Some of you may be surprised by this due to certain political unpleasantness going around–that I will leave unnamed both here and in the comments. But I was recently some basic Reformed theology from the pen of John Murray and started wondering where one might find this sort of thing preached anymore in the PCA.
I was pleased to find it in as prominant a pulpit as that of First PCA in Jackson, Mississippi. There are many great sermon transcripts at that website. Here’s a taste:
He [Paul] goes on and he gives one more argument, and you see it at the end of verse 2, and then throughout verse 3. He tells us here that the obedience of children is not only based on what is fundamentally right as is revealed in the creative order; it’s not only based on God’s expressed command in Scripture, but it is also accompanied by a gracious promise of God.
Isn’t it like God to say ‘You have to do this…and when you do it, I’ll bless you’? This reminds us of the graciousness of God in His commands. He can’t wait to bless us! And so He’ll say this is your duty, and I’m going to reward you for doing your duty, even though you don’t deserve a reward for doing your duty. Remember what the Lord Jesus said to the disciples—that when they had done all their duty they were to say – what? – “I’ve only done what I’ve been commanded to do.” That’s what our attitude is supposed to be – ‘Lord, when I’ve obeyed Your Law perfectly’… on those rare occasions we say, ‘Well, Lord this is the first time I’ve ever obeyed Your Law completely, and the last week I’ve only done what You told me to do in the first place.’ And God is here saying in Exodus 20:12,’ I’m just waiting there to bless you and reward you for what you ought to have done anyway,’ because He’s gracious; and this reminds us that the way of obedience with God is always the way of blessing.
You remember Satan’s words to Eve in the garden ran like this: If you want blessing, you’ve got to disobey. If you want to be like God, if you want what you want, if you want to achieve happiness, then what you have to do is disobey. And what does the rest of the Bible say in opposition to what Satan said? The way of blessing is right there in the way of obedience, because God loves to bless those who obey. We’re going to sing Trust and Obey, or a phrase or two from it at the end. What a great motto for the Christian life. Obedience brings with it blessing, because God is gracious. And so Paul is saying ‘Look, this command which we ought to do just because that’s the way God created the world and because He said it in His word, He also accompanies with it a gracious promise. And so Christian children are to obey their parents because of God’s gracious promise.
Notice in verse 8 that the people respond to God’s gracious offer of this covenant by saying, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.” If you’re like me you’re also thinking, “Wait a minute, you haven’t heard Exodus 20 yet.” It would be easy to criticize the children of Israel for being a bit to hasty to say that they were going to be able to do all this. I understand the legitimacy of this, but the thing I want to emphasize is this, the children of Israel had to embrace this covenant. This was God’s purpose, for them to embrace willingly His covenant. God offers His covenant, He makes promises, He offers blessings, but that covenant must be embraced. The children of Israel had to embrace this covenant by faith. They had to acknowledge God’s lordship, and they had to trust in His blessing, the promises that He had made to them in this covenant. So, when the children of Israel say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do,” among other things, they are confirming that they corporately embrace the blessing and the promises and the favors of this covenant that God has offered to them. They trust in Him, they acknowledge Him to be who He says He is, and they acknowledge Him to be their God. They are embracing the covenant.
That is not something that has passed away in the days of the old covenant. Today, in order to have a vital saving relationship with God you still have to embrace the covenant. You know, there are all sorts of people who you’re friends with, who believe that God exists. They may believe that He is a God of love and of mercy and of compassion. They may even believe some of the things that the Bible says about Him, but they have never embraced Him. There are a lot of ministers who say that the gospel is to go out and tell people that they are already saved, that they are already in a grace relationship with God. Notice here that Moses is emphasizing in this very passage that even when God is offering grace, it must be embraced. The way the children of Israel do that is, fundamentally, by faith. They acknowledge God to be the Lord and they trust in His promise. The obedience flows from that, but fundamentally they embrace Him as Lord and they trust in His promise. The covenant must be embraced.
But I want you to see as well that even God’s commands in the covenant are gracious. That’s one of the things that comes out in this passage. That the demands that God makes of Abraham here are ultimately not simply self-serving, self-directed demands. They are commands that are designed to enhance Abraham’s faith. In fact the specific command that God gives to Abraham in this passage is to make sure that he keeps the covenant sign that is designed to strengthen his faith. So God demands that Abraham do something that’s good for him. He says I will not allow you not to do this thing which I have designed for your own good. And so the very demands, the commands of the covenant are gracious. That colors the whole way we respond to God. Once we understand that His commands, not just this command, but all His commands are gracious, doesn’t it change the way we approach the law of God, the word of God, the command of God? Suddenly those laws are not burdensome things placed upon our backs to ruin our lives. They are things which He demands that we do because He loves us so much that He will not let us miss an ounce of the blessing of the doing of them.
And so these covenant promises come to us at God’s gracious initiative and yet to be in covenant with God entails our obedience to these duties. God calls on Abraham here, and his seed, to keep the covenant. That is, to recognize their obligations to Him, to be committed to Him perpetually. And so God calls us to be committed to Him perpetually. When we enter into the covenant of grace with the Lord Jesus Christ, He calls on us to be committed to Him perpetually, to continue trusting in Him perpetually, to continue believing on Him perpetually for our salvation, to continue following after His way of obedience perpetually.
And notice that the prime thing in this passage that God calls Abraham to is loyal faith which evidences itself in obedience. The prime thing that God is after here is commitment. Notice the language. As for you, keep My covenant.
Listen to what Derek Kidner says: “The striking feature of the stipulations in this passage is their lack of detail. To be committed was everything. Circumcision was God’s brand; the moral implications could be left unwritten until Sinai, for Abraham was pledged to a Master, and only secondarily to a way of life.” God is calling on Abraham simply to be absolutely committed to Him in this relationship: ‘Abraham, stick with Me, stay with Me, trust Me, Abraham, be committed, be loyal to Me.’ That’s the nature of the covenant relationship, isn’t it? Loyalty, faith and commitment despite all evidence to the contrary that the promises will be fulfilled. And so God calls Abram to keep the covenant and the joyful response of the believer to that call of God’s grace is of course to continue in commitment and in loyalty, in trust and in faith.