The Law of Perfect Freedom: Relating to God and Others through the Ten Commandments

by Michael S. Horton

The Ten Commandments are not Moses' bright ideas or simply God's suggestions; they are God's categorical requirements. In The Law of Perfect FreedomThe Law of Perfect Freedom, Michael Horton weaves theological truth with practical application to help believers live out the Ten Commandments. Understanding how to live out these commandments brings vitality and victory to our walk with God.

BUY NOW

Paperback, 288 pages

Published January 1st 2004 by Moody Publishers (first published March 1993)

tags: theology, religion, christian living, christian

Book Quotes

“Not long ago I had a conversation with a Jewish rabbi who said to me, “You know, one of the greatest differences between our two religions is this idea that you’ve committed a sin just by desiring or thinking it. We believe you have to actually commit the physical act before it’s really sin. Otherwise,” he concluded with an incredulous chuckle, “we’d be sinning all the time!” “We are,” I replied. “That’s the whole point.” pg 167”

― Michael S. Horton

“We ought to care for those closest to us in terms of relatedness. After our immediate family, we ought to pursue our calling diligently as employees and provide just incentives (perhaps through profit-sharing) and reasonable care for our workers as employers. We should seek the wisdom of teachers and elders in society and look to them for leadership, while rejecting their folly when it is discerned. We must put our children and their education, both at home and in school, before our own entertainment, pleasure, and success. We ought not to tolerate insolence or haughtiness in them; nor ought we to punish them too severely, but should lead them as good teachers, by example and patient instruction.”

― Michael S. Horton

“We cannot, therefore, blame the courts, public schools, media, or government for our own theological unfaithfulness. We are the ones—the prophets and priests —who have contributed to this “Ichabod,” this departure of God’s glory in our time. Only by returning to sound, effective God-centered preaching and teaching can we restore the confidence not only of Christians themselves in God’s greatness, but of an unbelieving world that is more apathetic toward our benign, helpless, happy deity than hostile.”

― Michael S. Horton

“The prosperity evangelists talk about “decreeing” things into existence by the “force of faith,” just as God created the world by His faith-filled words. But according to scripture, faith is not a power. Faith itself can do absolutely nothing. If faith could save, heal, or bring prosperity, faith would be God. The New Age mystics and prosperity preachers, in attributing to faith the attributes of deity, are propagating idolatry. Faith is like a telephone wire—it cannot create a conversation between two people, but can only be the instrument through which two people communicate. Faith in anyone or anything other than the true God as He has revealed Himself in Christ and the written Word is idolatry, even if it is faith in good, worth-while, and noble things.”

― Michael S. Horton

“Love is more important than doctrine or holiness, we are told, so we must overlook the differences. But in actuality, whenever love and unity become more important than truth and loyalty to God Himself, they become idols.”

― Michael S. Horton

“Personal faith without a clear understanding of the object of that faith is idolatry.”

― Michael S. Horton

“The first commandment is not only a command, but a promise. In other words, one can even find the gospel in the commandment. Essentially, God is telling His people, “Look, I am the sovereign God of history who spoke this world into existence and led you out of slavery. I am the only one in this mess who can save you because I am all-powerful. But not only am I the only one who can save you, I want to save you, because I am gracious and merciful, in spite of the fact that you do not deserve it. Because I am sovereign, I am the only one who can save you; because I alone can unconditionally love, I am the only one who wants to save you and will continue to save you in spite of your sin and resistance.”

― Michael S. Horton

“If we begin with “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” what is the problem? From what does the unbeliever need to be saved? We have forgotten that people are condemned eternally, not primarily because they did not accept Christ, but because God did not—could not, if He remained just and holy—accept them. Unless we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness, God cannot enter into a relationship of covenant love and faithfulness with us.”

― Michael S. Horton

“We trust God when we place all of our weight on Him for our salvation and the liberation of our conscience from the painful realization that we have a shameful record in the history of His reign over us. By invoking His pardon and forgiveness, we are calling on the name of the Sovereign God, who is not only the judge to whom we must answer but the redeemer who meets the obligations of justice on our behalf. Thanksgiving is the only appropriate response.”

― Michael S. Horton

“Christians today are often encouraged to obey God so that they can get something out of it. “If I do this, God will do that,” many reason. But Luther insisted that the gospel—including the part about human helplessness and God’s omnipotent grace—needs to be so clearly preached that those who hear it will not need to be coaxed, harassed, or frightened into obedience. The gospel, not bare commands, is the motivation for thanksgiving. If we are unclear about this point, we cannot have thankful hearts.”

― Michael S. Horton

“We violate the first commandment when we worship, trust, invoke, or thank others in God’s place.”

― Michael S. Horton

“If we look at mankind in all its conditions, it is nothing but a vast, wide stable full of great thieves. These men are called gentlemen swindlers or big operators. Far from being picklocks and sneak-thieves who loot a cash box, they sit in office chairs and are called great lords and honorable, good citizens, and yet with a great show of legality they rob and steal.”

― Michael S. Horton

“It is rarely declared but often practiced: God is in charge of the area called “religion,” but life itself is ruled by a pantheon of deities: career, possessions, greed, self-esteem, family, friends, entertainment, fashion. Whenever we make a decision to violate God’s revealed will in favor of one of these “deities,” we are putting other gods before the one true and living God.”

― Michael S. Horton

“When did we ever get this notion that our elders have little to offer society? The years of practical experience, the knowledge of past events for first-hand historical accounts, and the wisdom for dealing with problems they faced before us have given the elderly the role of Wise One or Sage in most cultures around the world. But in our self-centered, individualistic, now-oriented culture, we can leave our debts from the past in a nursing home and our debts for the future to our children.”

― Michael S. Horton

“To serve our earthly superiors is to serve our heavenly Superior; therefore, our attention, efficiency, and diligence are to be motivated not by whether the boss shows enough respect for our work, but by the fact that God our heavenly Father is pleased when we help build a good car or house, use our time at work efficiently, or read and pray with our family. We can endure many of the frustrations of working conditions when we realize that the dignity of our work is measured by God’s satisfaction, not merely by our employer’s.”

― Michael S. Horton

“Jesus Christ is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). The Greek word used for image in the passage is eikon, from which we get the word icon. Jesus Christ is the only exact icon or physical representation of the invisible and unrepresentable deity. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). This is what paganism attempts with its idols—having a point of contact with God. By being close to the idol, the worshiper hopes to be close to God, for to his mind the idol possesses some degree of deity in itself. But just as God ridiculed the pagan idols as being blind, deaf, and dumb, so surely did Jesus Christ not only possess sight, hearing, and speech but give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the dumb. He was God in the flesh, walking among us, talking to us, eating with us, weeping with us.”

― Michael S. Horton

“this is what God requires of us: to fulfill our obligations, to be faithful to our contracts, to pay our debts, and to honor our word. Anything short is fraud, regardless of how much we think the other party “deserves” what we owe.”

― Michael S. Horton

“All it takes for us to be guilty of theft is one misspent hour at work; one item we “forgot” to return from the office; one personal long-distance phone call we made at the company’s expense; one overpriced item in our store. We see our sinless Lord, crucified for thieves not unlike the one hanging next to Him. Here was one person who never took what did not belong to Him, and who fulfilled all His obligations and paid debts He did not owe, and yet He hangs here next to a common thief, bearing His shame and guilt before God as though He had committed the crime. The thief crucified next to our Lord may have experienced the wrath of Rome that dark Friday afternoon, but because of the crucifixion of a Man just feet from him, he would not have to endure the wrath of heaven. All thieves who trust in Christ can expect to hear those same words on their death-bed from the spotless Lamb: “Today you shall be with me in Paradise.”

― Michael S. Horton

“there is a matter about which we as Christians must be especially sensitive. We steal from our employers even in the exercise of what we consider spiritual tasks. Complaints abound about workers reading their Bibles, praying, or witnessing on company time, reducing productivity. After all, the thinking is, Jesus is coming back, and this business will be burned up with everything else. We need to remember Paul’s advice: “Mind [our] own business, working quietly with [our] hands, so that [we] may win the respect of outsiders” by the quality of our work. We must earn the right to share the gospel, and we cannot win respect for our faith if it is perceived to corrupt our obligations.”

― Michael S. Horton

“What we moderns call “addictions” God calls “idols,” and all of God’s good gifts are meant to raise our eyes in thanksgiving to our benevolent heavenly Father, not to fix our eyes on the gifts themselves.”

― Michael S. Horton

Michael S. Horton

Dr. Horton has taught apologetics and theology at Westminster Seminary California since 1998. In addition to his work at the Seminary, he is the president of White Horse Inn, for which he co-hosts the White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio talk-show exploring issues of Reformation theology in American Christianity. He is also the editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. Before coming to WSC, Dr. Horton completed a research fellowship at Yale University Divinity School. Dr. Horton is the author/editor of more than twenty books, including a series of studies in Reformed dogmatics published by Westminster John Knox.... Show more

Get Bible verse every day in your inbox