In John 14:15 it states “If you Love Me, keep My commandments”.
I have experienced a plethora of comments by christians about this statement. They range from “I can keep the commandments with God’s help” and others who say the 10 commandments were done away with at the Cross.
So what is Jesus really saying?
You may be thinking well I am going to add to the plethora of thoughts on what this means. I guess I am, but read on regardless.
We all know the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 detail the things that not only show up the sin in our life but it also the Old Testament is littered with commands to keep those commandments.
Then we find when Jesus walked this earth He gave us 2 commandments. These are found in Matthew 22:33-40 as follows:
37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 22:34-40
In essence Jesus is saying these 2 commandments that He gave us is an explanation of the 10 Commandments (see verse 40). So what is Jesus saying her? Well i think He is saying the following:
The Commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul has three elements. If you read the first three of the 10 Commandments you will note the first three are about giving ALL your heart, mind and soul (all of you) over to God. Yes the first three are about our relationship to God.
The fourth Commandment is the Sabbath commandment, which I believe this about giving time to God. This also is about our relationship to God.
So, if you give ALL of your heart and mind and soul and time to God the result will be that Christ will live in you through the Holy Spirit. These are the first 4 Commandments in the Old Testament.
The next 6 Commandments are about our relationship to our fellow “man” and these commandments will be done by Christ who is in us.
Remember, it is Christ who kept the commandments and it is Christ whom the Father sees in us.
In other words God the Father sees Jesus in us and I must no leave out that He (the Father) also sees that we are covered by the blood of Jesus.
Why is it that we need to be covered by the blood of Jesus?
Well that goes back the the sanctuary services in the Old Testament. Every year the blood of a pure (without blemish) Lamb was sprinkled onto the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. God was actually present above the Mercy Seat. Interestingly, under that Mercy Seat was three things 1) 10 Commandments 2) Aaron’s rod that budded and 3) manna from the desert. These items reveal how we fall short of what is expected. However, when the blood of the animal sacrifice, which represents Jesus death and blood, is sprinkled onto the Mercy Seat God who is above the Mercy Seat cannot see through the blood of Christ. That is He cannot see through the blood and see the things that condemned us. You see God does not see the things that condemn us because of Jesus spilt blood. Wow what a loving God we have.
So, it is the Holy Spirit that does those last 6 commandments in our lives, as a witness to others to draw them to Jesus. It is the Father that sees Christ in us and thus He sees the Commandment keeper, the perfect One and we accounted perfect in God’s eyes.
Remember the story of Peter walking on the water? As soon as he took his eyes off Jesus he went into the sea. It is the same with us. If we take our eyes off Jesus or in other words do not continue to submit ourselves completely to God we will sink into the “sea” like Peter.
Lets not forget that it is the Holy Spirit, upon request of the Father, that is always influencing us to give all of ourselves to Him. All we have to do is submit ALL of us and our time to God and by doing that we are obeying Jesus commandment to “keep My commandments”. It through submission that we keep His commandments and never about our efforts. We wouldn’t even submit ourselves unless the Father asks the Spirit to influence us to draw to the Father.
I am so thankful that Jesus summarised the 10 Commandments by giving us 2 commandments. These 2 commandments shed light on the 10 Commandments. The 10 show us what we can do to “keep the commandments”. That is, choose to completely submit ourselves to God.
My Biblical Thoughts 