PaulSacramento wrote:The issue is WHY you keep those commandments, is it out of faith or because you "want something" from God? ie" salvation?
You keep his commands because you love him and desire to be with him. God is offering a place in his kingdom which he has eloquently described to us... if we don't 'want' what he is offering then why should we get it? So yes the children of God 'want something' we definitely want something. Faith is the belief that we can attain what he is offering us by following his word, by following the example he sent us to show us what the proper way is to attain that goal. People run a race to attain a goal, without wanting something what is there to strive for?;
1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
There are several types of desire one is a selfish form the other unselfish. If we desire to please God then we will do our best to perform what he desires from us.
1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently...
So if we desire to be with God in the place he has promised to those that love him with all their heart and soul then we will do those things that please him.
PaulSacramento wrote:It isn't about having faith in Christ means you don't have to follow the "big 10" or any other commandment, nope, its actually more about WHY you have faith and why are you following the commandments of God?
Indeed it is the why. Why take the time to perform actions that would please God? Having faith in Christ is to have faith in his sacrifice replacing the old sacrificial law. Having faith in Christ is the belief that by following his example we can become holy as we were commanded. Since you cannot become holy and break the intent of Gods greatest two commands then we can't be holy and break any of the commands that were derived from them which would be the big 10. If we say we love God and yet continue to lie steal cheat murder covet then we are lying because God clearly states that none of these will be allowed into his kingdom. All the 10 commandments are still valid because they hang from the two greatest commandments to love God and our neighbor. Any other command that is derived from them is also still valid.
PaulSacramento wrote:Those that live by the law, shall be judged by it, not only on IF they kept it but WHY they kept it.
Those that live by faith, if they are to be judged, will be judged on their faith alone and PART of the judgment will be HOW they demonstrated that faith and WHY.
Those that lived by the sacrificial laws for their salvation will be judged by it. Those that put their faith in Christ for the remission of sins have faith that we can be saved from the curse of breaking Gods commands. Christ didn't come to remove his fathers definition of sin, he came to provide an acceptable way to overcome the flaw in the temporary system of sacrificing animals to remit the curse of sinning. Sacrificing something outside of ourselves is not an acceptable sacrifice to the living God.
Rom 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Rom 9:32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
Their simple belief that they could sacrifice animals alone to appease God is where the old law fails because it doesn't account for the inward man. In their time they could be all manner of evil inside as long as they didn't show it outside and they believed that this was all the works they had to perform to be saved. This was not a living faith, a living faith comes from the inside and is expressed to the outside. People who are not liars or muderers or coveters on the inside don't exhibit these things on the outside either. We can know them by their fruits. If you say you love God with all your heart and soul and yet outwardly break his commandments then we have a measure to define the truth of the assertion. If we love God then we will honor what he honors and we will do our best to avoid doing what displeases him but the key here is that there must first be love. Just having a desire to keep existing is not enough. We have to want what he wants because we love the things about him that he has shown us.
PaulSacramento wrote:Those that break the 10 commandments and profess they have faith in Christ will be judged on what they have done, why wouldn't they? Of course, as humans, we are not perfect and we will sin and break the Law and that is why we NEED God's Grace through Jesus.
Here you appear to agree with my position. that professing faith in Christ and continuing to disobey the 10 is wrong.
As humans we can err this is a given but if God has shown us what sinning is and we can clearly understand what those things are then how can we be saved by faith if we continue in disobeying what has alread been clearly defined? the 10 commandment were directly derived from the two greatest commandments. The first four commandments describe to us how God desires us to shown our love for him;
1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Each of these four commandments defines for us those things that are important in Gods POV to show that we love him. There is one day and only one day that he made holy and he wants us to keep it holy just as he does. The seventh day sabbath occured on the seventh day of the creation week and our week has the same seventh day still followed by the Jews. If we feel we can choose the first day of the week to keep holy or any other of the six days then we are not following the desire and direct command that God has defined as a method to show him love. We would be putting ourselves in the drivers seat to tell God what we feel is acceptable to us in showing love to him by not following his word as he stated it.
The proper way to instruct others is to tell them that Gods commandments that were originally written in stone must now exist within our hearts;
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts...
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
One cannot sin wilfully after knowing about Christ unless the laws and commandments that define what sin is are still in effect, and now with the new covenant Christ has magnified his fathers laws so that they are also considered in effect on the inward man as well and since one of those commands is to 'remember to keep the sabbath day holy' then we should always assert the honoring of that day just as God has defined that we should if we love him.