Lord's Day 21

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” We all memorized the preamble to the constitution when we were children, for it serves to summarize the purpose and principles of the foundational document of our nation. 

Did you know, though, that there was a preamble to the Ten Commandments? So often our focus is on the commandments themselves that we overlook what the catechism calls the preface. However, the preface to the commandments remind us why these laws are essential to the Christian life. 

The preface states, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” reminding us, when we come to hear God’s will for our lives, that He is the God who delivered us. We, of course, were not physically delivered out of Egypt, but our deliverance is no less real. We were delivered from bondage to sin and slavery; we were delivered from Hell. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, Jesus came to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15). 

Because God has delivered us He has proven Himself to be our God and our Redeemer. If God, then God is to be obeyed. Obedience is the proof of faith and of the regenerate spirit that has been redeemed from slavery to sin and death. We have been redeemed for a purpose; we were redeemed for righteousness. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (I Peter 2:24). The only way to be righteous is to live by faith in Christ. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2-3).