** When Christ came, He put an end to the law for righteousness (Rom. 10:4).
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
Anyone who advocates the keeping of the law for the purpose of right standing with God is going back to an Old Testament system of law that has been abolished and is making the work of Christ void in his life.
The New Testament believer is under the dispensation of God's grace. We are not under the law. That doesn't mean the law has passed away. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the law to fail. The law hasn't failed.
It has been fulfilled (Mt. 5:17). Matt5: 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
18 For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.…
Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law for us and imputes to us that righteousness is not based on our performance but on our faith in Him.
The law was never given for the purpose of justification.
It was totally powerless to save. It only showed us our need and pointed us to a Savior.
The law was not made for a righteous man and it still serves a purpose for those who are not born again. For those who do not accept Jesus as their Savior, the wrath of God, which the law produces, abides on them. In this present age, Jesus has come not to condemn men but to bring them grace and truth.
Those who do not believe on the Son are presently under the wrath of the Old Testament law, and, unless they repent, will suffer the wrath of God eternally.
Why would you not accept the Savior - Jesus Christ and escape the wrath of being under the Law?
Thank God for His grace today.
Does that mean that we just throw the Commandments out?
No, Absolutely not!
To do so would be shear folly and destruction; as they all represent the Will and Way of The Lord God, which is to help direct us as found in the Commandments!
The Commandments were meant to show that we, humans could not possibility obey them all - thus they serve as a beacon or over view so that people have some idea of right from wrong!
Ultimately we can not live perfect and save ourselves therefore we needed a Savior - who came as Yeshuia or Jesus the Christ to redeem us through the love and Grace of Almighty God !
The Commandments are a guide to show us the right way!
The final solution is to seek the Truth (Matt 6:33), come to love the Lord God,
***The Greatest Commandment
by Mark Jones
When one of the religious scribes asked Jesus which commandment is
most important, He answered: “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and
with all your strength” (Mark 12:28–30). Christ essentially quoted Deuteronomy 6:4–5,
thus showing that the requirement for God’s people has always been the
same, and, indeed, always will be the same, even into eternity. What,
then, does it mean to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind,
and strength?
JESUS FIRST
He who answered the scribe’s question also happened to be the One who, unlike any other person since the fall, knows what it is to love God perfectly with all of His being. Jesus had one duty on earth: to love His Father.
He did not merely avoid sinning while on earth, but by recognizing the Father’s presence with Him, affirmed that He “always” did what was pleasing to God (John 8:29).
In fact, Jesus kept God’s commandments in order to abide in His Father’s love (John 15:10), for if He had shrunk back even once, His Father would have had no pleasure in Him (Heb. 10:38).
Just as Christ said to His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), the Father could have said the same to Christ. Jesus kept His Father’s commandments because He loved Him. The Shema was Christ’s great confession. His heart, soul, mind, and strength were in perfect unison as He loved His Father with a perfection that should humble us to the very core of our beings.
HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH
The Scriptures are clear that the heart is central in loving God; we are to “keep [our] heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).
Those who are good are those who have good stored up in their hearts (Luke 6:45).
Purity of heart is required for those who love God and wish to worship Him (Ps. 24:4). Indeed, only those with pure hearts will see God (Matt. 5:8), whether in this life by faith or in the life to come by sight (1 John 3:2–3).
We are not only to love God with all our heart, but also with all our soul (synonymous with “spirit”). In our devotion to God, our soul is responsible for our highest spiritual exercises; it is the seat of our emotional activity. Christ’s obedience was nowhere more tested than in the garden of Gethsemane, where His soul was “very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt. 26:38).
The soul expresses the sorrow and joy that inevitably accompany the life of faith (Ps. 42; 32:2). Thus, without wishing to press the distinction too far, it would seem that the “heart” relates to the will and the “soul” to the emotions.
To love God with our whole mind involves the seat of our intellectual life. However, to love God with our mind is also to love Him with the right dispositions and attitudes, those that place our intellect in strict subordination to God’s revelation of Himself, not only by thinking about Him, but by submitting our thinking to His revelation. Because of our finiteness, we will never get to a point where we have no need of learning more about God.
We read in Isaiah 50:4 that God had given the “servant” (that is, Jesus) “the tongue of those who are taught,” and that “morning by morning” the servant was awakened by God to be taught. Christ’s love for God meant He applied not only His heart and soul, but also His mind. If it was necessary for Jesus to be taught so that He could love God with His mind, how much more is it necessary for His people?
To love God with all our “strength” brings together all the various elements that have been discussed so far. Our heart, soul, and mind are distinguished in the words of Christ, but they should not be thought of as three distinct and separable pieces of our natures. Just as God’s attributes cannot be divided, so these elements of our being cannot be divided. In other words, just as God’s power is His love is His wisdom is His eternality is His knowledge, and so on, our “heart” is our “soul” is our “mind” is our “strength.”
To love God with all of our strength, then, is to love God with all our being, which involves the whole man, both body and soul. That explains why the word all is repeated four times by Christ (Mark 12:30). Moreover, all four commandments are prefaced by the Greek preposition ex, thus highlighting that we love God not only with our whole heart but from our whole heart.
POSSIBLE OR IMPOSSIBLE?
Certainly no one disputes that Christ loves His Father with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength. But not all Christians are persuaded that they can approach such love. However, as Augustine famously prayed, “God give what You command and command whatever You will.” By the Holy Spirit, Christians can, in a real sense, love God.
Psalm 119:34 says, “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.” Keeping the law with the “whole heart” may be understood legally or evangelically. Legally, only Christ loved God with His whole heart because the law requires perfect conformity, of which we are incapable.
Nonetheless, in an “evangelical” sense (to quote the Puritans), God, out of His love and mercy in Christ, enables us to love Him truly but imperfectly.
Evangelically, our love for God is always flawed and incomplete, and we must be ever repenting of our failure to love Him fully. Still, we have love for God, while unregenerate hearts know nothing of it. If our love for God arises from a heart regenerated by His Spirit, we may be said to love God with our “whole heart,” though such love remains imperfect until our glorification.
This should be a great source of encouragement to us. Why? Because our hope is in Jesus, who fulfilled this command perfectly in our place so that we do not have to stand before God with only an imperfect love as our hope for entering heaven. Second, because of our union with Jesus, what is true of Him becomes true of us.
God enables us to obey this command and love Him, albeit imperfectly, with all that we are so that God is delighted in the love He receives from His people. After all, an intense desire to love God with all of our being is the only proper response to the One who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32).
JESUS FIRST
He who answered the scribe’s question also happened to be the One who, unlike any other person since the fall, knows what it is to love God perfectly with all of His being. Jesus had one duty on earth: to love His Father.
He did not merely avoid sinning while on earth, but by recognizing the Father’s presence with Him, affirmed that He “always” did what was pleasing to God (John 8:29).
In fact, Jesus kept God’s commandments in order to abide in His Father’s love (John 15:10), for if He had shrunk back even once, His Father would have had no pleasure in Him (Heb. 10:38).
Just as Christ said to His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), the Father could have said the same to Christ. Jesus kept His Father’s commandments because He loved Him. The Shema was Christ’s great confession. His heart, soul, mind, and strength were in perfect unison as He loved His Father with a perfection that should humble us to the very core of our beings.
HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH
The Scriptures are clear that the heart is central in loving God; we are to “keep [our] heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).
Those who are good are those who have good stored up in their hearts (Luke 6:45).
Purity of heart is required for those who love God and wish to worship Him (Ps. 24:4). Indeed, only those with pure hearts will see God (Matt. 5:8), whether in this life by faith or in the life to come by sight (1 John 3:2–3).
We are not only to love God with all our heart, but also with all our soul (synonymous with “spirit”). In our devotion to God, our soul is responsible for our highest spiritual exercises; it is the seat of our emotional activity. Christ’s obedience was nowhere more tested than in the garden of Gethsemane, where His soul was “very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt. 26:38).
The soul expresses the sorrow and joy that inevitably accompany the life of faith (Ps. 42; 32:2). Thus, without wishing to press the distinction too far, it would seem that the “heart” relates to the will and the “soul” to the emotions.
To love God with our whole mind involves the seat of our intellectual life. However, to love God with our mind is also to love Him with the right dispositions and attitudes, those that place our intellect in strict subordination to God’s revelation of Himself, not only by thinking about Him, but by submitting our thinking to His revelation. Because of our finiteness, we will never get to a point where we have no need of learning more about God.
We read in Isaiah 50:4 that God had given the “servant” (that is, Jesus) “the tongue of those who are taught,” and that “morning by morning” the servant was awakened by God to be taught. Christ’s love for God meant He applied not only His heart and soul, but also His mind. If it was necessary for Jesus to be taught so that He could love God with His mind, how much more is it necessary for His people?
To love God with all our “strength” brings together all the various elements that have been discussed so far. Our heart, soul, and mind are distinguished in the words of Christ, but they should not be thought of as three distinct and separable pieces of our natures. Just as God’s attributes cannot be divided, so these elements of our being cannot be divided. In other words, just as God’s power is His love is His wisdom is His eternality is His knowledge, and so on, our “heart” is our “soul” is our “mind” is our “strength.”
To love God with all of our strength, then, is to love God with all our being, which involves the whole man, both body and soul. That explains why the word all is repeated four times by Christ (Mark 12:30). Moreover, all four commandments are prefaced by the Greek preposition ex, thus highlighting that we love God not only with our whole heart but from our whole heart.
POSSIBLE OR IMPOSSIBLE?
Certainly no one disputes that Christ loves His Father with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength. But not all Christians are persuaded that they can approach such love. However, as Augustine famously prayed, “God give what You command and command whatever You will.” By the Holy Spirit, Christians can, in a real sense, love God.
Psalm 119:34 says, “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.” Keeping the law with the “whole heart” may be understood legally or evangelically. Legally, only Christ loved God with His whole heart because the law requires perfect conformity, of which we are incapable.
Nonetheless, in an “evangelical” sense (to quote the Puritans), God, out of His love and mercy in Christ, enables us to love Him truly but imperfectly.
Evangelically, our love for God is always flawed and incomplete, and we must be ever repenting of our failure to love Him fully. Still, we have love for God, while unregenerate hearts know nothing of it. If our love for God arises from a heart regenerated by His Spirit, we may be said to love God with our “whole heart,” though such love remains imperfect until our glorification.
This should be a great source of encouragement to us. Why? Because our hope is in Jesus, who fulfilled this command perfectly in our place so that we do not have to stand before God with only an imperfect love as our hope for entering heaven. Second, because of our union with Jesus, what is true of Him becomes true of us.
God enables us to obey this command and love Him, albeit imperfectly, with all that we are so that God is delighted in the love He receives from His people. After all, an intense desire to love God with all of our being is the only proper response to the One who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32).
** Because once you accept the Gospel message of Christ then - your eternal salvation becomes sure!
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