"THEY THAT KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD"

"THEY THAT KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD"
Revelation 14:12

Don Fortner


There are many who pretend to live by the rule of God's holy law and hope, by their imperfect obedience to the law, to win the favor of the perfectly holy God. God's people are not of this proud, legal, self- righteous spirit. The believer is not under the law, but under grace. He does not serve God from a principle of law. He is not motivated by the threats of punishment in the law, because he is dead to the law. The law has no terror for a dead man. And the believer is not motivated by the vain hope of reward from God by his works of obedience, because he is not of a mercenary spirit. He does not serve God for hire. Yet, only true believers, who refuse to live under the yoke of the law, are "they that keep the commandments of God."

We keep the law of God strictly and perfectly through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:31). The law requires perfect obedience and perfect satisfaction. And all who trust the Lord Jesus Christ give the law what it requires. Christ, as our Substitute, magnified the law and made it honorable. He perfectly obeyed the very letter and spirit of God's holy law for us. Then he poured out his life's blood as our Substitute at Calvary, rendering perfect satisfaction to the law's justice. By his obedience being imputed to us, all who believe are made righteous before the law. As we read the law, we look to Christ by faith and keep the law.

We also keep the commandments of God personally. God's saints are not legalists. We do not live by the rule of the law. But we are not lawless. We delight in the law of God after the inner man (Rom. 7:22), keeping it in our hearts with joy. And our lives are governed by the Word of God, his revealed will, in its entirety. That which God teaches and commands, it is our delight to believe and do, because we love him (I John 5:1-3). The source and essence of the believer's obedience to God is faith in and love for Christ.

Don Fortner is pastor of
Grace Baptist Church
Danville, KY