Donald Trump was in the news last year, stating that he hoped he would go to heaven because of all of the good things he is doing as President of the United States. This illustrates a common misunderstanding of how salvation works. To clarify this when giving us the Ten Commandments, God prefaces the Ten Commandments with a verse that reads:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
Out of the house of slavery.”
Exodus 20:2
This short verse is very significant, in that it lays down the concept that is core to all of Christianity, namely that God has rescued and delivered us, and we obey out of the freedom and gratitude we have in Christ, rather than the other way around. To clarify – in most if not all other religions, we are given a set of things to do, a set of requirements, a list of do’s and don’ts, a body of rules to follow, etc., and if we do those things to the degree necessary, then we achieve the end goal of that religion. We achieve their version of heaven by following a path, keeping their commands, doing the practices, following the rules, etc. In Buddhism, if we do everything we are supposed to do, then we achieve enlightenment. In Hinduism for example, if we are successful in our practice of Hinduism, we achieve Kama, Artha, Dharma, Moksha, or Prema. The Muslims work toward entering paradise by submission and obedience to Allah and the Koran, which BTW can only be understood in Arabic, with some Muslims adding to that the earning of seventy virgins in heaven by killing infidels (non-muslims) as a human bomb. And so it goes.
Most, if not all, of the major world religions give us a path to follow, and by following their prescribed path, we achieve whatever the religion promises. We in essence work our way to God, heaven, nirvana, etc. – whatever the ultimate end taught by that particular religion is. And even the non-religious typically follow this model. We say to ourselves, “If I live a good life, if I work hard, if I do my duty, then life will be good to me and I will get the things I want. I will get the promises of a life well lived, I will get a little piece of heaven right here on earth. I will be remembered well, etc.”
We work to earn the desired end, whether it is something found in our religion, or a secular end such as happiness, money, fame, the right possessions, a cause that we believe in, a family, the right house, the right spouse, etc. Most of us learn this system of working for rewards at an early age when our parents use rewards for good behavior, chores, etc. But God turns this paradigm completely upside down. While the Ten Commandments can be considered a path to follow, it is a path that does not lead to salvation, to heaven, or to the desired end of Christianity.
“God’s salvation does not come in response to a changed life.
A changed life comes in response to [God’s] salvation, offered as a free gift.”
(Tim Keller, ‘Counterfeit Gods’)
To make this perfectly clear in His word to us, God gives us the Ten Commandments AFTER He delivers us from Egypt. Not before we were slaves in Egypt. Not during our slavery in Egypt. He could have given them to Adam, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, etc., but He does not do this. He gives them to us after he has saved us. Point being, we are His not because we followed a set of rules but because He simply chooses us. The Bible says that God did not choose the Israelites because they were great, but because He is just keeping his promise to Abraham (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). Similarly, in the New Testament Jesus promises us salvation through faith. God choses us to be saved not because of something we have done or accomplished, but because of Jesus’ promise to us when He was here. Salvation is a free gift to us that we cannot earn (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Peter 2:9-10).
Christianity does not give us a path to follow like other religions, but rather it gives us a person to follow, Jesus the Messiah. We do not follow a path, but a person. And even more than that, Jesus says to us from the cross that “it is finished”. All of the work for our salvation has been done, completed, “finished”, on the cross. He completed the path for us. All that is required for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven is to believe in Him and be born again. There is no work left to do.
By faith we enter into the salvation God has accomplished for us in the work of His Son on the cross. We see this in Exodus 20 verse 2, where God says, “I am the Lord your God, I brought you out of Egypt, I delivered you from slavery.” He is prefacing the Ten Commandments with what He has done to bring us to this point, and He is NOT telling us to keep these commandments so He WILL deliver us, but BECAUSE He has delivered us. It is the opposite of the other major world religions. God provides the deliverance first, then we obey the commands. Why would God set it up this way? One word – Pride.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
If I have “worked” my way to enlightenment or nirvana or some other religious high place, or if I have “worked” to create the ultimate family, or if I have “worked” to feed the poor in a country and have wiped out hunger in that country, if I have “worked” to build a wonderful home, if I have worked to earn lots of possessions, etc., then odds are, I am proud of my accomplishments. That is normal. Additionally, if we must work to earn the heaven we pursue, whatever that might be in our case, it limits the number of people that can make it to the finish line. After all, how many people on planet earth are actually capable of doing the things required by most of the “work your way to heaven” religions? Most of the people on our planet are just barely getting by. If salvation is for those who can achieve it, that would be a pretty select club, a pretty small group of people. Most of the people on planet earth would be left out. Salvation would be for highly disciplined elites only. And what of those who have messed up their lives in some way? What about children who are too young to understand the complicated requirements these other religions put on followers? Etc., etc., etc. How will they ever get in?
But God, by providing deliverance for us in His Son, for free, has kicked the door wide open for all of us to have the freedom to walk into His kingdom thru faith. There is no one who cannot be born again. Rich, poor, black, white, educated, uneducated, strong, weak, male, female, child, adult, sinner, saint, deaf, blind, crippled, etc. – there is no one on earth that cannot be born again, because God did the work for us Himself. All we have to do is believe, and even a child can do that. People from any nation, any tribe, speaking any language, no fees required, etc. are all invited to enter the kingdom. We enter into the benefits of His work by faith, and all of us are capable of faith. It is as simple as that. God set it up so that anyone can enter the kingdom of God now. All that is required is faith. No one is excluded, no one is left out. Everyone has an equal opportunity to enter the kingdom of God.
Side Note:
It is interesting that many complain about the exclusiveness of Christianity – that Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6) – when in reality Christianity is the most inclusive of all of the religions. It leaves no one out because of the way that God has set it up. There are no requirements for salvation beyond simple faith. What more can we ask of God, He has done it all for us. All that is required is belief in Jesus. There is no excuse for not being saved if you have heard the gospel.
The first thing to notice in verse 2 of Exodus 20 is that God’s action comes first. Our obedience to His commandments is secondary. Our obeying the commandments follows His action of rescue and deliverance. God prefaces the Ten Commandments with this statement, to remind us that He rescued us and delivered us first. We did not deliver ourselves. He got us out, made us free, broke the bondage we could not break, overcame the obstacle we could not overcome. He is telling us that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and of death. And now He is going to tell us how to remain in the freedom that He has bought for us with His blood, the blood of His Son, spilled on the cross at Calvary. The Ten Commandments are how to live after you have been rescued, delivered, and saved. They are not how to live in order to be delivered and saved. They are God’s instructions on how to live in the new life He has given us.
Has God set you free or are you still in need of deliverance? Are you trying to keep the Ten Commandments thinking that in them you have life, believing that in keeping them you have a hope for heaven? Or do you realize that only faith in Jesus can set you free. In the book of John Jesus says that “He whom the son sets free is free indeed” (John 8:36). By faith in Jesus we are set free from the law of sin and death. We are set free to walk in newness of life. We are rescued from our old way of living and are no longer slaves to sin. We are free to move into the promised land of life in Christ, right here, right now.
“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.””
John 8:12
Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:31-32) Jesus’ teaching is for us to believe in Him, to believe in His name, and to follow Him. That is all we are required to do and He will set us free. Only in the freedom Christ gives us thru faith are we able to truly follow God’s Ten Commandments. And we follow them because He first saved us, not in order to be saved.
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