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RIPE WITH JOY: A SERMON ON JOHN 15:1–11
Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD (8/6/2026)

365 days ago, I committed to serve Sovereign Joy as interim senior pastor. Now, exactly one year later, I get to preach a message that both reminds us of who we are and want to be as a church and in effect passes this sacred trust onto Pastor Nate. The Lord has sustained us through loss and lack, helping us experience “endurance and patience with joy” (Col 1:11). Through last year’s transition of leadership, our membership remained stable. God has increased the saints in our worshiping community, carried us through griefs, grown us in holiness, sustained us financially, let us launch several former members to fresh ministries, and now has given us a new leader and his family. The living and able God continues to “do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to his power at work within us” (Eph 3:20). Our hearts this day should soar with gladness and gratitude for his favor and faithfulness.

This is a sermon to mark a new beginning for our local assembly. I preach from John 15 to recall and restate with fresh words our identity and mission as Sovereign Joy Baptist Church. We are a people pursuing pleasure in a God who treasures us. We glorify God most when he satisfies us most, and this passage today speaks of both the joy-filled love coming to us in Christ and the joy-filled love this organically and naturally produces in us. I invite you to pray with me….

John 15:1–11 has two parts and one stated goal. Jesus first sketches a word picture that portrays himself as a vine and all abiding in him as fruitful branches; the call is, “Abide in the vine.” Next, Jesus explains his point, charging his disciples, “Abide in my love,” seeing the sacrificial love we receive from Jesus flowing through us in a sacrificial love for others. So, part 1 is the picture: abiding in Jesus, the vine (John 15:1–8), and part 2 is the explanation: abiding in Jesus’s love 15:9–10). Then in verse 11 our Lord states his goal: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Jesus joyfully serves, joyfully saves, and joyfully sustains those he calls friends, and through abiding in Jesus his sovereign joy even through pain becomes our own joy that sustains. Follow along as I read John 15:1–11.

The Picture: Abiding in Jesus, the Vine (vv. 1–8)

To this point in the book, Jesus has used an “I am” statement to identify himself six times: “I am the bread of life” (6:35), “I am the light of the world” (8:12), “I am the door of the sheep” (10:7), “I am the good shepherd” (10:11), “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25), “I am the way and the truth and the life” (14:6). Now he adds a seventh: “I am the true vine” (15:1). Vines are to produce fruit. The phrase “I am” recalls Yahweh God’s self-designation to Moses at the burning bush. Jesus is God come in the flesh. Yet he also calls himself “the true vine,” using an image from Psalm 80 and elsewhere that designated the nation of Israel as fruitless people (see Ps 80:7–8, 14–18). When Jesus calls himself the true vine, he not only indicates that he is the true Israel of God, the nation’s representative, but also signals a historical shift from the old age and old covenant into the new, from failed Eden and failed promised land to restored Eden and new creation. He is the true vine, and those abiding in him are part of God’s new creational work that will last forever.

Overseeing this cultivation is the Father God, whom Jesus here calls the “vinedresser” or gardener. Jesus says in verse 2, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Fruit here refers to good results coming from the life of the Christ-follower, which the rest of our passage defines both as changed character and as the benefits we bring to others as we advance God’s work in the world. Jesus identifies some who are associated whose lives are fruitless, whereas there are others who bear fruit. How are we to understand these two groups?

Within his Gospel, John speaks of some following Jesus who had a type of faith that affirmed his miracles but who did not have a saving faith that turned from their sins. At the end of John 2, we read, “Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he … knew what was in man” (2:23–25). In contrast, in the same context in John 3 Jesus affirms that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (3:15). Not all faith is saving faith, and some may appear for a time to be in Christ who are, at their core, spiritually lifeless (1 John 2:19). Jesus’s first group are those who by their proximity to him looked like branches in the vine but who were dry, spiritually dead, and destined to be taken away. Yet the second group were those whose fruits showed they were alive.

And our passage says that such fruit bearing branches the vinedresser prunes so that they become more fruitful. Pruning in verse 2 seems to represent the process of sanctification––growth in godliness, which can be a painful cleansing. A knife can harm, but in a good doctor’s hands it can save. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later [this pruning] yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11).

Regarding Jesus’s present audience, he says in 15:3, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” While we miss it in the ESV, the adjective “clean” here is related to the verb rendered “prune” in verse 2. We could translate the verses, “Every branch that does bear fruit [the vinedresser] cleans…. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” Jesus’s spoken word was like sap that infused the branches with life, bearing fruit and leading the gardener God to progressively clean them to produce more fruit. Earlier, when Peter requested that Jesus wash not only his feet but his whole body, Jesus used this exact language, saying, “You are clean, but not every one of you” (13:10). John then adds, “For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, ‘Not all of you are clean/pruned” (13:11). Jesus’s word never reached Judas’s heart; even the other apostles thought Judas was a genuine disciple, but Jesus knew the truth. Judas’s failure to endure, to persevere, to abide long-term showed that he was ultimately a fruitless branch bound for destruction (see 1 John 2:19).

15:4 now opens with the primary command in this first unit: “Abide in me, and I in you.” True believers are organically connected to Jesus like a branch to a vine and bear a level of responsibility in maintaining that connection. Abiding is about a life-giving, life-sustaining relationship, and you can’t say that you abide with someone if you are not living with and relating to the person all the time. When was the last time you read your Bible or took time to meditate on God’s promises or considered Scripture’s teaching before deciding on something? Are you abiding in the vine? When Jesus’s word flows into a heart that receives it, the word always produces life. Sovereign Joy, we must be a people who abide in Jesus.

In verses 4–6, the Lord gives three reasons why abiding in him is important. (1) Fruitfulness is only possible by abiding (15:4b–5). (2) Failing to abide results in final judgment (15:6). (3) Those who abide in him always have prayers for fruitfulness answered (15:7–8). Look first at verses 4–5: “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus’s command, “Abide in me,” highlights human responsibility. Yet immediately he stresses the absolute place of dependence for bearing fruit: “apart from me you can do nothing.” Our life-giving connection to Jesus does not make our fruitbearing unnecessary; it makes it possible. On the one hand, you cannot see your marriage repaired, your reactions more loving, your desires more purified apart from abiding in the vine. Without Jesus, we can produce no fruit––no real love, joy, peace, or patience; no authentic kindness, goodness, or faithfulness; no true gentleness or self-control (Gal 5:22–23). On the other hand, the text promises that those who abide will bear “much fruit”––the budding of new affections, fresh zeal kindled, purity awakened, and love renewed. In the process, Jesus gets the glory as the decisive actor, and you get the joy of a changed life. Whether our lives bear fruit or not fully depends on whether we are abiding in Jesus. If you see patterns of sin that are withering your soul and destroying your relationships, you will only see change if you start abiding, “for apart from [him] you can do nothing” (15:5).

The second reason why abiding is imperative comes in the form of a warning. Jesus says in verse 6, “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” The original language stresses the complete and decisive nature of this future judgment. God first used a flood to destroy the wicked of the world; now we’re told the corrupt spheres of this present age “are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Pet 3:7). As John says in Revelation, “As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murders, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (Rev 21:8). Disobeying or dishonoring parents, impure thoughts or actions, selfishness, lovelessness, pride, laziness, prejudice––all these are sins worthy of fire and that testify to a lack of abiding in the vine. Do not be deceived; God takes sin seriously, and so should we. Spiritual fruit in our lives gives testimony that we are truly in the vine and that the saving power of the gospel is indeed at work in us. If you have gone after emptiness and have become empty, turn to Jesus today. Learn what it means to abide, lest your dry and withered inner being suddenly ignite under the heat of God’s wrath.

Verses 7–8 now bring the picture portion of our passage to a conclusion. They provide a final reason why we should abide in the vine and then highlight the results of abiding. Those who remain in Jesus always have prayers for fruitfulness answered to the glory of God. Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Here we see both a condition and a promise of answered prayer.

The condition reinforces the place of Jesus’s words in relation to abiding. When we are connected to him, his words are like sap that fill our souls and change our lives. I can tell when my personal time in God’s Word and my enjoyment of his presence are not what they need to be because my life is more anxious, my reactions are more selfish and sharp, and my soul is less steady and trusting. But when I am abiding in Jesus, truly meeting him, I recognize even God’s pruning hand through discipline to be for my good. I am humbler, confess sin more readily, forebear with others’ faults more easily, and love others more genuinely and selflessly. Abiding in Jesus through his Word determines whether we are fruitful or fruitless, whether our zeal is more to give or to receive, whether we exalt ourselves at other’s expense or seek to build others up. A necessary condition for seeing certain prayers answered is a true and real connection to Christ and his words.

Yet now we come to the promise of answered prayer. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” (15:7). Jesus says something similar in verse 16: “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” To understand Jesus’s promise rightly we must recognize it comes amidst a teaching on the fruitful life. How often have you asked God for something yet not received it? You’ve prayed for better employment, for immediate healing, or for restoration in a relationship, yet job difficulties persist, the sickness continues, or the relational strain remains. Such prayers are right and proper. Yet they all are requests for external change, and Jesus’s promise here relates to prayers for internal growth and flourishing.

Jesus is the living vine, and his stress is that only branches alive in him sprout leaves and bear fruit that can nourish others’ souls. His promise of answered prayer, therefore, is limited to the context of fruit bearing. Fruitlessness hinders the effectiveness of prayer, for it signals that we are not abiding (cf. 1 Pet 3:7). Yet the soul that is abiding and, from this, bearing fruit should request for more fruit. And what you ask, you will receive. If you’re abiding in Jesus through his word, you’re connected to the one with all authority in heaven and on earth. He is greater, and he promises to act. Through his word you come to know his will and to understand his purposes. You become his friend, begin to reflect his character and ideals, and make requests that you already know please him. We must face external problems with lives that are dependently receiving from Jesus’s word and dependently praying for him to bear fruit in and through us––to reshape our character, purify our words, cleanse our actions, and make us loving in our reactions.

And as we see Jesus working in and through our lives, verse 8 says we are ultimately making much of the Father and proving to be Jesus’s disciples. Jesus already declared in 8:31, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Then in 13:35, he said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus is the vine, and as the sap of his love infuses us, it produces life-extending, life-giving fruit that glorifies God (Matt 5:16). Let us purpose to be a church that is alive in Jesus and that lives in a way that values him, loves him, and displays that he is worthy of our trust even in seasons of pruning. The call of this first section is this: abide in the vine.

The Explanation: Abiding in Jesus’s Love (vv. 9–11)

Starting in verse 9, Jesus explains further his extended metaphor of the vine and branches. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Jesus here equates abiding in the vine from verse 4 with abiding in his love. The saving, sacrificial love of Jesus, therefore, is the life-giving sap that flows into our lives and produces fruit, awakening new life. We must be a people who abide in Jesus’s love. But how do we do this, and why would we want to? Verses 10–11 answer these questions, and these will conclude our sermon today.

Regarding how we abide, we saw in verses 7 and 16 that it is fostered through prayer for fruitfulness––dependent verbal requests for God to make much of himself through our lives. Yet we also saw in verses 3 and 7 the close relationship of Jesus’s word or words to abiding in him. 15:10 builds on this second truth with these words: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (15:10; cf. 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:29, 55; 14:31).

All who love Jesus will keep his commandments (14:15, 21)––not perfectly overnight but truly and progressively, as our lives increasingly bear much fruit. While on earth, Jesus abided in his Father’s love by always doing what pleased him, even to the point of death on the cross (10:17; cf. 5:20; 17:23–24, 26). Jesus’s friends will also abide in his love by obeying him. John’s Gospel includes many directives that Jesus gave his followers, but in 15:12 Jesus synthesizes all his commands in a single word: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (cf. 1 John 4:11, 21). So, Jesus says that we abide in his love by loving others like we have been loved. And how have we been loved? By Jesus willingly embracing death to self-interest by sacrificially seeking and saving the lost. As verses 13–14 declare, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”

Jesus loved us patiently, forgivingly, humbly, selflessly, sacrificially, and in this same manner we are to love one another and by this abide in Jesus’s love (cf. Eph 5:25–27). Yet such calls to love “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3) because it is Jesus’s life-giving power that produces such fruit. We can never love truly, wholly, and purely on our own, for Jesus said in verse 5, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (cf. Eph 5:18). What joy to know that we have a Helper. What hope to know that our growth in godliness is certain if we remain in the vine.

If you’re bitter toward someone today, consider Christ’s love toward you while you were still a sinner. You were undeserving, his enemy, worthy of God’s wrath, yet his love overcame your resistance. You confessed your sins and enjoyed forgiveness. Can such amazing love move you to love someone who seems unlovable? If you have been too proud to seek reconciliation in a relationship, consider Jesus’s love toward you in the cross. For God justly to pardon your selfishness and arrogance demanded his Son’s very death. Yet Jesus willingly laid down his life that you could have yours raised, not to elevate yourself over others but to serve like you have been served. How can you exalt yourself when Jesus humbled himself to save you? We abide in Jesus’s love when we love others as we have been loved. As you meditate on his great love toward us and pray for fruit, Jesus’s own love toward sinners will grow in your soul, overcoming selfishness and pride and fostering life-filled love that glorifies our Father.

And this is part of Jesus’s pleasure in saving us, in loving us as he has. Look at 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” By abiding in Jesus’s love, we abide in Jesus’s joy. “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross” (Heb 12:2)––a joy of a people bearing fruit that would last. In John 17:13, Jesus says to the Father, “I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” In John 16:24, speaking about prayer, Jesus says, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Jesus died and rose and saved so that we may enjoy answered prayer, that we might delight in seeing sin overcome, relationships restored, love welcomed.

A goal of our abiding is joy. Do you want joy today? Christians can be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor 6:10), “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5:3–4). By abiding in Jesus, we embrace weakness, we embrace God’s pruning hand, we embrace the hope of much fruit, we pray for it, and then “rejoice … as with joy at harvest” (Isa 9:3). It is “your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32) with no fear of death (Heb 2:14–15). With the psalmist we say, “Your testimonies … are the joy of my heart” (Ps 119:111), and as we pray delighting ourselves in God’s ways, we rest confident that he will give us the desires of our hearts (Ps 37:4). In John 16, speaking about his coming death, Jesus tells his disciples:

You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:20–22)

Through Jesus, the Father makes “known to me the path of life.” And I declare, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:11).

May Sovereign Joy be a people who abides in Jesus, seeing the joy-saturated sacrificial love we receive from him flowing into us and making us fruitful in joy-saturated sacrificial love to others. We abide in Jesus by cherishing his words and by being constant in prayer for fruitfulness. And the result is that we will be ripe with joy––a joy in Jesus that testifies to hope amidst pain, a joy in Jesus that sustains us through trial and helps us be mindful of others––listening, forgiving, serving, sharing, and caring. Abide in Jesus, the vine, that his sovereign “joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

The post Ripe With Joy: A Sermon On John 15:1–11 appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.

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THE COMMANDMENT AND CHRIST
A Sermon on Deuteronomy 6:1–3
Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD

We return today to our series on Deuteronomy 5–11, believing that Moses’s sermons are Christian Scripture that “is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). In chapter 5, the prophet stressed the responsibility of all to heed his charge to center life on Yahweh. He is readying to explain in the rest of chapters 6–8 what it means to center one’s life on God, but to transition to this he calls the community in Deuteronomy 6:1–3 to heed the singular supreme commandment that he is about to share and motivates compliance by clarifying the goals of his teaching and of their obedience. Listening to the great commandment leads to fearing God, which leads to following God, resulting in divine favor. Hearing leads to fearing, which leads to obeying and results in blessing. The passage in 6:1–3 has two parts: (1) The Need to Teach the Community to Do the Commandment (6:1–2); (2) the Need to Heed the Commandment That Is Taught (6:3). Let me read the passage and then ask God for help….

The Need to Teach the Community to Do the Commandment (6:1–2)

In chapter 5, Moses tells us in verse 31 how Yahweh told him, “I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach [the people], that they may do them in the land.” Now, in our passage, Moses is obeying this directive, declaring, “This is the commandment, the statutes and the rules.” Because he says “This” and not “These,” his focus is on a singular, supreme command, which he here tells us is coming and which he will define in verses 4–5 in the charge: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” What Jesus calls “the great and first commandment” (Matt 22:38), Moses simply refers to as “the commandment” (singular), and then he says it includes “the statutes and the rules.” Loving God is what Israel was to do; the other commands, which are laid out in chapters 12–26, clarify how to do it. Today’s sermon doesn’t focus on the specifics, because Moses doesn’t yet give us details. Instead, our passage transitions readers, readying us for what is coming and giving a framework for rightly understanding what people are to be taught to do and why.

The ESV treats the people’s “doing” the commandment as the first of three goals of Moses’s teaching; he should teach “that they may do, that they may fear, and that they may live long.” However, the Hebrew treats Israel’s obedience as a complement to Moses’s teaching rather than as its goal. “Doing the commandment” is what he is teaching, not why he is teaching. “This is the commandment … that … God commanded to teach you to do in the land,” or, as the NRSV renders it: “Now this is the commandment––even the statutes and the ordinances––that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy” (6:1). We don’t just teach the Word; we must teach people to obey the Word (cf. Matt 28:19–20).

The Israelites were about to secure the land Yahweh promised their father Abraham. They had to cross the Jordan River to enter Canaan, and Moses was informing them on how to live once they settled. The commandment they were to be taught to keep was to love God with all. And as Moses or others taught this (see Deut 4:10), they were to do so with two goals in mind, both listed in verse 2.

The first is “that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life.” Encountering the Word of God should produce a fear of God, which should result in following God or “keeping all his statutes and commandments.” Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, Moses teaches that “Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the fearsome [or awesome] God” (10:17). Moses also repeatedly stresses that fearing God is foundational for any proper relationship with him. In 4:10, Yahweh says, “Let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.” In 10:12, Moses says, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (cf. 10:20).

At the head waters of right living, we will always find a fear of God (Prov 9:10). Paul asserts that one of the condemnable problems among the world’s peoples is that “there is no fear of God before their eyes,” so they live how they will instead of how God wills (Rom 3:18). In contrast, the psalmist says, “The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps 147:11). The fear of man may move us to flee (Deut 31:6; Matt 10:28), but the fear of God compels us to follow, confident that he is great, regardless of the potential earthly dangers. A proper fear of God brings “holiness to completion,” says Paul (2 Cor 7:1); it draws us to God rather than pushes us away from him. Paul charges, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12–13). There is a godly, proper fear produced from the recognition that the living God, who created all and controls all is the one who determines both our will and our work. Do you recognize how small you are and how dependent you are? We should fear God today, knowing that whether we will fear and follow is fully dependent on God who works in us.

Exodus 20 first records the story of Israel’s encounter with God at Sinai following the exodus. Upon meeting Yahweh through the thunder, lightning, trumpet sound, and Mount Sinai smoking, the Israelite elders came trembling to Moses, declaring, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exod 20:19). The Israelites want to run from what they perceive as danger, but Moses says, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (20:20). Here we see two different types of fear. Moses says, “Don’t fear in a way that moves you to flee from God, but fear in a way that pushes you to follow him.” There is a kind of fear that is not equal to terror but that still trembles at what could happen if we do not respect a given object. We fear the devastating effects of fire, but with care we do not hesitate to use a stove or fireplace. We fear drowning, but we still drink water, swim, and go tubing. A proper fear of God leads to faithfulness in our conduct. As our passage says, we fear “by keeping all” his instructions.

What does it mean to fear God? It means to feel necessary and appropriate concern or awe before God’s greatness that leads to wise living. Within the old covenant, God’s revealed purpose was that the people’s encounter with his greatness through his word and presence would spark a reverent awe that would generate holiness. A proper fear of God would lead to following God. Israel failed to do this. Their complete lack of fear led through disobedience to destruction (Deut 31:16–17). Yet this was not the end of the story. For Yahweh promises through Jeremiah that in the new covenant he would generate a proper fear among his people, ensuring the covenant would not be broken: “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me” (Jer 32:40). Jesus purchased the possibility for us to fear God rightly, evidenced in our keeping his instructions––not perfectly yet but truly and progressively over a lifetime.

All the days of the community’s life, God wanted them to fear him by keeping his commandment. This was the first goal of teaching them to obey. The second goal, declares the end of verse 2, was that “your days may be long” (Deut 6:2; cf. 4:40). Long life or eternal life is the blessing of obedience. And while the nation’s days were cut short due to covenant disloyalty, Jesus the king, representing Israel, secures through his perfect obedience and for all his children, the long life promised here (see Deut 17:19–20; Isa 53:10). Within the old covenant, people were to be taught to love the mighty and awesome God so that they would fear him and enjoy the blessing of long life. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds, first making us right with God through justification and then changing us through sanctification––a change that includes gaining a proper fear of God that leads to following God and long life in his presence. What helps us turn from impurity, guard our hearts from bitterness, hold our tongues from sharp responses, and serve the weak rather than oppress them? A fear of God. We should tremble knowing that the God who is over all “will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl 12:14). Fearing God moves us to follow God. Whenever we see sin rising its evil head in our lives, we must seek to encounter God through his Word, for only meeting the Word generates fear leading to obedience resulting in blessing.

The Need to Heed the Commandment That Is Taught (6:3)

The need to teach the community to do the commandment now gives rise in verse 3 to the need for the people to heed the commandment that is taught. “Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them” (Deut 6:3). The Hebrew does not include the object “them,” and the phrase “be careful” is same verb rendered “keeping” in verse 2. A more formal translation is, “And you should hear and keep by doing.” Thus, we are seeing a pattern established, which the book repeatedly reinforces. Teaching or reading leads to hearing, which leads to fearing, which leads to obeying, resulting in blessing. Consider 31:12–13, where Moses commands, “Read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people … that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of the law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land” (31:11–13). Life is enjoyed when a true encounter with God’s Word produces spiritual hearing that awakens fear that generates holiness and results in life. One reason sitting under the preached Word is so important is because it’s only when we hear and fear that we will obey. We also must read the Bible daily because only when we receive the Word as one who is taught are we able to have a proper grasp of God’s greatness and rightly obey his commands (cf. Isa 50:4–5).

The supreme commandment that Moses is to teach and Israel is to keep is summarized in verses 4–5: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all” (6:4–5). When God’s Word is read or taught, a proper relationship starts with hearing and leads to loving. Yet most of Moses’s audience remained spiritually deaf, just like some of you in this room. Moses says in chapter 29: “To this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (29:4). And because Israel remained spiritually disabled, unwilling and unable to hear from God, they never feared God, they never followed him faithfully, and they experienced curse rather than blessing, death rather than life. Reflecting on Israel’s history, Paul says, “Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day’” (Rom 11:7–8).

Some in this room are spiritually deaf. Jesus says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (John 8:47). I think especially of some youth who are here almost every week. You’ve heard the truths that God is holy, that you are sinful, that hell is real, and that Jesus alone can save, yet so far you have refused to surrender your soul to Jesus’s Lordship, to trust him with your life, and to commit to follow his ways. You do not know how long you have on this earth, so I urge you to fear the one who does. I urge you today to listen to the call of the gospel, learn to fear God’s greatness, and come to Jesus for eternal life (John 6:44–45).

Moses now gives two motivations. Hear and be careful to do God’s Word, first, “that it may go well with you” (Deut 6:3). Similarly, the prophet says in verse 24: “And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.” What is “good” or what “may go well” is related to all God’s covenant blessings of provision and protection; the “good” is associated with lasting life, whereas “evil” is linked to death (see 30:16–18). All of Israel’s future wellbeing hinges on whether they will hear and keep God’s Word.

Yet left to themselves and left to ourselves, we will remain spiritually deaf. A great physician who specializes in overpowering spiritual disability must heal and restore. Those in Moses’s day could not hear, but God promised that his people would be able to hear in the future when God raised up a prophet like Moses to mediate a new covenant. Moses says, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you.… It is to him you shall listen” (Deut 18:15; cf. 30:8; Matt 17:5). Similarly, Isaiah foresaw a time when “the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their … darkness the eyes of the blind shall see” (Isa 29:13). His audience was “a rebellious people, … children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD” (30:9), but he foretold a day of a healed people following a righteous king: “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’ … Behold, a king will reign in righteousness…. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention” (30:21; 32:1, 3). Jesus is this king, and he says, “Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life…. I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:24–25). That reality is being fulfilled today. Yet we must continually saturate our souls in Scripture, for we can’t hear what we never encounter, and only hearing leads to fearing, obeying, and life.

Moses gives a second goal of heeding the commandment: “that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deut 6:3). The original commission of God was that mankind, made in his image, would “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” extending God’s glory to the ends of the globe. Then the fall happened, requiring that Yahweh purposefully overcome curse with blessing. He promised to do this through an individual male descendant of Eve (Gen 3:15) and Abraham (22:17–18). He also promised to multiply Abraham greatly––even like the stars (22:17; 26:4; Exod 32:13)––if he or his representative would walk before Yahweh and be blameless (17:1–2), keeping “the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice” (18:19). The blessing of multiplication would only come through obedience (Lev 26:3, 9). In Moses’s day, likely because Abraham obeyed (Gen 22:18; 26:5), God had multiplied Israel (Deut 1:10; cf. Exod 1:7), but the larger goal had still not been reached. Abraham was to become the father of a multitude of nations spanning generations, and Israel was not yet even in the initial promised land. The phrase “flowing with milk and honey” portrays an Edenic-like fertility from domesticated flocks and herds and the produce of the land. So much blessing would abound if they would but hear and fear and obey.

Yet no mere humans have this capacity until the Son of God takes our illnesses and bears our diseases, overcoming our disabilities (Matt 8:17; cf. Isa 53:4). Thanks be to God for his amazing grace shown in Christ that we can hear his Word, fear him rightly, obey him truly, and enjoy the blessing of eternal life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28). Those who hear will fear, those who fear will follow, and those who follow will enjoy eternal life. Come to Jesus today. Jesus says, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (6:45). As your pastor, I have prayed that today would be the day of salvation for some of you––that God would open your ears, help you revere, empower you to follow, and then free you to enjoy eternal life both today and forever. Sovereign Joy is to be a people who love God with all we are, becoming ever maturing disciples in our homes, at school, in our workplaces. Some will go out for the sake of the name, but most will remain planted here. Yet may all tremble at his Word and greatness, may we love him with all, and may we enjoy lasting life in his presence. Pray with me….

The post The Commandment and Christ appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.

Many been waiting for a children’s biblical theology curriculum that affirms that the Scriptures teach progressive covenantalism, with the whole Bible progressing and integrating through the various covenants and climaxing in Christ. Hands to the Plow has just launched Big Gears for Little Ears. If you are unfamiliar with the GearTalk Biblical Theology podcast, Tom Kelby, Jason DeRouchie, and the rest of the HTTP team, use machine gears to visualize how the various parts of the Christian Bible (Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Acts, Epistles, Revelation) work together to proclaim how reigning God saves and satisfies sinners who believe through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. I highly encourage you to check out this children’s curriculum. It is the first of its kind.

Big Gears for Little Ears: Biblical Theology for Children

We are thrilled to announce that Big Gears for Little Ears: Biblical Theology for Children is complete and ready to go into the fields our Lord said are “ripe for harvest” (John 4:35)! The past three-plus years have been an incredible journey of prayer, planning, writing, and development. Through every stage of the process, we have witnessed the Lord’s faithfulness and provision, for which we are deeply grateful. As this curriculum begins its ministry, we pray that God will open doors for its use in homes, churches, schools, and ministries around the world. Our hope is that it will help children see the grand story of Scripture, grow in their knowledge and love of Christ, and be strengthened in their faith. We entrust Big Gears for Little Ears to the Lord, prayingn that he will use it to build up his people, equip the next generation to know and treasure Christ, and bring glory to his great name.

• What is the Bible?

• Why does God’s Word matter?

• What is the Old Testament teaching me?

• How does the New Testament connect to the Old Testament?

• How does Jesus Christ permeate every part of Scripture?

As children journey through the entire Bible in one year, they will discover the answers to these questions and many more. Be sure to explore the special addition of Waffle Creek, a quaint little town filled with new friends who learn these big biblical truths right alongside the children.

You can find a complete overview of everything included in the curriculum HERE.

Watch our Director of Children’s Curriculum, Emma Morrell, share the vision for Big Gears for Little

At Hands to the Plow Ministries, it has always been our priority to make the resources we create accessible to as many people as possible. That is why we are offering the curriculum through a pricing structure based on church size and the number of children served. We have also included special pricing for homeschooling families. We would love for you to join us as we spread the word about Big Gears for Little Ears. Please prayerfully consider sharing this curriculum with your church, children’s ministry leaders, homeschooling families, Christian school educators, and anyone else the Lord may place on your heart. Thank you for your support and prayers for Hands to the Plow Ministries. We are deeply grateful for your faithful partnership and encouragement.

May the Lord bless you and shine His favor upon you!

Tom & Sara Kelby

handstotheplow.org

Big Gears for Little Ears

The post Announcement: Big Gears for Little Ears appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.

Dr. DeRouchie believes the Old Testament is Christian Scripture, and this second book in a trilogy is designed to help Christian laypeople gain skill in interpreting the English Old Testament with care, ever with an eye to treasuring Christ. Understanding and Applying Jesus’s Bible is an abridgment of his How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament (P&R Publishing, 2017), yet it does more. In five chapters covering Text > Context > Observation > Meaning > Application (TCOMA), DeRouchie leads laypeople through eleven steps to interpreting Jesus’s only Bible and then guides them through English Bible exercises, step-by-step.

Tested on both high schoolers and church laypeople, this book would be a great instruction tool for upper-level homeschoolers, early college students, or church small groups or training classes. It concludes with an illustrative answer key to all the exercises.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Preface
Introduction: A Journey of Discovery and Encounter
1. Text: What Is the Makeup of the Passage?
2. Context: Where Does the Passage Fit?
3. Observation: How Is the Passage Communicated?
4. Meaning: What Does the Passage Mean?
5. Application: Why Does the Passage Matter?
Conclusion: A Final Word on Journeying in the Dark
Practice Exercises on the Eleven Steps
Illustrative Answer Key to the Practice Exercises

“People often ask me how they can grow in understanding the Bible when seminary is not an option. Understanding and Applying Jesus’s Bible provides exactly what those of us who don’t know Hebrew and Greek need to take a huge step forward in our learning. This book not only provides instruction on using the tools such as genre, grammar, and context, but also demonstrates clearly and effectively how to use these tools.” —Nancy Guthrie, Bible Teacher; Author, Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament Bible study series

“I think Jason DeRouchie would be happy if I said that this book is designed to move us from revelation through rigor to rapture—from the sacred Word of God, through the serious work of reading, to the satisfaction of knowing and enjoying God…. I recommend this book if you have a wanderlust for exploring ancient treasures. There are many, and they are great. DeRouchie will show you how to find them.” —John Piper, Founder and Teacher, Desiring God; Chancellor and Professor of Practical Theology and Biblical Exegesis, Bethlehem College & Seminary

“Many Christians struggle with how to understand the Old Testament and apply it to their lives today, but this work removes the fog and makes the Old Testament come alive for Christians…. Jason DeRouchie has given us a real gift, and I highly recommend this work for anyone who is serious about the study of Scripture and desirous of seeing God’s Word proclaimed, taught, and obeyed.” — Stephen J. Wellum, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Editor, The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology

The post Book Announcement: UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING JESUS’S BIBLE appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.

Michaelangelo’s Moses, Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

Built into his sermon series on Deuteronomy 5–11 for Sovereign Joy Baptist Church, Dr. DeRouchie recently completed a mini-series on the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6–21. The sermons include:

1. A God-Centered Life That Exalts Christ: A Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:6–15
2. Confronting Idolatry, Part 1: Applying Commandment 1 in Deuteronomy 5:6–10
3. Confronting Idolatry, Part 2: Applying Commandment 1 in Deuteronomy 5:6–10
4. Representing God Well: Applying Commandment 2 in Deuteronomy 5:11
5. Resting in God Well: Applying Commandment 3 in Deuteronomy 5:12–15
6. Honor Your Parents: A Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:16
7. Give Others Their Due: A Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:17–21
8. The Ten Commandments To and Through Christ: A Biblical-Theological Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:6–21

You can listen to them here.

The post Sermons on the Ten Commandments appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.

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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS TO CHRIST AND THROUGH CHRIST
A Biblical-Theological Sermon on the Law in Deuteronomy 5:6–21
Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD (5/10/2026)

It is Mother’s Day, which gives Christians many opportunities to express godliness. Today, we should thank God for supplying us mothers who carried us and bore us rather than aborted us. We should, whether man or woman, be grateful for any modeling our mothers gave us to understand rightly what a woman is and what she ought to be. Some of you today need to entrust to God your longings to be a mother. Other need to cast upon him your griefs in losing a mother or in not being able to have a biological child. Others should ask him to enable you to be a wise mother or to help you love and/or honor your mother or mother-in-law. Still others should pray to God for your own mother’s wellbeing or for the wellbeing of your wife who serves as the mother of your kids. As your pastor, I encourage all of you to pursue godliness this Mother’s Day in whatever form it should take.

This is our final sermon on the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5. That there are ten repetitive, concise statements (Exod 34:28; Deut 4:13; 10:4) suggests that God intended them for easy dissemination and memorization, matching our ten fingers and toes. To this end, years ago, my wife Teresa and I put the Ten Commandments to song to help disciple our own children. And today, to recall from where we have come, I want us to sing this song together. We’ll use the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” On this Mother’s Day, if you are a mother or a son or daughter of a mother, I want you to follow along and sing with me.

As seen in figure 2, the Ten Commandments provided the outer boundaries for Israel’s relationship with God. So long as Israel lived within these boundaries, they as a people would flourish, enjoying all the covenant blessings of God’s provision and protection––their crops would grow, their wombs would produce, and their enemies would be kept at bay. However, if they rebelliously stepped outside the circle of these commands, they would experience God’s just discipline and curse manifest in the removal of provision and protection. Deuteronomy 11:26–28 captures this old covenantal structure with these words: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey … and the curse, if you do not obey.”

Fig. 2. The Old Covenant’s Circle of Blessing

Today, I want you to see that the old covenant was doomed for failure. The proneness of mankind to leave the right path made curse inevitable for Israel. I also hope you treasure Christ more, believing he is the only way to enjoy righteousness and life. He does what Israel could not do, and all who are in him secure the blessings of righteousness and life that were otherwise out of reach for every mere human. Yet as Christ fulfills Moses’s law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, he also recasts the law from an instrument of death to a guide for living. Today’s message has four points, and I have put each on the screen to help you track.

1. Moses’s Law Required Perfect
Obedience for Righteousness and Life

Through the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law that followed, Moses directed Israel how to love God and neighbor. By obeying God’s law, Israel would be counted righteous and live. Moses said, “It will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment” (Deut 6:25). He also charged, “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live” (8:1; cf. 4:1; Lev 18:5). Righteousness and life were the goals and not the grounds or bases of the old covenant relationship. Moses declared,

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, … then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. (30:15–18)

Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses regards obedience to the law the means for being counted righteous and for enjoying life. Yet disobedience would bring death.

2. Israel Disobeyed, So Moses’s Law Destroyed Them

Death is what God would bring to Israel. The old covenant law would condemn them because they were stubborn and would continue to be, making their future rebellion certain. Hear Moses’s words in Deuteronomy 9:

Know … that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. (Deut 9:6–7)

“Unrighteous, stubborn, rebellious”––these are the terms Moses uses to describe those he shepherded for forty years. I praise the Lord Sovereign Joy is not like that congregation! Building off these realities, Moses commanded, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (10:16). Israel’s hearts were sick, and Moses says, “Take this knife and fix yourself!” How successful would doing open heart surgery on yourself be? You would die! And this would happen to Israel so long as they sought to acquire righteousness and life by works. We can’t obey perfectly or fix our problems independently. We need outside help. Until God would overcome their spiritual disability, they would remain stubborn, rebellious, and unbelieving, resulting in condemnation (Deut 29:4; cf. 30:6). The old covenant law would ruin them.

Yahweh says this much in 31:16–17:

Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. (Cf. 4:25–28)

Moses then adds, “I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death!” (31:27). Moses is clear that the old covenant would culminate in Israel’s destruction, and the rest of the Old Testament testifies this happened. Israel entered the Promised Land, but centuries of rebellion resulted in ruin. They experienced the curses of the covenant, climaxing in exile and death.

Reflecting on these features, Paul stresses that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12; cf. 2:20). Nevertheless, he also says, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me” (7:10). In God’s ultimate redemptive purposes, the law of Moses bore a “ministry of death” and “condemnation” that would be superseded by the new covenant’s “ministry of righteousness” (2 Cor 3:7, 9).

God gave the law to give “knowledge of sin” and by this to show that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom 3:20; cf. Gal 2:16). No mere humans can be declared right before God by means of obedience to God’s law, because no mere humans can perfectly meet the law’s demands. As Paul says, “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’” (Gal 3:10; cf. Deut 27:26). Nevertheless, God sent his perfect Son “to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal 4:4–5).

3. Jesus Is Our Only Hope for Righteousness and Life

Whereas in the old covenant, Moses wrote of “the righteousness that is based on the law” (Rom 10:5; cf. Lev 18:5), the prophet looked ahead to the new covenant, seeing in it “the righteousness that is based on faith” (Rom 10:6–9; cf. Deut 30:12–14). Israel’s inability to keep the law perfectly should have made them hope in this day and that God would, in fulfillment of his pledge, provide an unblemished substitute to satisfy the law’s requirements and secure for all in him the righteousness and life the law promised. This is what happens in the gospel.

What we need is to “be found in [Jesus], not having a righteousness of [our] own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9; cf. Tit 3:4–7). Paul says “that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works” (Rom 9:30–32). He then adds, “The end of the law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes” (10:4).

From the beginning, the goal and end of Moses’s law was Jesus for righteousness. No mere human could perfectly keep the Ten Commandments for righteousness and life. So, God met his own demands through Jesus’s perfect obedience and sacrifice. “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (8:1, 3–4; cf. 5:18–19; 2 Cor 5:21; Col 2:14).

Before treating the Ten Commandments as guides for life, Christians should first see them pointing us to Jesus as our source of life. Moses law helps us celebrate Jesus’s justifying work, by which he declares us right with God and gives us lasting life. Yet there is more. “Now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom 6:22). In this realm of progressive holiness, the Ten Commandments shift from pointing us to Jesus to guiding us through Jesus in right living.

4. Moses’s Law as Fulfilled through Christ Still Guides Christians Today

The Ten Commandments are part of the old covenant, not the new, and Christians are under the law of Christ, not the law of Moses (1 Cor 9:20–21; cf. Gal 6:2; Heb 8:13). Thus, none of the Ten Commandments serve as a direct authority or guide for believers today. Yet these sermons have shown that, through Christ, all the Ten Commandments still instruct us in the way they clarify God’s unchanging character and values, anticipate and magnify the person and work of Jesus, and portray the far-ranging scope of love for God and neighbor.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stresses that Moses’s law still matters when considered in view of his teaching and ministry. Jesus says that he did not come to “abolish” the Old Testament but to “fulfill” it by realizing in his life all that it called for and anticipated (Matt 5:17). For Jesus, there is lasting significance in the Old Testament when considered in relation to him. One way this is seen is in how we approach Moses’s law, which is the focus of his next statements.

Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (5:18–19)

Jesus’s followers must still do and teach Moses’s commands, but only in view of how Jesus fulfills them. Consider figure 3.

Fig. 3. The Law through the Lens of Christ

Jesus’s teaching and ministry are like a lens through which to consider the lasting significance of Moses’s instruction. Some laws seem unchanged before and after Christ, whereas others hit the lens and get “bent” in various ways. Jesus’s coming maintains (with or without extension), transforms, or annuls various laws.

1.  Jesus maintains some laws without extension.

When moving from the old covenant to the new, Christ’s teaching and ministry reaffirms some of the law without any alteration. Thus, Jesus identifies sins flowing from the heart like “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, [and] slander” as things that defile a person (Matt 15:18–19; cf. 19:17–21). Similarly, Paul stresses to the Roman Christians: “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Rom 13:9). Laws that are maintained without extension are those where obeying them looks the same in both the old and new covenants. Thus, adultery is prohibited both before and after Christ, and the law itself is not altered in any way. All but the Sabbath law in the Ten Commandments seem to be of this nature.

2.  Jesus maintains certain laws with extension.

“Extension” means that through Jesus certain commands in the old covenant apply in new ways or to new people. For example, through Jesus (Matt 10:10), Paul extends Moses’s charge to allow oxen to eat grain while they are working (Deut 25:4) to the need to pay solid wages to ministers. “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Tim 5:17–18; cf. 1 Cor 9:8–12). Similarly, Moses’s requirement that low walls (or parapets) be built around the perimeter of flat roofed houses to guard against accidental injury (Deut 22:8) equally requires that Christians put a railing around a deck, salt an icy sidewalk, or add a baby gate at a stairwell. Through Christ, the moral principle in the law is maintained with extension. When the old covenant law includes cultural or situational details that are different from our own, we heed Jesus’s words at the end of the parable of the good Samaritan and “do likewise” (Luke 10:37), applying the principle in fresh contexts.

3.  Jesus transforms some laws.

Jesus’s person and work fulfill certain laws in a way that their continuation is radically transformed––still applicable but in a newly realized way. This is how I interpreted the Sabbath law (Deut 5:12–15). Thus, Israel’s 6+1 weekly pattern reminded them of their mission to see rest in relation to God realized once again on a global scale, and what Israel hoped for Jesus fulfills, declaring as “lord of the Sabbath,” “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28; 12:8). The last day of the week is no longer the Sabbath, but instead every day Christians enjoy rest in relation to Christ, even as we hope for when that rest will be final and complete. Likewise, in Moses’s law, the charge “purge the evil from Israel” related to enacting the death penalty on criminals (e.g., Deut 22:22). However, in 1 Corinthians Paul applies the charge to a local church’s practice of excommunication as the climax of church discipline: “Purge the evil person from your midst” (1 Cor 5:13). Thus, the old covenant law still applies but is transformed within its new covenant context.

4.  Jesus annuls some laws.

Jesus’s teaching and ministry actually puts an end to certain laws. For example, in relation to Moses’s charge that Israel could not eat unclean animals (e.g., Lev 20:25–26), Christ, having defeated the unclean serpent, now declares all foods clean (Mark 7:19). And with such awareness (Acts 10:14–15), Peter knew this implied that he “should not call any person common or unclean” (10:28). Although Jesus’s fulfillment of these laws means he rescinded the dietary restrictions, we as his followers still benefit from the commands by considering what they tell us about God and Jesus’s victory over all that is unclean.

Conclusion

Within the old covenant, Moses’s law functioned to identify and multiply sin (Rom 3:20; 5:20) and to condemn Israel (2 Cor 3:9), thus showing their desperate need for Jesus. In condemning Israel, the law also condemned the world, for if Israel, with the law, could not glorify God rightly, the rest of the world without the law has no hope of living his way (Rom 3:19). Truly, “by works of law no human being will be justified” (3:20; cf. Gal 3:16).

In God’s purposes, “the end of the law” was always “Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). God made righteousness and life the goals of Moses’s law, not the grounds. Yet Israel could never attain what they were seeking (9:30–32; 11:7–8). But when Christ, the perfect Righteous One, came, he secured righteousness and life for all who are in him. Before the law becomes a gift to guide us, the law must first kill us, showing us that believing in Christ alone is our means for right standing before God. We react harshly to our spouse; we express impatience with our kids; we prioritize things over our relationship with God and thus engage in idolatry; we let our eyes lust or our hands steal or our mouths lie. All these acts fail to align with God’s law and thus reveal our need for a Savior. The law leads us to Christ for justification and life.

Yet having “been set free from sin” and having “become slaves of God,” “the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (6:22). That is, Jesus died and rose not only to justify us but also to sanctify us, not only to free us from sin’s penalty but also to free us from sin’s power. He “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Tit 2:14). Through Jesus, you can respond to your spouse and kids with gentleness and patience. Through Jesus, you can curb laziness and prioritize prayer and Bible reading. With Jesus’s help, you can value what God values and love what God loves, keeping your eyes from lust and your heart from coveting and your lips from speaking deceit. Through Jesus, Moses’s law moves from being a law that kills to a law that guides.

The Ten Commandments still matter for believers today. Memorize them to instruct your kids and/or to apply them in your life. Let these ancient laws move you to Christ and guide you through Christ. Let Moses’s law help you treasure Jesus by celebrating his justifying work, wherein his perfect obedience to the law reconciles you to God, and then by cherishing his sanctifying work, wherein his blood-bought power helps us love God and love neighbor faithfully and truly. Pray with me….

The post The Ten Commandments To Christ and Through Christ: A Biblical-Theological Sermon on the Law in Deuteronomy 5:6–21 appeared first on Jason DeRouchie.