D8 Discovering Life’s Designer

In Jesus first advent, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race.
He came to unveil Satan’s deception and to be an example in living a sinless life. He gave us the Ten Commandments, the divine moral laws which are also His promises to anyone keeping them.
He has promised to come again to deliver us from the bondage of sin and to be with us always to the end of time.

                1 The Invitation

                Our discovery journeys have travelled with scientists that invalidated the conventional wisdoms in Darwinism (D2, D3) and Genetic determinism (D4). Scientific evidences are vindicating the truth in the word of God, harmonizing science with Scripture statements. The Bible clearly reveals that God is the supreme, invisible supernatural designer of the universe and all the things and creatures in it. Pascal’s wager is a sure bet that will lead humanity to look for God (D3). Our belief controls our behavior (D4). Therefore belief must be based on the truth which must be diligently searched for like treasure so that we know who to believe (D7). There are so much information in the world that tells us what and who to believe in. Even physicists were unable to understand the photon fully because they do not have the knowledge of God (D5). Our past journeys have equipped us for this journey with an open and reasoning mind to discern the truth from the lies. D8 –Discovering Life’s Designer is our exciting venture in putting together a living impression of the one true God, the source of our life, that is based on the testimonies of many of God’s servants given in a period of over one thousand five hundred years in the past.

Watch God’s Love Letter at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYzr3JavFqM (5:43mins) –

Contents

1 The Invitation- Discovery D8 Overview; 2 The Character of God- 4D Picture: 2.1 Two Functions of the Law; 2.2 The Ten Commandments -(2.2.1 The Passover Feast; 2.2.2 The First Stone Tablet ; 2.2.3 The Second Table);2.3 The Great Controversy Realty- (2.3.1 Victory at the Cross;  2.3.2 An Everlasting Relationship); 2.4 “God is Love”- 2.4.1 Behold God in Jesus.

                Discovery D8 Overview

                1. No human beings can see God and live for we will be consumed because of our sinful nature. So there is no actual picture of God as such for God desires to live personally in the hearts of His children who loves Him. But humanity by their own imagination and guided by the misrepresentations sown by Satan, the enemy of God, the father of lies, have formed God in his own image that resulted in many opinions and perspectives of who God is.   

                2. It is Satan's efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men to cherish a false conception of the Creator in order for him to remain as the prince of this world.  He wants humanity to regard God with fear and hate rather than with love and that God’s divine law could not be obeyed.  He persecutes those who dare to resist his deceptions as documented in history. Thus Human laws are substituted for the law of God, and men are led to worship the creature rather than the Creator.  The removal of the moral standard that God has given has caused family, society, government and even religious systems to fall apart into the state it is today.

                3. There are two functions in the Ten Commandments. The first function is that it reveals our sins. It reveals the ways in which we have transgressed or walked contrary to the will and the way of God. The law is like a mirror that shows up the dirt on our face.  The second function of the law is that God wants to write His Ten Commandments in our hearts and in our minds so that we will be guided by the power of Christ to do the will of God and to overcome sin.

                4. All the laws are promises from God to those who keep His laws. Every law in the Ten Commandments is the outgrowth of the deliverance that was wrought for the people through the Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, slain for us, two thousand years ago, that we are imbued with power from on high. In the first stone tablet are the first four laws telling us to firstly let Him have all our affections for He has given everything to us. Give Him our body for he created us. Next let Him have our words and fourthly let Him have our time. By giving him all our affections, our body, our words and our time we will experience in Him our greatest joy in our life. In essence Jesus summed up the first four laws as loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. They deal with our love to God.

                5. The next six laws deal with our interpersonal relationship with others. The promise in the fifth commandment applies to all relationship but starting initially from the home or family circle. When we show honour, attributes of kindness, love and compassion to those around us, that this will be health to the soul, both physical and spiritual health. The next three commandments touching on transgressions in killing, committing adultery, and stealing, are elaborated by Jesus to cover the root cause of each act which springs from the heart. The lesson from Jesus is that if our heart and mind is transformed by Him then our mouth must speak the truth of God as God has done the work from within. The tenth commandment is on covetousness but since God promises to be everything for us, we do not need to covet. Actually, He will change our desire when we give our life to God, to the cause of Christ.

                6. Many that have not heard or read of the good news, of the plan of salvation to humanity, as revealed in the Bible, are not aware that there is a supernatural enemy that is trying to distort, to misrepresent, the character of God. Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. Lucifer turned Satan counterfeits every commandment to work against the very purpose of God. He wants you to disobey, to transgress God’s commandments so that as you have come out of bondage, he wants to lead you back into bondage. Satan from the very beginning coveted for the position of God. His ultimate aim is to makes himself God working in the opposite direction to God’s law to lead us progressively into bondage. God wants to set us free. His law of love, truth, judgment and righteousness is the law of liberty. It was God who brought us out of Egypt or out of our bondage to sin. At the cross we see Jesus gave His life for us to set us free from whatever beset us. Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith and put your confidence and faith in him. Allow Him to write His commandments into your heart.  Go to Jesus for whatever darkness, opposition you are encountering right now that seems to have no way out and He will set you free. He has died for just that sin, just that difficulty in your life.

                7. God is a God of relationship.  He had loved us with an everlasting love and therefore with lovingkindness is calling us to return to Him. He is patiently waiting for you to draw near to Him. God looks at relationship in the perspective of eternal life. When the relationship begins eternal life has begun for us as it is going to take an eternity to know our glorious, supreme, and perfect God. Unending time in itself is not the purpose. Every day in eternity is a new discovery of God. The great controversy stands on the issue of what god is really like. Satan blatantly implanted his own character into our mind that God was like him. Jesus knows what it is to be human, weeps for the condition of those lost, being deceived by Satan.

                8. We behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give, the law of life for the universe.. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.  Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus came to earth to unveil this deception. As one of us He gave us an example of obedience. Through Christ's redeeming work the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan's charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union.

                2 The Character of God- 4D Picture

                (The discussion here is based on https://amazingdiscoveries.tv/media/1434/531-your-picture-of-god/ (1:08:00) 531 – “Your Picture of God / Beyond Tomorrow” series No: 531  by Daniel Pel, published on Aug 19, 2013)

                God pictures Himself In the Scriptures, as the potter and mankind as the clay, revealing His desire to fashion us in His image into His likeness. It is His desire from the very creation of mankind. But this picture has been twisted and man is now forming God in his own image that resulted in many opinions and perspectives of who God is.  In order for us to come back to the original plan and place ourselves in the hands of the potter we must rediscover the character and nature of God in the study of Scriptures centering around the Ten Commandments which is the transcript of God’s character.  They are the ten precious promises to humanity, to us personally, rather than just a list of rules (dos and don’ts). We need to understand them in the fresh perspective of God’s personal promises and their roles in our life today, why they are given and what do they mean. In this study we will come to see a new 4D picture (for God’s word is life) of God.

                Suffering and pain in this world is the consequence of evil works in exploitation of the weak for personal gain. Civil laws perform the role to maintain law and order in society by incarcerating and punishing those caught doing wicked works as deterrents. Thus we tend to interpret and limit God’s law in the context of the civil law that is set and regulated by men. Moral standard is necessary by which we differentiate between good and evil.  God as the Sovereign of the universe has revealed to us the Ten Commandments set by Him as the immutable moral standard that must be placed over and above the civil law.  God’s judgment consists of mercy and justice  to establish the righteous who will  be rewarded with everlasting life free from sin when sin will be eradicated.

                “Human laws are substituted for the law of God, and men are led to worship the creature rather than the Creator, may be traced in all the history of the past. Satan's efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men to cherish a false conception of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love; his endeavors to set aside the divine law, leading the people to think themselves free from its requirements; and his persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions, have been steadfastly pursued in all ages. They may be traced in the history of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and reformers.”-  {GC x.1}

                 The removal of the moral standard that God has given has caused family, society, government and even religious systems to fall apart into the precarious state it is today. The atheistic minded people (having separated from God) in our post-modern secular world have yet to know that God has given His moral standard in his love to call us back into a loving relationship with Him and to recreate a new person in us. The Ten Commandments paints a beautiful portrait of God as the God of love summarised as: 1. No other gods before me; 2. No bowing to or serving images; 3. No taking God’s name in vain; 4. Keep the Sabbath holy; 5. Honour your parents; 6. Do not kill; 7. Do not commit adultery; 8. Do not steal; 9. Do not bear false witness; 10. Do not covet. They deal with very basic things in everyday life.

                2.1 Two Functions of the Law

                We will be using Scripture verses to explain and expand one  Bible verse with another as the Bible is its own expositor.

                Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (King David is talking about the laws of God as something he delights in and meditates on day and night. For David there is something in the Commandments that draws him to God that drives him to pursue God, for in following God you become like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water, tree that bears forth fruits.

                There are two functions in the Ten Commandments. The first function is that it reveals our sins. It reveals the ways in which we have transgressed or walked contrary to the will and the way of God. The law is like a mirror that shows up the dirt on our face.  The law reveals where you are not living up to the moral standard and you feel guilty for falling short in our character. This function is very important because if we do not know of our condition as a sinner we would not know and feel our need for a saviour. Jesus came to save us from our sins, but in order for us to want and take hold of that salvation we must understand that we are in a condition that is in need of salvation. Pauls says:  Rom 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Rom 7:8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. (The two causes of action is: either to remove the law and continue in sin or to turn to your saviour in order to receive strength to change your way. Even among the religious community, many are removing the law of God in an attempt to make themselves feel better, but the reality is that they have not changed and are subject to the final judgment of God. We can turn to Jesus that cleanses us from sins. The law cannot save us; it has no power to save; only Christ can save us.

                The second function of the law is that God wants to write His Ten Commandments in our hearts and in our minds as expressed in Heb 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; Heb 10:17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  Thus the law becomes the foundation of our lives. Actually, God first wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger on two slabs of stones at Mount Sinai as the Israelis were being led to the promised land. They then agreed readily thinking that they could follow that law without God and that resulted in much pain, sorrow and wandering in the wilderness for forty years. This necessitates the second function of the law. We cannot keep the commandments in our own strength now because God gives us the power from above. It is a power outside of oneself. He performs His good works in us. This is the great promise of the gospel, not only the saving from sin but the power to overcome sin.

                Paul confirms this in Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (no longer under condemnation as the law is written in our hearts). Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Now note the change) Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law- (because with the law in our hearts (that Jesus has imparted into us) when we now look into the mirror what we see corresponds with the very will and way of God. There is no law against us any more as we now live in harmony with the will and way of God.)

                2.2 The Ten Commandments

                Before the Ten Commandments are given from God to Moses for the Israelis we read the following: Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying, Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (God was giving a very significant message to His people that “I am your God and I belong to you”. The deliverance from Egypt came about with the institution of the Passover Feast to protect them from the tenth plague that killed every firstborn of the Egyptians. )

                2.2.1 The Passover Feast

                In this feast, held on the fourteenth day, first month of the Jewish year, the Jews have to select a lamb without blemish from their flock. The lamb was a symbol of Jesus Christ (Jn 1:29). They were to slay that lamb and to put the blood of that lamb on the doorpost of their house. When the tenth plague took place as the angel of destruction moved through Egypt, he would pass over the house with the blood on the doorpost. That lamb points to Jesus who shed His blood for you and for me.  We are delivered from the slavery of sin because of the sacrificial blood of Jesus. It was because of the blood of the Passover lamb that the Hebrews are delivered out of the bondage of Egypt. This is the direct typology to the fact that Jesus shed His blood for us as the lamb without sin and when He shed His blood for us He through so doing sets us free from the bondage of sin. The cross is on display in this amazing typology that God brings clearly before His people, before He give His commandments. The cross of Calvary, the sacrifice of the Son of God on humanity’s behalf, is the bedrock foundation of the ten precepts, the ten promises of God.  It is fascinating because it is only through His sacrificial death for us that we can abide by the law of God. He imparts power to us, through His victory over death, to walk in obedience to God.

                2.2.2 The First Stone Tablet 

                As we have been set free and to remain free the first four commandments says: You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not bow down to idols. You shall not take the words of God in vain and you shall keep the Sabbath holy.

                 In the first commandment (You shall have no other Gods before me), God wants to be everything for us and He wants all our affections and love.  He wants to receive from us everything in a powerful relationship.  We don’t need any other gods (idols-things or objects) because there is no other true god. To satisfy the deepest longing in our hearts He has promised to satisfy that longing, to be everything for us. Jesus put it this way in this parable: Mat 13:44  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (You could come to the point in your life where God has put Himself on display to you and you want to pursue Him more than anything else in your life , to belong to Him , to have found Him as the treasure  of your life. God is more than our Lord and Christ is more than our Saviour and many of us have this relationship to God in Christ as Him being our Lord and Saviour. He must in addition be our treasure, our desire. We must long for Him more than anything else in life as a response to the first commandment.

                The second commandment refers to the first time when God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:”- Gen 1:26 “male and female created He  them”- Gen 1:27.  We are the one object of creation which was the crown-ship of creation. He spoke the sun and the stars and everything else into existence but us, human beings. He forms man from the dust of the ground like a potter that works with clay, then breathes his own breath into him and man becomes a living soul-Gen 2:6. This is the relationship God has with each of us. This is why idol worship is so offensive to God for it ruins the relationship when man starts making God in their image they are distorting this picture that God has established in the beginning.

                Isaiah describes the futility in the man who goes to the forest, cuts down a tree brings it home use half of it to  warm up his hose, cooks his meals,  and when everything is going well he carves the other half into an idol, then he bows down and worship that idol. This shows the foolishness of idol worship that God never intended it. This metaphor is about the idol s in our mind of the false picture/image of God. It doesn’t have to be carved out in stones or wood. It can be carved out in the mind if you have the wrong understanding of who God is based on your own tradition or your own fanciful ideas.  You are an idol worshipper if you form your own picture of God and the only way to learn about who God is by taking Scripture and by studying it. In Scripture God has given a revelation of Himself. He has revealed Himself to each one of us and this is the only place we can go to understand His nature and character.

                During the ministry of Jesus, the religious leaders then were really trying to discredit Him and His ministry. They sent someone with a question to convict Him by asking “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?”- Mat 22:17. Mat 22:18  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Mat 22:19  Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. Mat 22:20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? Mat 22:21  They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. This foiled their attempt and they left Him. This passage tells us that since we bear the image of God we belong to God. 2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.- (when we look at the character of God , at God’s image that He puts  on display of Himself, we become changed according to His true character.) 2Co 4:6- For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.-( to find out what God is really like we must look into the character of Jesus as a person who puts the character of God on display. In Christ we find a knowledge (attributes) of the glory (character) of God.)  So the second commandment is an invitation to have a new picture of who God is. We are not to bow down to images but we are to look at the images of God that He has given us in His Scriptures and through His Son, Jesus. By beholding we will become changed

                In the third commandment, it is not just speaking idle words about God that is not true. It concerns what the name means in the Bible. Oftentimes the names of Bible characters are changed after a major event. Our name has a lot to do with our character and our experience. Consider this Bible passage on Moses: Exo 33:18  And he (Moses) said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. Exo 33:19  And he (God) said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name (glory or character) of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. Exo 33:20  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. Exo 33:21  And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: Exo 33:22  And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: Exo 33:23  And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.  Moses was then told to cut another two tables of stone to replace the ones Moses had broken because the people were worshipping the golden calf, and to return the next morning. Exo 34:5  And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. Exo 34:6  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Exo 34:7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. (When God proclaims His name he made His character known. We by beholding His character we become changed. The laws are given in progressive stages of the Christian experience in the relationship with God.)

                The fourth commandment fits into this beautiful experience that God wants to give us: Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. – God wants us to enter into experiencing the heavenly realm with Him. God himself gave us the example. He wanted to spend the seventh day to commune with each of us so that we will be refreshed and renewed by the rest day. He created the weekly cycle, ordained and sanctified the seventh day. He knows the rhythm of our body. He wants us to remember through the Sabbath that our time belongs to God, our Creator. When we consecrate ourselves to Him and allow Him to write His commandments in our hearts and in our minds we will give Him our time, setting aside our work because we want to spend the whole of Sabbath with Him in fellowship with others to commemorate Him as our Creator.

                The deeper spiritual aspect to the Sabbath is the special rest in Christ’s completed work of creation, His first covenant to humanity (See www.wakeupow.com/159912053 par 6.3.1.7 The Sabbath-Keeping Covenant), the promise with the assurance that He will also recreate those of us who accepts this covenant. Jesus openly invites us- Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

                In essence, God tells us in the first four commandments to firstly let Him have all your affections for I have given everything to you. Let me have your body for I have created you. Next let me have your words and fourthly let me have your time. By giving him all our affections, our body, our words and our time we will experience in Him our greatest joy in our life.

                Jesus succinctly summarised these laws as: Mat 22:37.. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.- the first table. Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour (all the people around you) as thyself- the second table. Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (The first four laws deal with our love to God. The next six laws deal with our interpersonal relationship with others.)

                2.2.3 The Second Table

                The fifth commandment is: Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (God promises here to increase our joy and our quality and quantity of life. This promise applies to all relationship but starting initially from the home or family circle. When we show honour, attributes of kindness, love and compassion to those around us, that this will be health to the soul, both physical and spiritual health.) 

                The next three commandments touching on transgressions in killing, committing adultery, and stealing, are elaborated by Jesus to cover the root cause of each act. In the sixth commandment: Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Anger starts in the mind and if not checked will end in murder.)

                The seventh commandment: Mat 5:27  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Again, the very thought of desire at looking could lead to adultery, indicating to us that we all fall short of the glory of God. The  “law mirror” reveals  everything to the very depths of our hearts and souls telling us that we are in need of a saviour. Jesus only can give us the victory for He can transform the heart and mind.)

                Our thoughts can be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ  according to the Bible passages: 2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

                The same also applies in the eighth commandment regarding stealing (position or object) which again begins in the heart and then you act upon it. The promise is that God can keep our minds through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

                In the ninth commandment, not bearing false witness, the opposite to telling the truth, is illustrated in this parable:  Luk 6:43  For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Luk 6:44  For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. Luk 6:45  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (The lesson from Jesus is that if our heart and mind is transformed then out of the abundance of your heart your mouth must speak the truth of God as God has done the work from within.)

                The tenth commandment is on covetousness.  Covetousness is desiring something that is not yours, wanting something that you don’t have.  Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,”- Jn 14:6. Since God promises to be very thing for us, we do not need to covet. Actually, He will change our desire when we give our life to God, to the cause of Christ. As a true follower of Christ our pursuit and focus on God and Christ will fill our life with the fullness of God. Many people have expressed that the only way for the deepest desire of the soul to be fully satisfied is to find our Creator and Saviour  and to enter into a relationship with Him, the life giving source of the universe.

                Many people who thought that they have reached the pinnacle of happiness found themselves dissatisfied once again. The only way for our deepest soul to be filled, to be fully satisfied, is to find our Creator, our God, and to enter into a relationship with Him. God has put himself on display in His commandments and giving these as ten promises to us so that we will experience this progression into this relationship in which we will not find anything else better.  He made you and He knows your need. When you have connected yourself to the life-giving force of the entire universe then you will come to moment in your life that you will no longer covet. This is what the world need; it is this experience. As you prayerfully search for Him in the Bible He wants to moment by moment reveal to you that He loves you so much and that love is going to flow into your soul, mind and heart. 

                2.3 The Great Controversy Realty

                Many who have not heard or read of the good news, of plan of salvation to humanity, as revealed in the Bible, are not aware that there is a supernatural enemy that is trying to distort, to misrepresent, the character of God. This enemy is called Satan or the devil. He counterfeits every commandment to work against the very purpose of God. He says that God’s law could not be obeyed. Satan wants to lead us in the opposite direction. He wants you to disobey, to transgress God’s commandments so that as you have come out of bondage, he wants to lead you deeper into bondage.

                In heaven itself this law was broken. Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore Satan who was earlier called Lucifer, the arch angel, greatly esteemed in heaven, coveted the position of God and wanted to be like the most high. misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.  {DA 21.3} 

                Thus starting from the tenth commandment Satan from the very beginning coveted (10th) for the position of God. He spread lies (9th) about God to the angels in heaven and so he broke the ninth commandment and the eighth when he sought to steal (8th) the position of God in heaven (by cohesion). He breaks his relationship with God in the form of a spiritual divorce (7Th).  He progresses to make war with Christ and His angels and seeks to murder them (6th). He and a third of the angels in heaven who were deceived by him were cast out of heaven and his rage is now against the family made in the image of God (5th). He attacks the holy time of God appointed in the Sabbath (4th). He attacks the very character and name of God by misrepresenting Him (3rd).  He creates a new image of God for people to bow down to (2nd). His ultimate aim is to makes himself God on earth (1st).

                2.3.1 Victory at the Cross

                But there is one point to come. It was God who brought us out of Egypt or out of our bondage to sin. Satan is going to step right into nothing else but bondage. The question we must ask ourselves, are we transgressing the commandments just as Satan does?  God wants to set you free by His law of love, truth and free choice. There may be something in your life that is keeping you bound to this world keeping you bound to the slavery of sin.  God is in charge of all His creation and He can set you free from anything in your life.  The cross is standing right before us, fresh in our memories. As we look at the cross we see Jesus gave His life for us to set us free from whatever beset us. Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith and put your confidence and faith in him. Allow Him to write His commandments into your heart.  Go to Jesus for whatever darkness, opposition you are encountering right now that seems to have no way out and He will set you free. He has died for just that sin, just that difficulty in your life.

                  2.3.2 An Everlasting Relationship

                God is a God of relationship. Jer 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.  He is patiently waiting for you to draw near to Him. Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent - God looks at relationship in the perspective of eternal life. When the relationship begins eternal life has begun for us as it is going to take an eternity to know our glorious, majestic, and perfect God. Unending time in itself is not the purpose. Every day in eternity is a new discovery of God. As we search the Scripture we find that every verse is an indication of God that you may know Him, come close to Him. He longs for His children to know Him. But through sin we have been separated. Sin has distorted our image of God. It has created an enmity towards God and we are afraid of Him and hide at the voice of God like Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit.

                Jesus sadly states in Mat 7:21-23 that  people serve God all their lives but the God of heaven does not know them.  The reason being: we are serving the god of our ancestors, the god  we carry in our imagination and alien to the God of the Bible. The God we naturally carry has been matured through our experiences to be a terrible monster in our minds (entrenched in suffering and pain). That is a belief in the great lie Satan deceived the whole of the universe with. To dispel this lie Jesus came when humanity has reached rock bottom in our spirituality. The great controversy stands on the issue of what god is really like. Satan blatantly implanted his own character into our mind that God was like him. Jesus knows what it is to be human, weeps for the condition of those lost . – (See” Knowing the God of the Bible” by Pr. Sam Braga (25 May 2016) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CrWYQYhq_U - )

                2.4 “God is Love”

                The love of God is best portrayed by Paul in 1 Cor 13:4-13 that describes the character of Christian love. Christians are to love because they belong to God, and ”God is love”- 1 Jn 4:8. This love is “Agape” (Greek)- Charity,  meaning benevolent love. Its benevolence is not by doing what the person loved desires but what the person who loves deems as needed by the one loved. God’s love for man is His doing what He thinks best for man and not what man desires. Jn 3:16 expresses what God perceived is sinful man’s need. He gave His Son who brought forgiveness to man.  For man to show love to God he must first appropriate God’s agape love, for only God has such an unselfish love.  (“We love Him because He first love us”-1 Jn 4:19).

                Benevolent Love positive characteristic are: patience (slow to become resentful), kindness, delight in truth, and a protective, trusting, hopeful and persevering attitude. It is not rude, keeps no record of wrongs but instead covers the faults of others.  It is trusting, optimistic, and willing to endure persecution. Love is permanent. It is the greatest of three gifts of God’s grace: love, hope and faith.  Love through faith unites us personally to God (1Jn 4: 10,19). Through God’s love (Rom 5:5) we are enabled to love one another (Jn 13:34-35). Love is communicating grace and identifies us as children of God.

                2.4.1 Behold God in Jesus

                “We behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. "I do nothing of Myself," said Christ; "the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father." "I seek not Mine own glory," but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.  {DA 21.2}

                From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.  {DA 22.2}

                Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. As He went about doing good, and healing all who were afflicted by Satan, He made plain to men the character of God's law and the nature of His service. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.

                By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey… In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan.

                By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature.

                Through Christ's redeeming work the government of God stands justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan's charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love's self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of earth and heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union.

                The earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died,--here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, "and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift, Emanuel, God with us.

- End of D8, 12 pages, dated Oct 17, 2016

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