I have been reading posts about the issue of obedience of the commandments of God from CC members for the past few months. Some say we are saved by grace only and do not need to keep the commandments because they are done away with and others say that Christians still need to keep them even if they are saved.
I decided re-read the New Testament regarding the issue and one of the issues that stood out for me in the bible regarding the commandments of God, is the devil’s attitude towards them.
1 John 3:8 says that the devil sinned from the beginning and therefore was the first being to break the commandments of God. In Revelation 12:17 it says that the dragon (devil) attacks those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
There is also Revelation 14:12 that says “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
From these verses, it is reasonable to conclude that the devil hates God’s commandments and hates those who keep them. The devil attacks Christians who fulfil 3 requirements. The first is that they keep the commandments of God and second they have the faith of Jesus Christ and third have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
It does not say that he attacks those who have the faith of Jesus Christ only.
What we learn from revelation is that the faith of Jesus Christ (Saved by grace through faith and justification by faith) is just as important as keeping the commandments of God. Notice that Revelation mentions the keeping of the commandments twice in these two bible verses. And these verses are in line with James 2:17 that says, Faith without works is dead.
We need to question whether we are on the right path if we are in agreement with the devil who is opposed to the keeping of the commandments of God.
We also need to consider that God is just and fair to all his creatures. If he kicked the devil out of heaven for sinning (disobeying the commandments), and says that it is fine for us to disobey them, then the devil needs to be allowed back into heaven!
Also if it not necessary to obey the commandments after we are saved, then why does the devil keep tempting us to sin, if it does not matter if we disobey? It does not make sense.
Agreed. I often share a speeding ticket analogy to try to explain the law and what the Messiah came to do, along with our continued responsibility towards obedience:
1) Caught speeding = sin
2) Get a Big Ticket = wage of sin
(obeying the law at this point does nothing to
unto the ticket. Need to go to court.)
3) Traffic Judge = The Most-High
4) Attorney = The Messiah
5) The Gift = Ticket/wage paid
6) Expectation Afterwards = Do not speed. Do our best to obey the law. Continuing to disobey the law makes the attorney's gift worthless. On the other hand, stop trying to do the attorney's specific job (i.e. the animal sacrifices/rituals) because that makes His gift worthless too (which is what the Galatians were trying to do). It's the equivalent of representing
yourself in court, which is foolhardy.
Those things were just examples to show the specific job the attorney was going to do. He's here now so that old set of laws can be tossed out.
7) Additional gift to help us obey = A Driving Instructor (i.e. Holy Spirit)
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I've found that The Most High's law is the only set of laws in the existence of any kingdom or government where the common sense approach of navigating the law is somehow reversed for an approach that makes one who seeks to be law-abiding "guilty" while the one who avoids actively trying "innocent". At the most basic level, one's intuition has to scream that something just isn't right with that; that we need to look deeper. At least it did for me.
If scripture proves that satan is the god of this current world, and satan's feeling towards The Most High's commandments is contempt; that scripture says satan has deceived the whole world, then wouldn't it stand to reason that he's somehow deceived the world to believe trying to obey is wrong and not trying to obey is right? Just a subtle twisting of the text here...and slight retranslation of the text there...and voila!
Just a little leaven is needed to puff up the entire living bread.
Trying to obey laws in any other government or kingdom is ok, but not The Living God's law; not in His kingdom...
Over 1 million laws in the USA alone on the shoulders of every single citizen for a multitude of scenarios and situations, but 613 laws on the shoulders of a citizen of the kingdom of Yah are unbearable...nevermind the fact that just like the USA's laws (and the laws of any other government for that matter), not every law applies to every person or for every scenario. 613 is just too many, even though only 10 really apply at all times, which hang on 2 principles of love.
On top of that, what we then run into are our brothers and sisters claiming that any attempt at obedience is using one's *own* strength, even though it's not we who live any longer but the Messiah who lives in us, and the life now living in this flesh is (supposed to be) He Himself and not us (
Gal 2:20 paraphrased).
They say we're trying to work to be saved, even though we've already been saved by grace (the gift) through faith and are now told do good works over and over by the apostles to
prove the faith we have in that gift (because faith without works is dead); that we're going to be judged by our works in the end, literally said by the Messiah.
It all gets muddled and confusing when one attempts to quote passages back to them to explain the harmonious relationship of it all because we've associated many of those passages with a belief system that's been hammered into our minds so strongly that explaining the practical application of what's being said in real life doesn't dispel the firmly held doctrine.