the First Commandment of the New Testament

The Word for today:
John 13:33-14:14






selah: John 14:16--
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

{The Psalms contain a mysterious word: 'selah' (pronounced "see'-lah.")
Our best guess is that it meant 'stop, look, and listen.' It followed a thought which demanded reflection. From time to time we will use the word 'selah' to indicate a verse which is crucial to biblical understanding.}

Let's look at the First Commandment of the Old Testament:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." (1)

We think of the Commandments as restrictions: "Thou shalt not...

But look again at the First Commandment. It starts with a preamble of grace: I'm the LORD, who saved you...

The First Commandment has a lot more to do with salvation than it has to do with restriction! If you'll permit a paraphrase, here's the First Commandment:
"I AM; and there has never--will never--be a day when I AM not. If you're lost you can call out for me; if you're falling, reach out for my hand and I'll save you, like I did before, way back there in Egypt. But it's a matter of life and death that you understand this: If you call on any other name, you won't be heard. If you reach for any other hand, it won't be able to catch you."

The entire intention is to tell us that only the God revealed in scripture--at the Red Sea, at the burning bush, at the cross--can deliver us from bondage to sin, from oppression at the hand of our enemy.

Both the First and Second Commandments are all about looking to a Savior who can actually save. They are all about what thou shalt do to be rescued. There's a lot of love in God's law, His Commandments, when rightly understood.

Nothing changes in the New Testament. The I AM who spoke to Moses from the burning bush becomes flesh in the New Testament. He tells us that there's the broad way, which leads to death, and the narrow way, which leads to life (2). He tells us that He's the way, and that no one gets to the Father but by Him (3). In the book of Acts we learn that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (4).

That bothers many people. They think that's narrow-minded and exclusive.

But it's our fault that the road is narrow, not God's fault. Our sin closed the road. And God's heart broke to do what He had to do to re-open it. It cost Him everything to open one lane back to Him.

And how narrow is it? He opened it wide enough to save every man, woman, and child--whoever will choose to take it.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me is, in a sense, the 'First Commandment' of the New Testament.

There was really a lot of grace in the law of the Old Testament. And that narrow way Jesus speaks of in the New Testament is paved with love, tears, and blood not our own.

Rightly understood, the Commandments point the way to liberty, to life. They point to Jesus.

When He fulfilled the law on the cross, the captives were set free.

(1) Exodus 20:2-3; (2) Matthew 7:13; (3) John 14:6; (4) Acts 4:12;