CCC Gainesville | Blog
Q: What is the law of God stated in the Ten Commandments?
A: You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below—you shall not bow down to them or worship them. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not covet.
Why did God give us the law? Does he simply expect us to follow a set of rules? God is our creator and he intimately knows exactly what we need to flourish. When He gave us the law, He revealed to us his character. To break the commandments is to go against the very nature of God. And because we were made in God’s image, when we break the law, we go against our own nature. The first four commandments are vital to our relationship with God. The last six are vital to our relationship with each other. Because we are sinful in Adam, we cannot help but break the law of God. But because Christ redeems us, we are made perfect in him. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Since the Spirit is within us, we are free from bondage to sin and given exactly what we need to trust our Father’s wisdom; ie to keep the commandments.
This is week 8 of 52 catechism readings from New City Catechism. Christ Community is reciting an entry from the catechism each Sunday in 2013.
Last weekend a small group from our High School Youth Ministry went to Daytona Beach for the first annual High School Midwinter Retreat with Southland Student Conference. We joined five other churches for a weekend of worship, teaching, games, and fellowship time with about 30 other high school students from around the state. We were challenged through Matt Ryman’s (Pastor at UPC, Orlando) teaching on God’s authority in our lives. It was an awesome weekend, and an encouragement to all who were able to attend. Here are some pictures from the weekend!
Q: What does the law of God require?
A: Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and love our neighbor as
ourselves. What God forbids should never be done and what God commands
should always be done.
Perfect obedience can only be grasped if we have complete understanding of the Gospel message. Our obedience does not buy us salvation. Ephesians 2:8-10 states “ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Our identity in Christ has nothing to do with intelligence, strength,
ability, or effort on our part. God showed us grace by sending Jesus
to take our punishment, and to perfectly obey in our place. Because of this gift we are empowered by
the Holy Spirit to obey God’s commands. Our personal obedience, imperfect but sincere, was made possible because God saved us and because we are made perfect in Jesus. As we rest in God’s justification of us, we can freely obey God’s commands. To truly be able to seek obedience is to truly accept the gospel message.
This is week 7 of 52 catechism readings from New City Catechism. Christ Community is reciting an entry from the catechism each Sunday in 2013.
Although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect, in all ages successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices, wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent’s head; and the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world;
being yesterday and today the same, and forever. *
(from Chapter 8, section 6 of the Westminster Confession of Faith)
*Gal. 4:4–5. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gen. 3:15. And I will put enmity be- tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
1 Cor. 10:4. And [our fathers] did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. Rev. 13:8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Heb. 13:8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
See Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:15.
Lent. For the seven weeks leading up to Resurrection Sunday, we practice sober awareness of our frailty, sins and smallness. It starts on Ash Wednesday when those ashes are traced on our foreheads in the shape of the cross, a tactile reminder of our origins in the dust. From there we come, and to there we will go.
You want to really live, the kind of living that drains the marrow from every day? Then start by facing your death, your weakness, your smallness. We spend seven weeks facing our death and despair and doubt, entering into it with the fullness of our being—heart, mind, emotions—we leave nothing behind.
We do this for a number of reasons, chief among them the simple truth that Sunday comes after Friday. Only when you’ve gotten through, not around “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are you ready to throw the only kind of Resurrection party worthy of the occasion—that Sunday when we run huffing and puffing from the open tomb, beating our pots and pans in that clanging raucous outburst that begins with those three resounding words: “He is risen.”
That day when all the amps are turned up to “11.” –Rob Bell
We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others. – Elisabeth Elliot
The aim of Ash Wednesday worship is threefold:
— to meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior;
— to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and
— to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin. –The Worship Sourcebook
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster. –Joel 2:12-13 ESV
6:00am & 6:00pm in the Sanctuary tomorrow, Ash Wednesday
