Thursday, July 7, 2011

What Does God Require of You?

What does God require of you? This is a subject of much contention among those who read the bible. For ancient Israel, God made it extremely clear what He expected from them under the Old Covenant:
Deuteronomy 10:12
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I commanded you today for your good?
God gave them an elaborate and detailed list of laws that they were to keep, and many people think that these laws are not what God intends for us under the New Covenant. If God doesn't expect us to keep His law, then what does He require of us?
Christ Himself stated what the greatest commandment is:
Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment."
Is this really any different from Deuteronomy 10:12? Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, and the verse that  comes immediately after it says:
Deuteronomy 6:6
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
Did God ever declare to men that any part of the law was no longer needed? No! Instead, God did declare that the Old Covenant was profitless because of the inability of man to do what He commanded in Deuteronmy 6:6 - to put His law in their hearts! Notice that this was the "fault" with the Old Covenant, as it says in Hebrews:
Hebrews 8:7-10
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant... It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors... because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish... I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
God has promised to do for us what man had never been able to do: to put the law - the SAME law - in our minds and on our hearts, so that we can obey Him. Therefore, this is what your God requires of you: that you fear the LORD your God, that you walk in all His ways and that you love Him, that you serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and that you keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes that He has commanded. Those laws can be found mostly in the first 5 books of your bible - God has not changed them.

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