The Commandments No Longer Pertain To Me

The commandments no longer pertain to me because I am saved, I'm not under the law. REALLY?? Have you ever heard a fellow Christian say this? Sadly, I have. There are those in the religious world and even among misguided Christians who ridicule the idea of keeping God's commandments. They claim that keeping God’s commandments has nothing to do with their salvation. Are you of this same mindset? In other words, the thought process is that we're saved regardless if we continue to sin and disobey what The Word teaches? That, somehow as Christians we have been given a free pass to live any way we desire after being saved by God's grace? That isn't what Paul claimed in Romans 6:1. He stated, "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace?" We can slip from time to time as we learn and grow spiritually, but to say we don't have to obey God's law just because we are now saved by grace?? Jesus Himself said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." That's pretty clear!
If an outspoken Christian, including myself, objects and says that we are supposed to keep God’s commandments even though we are saved from sin, the charge of legalism is leveled against him or her. Is it true that keeping God’s commandments has nothing to do with salvation? Hmm? Are we legalists because we say that those who follow Christ must keep His commandments? I want to examine these questions in light of the New Testament scriptures.

Often, Jesus Himself is cited as one who criticized the Pharisees for being commandment keepers. However, such was not the case. We should note that Jesus never condemned anyone for keeping God’s commandments. Jesus, however, did condemn the Pharisees for placing their own commandments above God’s! This is an entirely different situation. Matthew 15:1-9 is one such instance. Jesus confronted the Pharisees in regard to transgressing God’s command to keep their own tradition (Matthew 15:3). He said that they had made God’s commandment of none effect by their tradition (15:6). Then He says that they, in fact, have taught for doctrine their own commandments, the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9). Keeping such commandments should not be placed into the same category as keeping God’s commandments. Are we guilty as well? Do we take God's commandments and make them into what we want them to mean and thereby make our own commandments and rules? Do we take God's command from the Bible to, "Love one another" and pervert it to mean a homosexual relationship is acceptable because God said we are to love one another? Believe it or not, I have heard this from people who use it to validate their sinful lifestyles. Have we not made our own LAWS pertaining to the acceptance of homosexuality? Yes, we have! People will take scriptures and twist them to fit their own beliefs and write their own "laws" to make those laws fit what they want. Yet, they will ignore scriptures from the same Bible that plainly point out how wrong they are. Where do these biblical words fall in light of today's diverse and ever-changing society : "And men, leaving the NATURAL use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly (improper, crass, shameful, ill-advised) and receiving in themselves that recompense (payment for) of their error which was meet" (appropriate, fitting, fair) NOW WATCH THIS: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate (degenerate) mind, to do those things which are not convenient" (fitting, suitable)- Romans 1:27-29. I think those biblical words nullify our newly written man-made laws regarding today's acceptable views of homosexuality. This is plain. People who know better, who were taught by parents or pastors, who have been to church and heard, who refuse - as Romans 1 says - "to retain God in their knowledge" claim those who keep the commandments and believe all Christians should, are labeled as too strict, too religious, too legalistic!

To equate the desire to keep God’s commandments with the desire to keep man’s commandments in place of God’s commandments is to pervert the words of Jesus and entirely miss the point. Jesus expected others to keep God’s commandments. Because the Pharisees had set aside God’s commandments, Jesus’ anger was kindled against them. In contrast to ridiculing commandment-keeping, Jesus Himself preached it! In John 14:15 Jesus said to the apostles, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Loving Jesus is dependent upon keeping His commandments. To say that we love Jesus, yet fail to keep his commandments is hypocrisy at best and outright lying at worst! Jesus reiterates in John 15:10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” Note two things about this scripture. First, Jesus equates keeping commandments with abiding in His love. When you note John 14:15 (that you can’t love without keeping the commandments) along with John 15:10 (that you can’t keep the commandments without abiding in love), one gains a very firm conclusion: we can love Jesus if and only if we keep his commandments. But second, what is even more remarkable about John 15:10 is that Jesus himself is a commandment keeper! He abides in the love of the Father through keeping the Father’s commandments. Here is a one-two knockout for those who claim that commandment-keeping has nothing to do with salvation.


The apostle John explains further in his first epistle just exactly what the relationship between commandment-keeping and salvation is. In 1 John 2:3, 4 we read, “And hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He that says, I know Him and doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The simple conclusion is that one cannot come to know God without keeping the commandments. If you don’t know God, you can’t be saved (2 Thess. 1:8). The apostle John comments further in 1 John 5:2, 3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” We cannot even love God without keeping God’s commandments. In fact, John defines love for God in exactly these terms. He said, “This is the love of God.” Don't forget, love for God is the first and greatest commandment! Loving our neighbor is like this commandment, but ultimately comes second (Matthew 22:37-39). My relationship with God always takes precedence over my relationship with other people. This means that I must be concerned about keeping God’s commandments.


The bottom line is this. Those who ridicule commandment-keeping, ridicule Jesus himself, for He was a commandment keeper (John 15:10). Those who ridicule commandment keepers, ridicule the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was only promised to those who kept Jesus commandments (John 14:15-17). And those who ridicule commandment keepers, ridicule God the Father because we can neither know Him or love Him without doing such (1 John 2:3; 5:2). Such has nothing to do with being a legalist; and has everything to do with our being saved. What would have been the purpose of Jesus dying for you, removing all sin, giving you new life just so you could purposely ignore God's commandments and return to your old ways of sin as a dog returns to its vomit or a sow to her wallowing in the mire? The bottom line is, Peter wrote that those who persist in continual sin embody the wisdom of Proverbs 26:11, "the fool returns to his folly just as a dog returns to eat his own vomit." Similarly, they are like a pig who can be scrubbed clean but soon returns to wallow in the muck & mire again. This is a particularly cutting analogy as pigs and dogs were two of the most despised and unclean animals in Jewish thinking. In other words, Peter was referring to people who were never truly changed in their nature. Dogs and pigs do what dogs and pigs do. Those truly in Christ don't return to a former sinful life, habit, or vice. Through faith and by God's power, true believers are changed in their very nature, becoming more and more like Jesus over time through the power of God at work in them. This does not mean perfection, but it does mean a changed life and a desire to adhere to God's law. Those who show evidence that they were never changed, it stands to reason, are still exactly what they used to be. Jesus could not have said it more simply, "If you love me, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS."
Until next time,
-Pat-