It’s important to know what living life in Christ looks like. When someone becomes a Christian, they renounce their old ways. You’re a new person, a new creation even. You want to live the way God wants you to live.
Even when someone’s been a Christian for years, you’re still not the finished thing. If anything, you become more aware of your imperfections and failures.
But God is good. He’s given you his words, and they are powerful in themselves.
So we’re going to see from Deuteronomy how a life in Christ is one of consistency, contentment, and obedience.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in March 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Be consistent in Christ
We’re exploring how Deuteronomy unpacks the 10 Commandments for us, and today we’re looking at the 3rd, 4th, and 5th commandments.
Read Deuteronomy 5:11.
Other translations say you’re not to take his name “in vain”. It has the idea of “emptying” something of all meaning. You’re not to take on his name, to claim you’re a Christian, but then live like you’re not. To do that is to dishonour God.
Deuteronomy 15 expands that out in terms of forgiving and giving.
Think about this way: How is it that you can be a Christian at all? It’s only by God’s free grace. God freely forgives, and freely gives good gifts. He is infinitely good and rich in every way; you’re a poor creature
God forgives and gives
We read in Deut 15:1-8 about how Israel were to cancel debts among one another every 7 years. They were to forgive debts, because that’s what God does for you. You might think, “I’d be out of pocket!” That’s right, because forgiveness always absorbs the cost of the offence. And that’s what God has done in Christ.
Your sin puts you in debt to God – a debt you can’t repay.
But hear this from Colossians 2:14 “[God] erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.”
You can’t make up the loss, the offence. No amount of good can offset your sin – everything you do is tainted with sin anyway. And because the punishment due is death, he absorbed the cost by becoming human to die in your place. That means that when you ask God for forgiveness, you are wholly forgiven. Everything you ever did or will do. Nailed on.
And then you’re a Christian. If you’ve never turned from your sin and asked God to forgive you, don’t hesitate. Do it now. Today.
Because then you become a child of God. You’re adopted by God, loved and cherished and kept. You have union with Christ: He is in you where you are; you are in him where he is. United to holiness, peace, and joy – forever in the Father’s joy, in Christ, through the Spirit.
Forgive
And if he has forgiven you so much and given you so much, and you are his child, don’t empty that of meaning by being unforgiving and tightfisted.
Think of the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us this day our debts as we have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Debt is often a synonym for sin. It has the same impact.
And Jesus told a parable about an unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35 – although he’d been forgiven a huge debt, he wouldn’t forgive someone else a much smaller debt to him.
If you have been forgiven by God, you must learn forgiveness of others. You must be prepared to absorb the cost of offence.
“Do I have to forgive the unrepentant?” God doesn’t, of course, though he’s ready to forgive anyone who does then come to him. You must be ready to forgive, certainly.
And remember: God took the initiative with you. Take the initiative in reconciliation. Love acts first. Don’t hold a grudge in you that will gnaw your bones. It will damage you even more than the offence.
Obviously, some sin against you might be so awful you have post-trauma stress and long-term pain. I can’t answer that here and now, other than to acknowledge two things: One, the Lord knows that that’s a long and hard road. Two, Christ in you is powerful to help. If that is you, biblical counselling can help you hear Christ’s voice and experience his healing touch.
Give
Now, God is even more than a forgiver: He’s a giver. Are you? God’s blessings of goodness and holiness flow to and over you. Don’t be a stagnant pool: Be a conduit of God’s blessing.
Live in open-handed generosity: With your time, your money, your love, your patience, your home. We must be like that as a church – even in the simple hospitality of refreshments at Tots, Connections, services.
And that generosity mustn’t be minimal or begrudging. All that you have is already the Lord’s and he’s a giver. Meditate on that, and hold your belongings by your fingertips.
Christ’s death and resurrection give you hope of life eternal.
It’s given to you freely, as your forgiven at great cost to the Lord. He is life itself, given to you freely. Your life must be consistent in Christ, illustrating and complementing your union with the great forgiver & giver.
Don’t empty your claim to be a Christian with a cold heart and a closed hand.
Be content with Christ
Let’s look at the next commandment: Read Deut 5:12-15.
In Egypt, slavery meant 7-day working with no holidays, no rights. Every day meant work for your master. So the Sabbath was a gift to those former slaves.
And it was rest “to the LORD” – not just rest from work, but rest for time with God. It was emphatically for rich and poor alike. And it was very good for family life.
Deuteronomy 16 speaks of three annual feasts for Israel, and things happen for 7 days, after 7 weeks, etc – the idea of the Sabbath “to the LORD” underpins it all.
- Passover celebrated nation delivery from slavery. It was a solemn assembly.
- The feast of weeks was in early harvest: It was joyous!
- And the feast of shelters (or tabernacles / booths) was after the final harvest – another joyous celebration to God.
The weekly Sabbath and the annual feasts meant that the very rhythms of life – week by week, year by year – were all under a conscious awareness of God’s care and provision. Even more, they were times to approach God and be blessed by his presence. More still, they were times to gather with God’s people to enjoy God together.
Rhythms
Do the rhythms of your life reflect that? Sunday’s gathered worship is a gift to you from Christ himself. It’s inconceivable to be a Christian and say you’ve got a better thing to do that to worship him with his people. Come and rejoice in him, about him, before him, to him. It’s a day “to the Lord” – not “to the shops”.
And it’s good for everyone to rest on Sundays. Opposing Sunday trading is much more than “Bible says ‘no’” – Sunday trading is bad for families. The pain of Sunday trading falls disproportionately on the less well-off. That’s why they get a special mention in the commandment (male or female slave, resident alien). God cares passionately about the abused, the down-trodden, the poor, the vulnerable.
So come and bring your sacrifice of praise to God. And bring all your offerings gladly, according to how God has blessed you. That does include financial offerings too. Everything you have is his already, and he delights to see you giving to his own gospel work in the church.
And remember, the invitation is that you will find rest in the Lord.
Enjoying God in Christ
The Sabbath rest is about enjoying God in Christ. It’s not about rules; not about abstinence. It is about positively seeking God and his people and coming to his presence. Jesus doesn’t say, “Come to religion.” He says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest for your soul.”
So learn what it is to be content with Christ.
If you can’t manage that one day a week, you’ll never know deep contentment in him in the rest of your time. His presence brings contentment, rest, hope, and peace. You’ll not find those in the shops, on the beach, at your hobby, or watching TV.
So set the rhythms of your life to regular enjoyment of him – every day in prayer, every Sunday here, every Tuesday before the Lord with his people in gathered prayer.
So living life in Christ is to be consistent in Christ, content with Christ, and:
Be obedient for Christ
Let’s look at the fifth commandment: Read Deuteronomy 5:16.
We sometimes make the mistake of thinking this command is for children, but in truth there’s no age limit in the commandment. If you’re an adult and have parents still alive, you’re to honour them. How you do that changes as you go through life.
Good family units are the building blocks of good society, but that success needs the parents also to be godly people.
Deuteronomy 17 works this out into Israelite society in broader authority structures, so we’ll think about that and then come back to our own family units shortly.
Godly rule
In Deut 17:8-13, we read about how the priests are to give judgments in difficult cases, where normal courts couldn’t decide. But why the priests?
- More than anything, the priests were set apart as holy to God and they were to teach and apply his laws.
- That’s why we spend so much time in expository preaching: I’m not your priest, but I am given to you to teach you what God has said.
- Why? Because we are all subject to God’s law, and we’re not to move from the left or right of what he’s said.
Deut 17:14-20 gave Israel instruction for what a king was to be like, if they ever appointed one. He was to be a king of God’s choice, and he even had to write out a copy of God’s laws while sitting on the throne. The king of Israel would always be subject to God, the true King of all. David never lost sight of God as his king. But his son Solomon actually broke the laws laid out for him in Deut 17 – with gold, wives and horses. It was his downfall.
So the national structure of Israel was set up so that everyone was subject to God’s law: Whether the king himself, or anyone needing a case to be heard.
Ungodly rule
The New Testament recognises that you and I live under secular rulers who care little for God’s order. So how are you to live? How can you prioritise and do right in a world opposed to God?
1 Peter was written to Christians in a Roman world led by a brutal anti-Christian regime. 1 Peter 2:13, 17 says: “Submit to every human authority because of the Lord… Honour everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honour the emperor.”
Notice the language: Honour, love, fear, honour.
Your obedience to human authorities is always subject to your obedience first and foremost to God.
Its purpose is to proclaim Christ, because simply being a good citizen here is so counter-cultural.
We’re blessed to be in a democracy where you can publicly object and campaign against things. But still, pay your taxes and don’t speed. Submit to every human authority because of the Lord – as you obey them, you obey him and proclaim him. Where anyone is obedient to Christ, that is where the kingdom of heaven is.
Godly families
And so, of course, these things extend into your family.
- Parents aren’t to be obeyed because they’re parents, but because they seek to parent obedient to God.
- Parents: Parent your children before the Lord. Lead them to Christ; train them in righteousness; discipline in love.
- Children: Obey your parents. As they seek to bring you up the best they can, subject to God, they’ll know things you don’t. You please the Lord as you obey your parents.
- Adults with older parents: Honour, love, and care for them. That can be costly in all sorts of ways – time, emotions.
But you’re to honour them for the Lord.
So this fifth command reminds you that you’re to be obedient to Christ and to be obedient to authorities for Christ. His rule is good for you and for others. His righteousness is perfect. Obey him with increasing joy.
Summary
So what have we seen?
Living life in Christ is not a part-time activity.
Life in Christ is one of consistency, contentment, and obedience.
Everything you have is from him, and to him, and for him.
And you’re blessed to live that life now and forever.