Last night as I was returning from teaching the 10 commandments to a group of catholic believers in Liverpool near Sydney. I was thinking about the questions I was asked by some in the group.
- Why did God give us the 10 commandments when He knew very well that we cannot keep them?
- Why did God choose only the nation of Israel to be His chosen people? He could have very well chosen any nation or race on this earth but why Israel?
- It is hard to keep all of those commandments but what's wrong in trying and making an effort to keep most of it?
- All religions teach about being good, so why need 10 commandments specifically to teach us to be good and do the right thing?
- Do I need religion to be good or to do good?
- What is religion?
- When did religion begin?
And many more such questions along those lines..
My intention was to teach about the Tabernacle but because we were reviewing the previously learned topic of 10 commandments it seemed to me that people were still in questioning mode. I think questions are great and it shows that you are thinking about what you've heard but mere questioning for the sake of it is also unhealthy.
At the end of the night, we discussed some of the answers to those questions and studied briefly about the Tabernacle.
- 10 commandments are God's laws, it shows us how perfect, pure, Holy our God is. It also shows that we in our own strength cannot follow them all, we need His grace and mercy to be able to keep them all. Furthermore, it is like a mirror, whenever we read about the commandments of God it shows how much we need to correct ourselves. In this sense, it is a daily reminder to us as Christians to continually reflect on these 10 commandments and change and correct ourselves.
- The best efforts of mankind to keep the 10 commandments still will fall short of the glory of God. No matter how many of those we 'try' to keep our destiny is to fall in the gulf that was created by the sin nature we inherited from Adam and Eve. Trying and making an effort to please God is often a religion based effort.
- Religion is 'man's effort to please God', therefore any amount of our efforts will constitute our religious effort which will still result in the pits of separation between us and God.
- Religion in fact was invented by man especially after his 'Godly' image was marred by sin. Religion began as one famous commentator said from Adam and Eve, when they presented themselves before God with garment made out of leaves, thus it was their effort to please God when they had sinned. Interestingly enough God rejected their efforts because if we decide to meet Him it must be according to His way and not ours. Do you think God would reject religions today?
I went on to say that when we encounter God, He will not accept us until and unless we are clothed in the righteous of Christ. This is the sign of our acceptance into His kingdom. So it does not matter what religion one belongs to as long as he/she accepts the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ and believe in His Words. Christianity in my mind is not a religion rather it is a way of life, why? you can say it is a Way To Life it self.
We don't need 10 commandments to remind us to be good, even atheist's are good people but they don't believe in God or His Words, God has given each one of us what we call as 'conscience' that tells our inner man - stealing is wrong, murder is wrong and so on..
Even Cain, who did not have a clue about the 10 commandments knew that murdering his brother Abel was wrong. I hope I have made my point clear about the 10 commandments, it simply shows the highest expectation He expects of us and we need to continually correct our selves to look into it as if they were a mirror and we change the way we look on a daily basis.
You may wonder, why I had not responded to the question 'why did God choose Israel?'.. more about it next time..
God bless you..
Chris
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