4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands2 of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Footnotes
[1]20:3Or besides [2]20:6Or to the thousandth generation [3]20:13The Hebrew word also covers causing human death through carelessness or negligence
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands2 of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Footnotes
[1]20:3Or besides [2]20:6Or to the thousandth generation [3]20:13The Hebrew word also covers causing human death through carelessness or negligence
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Connor Coskery:
If you would go ahead and open up your bibles, we're gonna be in Galatians chapter 3 tonight. Galatians chapter 3. I love preaching after, testimonies. It's it's always so encouraging to hear, how the Lord is active, among us in in transforming us and drawing us closer to himself and, and just to see that embodied right in front of us to declare his his good work among us is a is a wonderful thing. So thank you again.
Connor Coskery:
Galatians chapter 3. We're continuing our study of Exodus. Obviously, we are not in the book of Exodus right now. We'll get there. Trust me.
Connor Coskery:
I'm Jeff, by the way. Don't just trust me because I'm I have a microphone. My name's Jeff. I'm the associate pastor here. It's great to meet you.
Connor Coskery:
We'll be in, Galatians chapter 3, starting with verse 10. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.
Connor Coskery:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Let's pray. Oh, god, help us in our weakness to believe.
Connor Coskery:
Help us to hear your word, to receive it. Help us to be honest with ourselves and one another tonight. Give us the strength to look at your law, which is a mirror that can show us things we don't want to see but need to. Give us the strength to look, and then give us the strength to look to Christ, our only hope, our redeemer, and our king. We pray these things in his name.
Connor Coskery:
Amen. So last week, we we looked at when Israel arrived at Sinai, and Moses went up and received the commandments of God. And Joel stressed last week that we really need to keep the order of events in mind. We should keep the order of events correct, that God had rescued Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. He had brought them into the wilderness.
Connor Coskery:
He had delivered them, and then he was giving them the law. And it's important for us to see the progression. And tonight what I want to do is kind of build off of that and continue that conversation, And to really zero in on on kind of 2 areas, the to see how the 10 commandments fit into the law of God, to see where they where they fit their place within the law, and then for us to consider what does it mean to be Christians and relate to the law? What what does a Christian have to do with the 10 Commandments? What does Birmingham have to do with Sinai?
Connor Coskery:
What is this connection now? So I think a good place for us to begin to kind of chart our path together is to ask this question. What do you think of when you hear the word law? When you hear law, what do you think about? See, it can kind of be like the the word gospel.
Connor Coskery:
When when we hear when we hear gospel, it's it's set around churches a lot in Christian circles, blogs, books, events, all of those things. We hear gospel a whole lot. And then it's but it can be really tricky to nail down a definition. And so what we do with a lot of terms, and we do this in all areas of life, where we have so much information coming in that we just build kind of a sense glossary of terms. What we have a feeling of what different things mean, so we can just keep going to the next thing.
Connor Coskery:
And so when you hear law, what is that sense definition? What's what's that feeling definition that you have? Is it good? Because I would guess probably not. If you're anything like me, when you hear law, you think more of bad things.
Connor Coskery:
You think about this burden of the law. You think about rules and restrictions, failure, fear, consequences, maybe an angry god, judgment, hell, destruction. Which might be why there was some tension when you perhaps last week, when you heard Joel say that it is God's grace that is the foundation of the law. Because when I hear that, something bows up and says, but how can that be? How can that be?
Connor Coskery:
And so like any time when we have God's word in front of us and our since definition coming forward and and they don't square, we have to humbly come before God's word and ask that his spirit would change our hearts and our minds. And so what do we mean when we say law? Well, the book of the law has 613 commandments. Some of you are already wondering how I'm gonna make it through 10 tonight. We're not going to go through all 613, I promise.
Connor Coskery:
But we're going to go through 10. But 613 commandments. Within this we have the ceremonial law. We have the moral law. We have the civil law.
Connor Coskery:
Now, the scriptures don't break those categories down explicitly. It's a it's a traditional way of reading the law. And it's helpful for us to think about these different categories. For 1, the ceremonial law. These laws include sacrifices for sin, the rules for the royal priesthood, the cleanliness codes, you know, what foods you can eat, the kinds of clothing you can wear, how to do certain ceremonial washing, the things that you can touch and not touch.
Connor Coskery:
Those clean, unclean rules are found there in the ceremonial law. Also, all those things about, you know, when it comes to the foods, and the kinds of things that you can eat. What makes you clean, what makes you unclean, and how you approach God in that. That's the ceremonial law. The civil law, this is where the nation of Israel is given laws by which they govern themselves.
Connor Coskery:
They they are a nation at this point, and they are coming up with their rules and their penalties. And so all of those are being established in a civil law, particularly those consequences for breaking the moral law. And then the moral law, this is this is how to live righteously. The moral codes about faithfulness and honesty are all found there in the moral law. And within these 613 laws, the 10 commandments sit at the heart.
Connor Coskery:
They are the core of the law. And they are presented as these 10 words, these 10 sayings. And they mirror the 10 words, 10 sayings of creation. And that would have been recognizable to the first hearers of of the the commands. That they would have remembered these creation words of God creating all things seen and unseen.
Connor Coskery:
And it's helpful for us to keep that creation in mind, that creation story and those creation words in mind. It's helpful for us, really on two points. One, it's helpful because God is establishing a people. He's creating a people. Here again, God is creating.
Connor Coskery:
And what he's creating is Israel. He's creating his people with these words. And secondly, God is reminding his people that he is their creator. So 1, he's creating a people, and 2, he's calling them back to all the things seen and unseen. All of creation.
Connor Coskery:
I am the maker. Because when law comes, when these rules come down, they need to come from authority, right? I mean, if somebody's gonna come in and impose some kinds of rule or right? What gives you the right? Like, we ask these kinds of questions, and he is calling them back to creation.
Connor Coskery:
It's important for us to keep that in mind. Now, it's also help for us helpful for us to remember that God did not give the law to superpower Israel so they could rule outsiders and other nations. No. They did not receive it to force others into morality or right living. The law was given to regulate covenant life with God.
Connor Coskery:
These words are marriage vows of Israel and her God. These laws were given to the people because they were already God's people. And strangers and foreigners were invited in. They were welcomed. They could become a part of this nation.
Connor Coskery:
They they could join in, but what they were joining was an exclusive covenant. See, this law reminds Israel that God is her creator, and those who receive God's law are creatures. We don't like to think about being creatures. Creatures are creatures. We're a people.
Connor Coskery:
Right? We like we like those kinds of distinctions. But but God is creator, and we are creatures. And God has every right as creator to command and judge as he wills. And that can be a hard, hard truth to believe because the consequences are great.
Connor Coskery:
But what we have to keep in mind is that the law is not cruel. It is not cruel. The law is rooted, as we talked about last week, it's rooted in grace, and it is rooted in love. So let's turn our attention now to the 10 commandments and see how they are rooted in this grace and this love of God. I have there a translation which, which tries to kind of zone in on what those sayings were, the rhythm of, the commandment sayings, these 10 sayings.
Connor Coskery:
And so let's look at them in your worship guide together. The first command. I am the lord your god. You shall have no other gods beside me. You shall make no carved likeness.
Connor Coskery:
You shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to hallow it. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
Connor Coskery:
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your fellow man, And you shall not covet. So the first four laws are regulations concerning our relationship with our Creator. And in the following 6 laws are regulations concerning our relationship with other creatures, our neighbor. And in 1 through 4, God is outlining that he alone is God, and that eternally nothing will succeed him in being the supreme authority.
Connor Coskery:
Nothing will come before him. Nothing will come beside him. Nothing will come after him. He is eternally supreme. He is Yahweh, and nothing will distract from his supremacy, especially not a carved idol.
Connor Coskery:
You see, God made the stone. God made the gold and the wood. And he even made the craftsman who would carve out the idol. He made all of these things. And nothing in all of creation could compare to the creator.
Connor Coskery:
He is over every realm, The heavens, the earth, the sea. And because he is overall, he must be revered. The people of God must bear this awe. See, when when the law was being given and and the the mountain was thundering with lightning and and clouds and and all of this happening around, and it struck a fear in the people, and that was on purpose. We we have to remember that we are creatures.
Connor Coskery:
We have to remember that we are dealing with our creator. So whether that's in in exasperation, or frustration, or prayer, we must not take the name of God for granted. It shouldn't pass our lips carelessly, whether that's in a curse or in a prayer, not to be taken lightly. I've heard, doctor Gerald Bray, a professor at Beeson Divinity School, he said this, yes, we have friendship with God, but we are not equals with God. He is our maker, and we must remember who he is.
Connor Coskery:
Yes. We have friendship, but we are not equals. And we have to keep this in mind, and God has laid out here in his commandments a way to remember, a way to remember. And in that remembering, we remember all that he created, and therefore, we rest on the Sabbath. Joel will be teaching on that, next week in greater detail, Plus, I have 6 more commandments in the new testament to reckon with, so we're gonna keep moving.
Connor Coskery:
Alright. So the 6th commandment on, these are regulations concerning our relationship with other creatures, our relationship with one another, our neighbors. And here, God is outlining how we regard and interact with one another. It begins with honoring mothers and fathers. Honoring forebears is a critical part for the people of God because because it takes us back to the beginning of our life.
Connor Coskery:
It it takes us back to that place where we were helpless and in need. I mean, have you ever seen a baby? They're they're completely helpless. It's an easy thing to observe. And God is taking us back to this place to say remember where you came from and show honor.
Connor Coskery:
Now, that doesn't mean it's easy. And for some of you, it is extremely difficult. It's extremely difficult to show honor to someone who has not earned honor. It's very hard. We talked about that this past summer when we were talking about governments and rulers and authorities and all those different things.
Connor Coskery:
And now taking it into, the home with parents, it's not easy. Because people aren't easy. And whether you believe it or not, you are not easy. And then that's why God is giving us these commands of how to treat one another. Because in doing so, we will set ourselves apart as the people of God, to show honor where honor perhaps is not earned.
Connor Coskery:
This sets a tone for the last half of the commandments. They aren't easy either. These shall nots, thou shall not murder, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal, which really are all violations of covenant. Don't take what's not yours. You don't take a life that's not yours.
Connor Coskery:
You don't take a spouse that's not yours. You don't take someone else's possession that's not yours. You don't take it. And don't bear false witness. Don't covet.
Connor Coskery:
Here, God is talking about how we need to learn to be honest, to not take advantage of people, not to long what belongs to someone else. And these regulations, they prohibit deceitfulness and greed. They teach us to be content with what God has given us and to trust him as creator and provider. Now these regulations are not simply for establishing order, although they do that. They do establish order.
Connor Coskery:
But they establish a lifestyle that reminds the people of God who they are in the sight of God, and that is wholly set apart. These first four regulations concern our relationship with God. The the final 6 are relationship with our neighbor. And this god neighbor breakdown of the 10 commandments is, is actually taught by Jesus, in as recorded in Matthew 22 and Mark 12. It comes up in a time when Jesus is approached by a Pharisee, a lawyer.
Connor Coskery:
You know the type. And and so he comes up and and he's got a lot of laws to remember. You you not only have what's written down in the book of the law, you have you have all these oral laws, all these laws that are being, that are being, used in in these legal times, and and the lawyers. You know, he has all these things to keep up with. And so he has this clever question, what is the greatest commandment?
Connor Coskery:
Let me read to you from Matthew 22. The lawyer says this, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it.
Connor Coskery:
I like that he went for 2. He gets asked for 1, he goes for 2. And the second is like it, verse 39. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these 2 commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
Connor Coskery:
See, Jesus breaks down the law and the prophets into these same two categories outlined in the 10 commandments, loving God and loving our neighbor. And again, the law is not to be seen as these rules of how to be perfect, but living out life as God's people. God has called his people to be a loving people. And that love is expressed in obedience to him. That is what we mean when we say law.
Connor Coskery:
But Israel did not keep the wall. No one did. They said, everything that you have commanded, oh, god, we will do. And the blood gets sprinkled all over the place. And then they don't do it.
Connor Coskery:
So why didn't that just end? Like day 1, we're gonna do everything that you commanded. Alright. You know, like a game of quiet mouse, like the first peep and the game's over. Like, why didn't that happen?
Connor Coskery:
Someone sins, and they're like, alright. Well, now I'm gonna go see if I can find some other slaves to kind of bring out into the wilderness and see if we can really get this right. No. That's not what happens. Because from the start, a portion of the law was dedicated to this need.
Connor Coskery:
You see, within the ceremonial law, there was the sacrificial system. The law is a mirror that teaches us about God's faithfulness and our own unfaithfulness. And God was not surprised when Israel failed to keep everything he had commanded. It's what he declared, but he was not surprised when they failed. Which is why he included in the law this provision for atonement.
Connor Coskery:
And these provisions did not lessen the law. By no means. It did not make obedience less required. It did not make his commandments somehow less serious. But sacrifice was the only way that God's people could be in this right standing justified with him due to their disobedience, their breaking of the commandments.
Connor Coskery:
And this sacrificial system was put into place by God to remind Israel of the law, their sin, and his great grace. So key key thing here. Israel was not relying on works of the law for their salvation. They were relying on God. They weren't relying on the works of the law to somehow be right with God.
Connor Coskery:
They were relying on God. So this confident reliance is called faith. And the people of God have always been justified by faith, not works. Romans chapter 3, Paul looks at this issue. And we'll look at a few different verses here.
Connor Coskery:
But one thing that he says in verse 28 is for we hold that no one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Let me read it again. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. It is not from the works of our hands. Somehow, we earn enough of God's attention and affection for him to save us.
Connor Coskery:
It wasn't true for Israel. It's not true for us. But this is the deceit that plagues us. It plagues our hearts, and it plagues our minds. And if it's not trying to get a stronghold on some part of your life right now, then I would encourage you to take a breath, open your eyes, and be honest with your life.
Connor Coskery:
Because this creeps in to every believer, that we would start to think that the only way that God will love us and accept us is if we do enough for him. And it's never been true, and it never will be true because we can't do enough. But he has provided this way for Israel, and he did this to lead us to Jesus. In Romans chapter 3, Paul says that God was passing over these sins. In his divine forbearance, he was showing a patience to Israel.
Connor Coskery:
This whole sacrificial system was God's patience on display. Why did he do it? He did it to show his righteousness at the present time, Paul says. So now, in light of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, how do we, as Christians, relate to the law? How do we relate to the 10 Commandments?
Connor Coskery:
When I was a kid, our church handed out these yard signs with the 10 Commandments. Maybe you also enjoyed that. So, so we we pick up we pick up these 10 commandments, and and you you just jab it right in your yard, and and then everything's good in your community. And so Because people just need to know that they exist. Right?
Connor Coskery:
You just need to see that there are 10 commandments, and then everything goes well. That's sarcasm. So so I had a friend though ask me, why? Why are you doing this? Why are you all why does your church tell you all have the 10 commandments in your yard?
Connor Coskery:
And to be honest, I didn't I I just I thought it was a good thing, because it's in the bible, like, that's good, like, so you should do that. But I didn't I didn't have an answer. But really, what what is the answer? What is the relationship for the Christian to the 10 Commandments? What is the relationship for the Christian to the law?
Connor Coskery:
Aren't you saved because of Jesus on the cross? Isn't that it? So what's the what's this whole deal with law stuff all the time? Law laws are relevant now. Right?
Connor Coskery:
It's it's bad. We got out of it. No. No. That's that's not that's not what happened.
Connor Coskery:
There's so many places that we could go to to in in the new testament to explore this together. But with our with our time, I'd like for us to go to Galatians 3, which we read at the start. I'll highlight a few things that we read from that. It's it's in your worship guide. From verse 10, Paul says, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
Connor Coskery:
For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. So there's a curse. There is a curse. What is this curse that Paul is talking about?
Connor Coskery:
Well, first, he's reminded us that we can't rely on works of the law to be right with God. He's reminding us that we've all sinned. We've all fallen short. He also reminds us that we if we break one command, we've broken them all. That's repeated in James chapter 2.
Connor Coskery:
So we know that there's this problem. And then he says that there's this curse. And the righteous shall live by faith, and Christ redeemed us from the curse. But what is this curse? We see it in verse 10.
Connor Coskery:
The curse is reliance upon the law for right standing with God. The curse is relying upon the law for justification. It's not that the law is the curse, it's relying on the law that's the curse. Because that deal, me relying on the law, doesn't work. Me relying on how well I can keep the 10 commandments to be right with God doesn't work.
Connor Coskery:
It didn't work for Israel. It's not gonna work for me. It's not gonna work for you. We can't rely on it like that. And when we try to rely on it, it's a curse because it just crushes us.
Connor Coskery:
We fall beneath the weight of the law because we do not keep it. So how do we relate to the law today? Well, just as Israel had to look at the law and simultaneously look at their sacrifice, so do we. We look at the law and the commands of God, and we look to our sacrifice. We see God's commands, and we see our failure to to perfectly obey.
Connor Coskery:
And we look to our sacrifice. We look to Christ, the ultimate and final sacrifice. So as Israel had, this sacrificial system of of bulls and goats, and and as these animal sacrifices were going, we see in Hebrews chapter 10 especially, this picture given of of the priest continually offering these sacrifices, offering this atonement for sin, for God to just cover over it and be patient. But the author of Hebrews tells us that when Christ came, and he gave of himself and his own blood, that in that final and ultimate sacrifice, no more standing priest, but a seated king who sits at the right hand of God the father. He is he is seated because there are no more sacrifices to offer.
Connor Coskery:
And so we look at God's law and the perfect sacrifice, which liberates us. Christ liberates us from this ceremonial law, those laws about food and clothing, and how we are unclean, and all these rules about cleanliness. That's why the foods are declared free for all and all those things in the New Testament. That's why all these unclean why the lepers, they are touched by Jesus himself. It's because he makes the unclean clean.
Connor Coskery:
He makes the unholy holy. He makes the unrighteous righteous. And in this, he fulfills the law, really in 2 ways. 1, he obeyed it perfectly. He obeyed the law perfectly.
Connor Coskery:
He did everything that the father asked of him, And he fulfilled the law as sacrifice, that that pure, spotless sacrifice, that that atonement that we needed. He he fulfills the law in in both obedience and as our atonement. And then he goes and he furthers the law. How does he further the law? He furthers the law in us.
Connor Coskery:
Where he says it's not just the outside, don't murder someone, it's don't hate them in your heart. It's not just adultery to be physically with some, it's to look at them with lust. He takes and he furthers the law in us. And he says it's more and it's deeper. And he makes this spiritual reality to the law really come to life, and he calls us to that.
Connor Coskery:
And he says that if you're gonna abide in my love, if you're gonna abide in me, you abide in my commands. So the question doesn't become, do we obey God's commands? That's clear. Yes. We obey God's commands.
Connor Coskery:
The reason is why. What are we relying on? Christ. Christ and only Christ. We do not rely on the works of the law.
Connor Coskery:
That's a curse. But we rely on Christ. And in this, he liberates us. He gives us this freedom to obey him. See, the law is the will of God.
Connor Coskery:
No other gods before him, no idols, reverence, rest, love for neighbor, love for the church. And the love of Christ is our motivation to do the will of God. And God's grace is the freedom to do the will of God. We need his law. We we need his grace.
Connor Coskery:
We need his love that we might follow him. See, without his law, our love is just in the dark. We don't we don't know where to go with it because there's a huge question in our culture of what is really loving. What's really loving? And without God's express commands of what he's calling us to, this way that Jesus walked in loving God and loving neighbor.
Connor Coskery:
This is how we know what to do with that love, to obey him. And he gives us grace to obey. And we have to keep our eyes on Jesus in all of this, because if we if we only look, if we if we only look to grace and we neglect the commands, then we fall into lawlessness. But if we only look to the commands, and we forget about his grace, then we fall into legalism. And God wants neither of those things for us.
Connor Coskery:
And so we need his word and his spirit to write his law of love on our hearts. He does that in our time in his word. He does that in time of prayer. He does that when we gather together like this. He does it in our home groups as we gather all across the city to talk about his word, to pray for one another.
Connor Coskery:
This is how he writes that law of love upon our hearts. And we need it. We need it for things like Psalm 19 to be true. We need his work in our hearts and in our lives for this to possibly be true. Because what I wanna we're gonna close here with, with Psalm 19.
Connor Coskery:
I wanna read it kind of over all of us. And here's what I want us to see. It could appear as though there's a huge disconnect between Galatians 3 that I opened up reading with and and what I'm about to read. Unless we really dive deep into what we've journeyed through tonight, unless we really dig deep into what we've talked about. So let's listen to these words from Psalm 19.
Connor Coskery:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making sim making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
Connor Coskery:
The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Let's pray. Oh, god, help us to rely upon Christ, that your words may be desired sweeter than honey, that we would obey you from our hearts, which is only possible when your spirit changes us.
Connor Coskery:
We thank you that we do not rely on the law, but rather we obey it in freedom and righteousness secured for us in Christ alone. We thank you for your word, and we ask now that you would write these truths on our hearts for our great joy and for your name. We pray these things. Amen.