“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” Deuteronomy 4:2

When Moses reminded God’s people of all that God had revealed to them and commanded them, he added this warning not to add to or take away from the word which he had commanded.

Many would diminish the teaching and commandments given to us by the LORD God by denying or explaining away the clear and plain words of Scripture and somehow saying those words do not apply to us today. Preachers have denied the historical accuracy of the creation account, denied sin, the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus and His bodily resurrection on the third day. Some explain away the clear pronouncements of God against sins which have become culturally acceptable with the argument that the commandments were culturally relative to a different time and place and do not apply to mankind today.

Clearly, diminishing from God’s Word is prohibited by God. Look at Jesus’ own words: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19).

But harder for us to recognize are those instances in which we seek to infuse our own thinking and add our own applications into the words of Scripture. Notice that God’s Word here warns against adding to the words of Scripture before it mentions diminishing from it. Perhaps that’s because we are prone to add to what God says (cf. Genesis 2:16 and 3:3).

Jesus encountered it in during His ministry. He was accused of sin for healing on the Sabbath (cf. Matthew 12:10ff.). His disciples were condemned for breaking the Sabbath when they were walking through the grainfields on the Sabbath Day and picked, hulled and ate some of the grain (cf. Matthew 12:1ff.). The Pharisees and scribes excused themselves from honoring their parents in old age as required in God’s commandment by dedicating their property to God upon death and saying they could not use it to help their parents because it is dedicated to God (Mark 7:6-13).

And Jesus had harsh words of judgment for the scribes and Pharisees: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:23-24; read chapter 23).

Not only do we need to use great care not to diminish or take away any word or command of the LORD; we need to be careful not to add to God’s words and commands with our own interpretations and applications. And, as the scribes and Pharisees were zealous to follow every tradition passed down to them by the elders, we need to exercise care that we do not do the same things by demanding obedience to the doctrinal applications of our fathers in cases where those applications are not commanded of God in the Scriptures.

To take away from the Scriptures often leads to minimalizing sin and reducing the atonement accomplished by Christ Jesus to an example of love for us to follow. To add to the teaching of Scripture can lead to condemning those who trust in Christ alone for forgiveness and life and who, as a fruit of faith, seek to live in accord with God’s Word. Both are dangerous and damaging to souls for whom Christ shed His holy and precious blood.

Rather, we should teach exactly what Jesus has commanded us to teach, neither adding to it or diminishing from it, that souls be moved to repent of their sins and look to Christ and His cross for pardon and forgiveness. Woe to us if we destroy souls redeemed by the blood of Christ by adding to or taking away from Scripture!

O God, grant that we neither add to Your words nor take away from them, but hold fast to the truth You have revealed to us that we may repent of our sins and look to You and receive pardon and forgiveness through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem us. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

(A Psalm of David, Maschil.)

1 BLESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Have you ever considered what a blessing it is to have forgiveness of God? What a blessing to have the LORD not hold our sins and iniquities against us? To have the LORD’s forgiveness removes all fear of wrath and condemnation and gives us peace with God. To have forgiveness for all our sins gives us the assurance of life everlasting. Indeed, the one who admits his sin to the LORD instead of attempting to hide and cover up his sins is blessed because in the LORD, for the sake of Jesus’ holy life and innocent sufferings and death, he has forgiveness of God. Cf. 1 John 1:5 – 2:2.

What about you? Do you have God’s forgiveness, or are you attempting to hide and cover up your sins? Are you justified of God, or trying to justify yourself? Are you self-deceived and attempting to fool others in regard to your sinfulness, or do you admit your utter sinfulness and look to God for mercy and forgiveness?

3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

What happens when we keep silent about our sins? When we are unwilling to admit our sinfulness and look to the LORD for forgiveness? When we are unwilling to give up our sins? God’s hand is heavy upon us. We grow old and weary through our groaning and sighing all day long as we feel the guilt and weight of our sins. Our moisture, our vitality, our joy, is turned into the drought of summer; it is evaporated away.

5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

To confess our sins is to say and agree with what God says of us and our sin (cf. 1 John 1:9). Confession makes no excuses for sin, but acknowledges sin as sin and deserving of God’s eternal wrath and punishment! When we acknowledge our sin unto the LORD and quit attempting to hide it and cover it up, when we confess our transgression of God’s commandments unto the LORD, He graciously forgives our sins for Jesus’ sake. “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

For God’s forgiveness, everyone that is godly will pray now, before it’s too late! “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Don’t put off repentance! Don’t wait another day. Acknowledge and confess your sins now and receive God’s forgiveness. Tomorrow may be too late for you. You may never have the opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness again. If you turn to the LORD now, God will have mercy upon you and save you from the judgment to come!

The Bible says, “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee” (Psalm 86:5).

7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

When we turn to the LORD for forgiveness, He also will protect and preserve us from evil and trouble. Cf. Psalm 91. That doesn’t mean that we will have an easy life here in this world. Quite the contrary is often true. But He will preserve us and bring us safely through the difficulties and sufferings of this evil world to himself in heaven.

8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. 9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

God desires to instruct and lead His children in His ways. He does this through His Word, which is “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). But, how often are we not like the horse or mule which must have a bit and bridle to get them to go in the right direction! How much easier it would be for us, and better too, to let God instruct and guide us through this life!

10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

Just think about this word of God: “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.” The wicked, the impenitent, will have many sorrows. Not only will this life be full of sorrow, not knowing the forgiveness and peace of God; the life to come will be one of eternal suffering and sorrow for the wicked! On the other hand, God’s mercy and forgiveness shall surround and encompass the one who trusts in the LORD!

11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Indeed, those who have God’s pardon and forgiveness, those to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity and sin but counts them righteous and holy in His sight for Jesus’ sake, have cause to be glad in the LORD and rejoice. And, they can shout for joy; for they are blessed of the LORD forevermore!

[SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE]

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (Read verses 1-23)

That we are all guilty before God and stand guilty and condemned under the law of God is made clear in Romans 3:9-20.

That God provided a way for sinners to be justified and counted righteous by God through faith in Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world is revealed and explained in Romans 3:21-28 and the following two chapters of Paul’s letter.

In the sixth chapter, the Apostle Paul addresses the errors of those who think they can continue in sin and still possess the benefits of God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (v.1-2). We were saved for a life of purpose. We were joined, in our baptisms, to Christ in His death and resurrection in order that Christ’s death on the cross would be our death and punishment for sin and that Christ’s resurrection, after having paid the price for sin, would be our resurrection to new life in fellowship with and service to our God and Savior (v.3ff.).

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (v. 15-16).

If we willingly give ourselves back into sin – yielding ourselves to the temptations of the devil, the allurements of the world and the sinful desires of our flesh, we again become slaves of sin and reap the results, the wages of sin, which are spiritual death and eternal death and damnation! Cf. Genesis 2:16-17; Hebrews 10:26-31; 2 Peter 2:20-22.

If we turn away from Christ and back into sin, seeking to turn God’s grace into a license to live in rebellion and enmity against God, we justly earn the penalty for our sins, which is death and the eternal wrath of God.

But if, by the grace of God, we continue trusting in Christ Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins, we are set free from the condemnation of the law and from our former servitude to sin, and God’s gracious gift to us is forgiveness for all our sins and eternal life.

If, by the grace of God, we trust in Christ our Savior and walk in fellowship with God through faith in Christ (cf. 1 John 1:5 – 2:2), we possess and receive the gracious gifts of God which Jesus won for us – forgiveness of sins and everlasting life in fellowship with our God and Maker.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Dearest LORD Jesus, grant we not turn away from You and back into sin but hold fast to You and the new life You have given us by means of Your death upon the cross for our sins and Your triumphant resurrection on the third day. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Genesis

The first phrase in the Hebrew text of 1:1 is bereshith (“in [the] beginning”), which is also the Hebrew title of the book (books in ancient times customarily were named after their first word or two). The English title, Genesis, is Greek in origin and comes from the word geneseos, which appears in the pre-Christian Greek translation (Septuagint) of 2:4; 5:1. Depending on its context, the word can mean “birth,” “genealogy,” or “history of origin.” In both its Hebrew and Greek forms, then, the traditional title of Genesis appropriately describes its contents, since it is primarily a book of beginnings. — International Bible Society

What are some things which begin in the Book of Genesis?

Who wrote the Book of Genesis? See Deuteronomy 31:9-13, 24; Nehemiah 8:1; 13:1; Mark 12:26; Luke 16:29-31; Luke 24:27, 44-47; John 1:45; Acts 28:23.

Introduction to Genesis by Paul E. Kretzmann in his Popular Commentary

The Book of Genesis (beginning) is the first of five books known collectively as the Pentateuch, which the many Scriptural references in the later books of the Old Testament as well as those of the New Testament compel us to ascribe to the authorship of Moses. In the Book of Genesis the inspired author presents a record of the origin of the world, of the human race, of the institution of marriage, of the beginning of sin, of the first judgment of God upon a sinful world, of the first preaching of the Gospel, and of the beginning of the chosen race as the bearers of the Messianic prophecies.

Moses, the author of the Book of Genesis, was the son of Amram, a member of the tribe of Levi, and his wife Jochebed, as recorded in Exodus, chaps. 2 and 6. He was born in Egypt, at the time when the rise of a new dynasty had caused the deeds of Joseph to be forgotten and the new Pharaoh had laid upon the children of Israel such intolerable burdens as ever a nation was obliged to bear. By God’s dispensation, his own mother became his nurse after his parents had found it impossible to keep him at home any longer, Ex. 2, 8. 9. In this way, Moses was instructed in the history and the religion of his people, and although he afterward, as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he remained true to Jehovah, the God of his fathers. From the land of Midian, whither Moses had fled from the wrath of Pharaoh, the Lord called him to be the deliverer and the leader of the children of Israel, and he served in this capacity for somewhat more than forty years, until he had brought the people to the boundaries of Canaan, where he appointed Joshua as his successor, went up on Mount Nebo, where God showed him the entire country which his people were to possess, died there, and was buried by the Lord Himself. Moses probably wrote the Book of Genesis sometime during the forty years’ sojourn in the wilderness, and God not only inspired him to write but also revealed to him most of the matter that is contained in the account, since tradition would, at best, have been extremely unreliable and many events could not have been known but by the special revelation of the Lord.

The Book of Genesis may be divided according to various points of view. The simplest division is that into two parts, chaps. 1–11 recording the beginnings of all history to the confusion of tongues, and chaps. 12–50 showing how God paved the way for the establishment of the theocracy as it afterward existed for a number of centuries. Some commentators prefer the division into six chief parts, chaps. 1–5 dealing mainly with Adam, chaps. 6–11 with Noah, chaps. 12–24 with Abraham, chaps. 25–27 with Isaac, chaps. 28–36 with Jacob, and chaps. 37–50 with Joseph.

The [first] period of which the Book of Genesis treats begins with the creation of man and ends with the Flood, comprising some 1,700 years. Though there is no valid reason for assuming that the art of writing had not been developed by the people of the world at that time, recent discoveries indicating, rather, that the art of writing was a common accomplishment in the East as early as the time of Abraham, in fact, that large libraries were then in existence, there was no urgent need of recording the Word of God at that time, since the patriarchs lived to a very great age and were able to pass on what God had revealed to them by word of mouth, from generation to generation. The record shows, for instance, that Adam lived for fifty-six years after Lamech, the father of Noah, had been born. This providential arrangement continued for some time after the Flood; for Abraham was born 150 years before the death of Shem and surely profited by his instruction. The period from the Flood until the death of Joseph is that of the patriarchs proper and covers a space of some six hundred years. At its close, the chosen family of Abraham had multiplied into a numerous people.

The modern student of the Bible will find in the Book of Genesis abundant evidence of the providential working of God in the destinies of mankind. Above all, however, the Christian will follow with the greatest interest the Messianic types and prophecies which appear even thus early in the Holy Scriptures; for just as the entire New Testament looks back to Christ, thus the entire Old Testament looks forward to Christ. Jesus is the center of all divine revelation.

Read Genesis 1:1-2:3

1. What is the meaning of the word “genesis”? How did this book come to be called Genesis?

2. Who gave us this book and its account of beginnings? How did He do it?

3. Who created the heavens and the earth? Cf. Genesis 1:1-2, 26; John 1:1-3, 10, 14; Colossians 1:12-16.

4. How many days did God use to create all things? See Genesis 1:31 – 2:3. How long were those days? Cf. Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31.

5. What did God create on each day? How did He do it? See Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 1:2-3, 10; 11:3.

6. How does God continue His creation? See Genesis 1:11-12, 22, 28; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 145:15-16; Nehemiah 9:6.

7. What does it mean to be created in God’s image? Cf. Genesis 1:26-27; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24.

8. What was man’s relation to all the animals? See Genesis 1:26-28. What does this mean?

9. What did God give to be food for man and all the animals at this time? See Genesis 1:29-30.

10. What did God say of His creation? Did He create evil, sin or death? See Genesis 1:31.

11. How is the creation account foundational to the Christian Faith?

“And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9

Why did God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, especially considering God’s warning in verses 16-17: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”? Did you ever wonder?

The truth is that we don’t know. Some suggest it was put there as a test of man’s respect, love and trust for God since Adam and Eve were created with a free will (which was lost in the fall) rather than as robots doing what they were programmed to do. Others think it may have had another purpose in the garden.

One thing that is certain is that God did not put the tree there to be a temptation to sin for “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13), nor is it God’s fault that Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin into the world.

Some, of course, would like to blame God for everything, saying, “He made me like that,” and implying that God is the cause of our sinful inclinations, thoughts, words and actions. The blame, however, lies squarely upon us, and it is only of God’s undeserved love and kindness that He sent Jesus to bear our punishment and be our Savior!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

I have sinned, O God, and gone astray. You sent Your Son to win my stay. Grant that I trust in Him alway. Amen.