If We Have Faith in Jesus, Do We Still Have to Keep the Law?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here is this week’s question:“Dear Dave and Tom, I’m 18 years old and live in Southern California.I don’t know how long I have been listening to you and reading The Berean Call, but I am thankful for the work that Jesus is doing through you guys.My question is:After our conversion and our faith is placed in Jesus, what relationship to the Ten Commandments do we have?Does Jesus give us the power to keep them or do we ignore them altogether?”

Tom:

Well, this is a question about law.Certainly the law is written upon our hearts, but also, Jesus gave the law too, to Moses.So, how does that affect us, Dave, are we under the law?

Dave:

Well, we have the law written in our conscience, Romans Chapter Two says.It’s written in every human conscience.So, we know that it is wrong to lie, steal, commit adultery, murder and so forth, every human being knows that.By the way, it is not written in any human conscience to keep the Sabbath.That’s the one command that is not there.If we have any Seven Day Adventists listening, give us an answer for that.That command was not for anyone but the Jews because they were in a particular covenant relationship with God.So, what do we do?The law has not been done away with, its been fulfilled in Christ.It is still wrong to do what the law says we shouldn’t do and it is still wrong not to do what the law says we should do, such as to love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Tom:

The great commandment.

Dave:

Now, the question is, How do we do it?No one ever kept all of the Ten Commandments.That’s why the penalty of sin was pronounced by God and, we’ve talked about it, man is going to either be made new, a new creature in Christ Jesus, to be in a new universe, or he will be excluded from that universe forever.So, the scripture now says we are not under the law, meaning we are not trying to keep the law in order to save ourselves.In the Old Testament God said, Here are the Ten Commandments.This do and you will live.My judgment will not come upon you, you will not die, all of your diseases will be healed and so forth, if you keep the law 100%.Okay, nobody did it.We are not trying—

Tom:

Did God think that anybody could do it?

Dave:

No, he knew they wouldn’t, but still he has to give his law.

Tom:

It’s the point of the law.It was not that they could do it, but to point to something else.

Dave:

Right.Well, the Bible says, “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”Galatians tells us the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.When we see—we have written in our conscience we shouldn’t do this, but we do it, we know we have sinned.The conscience, of course, God gave everyone, so it brings about the knowledge of sin.Paul said, “I wouldn’t know that it was wrong unless the law told me.”But the law is written in every human conscience.The law really is based upon God’s righteousness, his holiness and it tells us how we should behave and so forth.

Tom:

Dave, there’s an interesting thing about the law written upon our hearts; about the Ten Commandments.Let’s take it to the animal kingdom.If you want to see a distinction between animals and human beings, it’s really reflected in that.What animals worship the great commandment, Love the Lord your God with all your hearts?We never find little groups of animals gathered together making churches, or in rituals or whatever, but we also don’t find within the animal kingdom this conscience.What they do they do not with regard to morality but with regard to being natural?

Dave:

Right, that’s a big difference.There’s no kind lion and they don’t have any morals or any conscience about killing.But most people are—well, I think most people, religious people, Protestants, Catholics, I’m thinking particularly of Muslims.They think that their good deeds and their bad deeds will be weighed in a balance.The last day, the day of judgment, which by the way, Muhammad said the last day won’t come, you will never get to the last day where you will enter paradise, if your good deeds outweigh your bad you will never get to that until you have killed every Jew.This is in the Hadith, this is what Muhammad said.Okay, we’ve quoted it before, but the idea that good deeds would be weighed in the balance with bad deeds is, any human conscience knows that that won’t work.There is not a court of law in the world anywhere that would accept that.I got a ticket for speeding the other day—yes, I tell the judge, but I’ve driven more times within the speed limit than I have exceeding it, so my good deeds outweighs my bad.That won’t work!There is no court of law that would accept that.The penalty, the ticket’s written up; the penalty has got to be paid for that.And, if I didn’t commit another crime, if I lived a perfect life from now on, that still would not make up for having sinned in the past.That requires a penalty, okay?So, that won’t work, but it’s written in our conscience.Everyone knows this.

Tom:

Dave, this questioner writes as well, “Does Jesus give us the power to keep them and that you were alluding to, on what basis then do we keep them, why should we keep them?”

Dave:

Right. We are under the law of grace, the law of liberty in Christ Jesus.It is by the power of Christ that we are able to live.We don’t try to do good works in order to keep from going to hell and get to heaven; we do it because we love the Lord who bought us pardon from our sins.We have eternal life as a free gift.Now, what I do I do it out of love for him, not trying to earn my way to heaven because that will not work.So Paul says, “By the law is the knowledge of sin.By the deeds of the law no one can be justified.”And then he goes on in that chapter, “How could God be just then and forgive us, he wants to forgive us.”It’s only because Christ paid the penalty in our place which we never could do.And he wants to give us this pardon as a free gift if we will accept it.