Promises and Commandments

The bedrock of Christian doctrine is justification by faith, that is, the accrediting of righteousness to us because of our belief in the promise of God. What we must come to understand is that while the proper response to the Divine promises is belief, the proper response to the Divine commandments is obedience. It is not the belief or the obedience that brings righteousness, it is our response to what God is speaking to us at the time.

Righteousness comes to us when we believe the promise of God at the appropriate time. Everything else of the Kingdom comes to us when we obey the commandment of God at the appropriate time. There is a tremendous need today for the Christians in America to understand the importance of keeping the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

Abram believed the fantastic promise made to him. As a result of his belief, God ascribed righteousness to Abram.

He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:5,6—NIV)

One of our major Christian doctrines, derived from Paul's Epistle to the saints in Rome, is that we go to Heaven primarily on the basis of our belief in the promise of God. Obedience to the commandments of Christ and His Apostles is not viewed as essential to our salvation. (Can you imagine!)

Without going into a lengthy explanation we might point out that nowhere in the New Testament is there found a promise that we will go to Heaven if we believe Jesus is our Savior. The goal is not Heaven!

However, it certainly is true that Paul emphasizes the importance of our not seeking righteousness by obeying the statutes of Moses but by believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross to make an atonement for our sins.

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:23-25—NIV)

There is no question in my mind that we have greatly overemphasized the role of belief in the promise as being the only really important aspect of the Christian salvation. This overemphasis is uncomfortably close to first-century Gnosticism—the philosophy that teaches salvation is primarily a matter of knowledge.

I think we need to understand that while Divine promises are to be believed, Divine commandments are to be obeyed. We show our love for the Lord Jesus by keeping His commandments. This is clearly scriptural.

It appears the moral strength of the Christian churches in America has been destroyed by the one-sided emphasis on belief to the neglect of the importance of obedience to the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

To be continued.