8/12/2019 1990 Issue 4 - Law and Liberation - Counsel of Chalcedon

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IJAW

& i

I

JIRRRATION

by OWEN FOURIE

ASouth African Business Man

Where to Begin

In

all our Chinking and in all our doing, we must consciously

begin with God. Having been created by God, it would be a

denial

of

our Creator i we were to begin with anyone

or

anything else, and yet that is precisely what

is

being done in

all

the

world. What is commonplace is to begin with man or

with man's siblation.

The

subjectof Law and Liberation is only

one

ofmany

subjects that can illustrate the fact that.

in

the fmal analysis,

there

are

two major starting points which

are

in

conflict, each

claiming to

be the

only legitimate starting point in our

thinking

and doing. On

the one

hand, to

begin

with God in

the matter of Law and Liberation will require an acceptance

of

the Holy Scriptures

of

the Old and

New

Testaments

in

their

entirety,

as

the self-attesting, inspired, authoritative,

infallible, inerrant, complete word

of

God with its major

themes of creation, fall, and redemption. On the other

band

to begin with man will reflect laws that are in conflict with

the Bible

and

a liberation which denies the true state

of

man's

nature, fails to discern man's real need and thinks to raise

man to the position of

God

You shall be as

God.

That was

the Tempter's taclc in

the

Garden of

Eden

at the beginning of

history. It is unmistakably evident in every sphere of life

today, being particularly brought to the fore by Uberation

Theology

and

the

New Age Movement

This series will deal with the theme

of

Law and

Liberation.

Its conscious commitment will be to the principle of

beginning

with

God, and therefore with God's word, and

particularly the Decalogue --

the

Ten Commandments -- as

stated

in

Exodus 20:3-17. Here is law. Here too is liberty. Of

necessity,

when

considering a passage of Holy Scripture, the

context must

be

taken into account, and in this introductory

article it

is

that aspect which will be noted.

What i i the Context of

the

Decalogue?

Firstly, God

"And God spake all these words," (Exodus 20:1).

There

could be no clearer indication

of

the author

of

the Ten

Commandments, and it fixes the starting point for the

contexblal study of these still relevant words which

the

Lord

Jesus Christ, very God

of

very God solenmly declared to be

in force for all time. "Think not that I am come to destroy the

law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass, one

jot

or one tittle shall

in

no wise pass from the law, until all

be

fulfilled.

(Matthew 5:17-18). More than 2500 years had

passed between Exodus 20 and Matthew 5 and more than

1950 years have passed since Matthew 5 and still the

Decalogue is in force. By its standard, nations stand or fall.

God has spoken. That

is

the first and most basic

consideration in the matter

of

the context

of

the Ten

Commandments. But such a simple statement of this

absolute

and

eternal truth is apparently inadequate

in

an age

which has deep roots in the God-is-dead movement and

Process Theology

of

the post World

War II

era. In the face

of

that view which has "killed" the transcendent God and

substituted a secularized god, who

is

totally inunersed

in

this

world and caught up in the process of history and subject with

man to the unknown and the uncertain, it is vitally important

to define what

we

mean when we speak of God.

The

infmite God can be defined only in terms of Himself,

for He said to Moses, "I am that I am, (Exodus 3:14).

I t

is

only what He reveals

of

Himself in His written word that

tells

us

truly who He is, albeit not exhaustively seeing that

our finite minds cannot contain His infinity. Briefly

then,

the

Decalogue is found in the overall context of the ever-living,

self existent, independent, transcendent, sovereign,

predestinating, triune, creator-redeemer God who is absolutely

holy, righteous,

and

just, and before whose wrath evil

cannot

abide. It is He who created the vast but finite universe out

of

nothing by is spoken command It is in Him that "we live,

and move, and have our being," (Acts 17:28). From eternity,

it is

e

who has ordered the course

of

history so that every

detail

of

life is in accordance with His flawless plan which

includes man's accountability for all his actions. lbis is that

God who "spake all t ~ words." Beside Him there is no

other. (Isaiah 45:5)

Creation, Fall, Redemption and Covenant

The

Decalogue

was

spoken by the Creator

into

a real

historical context which began with

the

act of creation,

proceeded to the fall

of

man into sin, and subsequently

unfolded in

terms of

God's work

of

redemption in fulfillment

of

His

covenant of grace.

God created man in His image which means that in

his

whole being,

and

in all his ways, man reflected his Creator.

Adam, as he came forth from

the

hand

of

the Almighty,

possessed true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.

Equipped in this way,

he

could exercise proper dominion over

the earth

in

obedience to God who gave him and his wife this

mandate: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

and subdue it: and have dominion over the

fJSh of

the sea, and

over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that

moveth upon the earth," (Genesis 1:28). By practical work

(Genesis 2:15 the careof

the

Garden of Eden), and

knowledge (Genesis 2:19 - the scientific classification

of

the

non-human creatures), Adam carried

out

the dominion

mandate.

In the sovereignty of

God.

Adam's progress in godly

dominion over the earth was halted, not for any shortcoming

in God's creation, but by the willful ethical rebellion of our

first parents who gave equal place to the word of God and the

word

of

Satan before the judgment seat

of

their minds.

Genesis 3:1-6 describes that real historical fall

of

Adam and

Eve when Satan called God's authority and knowledge into

The Counsel of Chalcedon May, 1990

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question. Yea, hath God said,

. .

Ye shall not surely die: For God doth

know that in the day ye eat thereof,

then your eyes shall be opened, and ye

shall be as gods, knowing

gooc;l

and

evil.

Man was created

to

be dependent

upon God and submissive to Him in all

things. The essence of the Fall was that

in the moment when Eve was faced

with

the

word of Satan, instead of

humbly maintaining an unquestioning

obedience to the word of God as

the

only trustworthy and authoritative

word, she set her inind above the tnith

of God and the lie ofSatan as the

independent judge of both .n so 4oing,

she fell into sin, dragging the equally

guilty

Adam

and the whole human race

with her, into an ethical depravity

extending to the totality of life. The

effect was,

and

still is, falsehood,

unrighteousness, unholiness, and

ungodly dominion. John Calvin put it

succinctly: Wherefore, although we

grant that the

i:rnage

ofGod was not

utterly effaced and destroyed in him

(Adam), it was, however, so COilllpted,

that anything which remains is feaxful

defonned Institutes

o

he

Christian Religion - Book

I,

Chapter

XV, Section 4

.

By his fall into sin, man did not lose

his creaturehood and, for that reason,

despite all his rebellious assertions of

independence, he cannot escape the

truth that

he

is dependent upon God.

In

this inescapable creaturehood there

remains an ineradicable sense of deity,

which accounts for his religiosity and

for the fact that, even in his fallen

state,

he

does the things contained in

the law (Romans 2:14), but to no

avail. However much it might be

dehied, that denial in itself

is

evidence

of the truth that unredeemed man creaks

and groans beneath the burden of sin.

Liberation is needed - the liberation of

redemption from sin's bondage, which

is precisely what began to be tmfolded

immediately after the Fall. And I will

put enmity between thee and the

woman, and between thy seed and her

seed; it shall bruise thy head, and

thou

shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15).

Through he restof the Old Testament

to the incarnation and Virgin Birth of

our Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of the

woman, God's plan of redemption was

revealed and

wOiked out.

This glorious redemption was

unfolded in terms of the Covenant

of

brace which

was

repeatedly declared .

with the formula, You shall be my

people, and

l will

be yom God."

(Jeremiah 30:22). For

this

purpose, :

God chose Abraham andhis seed

by

the

freewoman Sarah, not by the

bOndwoman

Hagar,

and in the ultimate

sense,. hat

seed

is Jesus Christ.

(Galatians 3:16). Moreover, by faith in

Christ, we are also the children of

Abraham. And i ye be Christ's then

are ye Abraham's seed, and hem

according to the promise. (Galatians

3:29). .

All in the plan ofGod, Israel

sojourned in Egypt until God wa

pleased to remeni>er his covenant

promise to Abraham and acted mightily

to bring his people out of bondage;

Here was liberation. But it

was

not

the

liberation

o

unlimited freedom, nor

was it a liberation to lawlessness.

At

Mount Sinai, God, the Great King,

declared the law ofHis covenant,

beginning with the Ten

Commandments. It was a liberation to

obey the law-word of God and to

receive the blessings ofobedience.

Disobedience would incur the wrath of

God, His judgment, His curse, and

bondage. The Old Testament

reco Qs

that pauem of blessing upon obedience,

arid cursing upon disobedience,

to

the

law

of

God, in the history

of

those who

were the

redeemed

from Egypl

True Liberation

In this redemption history, God was

preparing the world for the ~

meaning of

liberation from bondage:

Whereas

in the Exodus there was a

material liberation from servitude to a

heathen power, which was Seared by

the

bloodof the Passoyer lamb, the

progressive revelation ofGod discloses

a dtieper spiritual liberation from

bondage to sin and Satan, which

is

.

sealed by the blood of the Lamb of

God, Christ ot1r Passover I

Corinthians 5:7).

Of

course, in the application of the

Gospel, this redemption also brings

liberation in every

area

of life which is

held captive by sinful man, as he

exercises ungodly dominion over

the

earth, in the service

of

Satan. This

Page 8 May 1990 The Counsel of Chalc8don

..

.

liberation results in grateful obedience

. to the law ofGod with application to

evecy

deiail of life. The effect of this

will

be

that

the

gospel of he .Lord

Jesus Oui.st; which is the power, the

dynamite;

of

God (Romans 1:16),

will

achieve that historic victory which God

has ordained

for it in an age when the

knowledge of the glory of the Lord

.shall

fill

the

eart t

as

the waters cover

the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). That

will

not

be ri age of perfection. Such a quality

muSt await the eterrull day at the end of

history when the

Lord

Jesus Oui.st, our

great Redeemer and Liberator, will

come again to judge the living and the

dead. Then the sheep, who have

kOOwn His voice (John 10:4), will be

forever separated from the goats, who

have followed the dictates of their

rebellious minds and the voices'o false

prophets.

Concluskln

This, then,

is

the overall context of

the Decalogue; the immediate context

being the Exodus - that covenant action

of God which precludes any analogy of

a universal and continuing struggle

between the divinely favoured oppressed

and the accursed oppressor. This

analogy, the darling ofLiberation

.Theology, is used to justify revolution

in

the

name

of

Christ. With. h.e

Exodus .

.as a foundation, Liberation Theology

urges t,he oppressed to rise and to cast

off

he boilds

of

he

oppressor state in .

bloodthirsty revolution. In such a

paradigm, it is convenient

to

forget that

the lsr;dites were passive and that they

did not shed Egypti.an .blood. The action

was God's. But, there

is

more to this

use of the x o d ~

a s

a pretext for

ungodly liberation

by

anarchy.

It

is

a.

whole new way of doing theology

which begins with man and his

situation - not with

Goci and

His law-

word. The faith once delivered to the

saints has been distorted by workers

of

iniquity to dupe many who need

to

be

brought to the true faith. May

Almighty God use this series of articles

to help many to earnestly contend for

that faith to

His

glory

and

r i s

~ i t o r s

note-

Part 2

will p ~

in

the

next

iss

ue

of

The

ounsel o Cnalcedon.

This series was

ori

ginally

u l i s h e d

by The ..

~ e l Defense U a2UC P.O;Box ,.

17007, Regent

Road, 1106 1 Cape Town,

South Africa.]