The 10 Comm Catechism
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What does God say about all these commandments? He says this: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
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ren’t you glad you asked? Maybe not. The “love to a thousand generations” sounds great, but the “punishing three and four generations for the sin of the fathers” doesn’t seem fair. And what’s this about God being jealous? Isn’t jealousy something associated with our old, sinful nature?
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Let’s talk about God’s jealousy first. God is zealous about you. He wants you all to Himself without any competition. This summary is really a commentary on the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” God’s jealousy is the flipside of His love. He loves you wholeheartedly—literally to death on a cross. And He wants your wholehearted love, along with your fear and trust. That’s what it means for God to be a jealous God. He hates other gods because they aren’t gods at all yet they compete for our affections. Now let’s talk about this business of punishments and rewards. God threatens to punish everyone who breaks His commandments, not only with temporal punishments but also with eternal damnation. He’s not kidding. God’s wrath against sin trickles down for three and four generations precisely because sin trickles down from father to child, from generation to generation. It’s an inherited condition into which we are conceived and born (Psalm 51). But God isn’t wrath; God is love. He promises to love a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Notice that His love is thousands of times
greater than His wrath. Yet even the promise of love is still Law. God promises to love those who love Him and keep His commandments. Threats and promises. That’s how the Law works. Threats of punishment; promises of reward. That leaves us in a terrible bind. We break God’s commandments daily. We deserve His temporal and eternal punishments. We do not love Him with our whole heart, nor do we fear and trust in Him. And we certainly don’t keep His commandments. How can He then love us? God loves us in His Son. Jesus fears, loves, and trusts in God above all things. Even when the Father turned away, the Son trusted Him. Jesus keeps the commandments perfectly, in thought, word, and work. He fulfills them. Therefore you,
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