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Exodus 20 - Study This Chapter[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]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. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for 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, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 13 "You shall not murder. 14 "You shall not commit adultery. 15 "You shall not steal. 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." 18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." 20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Obviously, this is the ten commandments but if you take a good look at the context you will find something interesting. First off God says I am the one who brought you out of bondage , out of Egypt. IOW, God saved them, right? So we have Literal Salvation coupled with a law. So we see here where salvation and obedience goes hand in hand. Let's see if we can find another example of this in the Bible. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]John 8:3-11[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Here we have a similar scenario where the Creator of the universe forgives and saves a woman caught in the act of adultery. However, He ends the encounter with her by telling her to go and leave her life of sin. IOW, I've forgiven you, I don't condemn you but go and obey the commandments now. The KJV says "Go and sin no more."[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Salvation is always coupled with obedience. We live and exist by the grace of Christ and are not condemned by the law if we allow Christ to come into our hearts. Let's look at this set of texts.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Rom 8:1-4[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Here we clearly see the relationship of salvation and obedience. Christ has set us free from the condemnation of the law by becoming our sin offering and in the last bolded part of this set of texts we read where the Bible says when we are saved we do not live according to the sinful nature which means we are obeying by His power His laws. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]God Bless[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Jim Larmore[/FONT]