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Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second [is] like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40
The Holy Law of God was inscribed in the heart of man at creation. Man was
created in the image of God, but man’s willful disobedience to God’s command “not
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” plunged him and all
his posterity under the curse of God’s Holy Law (Genesis 2:17; 3: 17-19).
Man usurped God’s Divine prerogative to decide for him what was good and evil;
consequently fellowship was broken, his foolish heart was darkened, he was
blinded to the truth, and rendered powerless to do anything but evil.
Nevertheless, The Holy Law of God remains a perpetual and universal rule of
conduct for all men. Hence, man’s great dilemma: apart from God man is
powerless to obey the Holy Law, yet God requires obedience for fellowship.
The answer to man’s dilemma is the Lord Jesus Christ. We can find
acceptance with God only in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ (“…we are
accepted in the Beloved” Eph 1:6).
We
are not obligated to obey God’s Law to merit salvation, to remain saved, or to
be made righteous in God’s sight; all these benefits are found only in the
Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saved by Grace ("For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: [it is] the gift of God"
Eph 2:8), we are kept by the power
of God ("...kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:5),
and His righteousness has been imputed to us
("...righteousness might be
imputed unto them also" Rom 4:11).
However, an unwavering commitment to obey God’s Word will be
characteristic of all saved persons ("And
hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep
his commandments." 1 John 3:22). By obedience we “glorify
God and enjoy Him forever.”
I - IV
is a summary of our duty to God;
V - X
is our duty to our neighbor. However, all sin is against God.
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