The Lure and Cure of Idolatry (WSC 45-48)

At the heart of idolatry: What do you do in the dark? What do you do when no one is watching?

We go to church and worship the Triune God on Sunday – and we try to maintain an image of being a good, upstanding Christian, when others are around.

But what rules your heart? Who rules your “room of pictures” – that private realm of your heart/mind.

Joel showed us last week that the preface to the 10 commandments makes it abundantly clear that the law of God comes to us in the context of grace.

And as we go through the 10 Commandments, we always need to remember that grace comes before law. Our obedience to God is rooted in our gratitude for the great redemption
that he has wrought in Jesus Christ.

We see this in the pattern of worship on Sunday morning. We begin our service with a confession of sin and declaration of pardon. Every week we are reminded that the foundation of the Christian life is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The movement of our worship service moves from guilt to grace to gratitude. from confession of sin to God’s declaration of pardon and from hearing the gospel of Christ to the response of thankfulness, concluding with the Lord’s Supper.

The Ten Commandments, then, give God’s directions for a life of gratitude.