My comment -- this sounds super-spiritual,
but it's not.
This is an attack on the obligation of
all men to obey all God's commandments in all circumstances. This is
an attack on God's authority. He demands PERFECT, ABSOLUTE obedience
from ALL men. The gospel is not a message of God lowering His demand for
perpetual holiness from his creatures. Neither is it a message of men being
freed from the obligation to obey the WRITTEN CODE of God. Rather, the gospel
is a proclamation that totally sinless Jesus Christ obeyed the Law perfectly
for the Elect. It is an announcement -- The Just God WILL JUSTIFY the
sinful Elect by imputing Christ's obedience to the Law into their accounts.
Romans 3:31 Then is the Law annulled through faith?
Let it not be! But we establish Law.
## The Law has not been made void. Believers enter heaven
SOLELY because Christ ESTABLISHED the Law for them. No imputed righteousness
(no garment -- see the parable) then no reward.
When I hear things like, "We serve God because we want to,
not because we're bound by a written code" I can see someone TRYING to
SEPARATE what God has JOINED together.
Yes, believers do want to serve God (because they have full
assurance that God loves them as His elect). And, YES, believers have no fears
of condemnation by the Law. "You are no longer a slave, but a son (Galatians
4).
But the ONLY way believers know how to obey God is BY THE LAW. The
Moral Law and additional the New Testament precepts are CLEAR commands
that MUST be obeyed. This Written Code is the only source of knowledge for
God's requirements. When Christ speaks of the Greatest Two Commandments --
LOVE God and your neighbour -- He is in NO way abrogating the 10
commandments. He is summarising the Moral Law. Elsewhere, John says, "By this
we know that we LOVE God, if we OBEY His COMMANDMENTS."
Christians are MOTIVATED to serve God's Law by the knowledge
that their sins are forgiven, and the Law was fulfilled for them. See the
woman in Luke 7, who loved much because she knew she was much forgiven.
And believers are OBLIGED to obey every single precept of
the Moral Law (and the NT precepts too), because it is in God's written
code.
The idea that the written code has less authority on NT
believers than OT believers would mean that God's demand for holiness has
changed (and thus, God has changed.) But He is the same, yesterday, today and
forever. And He gives some the perfect righteousness of Christ, whilst His
wrath abides on the rest. The first group have no condemnation in
Christ Jesus --and have full assurance that they have the imputed
righteousness. The others have been reprobated based on God's will, and
will be go to hell. But all must obey the written code.
Andrew C. Bain
Sydney, Australia
