The Basis for the Third Commandment – A Kingdom Catechism

The Basis for the Third Commandment

A Kingdom Catechism

Believers are God’s adopted people.

Q 65: What is the basis for the third commandment?

A 65: The basis for the third commandment is God’s having bound Himself to His people in a covenant of grace and promise, setting His Name upon them and making them His own. (Exod. 20:1; Jer. 31:31-34; 2 Cor. 1:20; Eph. 3:14-19; Acts 11:26)

God has chosen, redeemed, called, justified, and adopted us as His people. He has “signed the adoption papers,” so to speak, and now we belong to Him. We were foundlings without Him, slaves to unbelief and sin. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and without hope in the world. We were enemies of God and doomed to eternal perdition.

Then He came and put His Name upon us through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are His covenant people; we bear His Name. We live not in vain, but fruitfully, out of deep gratitude for God’s having made us His own, saved people.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.