#5kMay2020 Blog (Day 12)

This morning I was blessed to head out on my daily 5k with my bride and one of our daughters, Piper. Four of our children are rocking the #5kMay2020 challenge, but none of them have been able to run the entire 5k… yet. This morning Piper was the first one to do it.

You go, girl!

I was feeling a little sluggish today, even after the morning run, but I was able to get some work done from home and then go out for a second run in the afternoon. Today is “Two-A-Day Tuesday”, after all.

Some people have been wondering why I keep doubling up my runs, getting more than just a 5k and often running twice a day during this challenge. The answer is simple—I have set my sights on the #5kMayhem Bonus Challenge. I have never run that far in a single day, and I plan to crush it on May 30. So all of these extra runs and bonus miles are just preparation for a victorious #5kMayhem.

With that said, I have to admit that I was still feeling quite a bit sluggish on my second run for the day. The wind was blowing in all of the wrong directions, and it was a bit of a struggle fest. But I did it. I’m pretty happy about that.

Daily Run: My first run of the day, with Jodi and Piper, was what we call our “Arrowhead Route”. We ran 3.1 miles in 31 minutes and 9 seconds, which is an average pace of 10:01 per mile.

For the second run, I originally intended to just do 60 minutes of “easy” jogging, but as I neared the 60 minute mark, I realized it wouldn’t take much longer to round up to 8 miles… So I opted for 8 miles, instead. I ended up running 8 miles in 1 hour and 2 minutes, at an average pace of 7:44 per mile. This was the same route that I ran last Tuesday afternoon (on Cinco de Mayo), but I was quite a bit slower today. Maybe next week I’ll get more pep in my step…

Daily Bible Reading: I believe that one of the most common misconceptions about Jesus is the idea that He did away with, or somehow broke, the Ten Commandments. This is simply not true. By His own admission, He did NOT come to do away with the Ten Commandments, but to fulfill them (see Matthew 5:17-20).

Jesus was the Word made flesh. He was the perfect personification of the Law. His life is exactly what our lives would look like if we obeyed the perfect Law of God, including the Ten Commandments.

If Jesus would have actually broken the Ten Commandments, as many have foolishly contended, not fully considering the implications of the claim, He could not be our sinless sacrifice. He would not be a “Lamb without blemish”. He would be flawed, and He would die for His own sin—not for ours.

So it is clear that Jesus did NOT break the Ten Commandments, and neither did His sacrificial death put an end to the Law that He fulfilled.

Some have said that the Apostle Paul makes the argument that Christ’s work on the cross put an end to the Law, ushering in what they call “the Age of Grace”. It is true that Jesus personified grace in a way that should be modeled in our lives, but He also personified truth. Grace and truth.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14, ESV

The truth is that the perfect Law of God still stands. I am currently working on a book that will go to great length to not only prove this point, but to give practical ideas of what that looks like to lovingly live this out in the modern age. Pray for me to finish it before I die.

The Apostle Paul simply did NOT believe that Jesus did away with the Ten Commandments, nor did he ever teach such a thing. Any interpretation of Paul’s writing that would intend to make that case is simply a misunderstanding of what he was trying to say. Here is a clear example of what Paul did write and believe concerning the Ten Commandments:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:8–10, ESV

Grace and truth. Obey the Law, because to obey the Law is to love God and your neighbor. Paul uses four of the Ten Commandments to make that point. Clearly he would not use something that he saw as obsolete to make his point. That would be self-defeating.

In today’s Bible Reading, we see Jesus illustrating this same idea.

…when the Pharisees gathered to [Jesus], with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Mark 7:1–5, ESV

Here in this passage we see that Jesus (or, more accurately, Jesus’ disciples) are being accused of breaking a Law. But it is clear that there is no actual Law in question, there is merely a “tradition of the elders”, and “many other such traditions”. 

Jesus rebuked them by quoting Isaiah and then saying:

“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Mark 7:8–13, ESV

So Jesus used the fifth Commandment to describe to them how their traditions have been used to actually reject the Law, not to fulfill it.

There is an old story about a woman who prepared the Thanksgiving turkey each year by cutting off the legs and cooking them in a different pot from the rest of the bird. One year her daughter asked, “Mommy, why do you cook the legs in a different pot?” The mother simply answered, “Because that’s how we always do it.”

“But why?” the girl asked.

“Well, that’s how my mother taught me to do it. I guess you’ll have to ask her.”

So the little girl asked her grandmother, “Why do you cut the legs off of the turkey and cook them in a different pot?” The grandmother simply answered, “Because that’s how we always do it.” 

“But why?” the girl asked.

“Well, that’s how my mother taught me to do it. I guess you’ll have to ask her.”

So the little girl approached her great-grandmother and asked, “Why do you cut the legs off of the turkey and cook them in a different pot?” The great-grandmother laughed a little and said, “That is silly, isn’t it. I always did it that way because I didn’t have a pot big enough to fit the whole bird.”

This story, along with the exchange in Mark 7, causes me to pause and wonder, are there any silly traditions that have been passed on to me which keep me from obeying God rather than helping me to obey Him?