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929. The Two Greatest Commands from an Obsolete Law (There Is a Better Way)

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A legal eagle from the Pharisee Bible College desired to test Jesus by asking him what the greatest commandment was from the law. Jesus gave him two ... love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength—and love your neighbor as yourself. The fact is ... nobody has ever lived up to these commands—of which the entire law and the prophets would hang. Jesus was answering a law-based question with a law-based answer. After all, this was before the cross and the law was still in place for these Jewish people.

Church corporations and others have emphasized the "two greatest commandments from the law" as a foundation for Christianity, but these were demands from a law that is now to be considered obsolete—a law Jesus came to deliver and redeem the Jewish people from so they could receive life. Religion leans towards putting the cart before the horse—probably because it's more work. Let's get this turned around in the right direction. The New Covenant is not based on how much you love God, but how much he loves you. This results in returning that same kind of love to Him from the heart instead of being "commanded" to do so as a soldier taking orders (which isn't really love). If a believer in Christ is having trouble walking in love towards others, it's likely because they have not yet understood or believed in the perfect love God has for them.



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831. Things Seldom Heard in Church: We Don’t Love God Because Law Commands Us

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Continuing from last week’s thread … in John’s first epistle, he explains the love of God from the perspective of the New Covenant. This also connects with our love for Him and for others. Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments were under the law (from the first covenant given to Israel). Jesus answered with this from Matthew 12: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Nobody has ever achieved being able to follow those commandments which had the entire law wrapped up in them. This is quite different from what John stated, where the truth revealed that it wasn’t that we loved God, but He loved us. As we begin to receive and understand the fullness of this perfect love, it allows us to freely love God apart from the commandment—because we want to do so—and that love which abides in us also enables us to love others in the same way God loves us. Perfect love casts out fear and provides us with confidence in the day of judgement. It’s better than depending on your own inconsistent strength and abilities which always leave people falling short.



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727. “This Is Love: Not That We Loved God, but That He Loved Us”

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Following up on last week’s program about the New Covenant command to believe in Jesus and love one another … Under the law, it was considered one of the greatest commandments to put forth all of one’s strength and effort to love God and each other. The entire law revolved around this and yet nobody had ever done it before the cross.

In this New Covenant Jesus has established, what is so different about our love for God and for each other compared to the old way? John admitted nobody had ever really loved God … the gospel is not built upon a foundation of our love for God - once again it was about what God has done by giving us His Son and demonstrating His love for us - and the results are the difference between light and darkness.



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721. The Greatest Commandments in the Law (But Nobody Has Ever Done Them)

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Religious teaching will tell us to work at keeping the law of commandments, but it’s only a small portion that we hear about while most of it is ignored—which causes hypocrisy to loom very large. And when a commandment from the Old Covenant is broken, modern-day legalists will disobey the Law’s requirement to execute punishment—sometimes including death for what we consider to be minor offenses.

Even the greatest commandments from the law (according to Jesus) caused people to fall short of the perfect requirement … because nobody has ever loved God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. Nobody has loved God by being diligently obedient to the command, but now we’re able to do so—and to love one another—not due to our effort of obedience, but because we have come to know and believe in God’s love for us. (1 John 4:10-16). It’s a different way—and a better covenant.



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638. Summarizing the Scripture (Part 9): What the Church Hasn’t Told You About the Law & Commandments

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While scores of Christians throughout the centuries have been told to embrace the law which came through Moses, the Apostle Paul and other New Testament writers received a revelation that is quite different from that approach. While church teaching tells us some of the law has ended, while other parts are still in effect, the law itself declares nothing can be added or deleted. Approval was never given to alter it. While those who claim believers should strive harder to keep the commands, their hypocrisy is exposed by eliminating large, inconvenient chunks... and nobody can seem to agree on exactly what should remain on the list. Our program this week will provide vital information on the ministry of the Mosaic law, and why God replaced it with something far better.



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556. Why Jesus Taught Two Covenants (Part 13): The Good Samaritan & Self-Justification

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What inspired the story of The Good Samaritan? A lawyer was testing Jesus with a question about the law that came through Moses. The Scripture states he was trying to do what other Jews did under the law — they attempted to justify themselves. In order to truly justify himself, the lawyer was told to do according to what the law says. The problem with this? Nobody had ever done it before. While the world has encouraged us to be the good Samaritan, Jesus is actually the one represented by this person in the parable.



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527. Is the Law An Expression of God’s Character?

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It has often been taught that the law that came through Moses is an expression of God's character. We frequently begin to assume such phrases are actually found in the Bible. If this is an accurate statement, we should ask the question as to whether God went through a change or if his character went through some sort of transformation. Of course, we know God doesn't change, but with the New Covenant replacing the first one, we find there was a change of priesthood (Jesus Christ) and therefore a change of law occurred. Although the law was a reflection of God's perfection, we should avoid comparing it with God himself and realize it was Jesus (grace) who was manifested as an expression of God's character.



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510. The Ten Commandments in the New Testament

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Legalistic Christians who feel our message of free and unlimited grace is considered erroneous and hyper, will argue that all of the top ten commandments are found in the New Testament. They'll reason that this means they are meant to be included as a part of the New Covenant. Jesus stated one of the greatest commandments was to love your neighbor as yourself, which is not one of the Ten. So just exactly how many of the 613 laws within the law are we supposed to abide by? This week, we'll take a look at some of the context surrounding the references to these commands found in new covenant writings and reveal the true intent of the entire law.



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