The First Commandment

Here is the first commandment as the word of God states.

 

First Commandment

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3

            It is of great importance to see what God labels first as the first commandment. The first command must be a priority for it was the top of God’s list. God does not want us to be polytheistic and serve many gods, for as He says a few verses later, “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). Anyone can make a god after anything and that is sin for one is disobeying the direct order. The scripture says in James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Moreover, the word says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Yea, we all are guilty of breaking the whole law, not just you, but me. I have broken the law and am short of the glory of God! I am condemned! I have had another god besides the one, true, living God! Not only did I have a false god, but I delighted in serving the false god as Adam had sinned against God when he had ate of the fruit on the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

            I am separated before God. Yea, I am a fallen creature, who stands condemned. But by Christ I live. For the scripture says very well, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Where, I had stood condemned, is the same place where I stand justified. For it is “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s grace is needed for I had stood eternally condemned, but God sent His son “to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25).  Jesus was my sacrifice and because of His blood shed on the cross I am saved. I am saved! The sin which had produced death is no longer my master but God is my master and I have life! I am no longer paying “the wages of sin” for I have accepted “the gift of God” which is “eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Yea, I stood condemned and was a slave under the law but Christ has set me free.

            I am no longer in the world’s system but am under grace. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” (Romans 6-1:2)? Since you have mortified your flesh at the cross, should not your sin cease all the much more and you grow in God’s grace and goodness? Yea, you should but this is only possible by God’s grace. “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (John 18:27). Oh soul! Forsake your gods and come to God. Do not offend in any point but grow in God’s grace!