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Chapter 3
The Third of God’s
Ten Commandments:
Learning To Be Genuine
Through and Through
“You
shall not take the name of the Lord
your God in vain …”
—Exodus 20:7
We are exploring a significant discovery about the gospel: the idea
that God’s famous “Ten Commandments” are in reality ten assurances
of salvation! Learning how to be genuine through and through is great
Good News.
For hundreds of years people have thought of the Ten Commandments as
ten prohibitions, stern warnings not to do what we naturally feel like
doing, ten “don’ts” set in hard, menacing stone. As most people
usually read them or hear them preached, they come across as
discouraging. But now with this discovery that there are assurances of
salvation in them, people worldwide are waking up to realize that
God has some great Good News for us in the Ten Commandments.
We found that the first one that says “You shall have no other gods
before Me” is an assurance of deliverance from the painful
imprisonment of self-seeking. The worship of self is a false god that
hides from our view the true One. The endless round of futility that
comes with that illusion is ended! Welcome to the glorious new life that
is free from worry about whether you are measuring up or not! The first
commandment is an assurance of deliverance from painful
self-centeredness, a guarantee that the Lord will reveal Himself to us
so clearly that our hearts cannot become infatuated with any other
counterfeit.
The world is filled with enticements that
promise us happiness.
But they leave us empty and forlorn. Some of them are: money, cars,
houses, sports, illicit sex, what we call “fun.” But anything
man-made can never satisfy the deep longings of the human heart. Finding
that Christ is what your heart has always been yearning for and that He
gives Himself to you—this is the new assurance that the first
commandment gives us. In its light, nothing false will ever deceive us
again.
We found that the second commandment, “You shall not make for
yourself a carved image—
… you shall not bow down to them nor serve them” is an assurance of
deliverance from another prison-house—the prison of wearing ourselves
out trying to satisfy our endless craving to have more things to impress
other people. Nothing that human beings or factories can “make” is
worth our heart-devotion. When we understand the true spiritual riches
that are in the gospel, these “things” that money can buy seem like
plastic toys in comparison.
The world is constantly irritating us with inducements to buy this or
that “thing,” telling us that we can’t be happy without it. Often
this incessant pressure is so serious that it breaks down our health.
Idol-worship is lethal. Ask Bill Gates if his billions really make
him happy. If he’s honest, he’ll tell you, like Solomon of old, “All
is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:8).
Did you ever stand on a sidewalk and look up at the street light? And
then look beyond into the brilliant clarity of a star’s light? The “things
of earth grow strangely dim” when once we have seen the face of Jesus;
and in these chapters we are looking at His face in the Ten
Commandments.
The third commandment is a promise of happiness
deep within our hearts, so deep that nothing can fool us into thinking
it is more valuable to us.
It reads:
“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”
(Exodus 20:7).
Not only does it speak of saying a wrong word with our lips, but it
goes down deeper within. It says: don’t pretend to be a follower of
God when in your soul you know you aren’t. Don’t make or even let
people think of you as a great person when you know it’s a lie. God
has put into this commandment an assurance that He will give you
authenticity of character. No deceptive veneer on the outside with
cheapness underneath; no paint covering up flaws within.
East African furniture may be simple in design, but it is solid
through and through. No veneer to fool you when you look at it in the
showroom. Many new cars have burled walnut or rosewood trim inside that
is mere plastic painted over to look like expensive wood; it makes you
think you’re riding in a luxury car, but costs the factory only a few
pennies.
But cars aren’t the important thing. We’re talking about the
kind of character God wants to see in us. If you become a
billionaire, but in the end realize that your character is only a
plastic imitation, you can’t be happy. So, in order to save us from
that embarrassment now and in the end, the dear Lord has given us this
third commandment—an assurance that if we will believe His Good News
gospel, He will guarantee to make us into a wonderful character of
truth, uprightness, and purity. We will become a beacon of light in a
dark world, a refuge where people will come for rescue out of the storm.
Nothing can bring you such happiness as to know that both God and man
honor you for being genuine through and through.
The world has been through the “Stone Age” and the “Bronze Age,”
but now we are in the “Plastic Age.” Stone and bronze can endure the
test of fire, but plastic cannot. The Apostle Paul speaks of the final
test of character all of us must meet. He likens character-building to
building a house. There is a “foundation” already built—the Good
News about Jesus reveals Him to be that foundation: “God has already
placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation” (1 Corinthians
3:11, GNB). He has already built a “foundation” for eternal life for
every human being, demonstrated that He has fought our battle,
conquered, “condemned sin” in our sinful flesh. He has already done
the hard work by laying the “foundation” for a gorgeous
palace-character for each one of us. It’s a beautiful illustration of
Good News:
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Everybody has to have a “house” to
live in. We come into the world without one, just like we come into
the world naked.
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We don’t know how to “build” the
character/house we need.
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Jesus came to teach us the art of
building a character/house. Yes, He came to save us and He has saved
us; we are “alive.” But in the Judgment Day we will be terribly
embarrassed if we have done nothing with the salvation He has
already given us.
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Therefore Jesus came to live among us,
to take our flesh upon Himself, to live life as we must live it, to
demonstrate before us a perfect character. We could never be happy
in heaven unless we develop the self-denying character like His that
says more than professing to be His followers. The close test
of the final judgment must demonstrate that we are such in
truth. This is what Paul means by “building a house.”
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So great is the love of Jesus for us
each one individually and personally that Paul says He has already
built the “foundation” of such a “house” for us. Now, day by
day, we are “building” on it. The very fact that we are alive
shows something is happening. Architects will tell you that a
sizable part of the expense of building any good house is the cost
of the foundation. The question now is, What kind of a “house”
are we building on it day by day?
Let’s permit Paul to tell us what he means:
“Each one must be careful how he builds. … Some will use gold or
silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use
wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person’s work will be
seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal
everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If
what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will
receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burnt up, then he will lose
it” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15, GNB).
Now we begin to see what kind of Good News the
third commandment brings us.
It’s an assurance that if we believe God’s gospel, He will
see to it that we build a house that will endure the fire!
Suppose you are homeless. Someone has built a foundation of a house
for you, ready-made. So for the sake of illustration, let’s assume you
are lazy, and you gather some twigs and build yourself a grass hut on
that beautiful, strong stone foundation. Then one day a forest fire
sweeps through and your “house” goes up in smoke.
But your neighbor built with stone, and when it’s all over he still
has his house. Wouldn’t you be embarrassed? Especially if you had been
showing your friends through your “nice house,” proud of your
architectural skill? The grass was cheaper and easier to find than
stone! You had only what appeared to be a fine house, nicely
thatched with mere grass.
Even pastors, priests, and preachers need to
hear this message.
“Fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show
its real quality” (verse 13). But people’s opinions about us are not
what matters in that Judgment Day. Have we professed the name of
Christ in vain?
The Good News in the third commandment tells us that He will save us
from making that false profession: “You shall not take the name of the
Lord your God in vain.” Believe “the truth of the gospel,” and you
will find that “the gospel of Christ … is the power of God to
salvation” (Galatians 2:5; Romans 1:16). Day by day the Holy Spirit
will motivate you to lay stone on stone. You may not be conscious of any
progress, but the most delicious joy will be to discover at last that
the “house” the Lord has enabled you to “build” is a magnificent
palace that “fire” cannot destroy.
Paul describes that although all of us are by nature “strangers and
foreigners,” now we are “built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the
whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the
Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of
God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
This takes us a step further.
Not only are we building a character/house; what we are building in
the end will turn out to be a temple for the Lord to dwell in! For
eternity! The assurance in the third commandment is therefore of a
deliverance from fear—fear of that final Judgment Day of fire.
In everyone’s heart, that fear lies just below the surface. It can
poison all the springs of joy. There’s “a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation” that no one can evade; it’s
there, even sometimes when we wake up at 3 in the morning. Now the third
commandment delivers from that fear. It means: You will not be ashamed
in the Judgment Day!
Precious Good News!
Here’s another illustration God uses to help
us understand: getting some clothes to cover our nakedness.
Almost everybody has dreamed of being in a crowd of people without
proper clothing. “Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments,
lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15). The
third commandment becomes an assurance: God will give you clothes to
wear! It’s through believing the Good News of the great preamble of
the Ten Commandments that we put the clothes on: “By grace you have
been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8, emphasis added). Putting
on the free wardrobe is our job; building the house on the
ready-made free foundation is our job. But even the faith through which
we build “is the gift of God” (verse 9).
God’s great third commandment contains a
warning that we dare not disregard.
“The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”
(Exodus 20:7). His name is holy, no matter how many times in ignorance
your lips have taken it in vain. When you “see” what happened on the
cross, how the Son of God took your place, died your second death,
endured the hiding of His Father’s face — then something begins to
happen in your hard heart. It is melted; tears come into your eyes. Never
again will you want to take that holy name upon your lips in anger or in
jest! Now you have begun to get acquainted with the One whose “name
will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Now your lips, your speech, are different. Like the disciples who had
spent time with Jesus, the crowd understood they were “different.”
The people said, “The way you speak gives you away!” (Matthew 26:73,
GNB). The proud person becomes humble, the profligate becomes pure, the
filthy language becomes clean. This is Jesus saving us from sin,
now!
One day soon the process of “building” will
come to an end.
A decree will go forth from Heaven concerning every human being on
earth. “Stop right now! This is it! What you have built, that’s it
for eternity!” On the very last page of the Bible we read about that
day:
“He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let
him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still;
he who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming
quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to
his work” (Revelation 22:11, 12).
But the same Good News that permeates the Ten Commandments comes
through again on that last page of the Bible. God has only happiness
prepared for you:
“Blessed are those who do His
commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and
may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs
and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and
whoever loves and practices a lie. ‘I, Jesus, have sent My angel to
testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the
Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.’ And the Spirit and
the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And
let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of
life freely” (Revelation 22:14-22).
Those blessed words are not from this poor
author!
Those words of welcome are God’s words to you personally.
Make your choice just now, and say, “I come!” God has promised in
the third commandment that He will hold you “guiltless” forever. “Happy
are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. … whom
the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong” (Psalm 32:1, GNB).
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