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Tag: Hope

What Commandments Do We Keep?

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Jesus said this; “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me…” (John 14:21).
This is very clear. Obeying Jesus’ commands is proof that we love Him.
What commands?
Is Jesus referring to the Ten Commandments or the 613 other commands that are listed in the Mosaic Covenant? Or did He have different commands in mind?
The writer of Hebrews stated, “For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law.” This verse will help us answer this last question.
The New Covenant is a changing of the guard. The Levites were the stewards of the Old Covenant. They had specific duties and responsibilities all anchored to the Law of Moses. Jesus’ death on the cross ended those duties. He was the once for all sacrifice for sin. He fulfilled the Old Covenant in its entirety.
Today, we live in the New Covenant. Jesus Christ is our high priest, appointed to be so by God the Father. With this change in the priesthood, there was a change of the law.
The new commands are these.

  1. Believe in Jesus Christ (I John 3:23)
  2. Hope in God’s promises (1 John 3:1-3)
  3. Love God and people. (John 13:33-34, Romans 5:5)

Faith, hope and love constitute the law of the New Covenant.
God writes these laws on our hearts and in our minds. This is the first promise of the New Covenant. God empowers us to live out faith, hope and love through His Spirit.
The laws of the Old Covenant were the responsibility of the people to Israel to keep. They didn’t have it in them to do so. Neither do we.
In this New Covenant, God gives us a new heart and His Spirit to mark our lives with the laws that are most important to God – faith, hope and love.

My Favorite Bible Passages — #1

Posted on by Bob Christopher

For the next several weeks, I will be sharing my favorite Bible passages. These are the places in the Bible I return to time and time again for comfort, reassurance or fresh insight.
My favorite passage is in the book of Colossians. (It is hard to pick a favorite, I know, but if I had to, this one would be it.) Here it is.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:9-15 (NIV)

Here are the reasons this passage tops my list of favorites.

  • It starts with Christ and ends with Christ. In six verses, Paul explains who Jesus is and the meaning of His death, burial and resurrection.
  • I learned that my real problem was spiritual death, and that something had to happen to me before change could take place in my life. I had tried to be God’s guy, but my efforts came up woefully short.
  • In the plainest language possible, it states that all my sins have been forgiven.
  • It also tells me that the law of sin and death has been taken away.
  • It declares that my enemy was defeated and disarmed through Christ’s triumphant victory at the cross.
  • It tells me that I am complete, or have fullness, in Jesus Christ.

Some thirty years ago is when this passage hit my heart. I was confused about Christianity, and why I was such a colossal failure as far as my Christian life was concerned. Paul’s straight forward words flipped a switch in my understanding. I felt forgiven and that there was hope for me. The weight of trying to do it on my own was lifted. But more than anything, I felt alive.
Perhaps you feel defeated in your Christian life, or that you are mired in guilt and shame. It could be that you sense an emptiness deep within your heart, or that something is just plain wrong with you. If so, read this passage carefully. Jesus knows where you are. Who He is and what He accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection can change who you are. This passage was the catalyst for me to look to Him. I pray it will be the same for you.