the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 5:1-21
For Israel it is now a question of listening to the statutes and judgments of the LORD, learning them and keeping them in order to carry them out (v. 1). These are significant verbs for each of us in relation to the whole of Scripture! The law is naturally the most important of all the instructions to Israel. It reveals on the one hand the perfection of Christ who carried it out to the letter, and on the other hand the wickedness of man who is capable of doing everything which is forbidden here (read 1 Timothy 1:9). That God should be obliged to say: "Thou shalt not kill . . . neither shalt thou steal" confirms that these inclinations towards evil are within us. That is why the law has a predominantly negative character. It is not "thou shalt" but "thou shalt not." The Christian life itself also consists of things to abstain from and things which are forbidden. 1 Peter 1:14; 1 Peter 2:1; 1 Peter 2:11 exhort the child of God not to conform to former lusts, to reject all hatred, deceit and envy . . . to abstain from fleshly lusts . . . But Christianity is equally rich in positive commandments since the believer possesses a new life which is capable of carrying them out. If God requires from us hearts which are free from various lusts, it is because He gives us an Object capable of satisfying those hearts, something the law could not do.
