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Chapter 6 The
Commandment People Break “You
shall not murder.” —Exodus 20:13 Could people break a commandment of God without realizing what they
are doing? The sixth one says, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). How could anyone break that commandment and not realize what
he is doing? God has displayed the answer for all the world to see: it’s the
crucifixion of Christ. Those who did it broke the sixth commandment! Here were Jews and
Gentiles together, murdering the Son of God, and He prayed for them,
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
do" (Luke 23:34). When Jesus prayed that Friday morning for those who were killing Him,
His prayer embraced all the world, for the solemn truth is that by
nature we today are no better than those people were then. We are
fortunate that we weren’t there that day to take part in the deed, but
in principle we were there, like the old Negro Spiritual that
asks, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" The answer
is, Yes. Why do they do it? Because "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans
8:7), and we all by nature are born with a carnal mind. "Whoever
hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). That’s the
"mind" we have by nature until, by the grace of God, we learn
the gospel and are converted. It is then that Jesus’ prayer for us is
answered, and we experience or receive His forgiveness. He
forgave us at the cross itself; but only when we believe it do we know
peace. There was a thoughtful man (Horatius Bonar) who wondered how it could
be possible that he would join in crucifying Christ if he had been there
that day. "My whole soul would revolt against taking part in such a
deed!" he said to himself. Then one night he had a dream in which
he witnessed the rude, cruel soldiers driving spikes through Jesus’
wrist bones and ankle bones and stringing Him up on the cross. In his
agony (the dream was so realistic) Bonar grabbed hold of one of the
soldiers, shook him by the neck and yelled at him, "Don’t do this
awful deed!" Then the soldier turned around to look at him, and to
his horror he saw himself as in a mirror. Paul understood the truth that "all the world [is] guilty before
God," and "there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none
who understands" (Romans 3:19, 10, 11). We are born self-centered
with this raw impulse to claw our way to the top, even if we have to
climb over everybody else to get there. Look at the wars that have
plagued this planet! Soldiers who never wanted to kill anybody go wild
with rage in the heat of battle and shoot in all directions. Many a
person who has lost his/her temper has been saved from the physical act
of murder only because there was no loaded gun at hand to use. We only
kid ourselves when we say, "I could never do that!" Remember
Peter? He protested loudly that he could never deny his Lord, but he did
it three times before the rooster crowed that next morning. We are by nature no better than poor Peter! The people who were close to the crucifixion of Christ realized the
enormity of that deed when the finally-converted Peter told them,
"God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ." Trembling, they cried out, "Men and brethren, what
shall we do?" They realized that they had participated in the
greatest sin of all the ages, and yet had not known it! The
apostles said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:36-38). Just as an oak tree is in the acorn, so murder lies buried in the
thought or impulse of hatred. God can see the towering, massive oak tree
when the little acorn in the ground sprouts. So John says, "Whoever
hates his brother is a murderer!" (1 John 3:15). Jesus says,
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not
murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment’"
(Matthew 5:21, 22). Too bad the people who heard Him say that didn’t
take it to heart before they acted out their anger in the murder of the
Son of God! The violent anger that permeates our movies and TV programs is the
spirit of Satan actually taking possession of human hearts. Hatred
blazes in people’s eyes, and too much of it explodes within the
family. Two spirits are locked in a death struggle—the spirit of Satan
and the Spirit of Christ. Human hearts are the arena for the conflict.
Anger can be the blazing, violent kind or it can be the silent, cold
dislike or contempt that inwardly wishes its enemy could be destroyed.
Both are the cold, wicked sin of murder, because they are
"acorns" waiting only for time to develop into the "oak
trees." Parents, watch out for those little acorns in
the hearts of your children. Their childish anger may appear ever so innocent, even fun to watch,
but beware: too many fathers and mothers years later have had to sit in
courtrooms and watch their sons or daughters arraigned. A man and his wife stopped going to church because the pastor
preached a sermon in which he spoke of "corporate guilt," that
is, that the sin of someone else would be our sin but for the grace of
Christ. He was making the point that everybody needs the Savior, and we
do not know or realize the depth of sin that is lurking beneath the
surface of our own hearts. We think we’re okay, not knowing what we
are capable of doing. "This offends us," the couple said;
"we’re not that bad." Some time later, Hubby was out in the front yard working on the lawn
when the neighbor stopped by. The conversation turned sour and bitter,
and he got hot under the collar. Grabbing his shovel, he was on the
point of lunging at his neighbor, when suddenly his face grew white, he
trembled, he dropped the shovel, and fled into the house. "Mama, I
almost did it! I never dreamed I could get so angry!" "Do you suppose that’s what the pastor meant when he told us
of the buried evil that is in our human hearts?" she asked. Then they started coming to church again. Rightly understood, that sixth commandment is
Good News of salvation already accomplished for us. When it says "You shall not murder" it becomes an assurance
that God will save you from ever incurring that guilt if you will
believe the Prologue to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2). "The
house of bondage" is this evil of selfishness into which we have
been born as natural descendants of Adam. That love of self has a
vise-like grip on us which nothing can break loose except the salvation
of God. But Christ has broken that vice-like grip. The Father
"sent" Him "in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account
of sin," so that "He condemned sin in the flesh [our flesh],
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who
do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit"
(Romans 8:3, 4). There is the blessed assurance in the sixth
commandment! Thus Christ was tempted as we are tempted to be angry; yet He said
"No!" to the temptation and always kept His human anger under
total control of His love. No one has ever suffered greater provocation
to anger than Jesus suffered; the needling, the constant unreasonable
opposition, the hatred of the leaders of His people, all this subjected
Him to enormous personal pressure to be impatient, to let His temper
fly. His disciples cracked under only a tiny amount of the same pressure
that He endured. Once they were sent to a Samaritan village to find a
hotel where Jesus could spend the night while He was on His journey to
Jerusalem. The Samaritans there were eaten up with narrow-minded
prejudice and refused to "receive Him." "And when His
disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah
did?’" Throughout the ages, how many professed Christians, even
church leaders, have had the same short fuse when they meet people who
do not agree with their view of things! They may not have had power to
bring down fire on them from heaven, but they have had the power to put
innocent, persecuted people in prison and even to take their lives.
Millions have been martyred. But Jesus would not sanction any such outburst of anger from His
followers, whether the anger is righteous or otherwise. He turned and rebuked the impatient disciples and said, "‘You
do not know what manner of spirit you are of.'" There’s that same
"you do not know." The sixth commandment is the one
that many professed Christians during the Dark Ages have broken and didn’t
know what they were doing! Instead of being angry at this village that
would not "receive" Him, Jesus quietly, calmly withdrew.
"'For the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to
save them.' And they went to another village" (Luke 9:51-56). There
was a better solution to the problem than getting angry; "another
village" welcomed Him. His same character of calmness under provocation is what He gladly
gives to anyone who will believe the Prologue to the Ten Commandments.
What a blessing! You become a prince or princess among your fellow men.
You are greater than the sports stars, more powerful than army generals.
"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who
rules his spirit than he who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). "But my problem is that I don’t know how
to control my anger!" "When I become angry, my eyes get red, I start to shake all
over, my temper goes wild, and I can’t control myself!" Ah yes,
you are the one who needs the Good News in this sixth commandment! It’s not some little trick of magic that Jesus has promised
you; it’s deliverance that He has already given you from this
terrible sin. "I have brought you out of this ‘house of bondage,’"
He says. The chains are broken already; you can say, "I will walk
at liberty, for I seek Your precepts" (Psalm 119:45). In other
words, you will walk in freedom because you "seek,"
that is, you love, these ten grand assurances of righteousness by
faith in Christ. Not everybody understands how good the Good News
is! How many once-happy marriages are ruined by one or both spouses
blowing his/her top in an angry exchange of bitter words. Then, once
spoken, the angry exchange smolders like fire and the formerly tender
relationship is killed or at least wounded. Children and parents are
forever alienated by such bitter outpourings of anger. Friends are
separated. Wars, massacres, and ethnic cleansings come from such
bitterness. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they
not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?"
(James 4:1). Jesus was sent from Heaven with the specific assignment to "save
the world," and He has done it! He broke the devil’s neck and has
paralyzed him. Satan can no longer force you to do his bidding; he is a
paraplegic. Christ has set your will free; you are no longer in the
"Egypt" of slavery to sin. "Learn from Me," He says,
"for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls" (Matthew 11:29, 30). There are sincere, good people who know they are
chained in a prison. They don’t want to be slaves to their lust, their passion, or their satanic evil tempers. To their neighbors or to co-workers at the office they appear on the outside to be "saints." But when they are at home, or in some place where they think they are on top, then the pressure builds and they explode. Some spend thousands of dollars on psychiatrists, hoping to find deliverance. To all comes the Good News: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). That is, believe and appreciate what He has already endured in your behalf. Then you can't break that sixth commandment:
The Sacramento Bee recently published an article that said, "The exercise that you need is to get down on your knees and pray." Yes, not to convince God or beg Him to bless you (He is more willing to give a blessing than you are to receive it!), but your prayer is to thank Him for already delivering you from "the house of bondage." Your prayer of thanksgiving will be the beginning of your realized deliverance! This joy of deliverance from sin is a foretaste of the joy the world will know when sin is vanquished throughout God's universe: "The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. … The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, … eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:19-23). |
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