Big Idea: As born again believers, our desire is to keep God’s commandments because it is the expression of Christ in us.
3 Reasons we should keep God’s Commandments:
We have been _____________ ______________
1 John 5:1 (ESV) — 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
Romans 1:16–17 (ESV) — 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Our life on this earth in the keeping of God’s commandments and the loving of the brother is sourced in the work that God has accomplished in us and the work he desires to do through us by our exercising of faith.
God’s Commandments are _______________________
1 John 5:2–3 (ESV) — 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments…
Psalm 119:1-16
God’s Commandments are not ______________________
1 John 5:3–4 (ESV) 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Matthew 23:4 (ESV) 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
Galatians 2:19–21 (ESV) 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
When we were dead in sin, the law was something that was placed upon our shoulders, as a weight to carry. In the new birth, the law is placed within our hearts as something to be expressed. (Jeremiah 31:33)
In Christ, we no longer obey the law because it is an external weight bearing down on us, but because it is the inner expression of the new man within us.
Questions to Consider
What does it look like to exercise faith in Christ for your sanctification?
What desires of the old man are you putting to death because of your new life in Jesus?
