Question 120. What reasons are annexed to the fourth commandment to enforce the more perfect observance of it?

 

Question 120. What reasons are annexed to the fourth commandment to enforce the more perfect observance of it? 

Answer. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment to enforce the more perfect observance of it are in the equity of this commandment, in that God hath allowed us six days of the seven to take care of our own affairs, and hath reserved but one for himself: six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, calling attention to its peculiar character, after the example of God, who in six days made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; and God hath blessed this day, not only as a holy day for his service, but also as a blessing to us when we keep it holy.

 

Galatians 4:9-11 But now that you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elementary things, to which you wish to be enslaved again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, lest I have toiled over you in vain.

To be a slave again means to keep the elementary principles. The elementary principles mentioned here mean to observe the days, months, seasons, and years mentioned in the law. Of course, it will include many other things in the law. To keep the elementary principles is to make the meaning of Jesus Christ's death on the cross meaningless for them.

Proverbs 26:11 says, "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly." They say that they have escaped from the law and entered into grace, but then they say that going back to keep the law is like the foolish behavior of a dog.

The apostle Peter used the same expression in 2 Peter 2:22: "The true proverb has happened to them: 'The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after being washed, to wallow in the mire.'" Peter was speaking to false teachers in 2 Peter 2:20: "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state is worse for them than the first." To be entangled means to be bound again by the law.

Jesus completed the old covenant, the law, and gave freedom to the people, but the Israelites insisted on keeping the law. Even today, if a believer hears the gospel by grace in the church and is free in Christ, and says that he will keep the Sabbath and observe the Sabbath, he is bringing up the law again. This is the same as the Israelites looking back at Egypt. They died to the world in Christ, but they are looking back at the world again. They died to the law, but they are looking back at the law. This is what it means to remember Lot’s wife. Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. Salt signifies the salt covenant, which is the law.

In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Looking back is like someone who has been set free by the gospel trying to go back to the law. Those who try to go back to the law are imprisoned in sin again. It is like a free person trying to enter the prison called the law again.

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