THE TERMS OF THE NEW COVENANT

Yeshua said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" .. ..

WHAT ARE YESHUA'S COMMANDMENTS? "If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:10)

An analogy is presented of keeping His commandments just as He kept the Father's commandments. The Father's commandments, were of course, the Law. Yeshua kept His Father's commandments in order to stand in for the Adamic race as a perfect sacrifice, without sin.

These same commandments He presented to the people and taught on in the temple. He summarised them into two main principles of loving God and loving our neighbour, as the essence of His Father's commandments. "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40 from Deuteronomy 6:5).

The apostles take these two principles and teach them as new covenant commandments, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery", you shall not murder", .. ... .. ... .. ... and if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in the saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." Love does no harm to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:9-10)

Here are some of the ten commands quoted specifically in relation to the summary Yeshua made of them. Paul has only quoted those in relation to our neighbor, and not any of those that refer to our relationship with Almighty God; only five of the six that apply there, omitting honoring parents.

"And this is the commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also" (1 John 4:20-21). Again, what is being addressed is one's relationship to our neighbor that requires more observance. The statement here of loving God and loving one's brother is a reference to the summary that Yeshua gave of the ten commands, as being the "commandment we have from Him".

Both Paul and John are using the ten commands which are the Father's commandments, as being Yeshua's commandments which He asked us to keep to abide in His love. This is how they interpret His Word to them when He spoke to them and said, "keep My commandments". And the reason for that is that His commands did not originate in Him but from the Father. He kept His Father's commandments - the instructions (sometimes called the law, or commandments) as He said.

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; ... .. ... .. ... He who does not love Me, does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." (John 14:23-24)

His commandments = Father's commandments (John 15:10; Matthew 5:17)

OBEDIENCE IS THE PROOF OF LOVE

"He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me ... " (John 14:21)

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him," and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:3-6)

"And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it" (2 John 2:6)

Having a genuine relationship and loving Him, are equated with keeping His commandments. Our obedience to His commandments are the proof that we love Him and the evidence that we have a personal relationship with Him. By living in His Law we live in His Love and are recipients of His blessing.

"Now he who keep His commandments abides in Him, and He in him." (1 John 3:24)

Yeshua constantly taught the people to keep the commandments. "And He said unto him, Why do you call me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17) - being a partaker of His life depends on keeping the commandments. You need to be in the Vine to be a partaker of its life; to have the sap flow through the branch.

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14) - entering into the immortal and incorruptible state also depends on keeping His commandments. The authority to enter New Jerusalem is limited to those who do so.

KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS = OBEDIENCE = eternal life

Yeshua set us the example of obeying His Father's commandments, even unto death, "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Hebrews 5: 8-9)

The power of His salvation is available to those who walk in obedience to Him. It is a relationship of walking in His love and being a partaker of the blessings which come from doing that. it is not a burden to keep His law.

YESHUA SAID LAW WAS NOT DONE AWAY

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law, or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17)The word used here for 'destroy' is KATALUO and has the meaning of destroying utterly, or overthrowing completely (Vine). And with that statement, He issues the warning that, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; ... .. ... (Matt.5:19), and also that breaking one of the least of the commandments will effect one's status in the kingdom.

In verse 18, He emphasises this by saying that not even the jots and tittles in the Hebrew text, will "pass from the law till all is fulfilled". This means that it will not be made redundant until it is fulfilled.

The word "pass" - CHOREO [S 5562] according to Vine's Expository Dictionary it means, "to make room, retire, pass"

Seeing that Yeshua's ministry is still ongoing and there is much of prophecy still to be fulfilled, we have to understand that the Law is still in effect and has not been made redundant or put out of operation.

If the Law is not done away and there is a recompense to every violation of it, how careful we should be!

"Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For is the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him." (Hebrews 2:1-3)

Some of Paul's writings would seem to contradict this, but it is a wrong understanding based on false teachers' rendition of the scriptures. The problem is added to, by the fact that the translators have rendered the text according to this misunderstanding, and so, it is only by going to the original text, that we uncover the fact that in many cases where Paul said that we are not under the law now in the new covenant, he was intending the understanding that we were not under the power of the law, imposing it's penalty upon us because of sin.

We are living in the new covenant within the framework of the Law, but not under legalism to the Law. We live in the spirit of the Law by the power of His life. We are in submission to Him, and not to a set of rules, as of the letter of the law, which Paul refers to, and which is legalism.

We live in a faith-based relationship with Him through His grace, and walk in obedience to His commandments. The difference between the old and the new covenant, is that we have now received an impartation of His life and are enabled to keep His commandments, and live the life He lived, in obedience to the Father.