Over the past two weeks, I wrote about distinguishing the holy from the unholy and living differently. Today, I take that main concept and give the proper reason for it: because God is the Lord. We are to avoid and shun sin because God is the Lord. We are to do good because God is the Lord. Many people may argue that this is not a good enough reason, but in truth, it is the only reason we should need. God is God. He is the Creator of this universe. He made each and every one of us. He is the potter; we are the clay. Who are we to tell God what He can or cannot do with us? God rules over all, and because He is Lord, He gets to make the calls.
I caught something when I was reading through Leviticus. Leviticus 18 is the infamous chapter about sexual immorality, but at the end of the chapter, God warns Israel that they were about to go conquer Canaan not because they were special but because the Canaanites were wicked people doing these very sins. God also warned Israel that if they did the same things, they would be spit out for the same reason. God concludes the chapter in verse 30 saying all that would happen because God is the Lord. Chapter 19 then lists several commands of what not to do and several commands of what to do. Each, if not all of them, are commanded because “I am the Lord.” That phrase “I am the Lord,” in justifying why those commands were issued, is repeated 11 times between Leviticus 18:30 and chapter 19.
We are to be obedient to the Lord because He is the Lord. We are to shun evil deeds because He is the Lord. There is no other reason that we need to be obedient to God. While every command does have a logical reason for it that we may not see until we get the fuller picture, all we need to know is to obey God because God is the Lord. He is the God over all gods. He is the Lord over all lords and the King over all kings. He spoke the entire universe into existence, and it obeys Him at His word. Man is the only creature that dares to defy God. The wind and the waves obey God. The sun, moon, and stars obey God. As R.C. Sproul once said, “There is not a single rogue atom in this universe.” Yet, there we are, mankind, who day after day defies God in our wretched sin. And then we have the gall to complain to God that His commands are unfair, unjust, and too restrictive.
The commands of God are not burdensome. They are not a heavy burden. They are life and life abundant. To the Christian, the commandments of God are supposed to be a joy. We don’t like them because we still have sin and rebellion in us. Sin defies God for no other reason than God said it. If anyone else said the same thing, it’s not a problem. Sin hates it because God said it. But to the Christian, we are commanded to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. Jesus said that to love Him is to obey His commandments, and He does not make those commands a heavy burden. Why? Because if He is living in us, He is doing the heavy lifting. The Christian life is Jesus living His life in and through us. So, we really are just going along for the ride and participating in it.
For the past 2 ½ years, my pastor has been preaching through the book of Exodus, occasionally taking time to go through other things while in the midst of it, and as of writing this article, we are in the Ten Commandments. One thing that he has pointed out that I never really saw before was that Israel was not just saved from slavery. Israel was saved so that they may serve the Lord. This is a theme throughout Exodus and their entry into the Promised Land. Israel was not delivered from slavery in Egypt to just be free people doing whatever they wanted to do. They were delivered from slavery so they would be God’s people, to be His messengers to the world, and to be the people who would reveal Him. Israel was to obey God and to worship God because He is the Lord and He is the one who delivered them from slavery. The Ten Commandments were not just meant to showcase the moral standards but to show how the Christian life is meant to be lived.
That same purpose is carried on to us. As a lamb’s blood was smeared on the doorposts to have the angel of death pass over the houses of Israel, so the Lamb of God’s blood was smeared on the cross so that God’s judgment upon sin would pass over us. As Israel was delivered by the mighty hand of God from slavery in Egypt, so we are delivered by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit from slavery to sin. And as Israel was given commands on how to live under their new master, the Lord, so we are given commands on how to live under our new master, Jesus Christ. If we proclaim Jesus to be Lord, why do we struggle with obeying Him? If Jesus is our Savior, why are we not grateful enough to Him to be obedient to Him? The answer is simple, and Israel provides the example: God needed to take Israel through the wilderness not merely to get them out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of them. Israel still returned to the idolatrous practices they had learned while in Egypt including making that dreaded golden calf. Likewise, we still retain our sin, and it takes the wilderness of the Christian life on this earth to work that sin out of us in a process we call sanctification.
God is the Lord. He is the ruler and the king. We are to serve Him and obey Him if for no other reason that He is the Lord. Even the sinful man is to be obedient to the Lord because He is the Lord. God is God; there is no other. God is the Lord; we won’t get another one. He is not going to resign, nor will He let another steal His glory. His commands are final, and there is no appeal to change them. The only appeal we have is to plead for His mercy on His terms. He is the Lord. Everything is done His way, even if we rebel against Him. Our job is to submit to Him and to believe Him because He is the Lord. He sets the rules. He is the potter; we are the clay. Who are we to tell our Creator what to do? I praise the Lord that He chose to save me. As for me, I will serve the Lord, and it is a pleasure and a joy to obey His commands.
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