before men, but also dazzle their own eyes, so that they seem to themselves to worship God aright; the third are those who have the living root of faith, and carry a testimony of their own adoption
firmly fixed in their hearts. 109. Calvin, Commentaries on the First Epistle of John, 192. (323-324)

Third, such trials are useful and necessary for Christ’s Church. (324)

Fourth, our text gives us Biblical warrant for distinguishing between true and counterfeit believers in the institutional (visible) church. John knew well that not everyone in the church is of the church, not everyone in the church is a true believer in Jesus, not everyone in the church is elected and saved. (324)

Here is the argument: a person can be genuinely in union with Christ, through baptism be in possession of the blessings of salvation in Him, and yet bear no fruit for Him and eventually wither up and die and be cast into hell. He or she, once abiding in Christ, have ceased doing so, and so are cut off from the union with Christ they once enjoyed; and although they were once truly in union with
Christ, having fallen from that position, they are sentenced to hell.  (326)

Another approach to John 15:2, 6 and other admonitions in the Bible (as in Hebrews 6:4–6), is this: (1) Since the Bible exhorts us to persevere in faithfulness to God, it must be that such perseverance depends upon our will and exertion. (2) Admonition presupposes not only responsibility for that to which we are admonished; but
this responsibility presupposes that we are able to perform what we are admonished to do. (3) Such verses teach that the final salvation of Christians is dependent upon our diligent obedience to these admonitions. All this means that the preservation and perseverance of the saints depends upon the will of man, so that it is possible for some to stop abiding in Christ and are sentenced to hell. (326-327)

These very arguments and interpretations have been ably refuted time and again throughout the past hundred years of Reformed Protestantism. The problems with these views are exegetical, theological and covenantal. They simply do not fit the Biblical facts.
First of all, let us consider some of them theologically and practically. The Scriptural admonitions to believers to be persevering and steadfast and not to apostasize from the faith in no way contradict the truth of the preservation and perseverance of the saints.  (327)

"Not that it ever happens that any one of the elect is dried up, but because there are many hypocrites who, in outward appearance, flourish and are green for a time, but who afterwards, when they ought to yield fruit, show the very opposite
of that which the Lord expects and demands of His people." 114. Calvin, Commentaries on the Gospel According to John, 110. (328)

Although no real believer in Christ can totally and finally fall away and perish, the elect need to have the danger of apostasy and the dreadful wrath of God that comes with it kept before their eyes to make them afraid of defection and to press them to their duty, even though it is only the fruitless, non-elect branches that will be cut  off. (328)

"We are dealing with figures and pictures, mercifully used in order to meet our weak capacities; and we must take care we do not draw doctrinal conclusions from them, which contradict other plain passages of Scripture." 117. Bishop J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, (John, Vol. 3) 4 vols. (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1873), 98. (329)

{The Point}
The parable has three principal parts: (1) We have not power to do good except what comes from Christ; (2) We, being rooted in Christ, are pruned by the Father to bear more fruit; (3) Unfruitful branches are cut away and burned in the fire.
The one central point is this: The vital sap—that is, all life and strength—proceeds from Christ alone; therefore we can bear no fruit for God apart from Him....We
must be in union and communion with Jesus Christ to do good; and once His life-giving “sap” flows into our lives we WILL produce fruit. (330)

{The "Problem"}
Now, the problem for some in this parable is that Jesus says: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away… and they are burned” (John 15:2, 6). (331)

{The Answer}
In John 15, Jesus describes metaphorically two kinds of people who come into close contact with Christ and who are members of His church on earth: branches that bear fruit (15:2b, 5, 8), and branches that do not bear fruit (15:2a, 6). (331)

Furthermore, we see in verse 8 that abiding in Christ and bearing much fruit for Him is proof of true discipleship. Hence, the fruitless branches were not true disciples, although they may possibly have been disciples only by profession. (332)

These two groups of people have one thing in common: they both were in close contact with Christ and the Gospel in the visible church. Both groups of branches were in the vine, but not at all in the same sense. (334)

In what sense, then, are the fruitless branches to be said to be in the vine: “every branch in Me?” In their own opinion and in the opinion of others, because they have joined the church by baptism, they are actually and vitally in Christ in a saving sense.  (334)

{Conclusion}
Therefore, this parable of the vine and the branches in John 15 does NOT teach that a person can be genuinely, spiritually and vitally in union with Jesus Christ and fail to bear fruit. Baptized unbelievers, who profess to be disciples of Christ, and who are members of the visible church, are NOT as attached to Christ as the fruit-bearing believers are. Both groups do NOT partake of the vital sap of the vine....Those who are in vital union with Christ will never be cut off from the vine. (335)

{Application}
First, a true Christian is always becoming a Christian, in that his life is one of continuing growth. The true disciple is always becoming more fully a disciple. ...
Second, when Jesus declares: “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser,” He is saying that He is our life and the source of our strength to live for Him; and that God the Father is involved in our lives as the One judging our fruitfulness. ...
Third, the purpose of our lives is not our salvation, but our productivity
in Christ’s kingdom.
Fourth, whatever the imperfections of those who are in true
union and communion with Christ, those imperfections will not
cause them to be cast aside by Him, rather those imperfections and
frailties will endear them to the Lord’s care, for such branches shall
not be cut off, but lovingly and tenderly pruned.
Fifth, fruit is proof of being in the vine.
Sixth, Jesus says to you, dear believer,
"Abide in Me. Cling to Me. Stick fast to Me. Live the life of close and intimate communion with Me. Get nearer and nearer to me. Roll every burden on Me. Cast your whole weight on Me. Never let go your hold on Me for a moment. Be as it were rooted and planted in Me. Do this, and I will never fail you. I will ever abide in you… Severed from Me, separated from Me, you have no strength, and can do nothing. You are as lifeless as a branch cut off from the parent stem."130
Seventh, here is how to be a useful and happy servant of Christ:
(1) [v. 7] “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” This is “a distinct promise of power and success in prayer.”
(2) [v. 8] “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” The meaning of this promise is that “ fruitfulness in Christian practice will not only bring glory to God, but will supply the best evidence to our own hearts that we are real disciples of Christ.”132  ...
(3) [v. 10] “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” The person who conscientiously and diligently obeys Christ’s commandments is the person who will continually enjoy a sense of Christ’s love for him in his heart and soul.
130. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (John, Vol. 3), 101–02.
132. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (John, Vol. 3), 105.
(335-337)

     Racheal