The First Commandment (Pt. 2)

Even though there are innumerable things that we owe to God, yet they may be conveniently grouped in four headings:

(1) “Adoration” I call the veneration and worship that each of us, in submitting to his greatness, renders to him. For this reason, I justly consider as a part of adoration the fact that we submit our consciences to his law.

(2) “Trust” is the assurance of reposing in him that arises from the recognition of his attributes, when — attributing to him all wisdom, righteousness, might, truth, and goodness — we judge that we are blessed only by communion with him.

(3) “Invocation” is that habit of our mind, whenever necessity presses us, of resorting to his faithfulness and help as our only support.

(4) “Thanksgiving” is that gratitude with which we ascribe praise to him for all good things. As the Lord suffers nothing of these to be transferred to another, so he commands that all be rendered wholly to himself. (Institutes, 2.8.16)

The First Commandment (Pt. 1)

“Let us have no strange gods before him” [Exodus 20:2–3, cf. Vg.]

Having founded and established the authority of his law, he sets forth the First Commandment, “Let us have no strange gods before him” [Exodus 20:3 p.]. The purpose of this commandment is that the Lord wills alone to be pre-eminent among his people, and to exercise complete authority over them. To effect this, he enjoins us to put far from us all impiety and superstition, which either diminish or obscure the glory of his divinity. For the same reason he commands us to worship and adore him with true and zealous godliness. The very simplicity of the words well-nigh expresses this. For we cannot “have” God without at the same time embracing the things that are his. Therefore, in forbidding us to have strange gods, he means that we are not to transfer to another what belongs to him. (Institutes, 2.8.16)

The Preface to the Moral Law

“I am Jehovah, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” [Exodus 20:2, cf. Vg.]

Whether you make the first sentence a part of the First Commandment or read it separately makes no difference to me, provided you do not deny to me that it is a sort of preface to the whole law. First, in framing laws, care must be taken that they be not abrogated out of contempt. God therefore especially provides that the majesty of the law he is about to give may not at any time fall into contempt. To secure this he uses a threefold proof. He claims for himself the power and right of authority in order to constrain the chosen people by the necessity of obeying him. He holds out the promise of grace to draw them by its sweetness to a zeal for holiness. He recounts his benefits to the Jews that he may convict them of ingratitude should they not respond to his kindness. The name “Jehovah” signifies God’s authority and lawful domination. If, then, “from him are all things and in him all things abide,” it is right that all things should be referred to him, as Paul says [Romans 11:36 p.]. With this word alone, therefore, we are sufficiently brought under the yoke of God’s majesty, because it would be monstrous for us to want to withdraw from his rule when we cannot exist apart from him. (Institutes, 2.8.13)

God first shows himself to be the one who has the right to command and to whom obedience is due. (2.8.14)

The Two Tables of the Moral Law

We ought to ponder what the division of the divine law into two Tables meant. This is impressively mentioned at various times with good reason, as all sane men will agree. And there is a ready reason for us not to remain uncertain on this matter. God has so divided his law into two parts, which contain the whole of righteousness, as to assign the first part to those duties of religion which particularly concern the worship of his majesty; the second, to the duties of love that have to do with men.

Surely the first foundation of righteousness is the worship of God. When this is overthrown, all the remaining parts of righteousness, like the pieces of a shattered and fallen building, are mangled and scattered. What kind of righteousness will you call it not to harass men with theft and plundering, if through impious sacrilege you at the same time deprive God’s majesty of its glory? Or that you do not defile your body with fornication, if with your blasphemies you profane God’s most holy name? Or that you do not slay a man, if you strive to kill and to quench the remembrance of God? It is vain to cry up righteousness without religion. This is as unreasonable as to display a mutilated, decapitated body as something beautiful. Not only is religion the chief part but the very soul, whereby the whole breathes and thrives. And apart from the fear of God men do not preserve equity and love among themselves. Therefore we call the worship of God the beginning and foundation of righteousness. When it is removed, whatever equity, continence, or temperance men practice among themselves is in God’s sight empty and worthless. We call it source and spirit because from it men learn to live with one another in moderation and without doing injury, if they honor God as Judge of right and wrong. Accordingly, in the First Table, God instructs us in piety and the proper duties of religion, by which we are to worship his majesty. The Second Table prescribes how in accordance with the fear of his name we ought to conduct ourselves in human society. In this way our Lord, as the Evangelists relate, summarizes the whole law under two heads: that “we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our powers”; and “that we should love our neighbor as ourselves” [Luke 10:27 p.; Matthew 22:37,39]. You see that of the two parts in which the law consists, one he directs to God; the other he applies to men. (Institutes, 2.8.11)

The Moral Law’s Strong Language

The flesh ever tries to wash away the foulness of sins, except when it is palpable, and to overlay it with plausible excuses. Hence, God has set forth by way of example the most frightful and wicked element in every kind of transgression, at the hearing of which our senses might shudder, in order that he might imprint upon our minds a greater detestation of every sort of sin. In appraising our vices we are quite often deceived by this into making light of those which are somewhat concealed. The Lord disabuses us of these deceptions when he accustoms us to refer the whole mass of vices to these categories which best represent how heinous each kind is. For example, when called by their own names, we do not consider anger and hatred as things to be cursed. Yet when they are forbidden under the name “murder,” we better understand how abominable they are in the sight of God, by whose Word they are relegated to the level of a dreadful crime. Thus moved by his judgment, we ourselves become accustomed better to weigh the gravity of transgressions, which previously seemed light to us. (Institutes, 2.8.10)

What Are The Ten Commandments To Us?

Here I think it will not be out of place to introduce the Ten Commandments of the law with a short explanation of them. Thus, the point I have touched upon will also be made clearer: that the public worship that God once prescribed is still in force. Then will come the confirmation of my second point: that the Jews not only learned from the law what the true character of godliness was; but also that, since they saw themselves incapable of observing the law, they were in dread of judgment drawn inevitably though unwillingly to the Mediator. Now in summarizing what is required for the true knowledge of God, we have taught that we cannot conceive him in his greatness without being immediately confronted by his majesty, and so compelled to worship him. In our discussion of the knowledge of ourselves we have set forth this chief point: that, empty of all opinion of our own virtue, and shorn of all assurance of our own righteousness — in fact, broken and crushed by the awareness of our own utter poverty — we may learn genuine humility and self-abasement. Both of these the Lord accomplishes in his law. First, claiming for himself the lawful power to command, he calls us to reverence his divinity, and specifies wherein such reverence lies and consists. Secondly, having published the rule of his righteousness, he reproves us both for our impotence and for our unrighteousness. For our nature, wicked and deformed, is always opposing his uprightness; and our capacity, weak and feeble to do good, lies far from his perfection.

Now that inward law, which we have above described as written, even engraved, upon the hearts of all, in a sense asserts the very same things that are to be learned from the two Tables. For our conscience does not allow us to sleep a perpetual insensible sleep without being an inner witness and monitor of what we owe God, without holding before us the difference between good and evil and thus accusing us when we fail in our duty. But man is so shrouded in the darkness of errors that he hardly begins to grasp through this natural law what worship is acceptable to God. Surely he is very far removed from a true estimate of it. Besides this, he is so puffed up with haughtiness and ambition, and so blinded by self-love, that he is as yet unable to look upon himself and, as it were, to descend within himself, that he may humble and abase himself and confess his own miserable condition. Accordingly (because it is necessary both for our dullness and for our arrogance), the Lord has provided us with a written law to give us a clearer witness of what was too obscure in the natural law, shake off our listlessness, and strike more  vigorously our mind and memory. (Institutes, 2.8.1)

The Depth of Man’s Depravity

The apostle, when he wishes to cast down the arrogance of humankind, does so by these testimonies: “‘No one is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable; no one does good, not even one’ [Psalm 14:1–3; 53:1–3]. ‘Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues deceitfully’ [Psalm 5:9]. ‘The venom of asps is under their lips’ [Psalm 140:3]. ‘Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness’ [Psalm 10:7]. ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are

ruin and misery’ [Isaiah 59:7 P.]. There is no fear of God before their eyes” [Romans 3:10-16, 18 p.]. With these thunderbolts he inveighs not against particular men but against the whole race of Adam’s children. Nor is he decrying the depraved morals of one age or another, but indicting the unvarying corruption of our nature. Now his intention in

this passage is not simply to rebuke men that they may repent, but rather to teach them that they have all been overwhelmed by an unavoidable calamity from which only God’s mercy can deliver them. (Institutes, 2.3.2)

Man, as he was corrupted by the Fall, sinned willingly, not unwillingly or by compulsion; by the most eager inclination of his heart, not by forced compulsion; by the prompting of his own lust, not by compulsion from without. Yet so depraved is his nature that he can be moved or impelled only to evil. But if this is true, then it is clearly expressed that man is surely subject to the necessity of sinning. (2.3.5)