Commandments for Christians" /> Commandments for Christians" /> Commandments for Christians" />

What are Christ's commands for believers under grace?  

 

And because we see the word "commandment" in the New Testament, does that mean we are talking about the Law of Moses, Israel's Sabbaths, and the like? (no).

 

1 John 3:23    And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3-4). "If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Yes, commandment keeping is essential!

 

The believer living under grace whose focus is on Mount Calvary must keep God’s commands.  This does not imply the believer is under Mount Sinai, indeed the opposite is true.

 

Obedience to the Word of God is essential in each and every dispensation. The key question is this: What commands are we to obey?

  • "And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).
  • "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT" (Ephesians 5:18).
  • "This I say then, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
  • "Likewise RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
  • "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD, AS THOSE THAT ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13).
  • "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK YE IN HIM" (Col. 2:6).
  • "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye WALK WORTHY of the vocation [the believer’s high, heavenly, holy CALLING] wherewith ye are called" (Eph. 4:1).
  • "And that ye PUT ON THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
  • "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT" (Eph. 5:8).
  • "If ye then be risen with Christ, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1).
  • "PUT ON therefore, AS THE ELECT OF GOD, HOLY AND BELOVED, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. 3:12).
  • "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and LET US RUN WITH PATIENCE THE RACE that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2).

 

The key here is the believer is to WALK IN THE SPIRIT, rather than under the law principle. The believer in his new nature delights in will of God, and is not under the lawkeeping prinicple of Sinai. That Sinai law demands from man's flesh what man cannot produce, but to walk in the Spirit is where victory and holy living comes.

 

Notice the following compilation (not taken out of context either) of the believers relation to Mount Sinai and the LAW OF MOSES.  Walking in the Spirit and according to Christ's commands (which are twofold-to believe on Him, and to love one another) are very different than the LAW principle which demands of the human flesh what it cannot achieve.  To place one's self back under the Law principle after conversion leads one into the struggle of Paul in Romans 7:9-12, where what he calls "death"  ie... defeat are common. The law demands one thing from man, and the commandments of a Christian differ from the Mosaic economy of things. The believer walks on a different plane, in the Spirit.