Are We Really Able to Obey Christ’s Commands?
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As we read the Old Testament, we behold the Ten Commandments God gave to the nation of Israel. Later, we learn the nation of Israel was unable to obey them.
The New Testament, however, contains commands given by the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are just as authoritative as the Ten Commandments. Are we able to obey Christ’s commands?
Why Are Commands So Important in the Bible?
We can use the word law for commands. Hence, every command given by God (and remember, Jesus Christ is God), is part of His good and holy law. Each command is for His glory and our good (Romans 7:12). The Old Testament is driven by the Law, but the overarching narrative of the whole Bible is God’s grace as evidenced by His perfect plan of redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God created Adam, the first human, as a perfect being, made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Adam had everything, as evidenced by what Scripture tells us in Genesis 1:26-31. Most importantly, Adam had a direct union with the Lord God. God gave Adam freedom within the Garden of Eden except for one thing. God commanded Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
One command, and Adam chose to disobey it. As the federal head of all humanity, Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” God could have left man to his sinful state and eternal separation from Him, but God is good, and He loves us. What Adam did was no surprise to the Lord. There was and is no “plan B.” God gave us the Law to point us to our Savior.
When God gave Moses the tablets of the Law (the Ten Commandments), He did so for four main reasons:
- The Law reveals God’s holy nature and how we are to relate to Him.
- The Law convicts us of sin (by the power and direction of the Holy Spirit).
- The Law reveals our need for a Savior.
- The Law gives us a template for life in Christ’s grace.
Therefore, God’s commands serve His glory and our good.
The Law cannot save anyone, for it condemns (Romans 3:19-20). But because of God’s redemptive purpose, the Law reveals sin (Romans 3:20). The Holy Spirit intercedes in the lives of the elect (Romans 8:29) to convict us of sin and, through that, we realize we need a Savior (John 16:7-8). As believers in Christ, we seek to obey Him and His commands as best we can, not for salvation but because we love Him and are thankful and joyful for what He has done, is doing, and will do.
The Gospel saves us from God’s wrath, for His glory, and to joyfully serve Christ.
Where in the Bible Does Christ Give Commands (the Law)?
Two passages where Christ gives commands give us great lessons about God’s grace:
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the Lord Jesus gave us what are known as the Beatitudes (which means blessings). He began each of them with, “Blessed are you…”
In Matthew 22:34-40, a lawyer who was a Pharisee tested Jesus with a question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Pharisee who sought to test Jesus was treated to a test for all of us. Who of us can love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind? Who of us can love our neighbors as ourselves? In the Sermon on the Mount, not one of us is pure, merciful, or meek.
Jesus was giving the crowds, the lawyer, and us the Law. Not one of us has ever, for even a millisecond, loved the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind. We’ve never been the people Jesus described as blessed in Matthew 5-7. And we never will be this side of heaven. Jesus is the only One who ever loves like that; only He is pure and meek and merciful as He described in the Sermon on the Mount.
The last words Jesus spoke directly to the lawyer were:
“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” In the middle of Matthew 5, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20).
Hebrews 10:1 says, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.”
Are We Able to Obey Christ’s Commands?
In a word and in the spirit of pure obedience, no. Is Christ capricious, then, in telling is to do what we cannot? Absolutely not. Jesus Christ came to testify to the truth and to save the lost. If by following a command we can be saved, then the Pharisees were right. But Jesus called them out for who they were, and pronounced seven woes on them in Matthew 23.
Just as the law reveals our need for a Savior, it also points to Jesus as the only one who can save us. Romans 8:1 encourages us, “For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He has fulfilled the Law and, though the commands of the Lord are holy and good, only Christ can obey them to God’s satisfaction. To that end, Christ’s work on the cross is the propitiation that stays God’s wrath against all of us who cannot go even one day without sinning (disobeying His commands). That’s all of us.
We, however, aren’t justified by the law (the commands). We are justified by the gospel — by Jesus Christ. Our only rest is from and in Him. As He sanctifies us, it’s the gospel that gives us the freedom to obey God’s holy law more and more under grace (Ephesians 2:5). Why? To know our Savior more and reflect Him to others (2 Corinthians 2:14).
John 1:16 says, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” “Upon” can be stated, “instead of.” But it’s not a lessening of grace. Ligonier Ministries writes, “If we receive grace and truth through Jesus and if to truly believe Moses’ testimony in the law is to believe in Jesus, then grace and truth were available under the Mosaic administration. It is not the absence and presence of grace that are contrasted but the lesser measure and greater measure of grace.”
We are required to obey God’s commandments (John 14:15), but our obedience can only be produced by the Holy Spirit’s work in and through us (1 Corinthians 15:10). And so, we strive, by His grace, to believe, repent, and obey. Yet it’s not us, but His Spirit at work in us that sees us to completion in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:12-13).
If we pay close attention to Paul’s greetings and doxologies in his epistles, we see an abundance of grace prayed for the churches. And we sorely need a regular infusion of His grace through reading and studying His Word (including the commands), being taught by our pastors and elders, prayer, and through the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and baptism.
When you gather with your church and partake of the Lord’s Supper, remember the wonderful truth, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8)! We are together not for commands, but for God’s grace. In the words of Paul, “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible” (Ephesians 6:24).
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