Carl was angry! Really angry! He had just been suspended from the football team. He played football for a small college on the east coast. Carl was an All-Conference Linebacker, and in the upcoming season, he was projected to be maybe even one of the best Linebackers in the nation, for small colleges. The coach has really lost his mind, Carl though to himself. Heck, if they won’t let me play here, I’ll just go someplace else and play. There were plenty of colleges that would love to have him play for them. In addition to being a great player, he was also a good student, maintaining a 3.2 grade point average.
Coach Said No Smoking
The crime he committed? Smoking. The coach had a strict no-smoking policy for the team. Anyone caught smoking, and it was an automatic suspension. They were in the middle of spring practice, and he wasn’t even going to be able to finish, and he had really been looking forward to the annual spring game. He didn’t see what the big deal was.
It’s Relaxing
Carl had just recently started smoking. He found that it helped to relieve the stress of trying to juggle schoolwork, football, and life in general. It was relaxing. He was an engineering major, and had a heavy load of courses. He had been sitting out on the balcony at his dorm having a smoke, when the Resident Director saw him, and reported him. He never cared for that dude.
Suspended!
Anyway, the coach called him in before practice, and told him he would have to suspend him for breaking the rules. I’m on scholarship. How can you suspend me? Carl asked. As much as he pleaded, the coach wouldn’t budge. It’s not against the law for me to smoke. I’m the legal age. Still the coach wouldn’t budge. In frustration, Carl stormed out of his office. He was angry, and he was stressed.
No Spring Game
When he got back to his dorm, he sat out on his balcony like he always did, and smoked. He closed his eyes, and tried to figure out what he should do. No answers came. His suspension was for the rest of the school year. There was almost two months left. During that time, he couldn’t even practice with the team, which meant that he would miss the spring game.
Can’t Even Use Team Facilities
Since it was a team suspension, it also meant he couldn’t use any of the team facilities. Football had always sort of been his get-away. With everything going on in his life, football helped to ease some of the stress. Some of it. The stress that football didn’t ease, he found that smoking did. Yeah, he heard all of the bad things about smoking, but that didn’t apply to him. He had always been a good athlete. Carl, out of shape, was better than 95% of his team, in shape. He decided that he would keep working out, even if it meant he had to use the regular school facilities. They were ok, but not as good as the athletic facilities.
Away From The Team
After taking a week away from working out, just because he felt like it, he decided, since he couldn’t work out with the team, he would just start his summer workout program a little early. He would start out by running a mile, under six minutes, run some wind sprints, and finish off with some weight lifting. He liked to lift after running because it would train him to maintain a certain level of strength, even when he was tired.
Usually Did Well
Running a mile under six minutes was easy for him. Coach had said that the six minute mile was the standard for being in football shape. Last year, at the start of summer camp, which was the last time he was timed, he ran it in about five and a half minutes, with little trouble. He was cruising.
Why Am I Struggling?
Well, this time out, he wasn’t quite cruising. He was strugglng to keep up his pace. He was really getting winded, which never happened to him. By the time he finished with the wind sprint portion of his workout, he felt like he was going to pass out. Weight lifting was a bust. He was just too tired. This went on for about three weeks, and it didn’t get any better. In fact, it got worse. He was starting to think something was wrong with him.
What Is Wrong?
When he couldn’t figure out what the issue was, he decided to talk to his teammate, Tollie, about it. Tollie played offensive guard. Tollie looked at him like he had lost his mind. “Are you crazy? What do you think is wrong? It’s those cigarettes you’ve been smoking. What’s wrong with you? Them cigarette are going to kill you, or at least mess up your game.” All of a sudden, Carl felt like a complete fool. Of course! It was the cigarettes. Duh!
A Humble Apology
The next day as he walked to the coaches office to apologize, he felt very humbled. After talking with the coach, he realized the rules they had on the team were for a purpose. To help them become the best team, and the best young men that they could be. Carl understood that now. The suspension would still stand, because he still disobeyed the rules, but he would be fully reinstated after that. Carl promised himself that he would work extra hard to become the best ball player, and person that he could be.
What Is Sin?
Well, what does all of this have to do with the price of tea in Tacoma? Well, like Carl’s coach had rules and regulations that he expected his players to follow, God has rules and regulations that he wants us to live by. Maybe the analogy isn’t great, but I hope you can see the point. Disobedience to God, and his commands, is sin. The definition of sin is disobedience to God.
The Ten Commandments
Most of us have heard of the Ten Commandments. They were the laws God gave to Moses after he brought the Israelites out of Egypt. These laws served as a foundation for their society.
They Are For Our Own Good
Jesus took it a step farther by not only calling for people to obey the commandments by their actions, but also in their hearts. God’s commandments are for our own good. From Genesis through Deuteronomy, there are over 600 commandments. Now understand, that these 600 laws are not still applicable today. They were part of God’s covenant with the ancient Israelites. The Ten Commandments though, are a summary of an eternal moral law, which is observed at all times. What are the Ten Commandments? They are:
1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name
4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the Land the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultry.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Ok. So let’s break this down.
You shall have no other gods before me
What does this mean? God does not want his people to put any god, real or imagined before him. In addition, he does not want his people to give their hearts to anything before him. What are some things that can act as gods in our lives? Our job, our material items, money, security, or anything else that we may put before God. Even our family and friends can act as gods for us, if we put them ahead of, and value them before God.
The next commandment is: You shall not make idols
What is an idol? An idol is when something or someone becomes more important to us than God. This seems sort of similar to the first commandment. The difference? The first commandment forbids the worship of a false god. The second forbids the worship of the true God in a false manner. In other words, it forbids the use of idols in worshipping the one true God. So many times throughout history, we’ve worshipped the creation, instead of the Creator.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God
How many of us have done that at one point, or another. What does it mean to misuse God’s name, or as some versions put it: Use the Lord’s name in vain. Well, one way is to use it as part of a curse using his name, but that is not the only way to use God’s name in vain. We also misuse God’s name when we use it in casually in catch phrases. We often say these things throughout the day without giving much thought to God, when we say them. One more way to take the Lord’s name in vain is to use it to swear an oath, such as, “I swear to God.” Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:33-37, that we should not swear by anything, but let our yes be yes, and our no be no.
Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.
On the seventh day, God ceased his work of creation. God established the seventh day, the Sabbath Day, as a day to be set apart for rest and worship. It belonged to God. Keeping the Sabbath holy means that it is to be kept sacred, or dedicated to God. I know that Saturday is the seventh day, and now most of us worship on Sunday. It is interesting to point out that this commandment isn’t repeated in the New Testament, while the other nine commandment are. After Christ’s resurrection, Sunday was set aside as the Lord’s Day in rememberance of his resurrection on that Day.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the Land the Lord your God is giving you.
The family unit is the foundation of a stable society, and honoring our parents is to respect their authority in the family unit. In our own country, we can see the deterioration of our society, and much of it has to do with the instability of the family unit. The second half of this commandment is related to Israel, and their life in the Promised Land.
You shall not murder
This is pretty self-explanitory. You shall not commit murder. Earlier versions of the bible said that you shall not kill. What is the difference? Murder is the premeditated, unlawful taking of a life. Killing is the taking of a life. The commandment means, do not put anyone to death without just cause.
You shall not commit adultry
This means you shall not have intercourse with another person’s spouse. In fact there should be no intercourse outside of marriage, period. The bible also forbids fornication, which is sexual intercourse among unmarried parties. This might seem harsh, but believe me, God knows what he is doing.
You shall not steal
Here is another one that is pretty self-explanitory. Don’t steal. Don’t take what does not belong to you. Simple as that. Think about it. Even fudging those income tax returns a little, so you’ll get a larger refund than you should. That’s stealing.
You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor
Bearing false witness means giving untruthful testimony, or lying against someone else. It can also mean spreading false, or at least unverified rumors.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or female servant, horse, ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
The word, covet, means to yearn to posess, or have something, that belongs to someone else. To want something that isn’t rightfully ours. Back in the early eighties, there was a song by Rick Springfield, called Jessie’s Girl. I remember a part of the song where he would sing. “I wish that I had Jessie’s girl.” That’s an example of coveting. The singer of the song was coveting Jessie’s girl.
The Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:2-17, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
No One Can Keep God’s Law Perfectly
Can anyone keep God’s Law perfectly? Nope, and that’s the point. You see, no one can keep God’s commandments on their own accord. If you break one commandment, you have broken all of them. James 2:10-11 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”
What Are The Wages Of Sin?
So what is the cost of our sin? In Romans 6:23, the first part of this verse says that “The wages of sin is death,”. That sounds sort of hopeless, doesn’t it? I mean if we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death. That doesn’t sound too good for us.
Did Jesus Abolish The Law?
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” God’s laws have not changed. What does this mean? Simply put, The Law and The Prophets talk about a time when God will redeem all of humanity and creation through one person. Jesus Christ fulfills the Law and The Prophets by being that one person. Also, The Law and The Prophets describe a righteous way of relating to God, and people, which is what Jesus taught.
What Did They Say?
Did you catch what I just said? The Law and The Prophets talk about a time when God will redeem all of creation through one person, and Jesus Christ is that one person. Yes, the first part of Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death,” but the second part of this verse goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Our Redeemer
So Jesus Christ is our redemption. What is the definition of sin? It’s disobedience to God. What are the wages of sin? Death. Who is our redeemer from sin? Jesus Christ. How can we choose Christ to be the redeemer for our sin? Well, we admit to the fact that we are disobedient to God, so we are in sin, and that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin, when he died on the cross, and raised from the dead. So if we recognize these facts, and put our faith and trust in Christ, he will also be our redeemer, and our savior. At this point, we will be reconciled with God. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ‘Nuff said.
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