PENnED

Read: Exodus 20:1-17

 ¹ And God spoke all these words:  ² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Many professing Christians think that if they observe the Ten Commandments then, when they die,  at the “Pearly Gates” St. Peter will let them enter heaven. To them obeying the commandments is the way to be saved.

The first two verses that introduces the 10 Ten Commandments, however, show that God has already saved the people of Israel from slavery before they heard the Ten Commandments. Sure, they have not yet reached the promised land but we know that even getting there does not depend on them. If it does, then based on how they obey God, none of them could make it!

Similarly, God has saved us and through faith in Christ we receive salvation as a gift. When we who have already been saved obey the commandments, we do it, obviously not to be saved, but because it’s what saved people have been empowered by God to do! Ephesians 2:8-10 reads, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We’ve been saved not because we obey, we obey because we’ve been saved.