Project Description

2016/05

Our Own God

“I am the LORD thy God.”
Exodus 20:2

There is no true living and no safe dying without God. By nature, we are ‘without God in the world’ (Ephesians 2:12), having forfeited all claim and title to Him. With no life to live for Him, and no light in which to know Him, how helpless and hopeless we were! Yet God, whom we lost in Adam’s breach of the first covenant, comes again in a new covenant, a covenant of grace and declares in a promise full of grace and love: ‘I am the Lord thy God’ (Exodus 20:2). He ‘which is, and was, and which is to come’ (Revelation1:8); ‘gracious and merciful, abundant in goodness and truth’ (Exodus 34:6), speaks that we might ‘fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD’ (Deuteronomy 28:58). He becomes our God, not on the basis of works, but of free grace.

What more can He give to us than Himself? What will He not give, when He gives Himself! It is grace and only grace that gives us a true title to God, whose greatness and goodness are beyond measure. Limitless resources of wisdom, help and power are available for all in covenant union with God in Christ.  Incalculable is the worth of our treasure when the unchanging, infinitely glorious God is ours!

He assures us that, as our God, we are His children: ‘I will be their God and they shall be my people…[I] will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty’ (2 Corinthians 6:16,18). As our Father, He has dignified us with a name and a place among the general assembly and church of the first born. Our Father’s eye is upon us for good, His ear is open to our cry, His hand is outstretched to hold and uphold. We have Him always, no matter who else forsakes us. ‘This God is our God forever and ever’ (Psalm 48:14). He gifts Himself to us and then makes it our first duty of obedience to acknowledge Him only, as our own God.

His first commandment is: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3).Our real happiness lies in this – having Him and none other, as our God. ‘Happy is that people whose God is the Lord’ (Psalm 144:15). No idol or lust must get the Lord’s place in the heart. What shall we render unto Him who has rendered Himself back to us in that everlasting covenant, sealed by precious blood and witnessed by three that bear record in heaven? Let us love Him with the whole heart and love all who bear His image, for this is the sum of the ten commandments (Matthew 22:37-40).With saving faith in the heart we say with the Psalmist: ‘O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, thou art my Lord’ (Psalm 16:2). ‘Thou art my God and I will praise thee’ (Psalm 118:28). Truly, ‘He is [our] praise, and he is [our] God’ (Deuteronomy 10:21).

Rev Leslie Curran.