Does the New Testament Teach Us to Obey God’s
Commandments and Laws given in the Old Testament?
By Stephen Xu
Many Christians are taught that
the commandments and laws of God given in the Old Testament
have been “done away with” or “abolished”
by the New Covenant and thus they are not obligated to keep
them. But is this a true and biblical teaching from the Word
of God? What does the New Testament really teach us with regards
to God’s commandments and laws? In this Bible study, I
will carefully examine the teachings in the New Testament on
this matter, which include the teaching of Lord Jesus Himself,
the teachings of the Apostles, and the confirmations found in
the book of Revelation.
THE TEACHING OF LORD JESUS
First of all, Lord Jesus is very clear
and consistent that ALL commandments and laws
of God ought to be kept and obeyed by the people of God. At
His Sermon on the Mount, He states clearly:
“Do NOT
think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I
did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew
5:17, emphasis mine).
Jesus fulfilled the Law by obeying and
keeping it in His earthly body, thus setting a great example
for His disciples to follow! The Law of God would in NO
WAY to be fulfilled if it were done away or abolished
by Christ. Therefore, it is the obligation of every follower
of Christ, even today, to fulfill the Law and Commandment of
God. Jesus further explains in Matthew 5:18-19:
“For truly I say
to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest
letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is
accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least
of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called
least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches
them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”
(emphasis mine).
Jesus confirms the unfailing nature of
the Law in another incident recorded in Luke 16:17:
“It is easier
for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter
of the Law to fail”.
Since every detail of the Law will stand
forever and be accomplished, Jesus expected His followers to
honor and keep the Law (including all the commandments of God)
as a way to demonstrate their sincere love for Him. He spoke
to His close disciples plainly at the night just before His
arrest:
“He who
has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me;
and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will
love him, and will disclose Myself to him … he who does
not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which
you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me”.
(John 14: 21, 24, emphasis mine)
Notice, Jesus made it clear that His commandments
are not His, but His Father’s who sent Him. And He said
a few verses later, “I have kept My Father’s
commandments” (John 15:10). Jesus Himself has
set an example for His disciples to keep all the commandments
of God the Father.
Keeping the commandments of God is not
only a way to show our sincere love for Christ our Savior, but
the Way to Eternal Life and the Kingdom of
God.
When asked by a young ruler about how
to obtain eternal life, Jesus gave a simple and straight answer,
“if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments"
(Matthew 19: 17).
Jesus confirms this truth in John 12:50,
"I know that His commandment is eternal life;
therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has
told Me".
At His concluding remarks in the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus said:
"Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father who is
in heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21, emphasis mine).
The will of God is fully reflected
in the commandments and laws that God gave to the Israelites
in the Old Testament. Jesus is saying that only those who faithfully
keep and obey these commandments and laws of God will be granted
the right to enter the soon-coming kingdom of heaven on earth!
And it is without any doubt that these commandments and laws
of God will continue to be the rules and laws based on which
Christ the King will govern His Millennial Kingdom.
THE TEACHING OF APOSTLE PAUL
Now, let’s turn to the teachings
of the Apostles in the New Testament to see if they concur with
the teaching of Christ on this matter. First, let’s look
at the writings of Paul, the most important contributor to the
New Testament. In the book of Romains, he openly proclaims:
“For we maintain
that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law
… Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never
be! On the contrary, we establish the Law”.
(Romans 3:28, 31, emphasis mine)
It is clear that Paul is NOT trying to
put down the Law by maintaining justification by faith only.
Rather, he clarifies that the justified are to hold
up and continue to abide in the Law.
A few chapters later, he confirms this notion by saying:
“For what the
Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did:
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an
offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that
the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit”. (Romans 8:3-4, emphasis mine)
How might the requirement of the Law be
fulfilled in us? Paul suggests we should walk according to the
Spirit of love:
“Love does no
wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment
of the law”. (Romans 13:10, emphasis mine)
Later on at his first letter to the Corinthians,
Paul emphasizes again that:
“Circumcision
is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what
matters is the keeping of the commandments of God”.
(1 Corinthians 7:19, emphasis mine)
In his departing word to Timothy, Paul
once again urges his beloved disciple to:
“… keep
the commandment without stain or reproach until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:14, emphasis
mine)
It is thus without any doubt that Apostle
Paul does NOT indicate that the commandments and laws of God
have been abolished or done away with; on the contrary, he advocates
establishing and fulfilling the Law through walking according
to the Spirit of love.
THE TEACHING OF APOSTLE JOHN
Next, I would like to examine if the teaching
of Apostle John confirms the teachings of Christ and Paul on
this matter. In the 2nd Chapter of the book of 1 John, John
specifically addresses this issue starting verse 3:
“3By this we
know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and
does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is
not in him; 5but whoever keeps His word, in him the
love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we
are in Him: 6the one who says he abides in Him ought
himself to walk in the same manner as He walked”. (1 John
2:3-6, emphasis mine)
As clearly as it is, John tells us that
our obedience to God’s commandments and His word is the
sign that shows our true knowledge of God and distinguishes
us from liars and fake believers. Further, by walking in obedience
to God’s commandments just as Christ Himself did, we have
the inner assurance that we are truly in Him (v5b-6), and He
also in us:
“The one
who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.
We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He
has given us”. (1 John 3:24, emphasis mine)
Another important truth revealed by John
is that only in those who are obedient to His word the approving
love of God has become a reality (v5a). John confirms this truth
two chapters later in the same book:
“For this
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments;
and His commandments are not burdensome”. (1 John 5:3,
emphasis mine, see also 2 John 1:6)
This perfectly parallels the word of Christ
in John 14:21:
“He who has My
commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who
loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and
will disclose Myself to him”.
Following his statement in 1 John 2:3-6,
John further clarifies that the commandments he is talking about
here are actually the commandments given by God in the Old Testament:
“Beloved, I am
not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment
which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is
the word which you have heard”. (1 John 2:7, see also
2 John 1:5-6)
THE TEACHINGS OF OTHER APOSTLES
Well now we have examined the teachings
of two major New Testament writers: Paul, the apostle to the
Gentiles, and John, the disciple Jesus loved. What then about
the teachings of other apostles, i.e. Peter and James, on this
issue?
Peter, one of the closest disciples of
Christ and prominent leader of the early Church, writes in 2
Peter Chapter 2:
“For if, after
they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for
them than the first. For it would be better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than having
known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed
on to them”. (2 Peter 2:21, emphasis mine)
Here Peter calls the commandment as “the
holy commandment” and “the way of righteousness”
which was “handed on to them” by the prophets and
Lord Jesus Christ. And he commands them to “remember”
it. (See also 2 Peter 3:2)
Concerning the words of Paul regarding
the law and commandments of God, Peter warns those who would
twist and distort Paul’s teaching:
“and regard the
patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to understand, which the
untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the
Scriptures, to their own destruction”. (2 Peter
3:15-16, emphasis mine)
Then, he gives exhortation to the faithful
and obedient:
“You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you
are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall
from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. (2
Peter 3:17-18, emphasis mine)
James, the brother of Jesus Christ, who
became the presiding Apostle at Jerusalem, is also a strong
advocate of the law, which he calls “the royal law”
(James 2:8) and “the law of liberty” (James 2:12).
See what he says in the book of James Chapter 2, starting verse
8:
“If, however,
you are fulfilling the royal law according
to the Scripture, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,’
you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing
sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors”.
(James 2:8-9, emphasis mine)
It is obvious that at the time of his
writing, the Law, i.e. the Ten Commandments, was still in force
within the church and among Christians. It acted as the standard
and measurement of their everyday lives. And every commandment
of the law ought to be kept and obeyed, as James continues in
the next few verses:
"For whoever keeps
the whole law and yet stumbles in one point,
he has become guilty of all. For He who said, ‘DO NOT
COMMIT ADULTERY,’ also said, ‘DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.’
Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you
have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and
so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty".
(James 2:10-12, emphasis mine)
THE CONFIRMATIONS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Finally let’s look at the confirmations
found in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 12, Apostle John
was given a series of visions in heaven, which concern the days
of the great tribulation/persecution in the end times. We see
that after the dragon (Satan) was thrown down to earth, having
great wrath (v12), he first “persecuted the woman (Israel)
who gave birth to the male child (Christ)” (v13). But
God helped the woman (Israel) and delivered her to the wilderness
(a place of safety). The Scripture tells us that:
“So the dragon
was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the
rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold
to the testimony of Jesus”. (Revelation 12:17,
emphasis mine)
“The rest of her children”
are the true followers of Christ, who are spiritual “Israel
of God” (Galatians 6:16). Notice they are described as
those “who keep commandments of God and hold to the testimony
of Jesus”! It is upon these obedient commandment-keeping
followers of Christ that the wrath of Satan falls, as he “went
off” to “make war with” them.
At another incident in Revelation, the
Word of God once again confirms the character of the true saints
of God:
“Here is the perseverance
of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their
faith in Jesus”. (Revelation 14:12, emphasis
mine)
Lastly, Revelation 14:12 describes those
who will live with God the Father and Christ throughout eternity
in the New Jerusalem:
“Blessed
are they that do His commandments, that they may have
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city” (KJV, emphasis mine).
CONCLUSIONS
As we have seen from the Bible verses
above, numerous passages in the New Testament harmoniously echo
the same truth: the commandments and holy law of God is eternal
and should be kept by true followers of Jesus Christ at all
times.
Doing so, we demonstrate our sincere love
to Him. Doing so, we prove and have inner assurance that we
are truly His. Doing so, we set our feet on the right way toward
eternal life and the soon-coming Kingdom of God on earth.
We shall then follow the example that
Christ set for us during His life on earth to fulfill the whole
law of God through walking in obedience and according to the
Spirit of love.
While in the world as the end is approaching
we will have tribulations because of our commitment to the commandments
of God and our faith and testimony of Jesus, we are promised
by God to receive His blessings and inherit eternal life and
the kingdom to come!
Scripture
quotations taken from the New
American Standard Bible
Questions and comments of this Bible Study
may be sent to Stephen at here.
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