How, When and What

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.   1 John 5:3

Commandments – Now we know how we keep the commandments –  by guarding, attending and obeying.  Now we know when we keep the commandments – today.  And finally, we are ready to ask what  these commandments are.

Does Jesus free us from the Law?  Are we no longer under obligation to God’s regulations for living?  Has grace set aside rules?  It might seem so.  Paul clearly says that Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4) and the believer is dead to the law (Romans 7:4).  So, how can John tell us that we demonstrate our love for God by keeping His commandments if they no longer apply?  Weren’t the commandments made null and void when Jesus died on the cross?  Isn’t Augustine right when he said, “Love God, and do as you please”?

It will take a lifetime to plumb the depths of the relationship between law and grace.  Someday we will sit at the feet of Jesus and hear Him elaborate.  But for now the quick answer is this:  Jesus died in order that I might obey.  Before His death, my obedience was simply impossible.  Burdened with guilt, corrupt and diseased with sin, I had no chance of being obedient.  Even my best deeds were as filthy rags.  But, by grace, Jesus swept all that burden away.  He cleared the register so that I might turn my life to God and be the obedient child I was intended to be.  The law as a means of atonement is finished.  It could never lift me from my hopeless condition anyway.  But now that I am free from the condemnation of the law, I am also free to demonstrate my gratitude by careful, attentive obedience.  I do not obey in order to be blessed.  I obey because I have already been blessed.

What, then, are these commandments?  James boils it all down to a simple, pragmatic phrase: knowing what is right and doing it.  That hasn’t changed at all.  Proverbs 21:3 says the same thing.  So does Exodus 20.  It’s all pretty clear.

But this leaves us with a question:  Do you know what is right?  You can’t do something out of obedience if you have no idea what is required.  Do you know God’s law?  Do you know what God says about family issues, business practices, politics, marriage, legal disputes, charity, neighbors, strangers and the poor?  If you don’t, how can you keep the commandments?  Or did you think it was good enough to “follow your heart?”   Jeremiah has something to say about that! (Jeremiah 17:9)