DECALOGUE I

For the next 10 weeks we will be going through one of the more familiar parts of scripture, and perhaps one of the least understood. Mention the 10 commandments and people will understand them to mean "what you must do to go to heaven", "the basis for a nation's morality", "an outdated law code for Jews but not Christians" or "the reason Moses had a bad back".

But what if they express the heart of God and the way toward life?

What if they point to Jesus, rather than provide an outdated alternative?

For the next couple months, use this these discussion guides to see if, as a church and as a group, we can know God and the abundant life better by understanding what he told his first followers millennia before Christ.

Thaw

• What's one big thing on your mind as Fall draws nearer?
• What do you feel like God is teaching you about Him, you, life, etc. so far this year?

• What most stuck with you from service Sunday morning?

Discuss

Leader note: You may want to discuss the song "Free" by Switchfoot, performed Sunday morning.

Here is the song. Here are the lyrics.

Read

Leader note: This is Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 7. It's a pretty amazing take and will undoubtedly be helpful for people understanding how followers of Jesus may see Torah. Don't feel underproductive if this is the only things you get to tonight...there's plenty here.

^1-3 You shouldn't have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she's free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she's obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one's disapproval.

^4-6So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to "marry" a resurrection life and bear "offspring" of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we're no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we're free to live a new life in the freedom of God.

⁷But I can hear you say, "If the law code was as bad as all that, it's no better than sin itself." That's certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, "You shall not covet," I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

^8-12Don't you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.

¹³I can already hear your next question: "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?" No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God's good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

^14-16I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.

^17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

^21-23It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

²⁴I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

²⁵The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

• Thoughts?
• What are the major themes that Paul is getting at and how have you seen them play out in your own life?

Read

• Exodus 20:1-3
• Thoughts?
• Who is this for?

Leader note: The point here is to make sure people don't think of God as making these commands for himself, or to protect himself from our sin. Reference Jesus in John 10:10 for a clarification on who his ways are for.

• What psychological, theological and emotional benefits come from God beginning with himself and his own behaviors?

Discuss

• How does coming back to this first command throughout life help?

Leader note: When we find ourselves in anything from a seeming crisis, to daily annoyance, going back to reference God's initial freeing work helps us believe that we are no longer slaves to our circumstances or anything else. See if you can help the group get to this...that God has freed us, and in all things we are invited to be humble, peace-filled, calm n0n-slaves.

• Are there any members of this group that do not feel free? Explain?
• How are Paul's words in Romans 7 applicable (Romans 7:25)?
• How can this group help you understand the freedom that God is offering for your life, mind and overall faith?