Keeping the commandments is impossible?

In trying to show that Adam indeed did not consider the commandments of God impossible to keep as some have suggested, I offer the following:

Guilt is not the response of one not being able to perform an impossibility.........unless one could feel guilt for not being able to stand flat footed and jump over the moon. Who knows, some on this list may feel guilt for failure of such impossibilities. I have heard some say something to the effect that they had to repent for the way they were born.

 

God's commandments were never given for men to keep, but to show them their inability to keep them. God knew adam could not keep His commandment ! Adam was weak through the flesh, the temptation of eve proved it !

 

Can you show us anywhere in Scripture that presents the commandments as impossible to keep or that God did not expect or command us to keep them?

 

Christ is the end of the Law to Believers !



Rom 10:4

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

This scripture is basically saying that Christ has fulfilled the Law for all those who are believing ! Christ has fulfilled all of the ceremonial Law for it prefigured His blood cleansing death, and He fulfilled all of the Moral Law, with perfect, spotless, and sinless obedience to every detail of it !

All whom Christ died for are dead to the Law in order that they can serve in newness of life Rom 7:4

4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Paul tells these believers that they were made dead to the Law how? Not by their believing, though that would occur, not by their freewill, but by the body of Christ, which means His Death 1 Pet 2:24

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

All True Believers are dead to the law, in that it has no commanding power over them, no condemning power, no curse to worry about. Those whom Christ did not die for, are under obligation to keep the Law of God Perfectly.

Christ has honored God's Law to the Highest degree possible for all those He died for, that He was made a curse for. The end was so in order that we should be married to another, that is to Christ. That means all whom Christ died for shall come into a experiential fellows hip with Him 1 Cor 1:9

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

That word fellowship is the greek word koinōnia:

fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse

a) the share which one has in anything, participation

b) intercourse, fellowship, intimacy

1) the right hand as a sign and pledge of fellowship (in fulfilling the apostolic office)

c) a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, as exhibiting an embodiment and proof of fellowship

Amen, all for whom Christ died are called into, intimacy with Him,joint participation, communion with Him.

This He did, accomplished by His death, and causing us [If True Believers] to be dead to the law, to be married to Him.

Paul says the same thing in 2 Cor 5:14

15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

 

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

>God's commandments were never given for men to keep

Then God through Moses lied to Israel?

 

The Main Purpose for the Law !

The Main Purpose for the Law was for the Lord Jesus Christ to come up under it, and fulfill all of it's Holy precepts, and bare it's punishment for it's violation in behalf of God's Elect. It was in this that God's Law would be magnified and made honorable ! Isa 42:21

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

 

Then the following prophecy is in error?:

"And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezek.36:27).

 

Hmm. I wonder if we can conclude that no one can perfectly keep the law (commandments), because no one ever has (except Jesus, of course.)

Even Paul admitted that the things he ought to do he didn't, and the things he ought not to do, he did.

This same Paul also wrote that all have sinned; that there is not righteous.

And did it ever occur to anyone that if we could keep the law perfectly, then it was unnecessary for Jesus to take our sin upon him on the cross?

And there is one other problem. Even if we as believers could keep the commandments, it's too late. We broke them before we were saved.

 

I'm sure someone will cite Matthew 5:48 as evidence that one can keep the commandments.

The argument would be, God would not give us a commandment to be perfect, as he is, if it were impossible to do it.

My take is that the holy, righteous and perfect God must demand perfection from us. There's no way he would say, "now you really need to be perfect, but since you can't, I'll cut you some slack. It's okay to sin a little bit." He would never countenance sin, even a small amount.

 

>Hmm. I wonder if we can conclude that no one can perfectly keep the law (commandments), because no one ever has (except Jesus, of course.)

Sort of like people's belief before the 4 minute mile was broken?

 

>Be ye therefore perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect.

Christians misinterpret the LAW! The sacrifices were for unintentional sins and misdemeanors. God expected us to screw up in a minor way and provided sacrifices to handle the problem. There were no sacrifices for felonies.

 

savedbymercy,

re: "The Main Purpose for the Law was for the Lord Jesus Christ to...bare it's punishment for it's violation..."

What punishment did the Messiah bare that would otherwise have to be born by us?

 

rstrats

Christ bore the sins of God's People. Isa 53:8

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

You dd not know that ?

 

Who is "us?" The devil is in the pronouns.

 

savedbymercy,

re: "Christ bore the sins of God's People."

So the punishment was to bear the sins of God’s People so that we wouldn’t have to? And what was the ending effect or consequence of this punishment that would otherwise have to be experienced by us?

 

billwald,

re: "Who is ‘us?’"


Humankind.

 

God's Law Eternal !



Ps 119:89

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.


The hebrew word for word is dabar and is Translated commandment Ex 34:28


28And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

The issues of God's Eternal Law were settled in the Eternal Purpose of Christ Eph 3:11

11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

The Eternal Purpose for the Law of God came to pass, when in the fullness of Time [incorporating all of History] God sent forth His Son [In world History] to be made of a woman, to be under the law, with the purpose of redeeming them, His Chosen People that are under the Law. Gal 4:4

4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5To redeem them[ His Chosen] that were under the law, that we[His Chosen] might receive the adoption of sons.


That His Chosen may be redeemed from under the Law, and that they might receive the Adoption of Children or Sons !

That is why Jesus said this Matt 5:17

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

That was the Eternal Purpose of the Law. It was never meant or given for men to keep for life, that should have been made clear from the experience of Adam !

By coming up under the law and securing the Adoption of Children, Christ fulfilled the Grand objective of the Eternal Law of God, Magnified it, and made it Honorable ! Isa 42:21

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.