Power for Obedience
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.
Some who claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour have said, “No one can keep the law.” On this point the words of Christ are decisive. He states, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” And He is our example in all things. . . .
In the Sermon on the Mount Christ plainly declared His mission. “Think not,” He said, “that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). He came to carry out literally every specification concerning which the prophets had borne testimony. He who existed with the Father before the creation of the world, Himself gave the prophecies recorded by holy men–the prophecies that He came afterward to fulfill. . . .
Christ’s position with His Father is one of equality. This enabled Him to become a sin offering for transgressors. He was fully sufficient to magnify the law and make it honorable. . . . He separated the precepts of Jehovah from the maxims and traditions of men. He held up the Ten Commandments as an expression of truth in all its purity. . . .
Christ came to the world to counteract Satan’s falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep. Taking humanity upon Himself, He came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that God has not made a law that man cannot keep. He showed that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven, that he would not rebel.
Christ possessed the same nature that man possesses. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted. The same power by which He obeyed is at man’s command.
That I May Know Him p. 292
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Prayer Requests
—– Could use some prayers our way. Nicole
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Dear Friends,
One night some years ago, Junior, our Chihuahua, slipped out of the door while we were buying some food from the Schwan’s man. None of us noticed Junior’s disappearance. An hour or two later, Ronnie Jay missed him. We searched the house to make sure that he was not sleeping in some little out-of-the-way place as he likes to crawl into and under things to sleep. He was not there.
Ronnie Jay and I began searching the neighborhood. We drove very slowly, looking carefully between each trailer. No Junior. After searching the area where he usually went, we decided to go by home and see if he had returned. As we drove by, there was Junior jumping and barking and trying to get into the gate. He knew he was in BIG TROUBLE. Ron heard his desperate barks and had come out to let him in just as we drove into the driveway. Had the gate been open, Junior would no doubt have pretended to have been there all the time just like Sandy (the dog we had before Junior) always did. Evidentally, Junior had seen us searching for him and knew he had better get home right away. He wanted to escape the punishment that he knew he would get for running away.
How many times we are like Junior. We do those things that we know a Christian should in order to escape the punishment that is soon to follow. Outwardly, we look genuine, but inside our heart is not right. We are no more sorry for our disobedience than was Junior. This was the type of sorrow that Esau had when he had to reap the consequences for selling his birthright. Esau was sorry for the results not for the sin itself. Paul tells us, “For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Heb 12:17
Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer 17:9 David adds, “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Ps 53:2, 3 Isaiah declares our condition, “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa 1:5, 6
How much we need a Saviour! How much we need a change of heart. How much we need His cleansing power! Praise God! He has promised to give us this precious gift of grace! “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:26, 27
When we recieve this new heart, we will desire to please our Great Creator more than we want to please ourselves. Our thoughts, our attitudes, our motives, our words, our actions will change. Paul declares, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor 5:17 John exhorts, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” 1 John 3:18-24 Jesus assures us, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 14:21; 15:10, 11
May we “take heed lest there be in any of [us] an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Heb 3:12 May we, out of a heart filled with love for our Blessed Redeemer, obey His Commands for He bids us, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15 May we, someday soon, see our Great Creator face to face, feel His Loving Arms around us in a joyful embrace, and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matt 25:21
Rose