Comprehending Pink’s Commandments Part 11

Foreword:

The following exerpt is taken from The Ten Commandments  by Arthur W. Pink

(BAKER BOOK HOUSE, 1994 GRAND RAPIDS, MI)

In this blog series I will work through this very important article a paragraph at a time – asking my reader comprehension style questions at the end. In our day, when people who identify themselves as Christians are so sensitive to any accusation of legalism that they tend to swing all the way out to antinomianism (that is lawlessness), it is perhaps now more than ever that we ought to prayerfully re-examine the Ten Commandments – and few do it better than Arthur Pink (1886 - 1952). I found this article to be very convicting as I first worked through it. And, lest we think we the church are not in need of this labour, let us be reminded that those whom Jesus will reject on the last Day even though they did many mighty works in his name, were accused by our Lord of not just having no intimate relationship with him (‘I never knew you’), but also that they were accused as workers of lawlessness by our Lord. The Law of God does not save, nor does it keep one saved – none the less we are called to obedience to it who are saved – but enough of me – here is Arthur Pink…

"Ninth, we consider its (the Decalogue’s) sanctions. Not only has the Lord brought us under infinite obligations for having redeemed us from sin's slavery, not only has He given His people such a sight and sense of His awe-inspiring majesty as to beget in them a reverence for His sovereignty, but He has been pleased to provide additional inducements for us to yield to His authority, gladly perform His bidding, and shrink with abhorrence from what He forbids, by subjoining promises and threatenings, saying, "For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." Thus we are informed that those who perform His bidding shall not labor in vain, just as rebels shall not escape with impunity."

1) Wikipedia defines sanctions thusly: “penalties or other means of enforcement used to provide incentives for obedience with the law, or with rules and regulations.”

a) What “incentives for obedience” did the Lord present directly to the Israelite generation around the time the Decalogue was given?

b) What “incentives for obedience” are given directly in the scripture itself (for example look at the wording of the fifth commandment: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 20:12))

c) What “incentives for obedience” do you have as a believer in Christ?

2) Is the Lord God obliged to give his creatures “incentives for obedience”? What does this tell us about God’s character?

3) What was the first command God gave to a man and what was its sanction? Did the Lord follow through with this sanction? Are all people under this sanction now? How do we escape this severe sanction?