Jesus said, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” (Mark 12:29-31; John 14:15-16)
Reclaiming Wanderers
Cole Mushrush is a cattle rancher near Strong City, Kansas. Each morning, he makes a pot of coffee, then fires up his laptop to see if any cows have roamed astray. The cows have electronic collars that give a small jolt if they cross the invisible fence boundaries created on a computer. Not many escape because the collars keep them hemmed in without the expense of a physical fence. The shock hurts less than a bee sting and can spare the cows from big trouble.1
Jesus Christ purchased freedom for His followers, but sometimes we wander and need a warning that we are crossing a line God has placed there for our good. Scripture says: “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out Your precepts.”2 Real joy and peace come when we live how the Lord created us to live.
We love God because He first loved us… In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. (1 John 4:19, 5:3-4)
As parents, we grieve when our children say they love us but don’t do what we ask. Let’s not grieve the Lord, beloved. That’s what this entire post is about.
God’s Law (Commandments)
In the Old Testament (“OT”), God’s law contains three categories:
- Moral law: Our unchanging ethical duties to the Lord and to other people.
- Ceremonial law: Appointed ways for OT Israel to worship and approach God.
- Civil law: Ways for governing OT Israel’s national life and administering justice.3
God’s moral law is infinitely important because it expresses His unchanging righteous character. It shows us the kind of Lord He is. He is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.4 God created all human beings in His image and likeness, and intends for us to imitate Him. God saves us in Christ to reclaim and set us back on the right track, fulfilling our created purpose.
God’s moral law (summarized in the Ten Commandments and unfolded in the rest of Scripture) is a transcript of His wise and holy mind. Jesus never deletes that; rather, the whole New Testament explains and illustrates the deeper meaning of God’s OT moral law. In this post, I will focus only on God’s moral law.
The ceremonial laws, including animal sacrifices, dietary restrictions, circumcision, and festivals, were fulfilled in Jesus, the true and final sacrifice. These all foreshadowed Christ.
The civil laws include penalties for crimes, property laws, and restitution regulations. OT Israel’s civil laws are not directly binding on modern nations, though their principles of justice and equity remain instructive.
Threefold Use of God’s Moral Law
Let’s think about the Lord’s commandments from three angles:
| Law is our Restrainer (judicial) | Law is our Tutor (pedagogical) | Law is our Guide (didactic) |
| The Curb | The Mirror | The Guide |
God’s Commands Can Restrain Us
The Lord gives His laws to control evil, like the cattle’s shock collars. But they cannot change our rebellious human hearts. Paul wrote: “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought spiritual death instead… The law is holy, righteous, good, and spiritual. But [without the Spirit’s help] I am unspiritual. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”5
God’s commands can protect righteous people from unrighteous ones to some degree. They provide a limited measure of outward obedience on earth, until Christ brings the final judgment. “God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man (Christ) He has appointed. God has given proof of this to everyone by raising Jesus from the dead.”6
God’s Moral Law Points us to Christ
Galatians 3:24 says: “God’s law was our guardian (disciplinarian, schoolmaster, teacher, tutor) to Christ, until He came, so that we might be justified by faith in Jesus.” God never gave His law as a way for people to earn salvation. Only Jesus could keep God’s commandments perfectly, and He did!
There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin,
Christ only could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in.7
| Jesus obeyed for us: His “active obedience.” | Jesus suffered for us: His “passive obedience.” |
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He said, “Here I am—it is written about Me in the scroll—I have come to do Your will, My God.” (Heb 10:7). |
“Christ Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds we have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). |
God’s moral law is meant to lead sinners to faith in Christ by showing us that we cannot save ourselves. God’s commands stir up the mud at the bottom of the pool of our hearts and show us how unclean we are. Like a skilled surgeon, the Lord wounds us by His law (like a surgeon with a scalpel) so that He can heal us. Jesus is the Great Physician! God shows us our moral flaws and weakness so that we might seek the moral righteousness and strength that only God the Son and God the Holy Spirit can give us.
God’s Commandments Guide Believers in Following Jesus
- Cheer up! You are far worse than you think.
- Cheer up! God’s grace is greater than you’ve ever dared hope.
- Cheer up! God’s Spirit works in your weakness.
- Cheer up! God’s Kingdom is more wonderful than you have ever imagined.
- Cheer up! Come on, let’s die to sin together! It’s a great way to come to life. (Pastor Jack Miller)8
Simon Kistemaker taught that God’s commandments are not just a set of do’s and don’ts. Rather, for the Christian, they are rules for thankful living as Jesus’ saved-by-grace followers. The Lord’s law shows us how to love, glorify, honor, and please the One who saved us. Only God, the Holy Spirit, enables us to love and serve God rightly, day by day.
Psalm 1: Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
I desire to do Your will, my God. Your law is within my heart… The Lord brought out His people with rejoicing, His chosen ones with shouts of joy that they might keep His precepts and observe His laws. (Psalms 40:8, 105:43-45)
Remember: Christians are not justified (forgiven and accepted) by keeping the law. We are justified by God’s grace (His undeserved favor) through faith in Christ (the obedient and righteous One). Now having been redeemed by Jesus, His believers seek to obey the Lord out of gratitude and love.9
More on Trusting and Obeying the Lord
- The Goal of Christian Living: Pleasing God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).10
- The Motivation for Christian Living: Loving God.11
- The Model and Example for Christian Living: Imitating Jesus Christ.12
- The Standards for Christian Living: The Ten Commandments, The Beatitudes, and the Fruit of the Spirit as summaries of the Bible’s moral and ethical teaching and as explained in the rest of Scripture.
- The Power and Strength for Christian Living: God the Holy Spirit.13
The Lord’s grace in Jesus does not make our obedience unnecessary; it makes our loving obedience possible. Christians do not obey in order to become God’s beloved children; we obey because, through Christ, we already are His beloved children.
I often use this song by Twila Paris as a prayer. Maybe it will help you.
Prayer
Covenant Maker, I made a start. Covenant breaker, I broke Your heart.
Your word is deeper, faithful and true. Covenant Keeper, make me like You.
Covenant Maker, You made a way. Infinite taker, I made You pay.
But Your love was deeper, faithful and true. Covenant Keeper, make me like You.14
Notes (various Bible translations): 1 Jim Carlton, “Virtual Fence Keeps Cows Home on Range,” The Wall Street Journal, (5-19-23). 2 Psalm 119:45. 3 See Westminster Confession of Faith, EPC Edition, Chapter 19. 4 Heb 7:26. 5 Rom 7:10-15. 6 Acts 17:31. 7 “There Is a Green Hill Far Away,” by C. Frances Alexander. 8 See Cheer Up!: The Life and Ministry of Jack Miller by Michael A. Graham (2020). 9 Ezek 36:26-27; Rom 8:3–4, 13:8-10; Eph 2:8–10; Titus 2:11–14, and many more. 10 2 Cor 5:15-17; 1 Cor 10:31; 6:19-20. 11 Mark 12:29-31. 12 1 Peter 2:21; Luke 9:23. 13 John 15:4-5; Phil 4:13; 2 Cor 3:18; Eph 2:8-10; Phil 2:12-13. 14 From the song “Covenant Keeper” by Twila Paris (1984).