What about all of the commands that are stated throughout the New Testament? Someone counted more than one thousand of these in the New Testament. The distinction between Christ and the Christian seems to loom so large when we consider the concept of "commandments." Jesus said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me" (Jn. 14:21).
It is important to see that Jesus did not command anything that He is not willing to keep and perform in our "union of doing." He is the dynamic of all of His own demands. Within the new covenant concept of grace, all commands are really nullified as the result of God's very presence and sufficiency. The fulfillment of these commands can only be satisfied by our union with Him. He will fulfill these in us and through us by our "union of doing."
The command to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12) is completely satisfied by "God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
"Do not worry about anything" (Phil. 4:6) is completely satisfied by "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).
We can "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, …abstain from every form of evil" (I Thess. 5:16,17,22) by knowing "Faithful is He who calls you, and He will bring it to pass" (I Thess. 5:24).
The command to "Love one another" (Jn. 13:34,35). The supply for such is indicated in that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:5).
"Be strong in the Lord" (Eph. 6:12), but this is "in the strength of His might" (Eph. 6:12), for we are strong only "by the strength which God supplies" (I Pet. 4:11).
"Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5),.
And "Set your minds on things above" (Col. 3:2), but "we have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16).
"Discipline yourself unto godliness" (I Tim. 4:7) but "His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness" (II Pet. 1:3).
The commands are always based on the supply of God's grace in Christ, and are never commands for self-produced behavioral "works" of righteousness.
Many of the commands demand action that cannot possibly be construed as "work," but only as a faith-choice. "to abide" is simply to "settle in, stay put, and make oneself at home" in Christ Jesus (in union with Christ Jesus). To "reckon yourselves dead unto sin" (Rom. 6:11) is to "count it as a fact" that you were crucified with Christ and are "alive unto God in Christ Jesus (in union with Christ Jesus)" (Rom. 6:11).
To "present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1) and "your members as members of righteousness" (Rom. 6:13) is simply handing yourself over to a loving and faithful God in surrender. It is casting all your cares on Him because He cares for you. These commands simply reveal that the Christian is made able to respond by the Spirit in faith to the union-activity of Christ in the Christian.
When we are made able to respond by His faith, Christ manifests His own life in us and through us affecting our outward behavior. As we freely respond to the Holy Spirit's work in us, Jesus Christ will re-present His life in us, He will inevitably manifest His character and His ministry in the "union of doing" that we call the "Christian life." In other words, Christ will be and do what He desires to uniquely be and do in each of us.
All the commands are just the natural conscience of abiding in Christ just as the fruit tree naturally bears fruit without effort or strife. This is why it is imperative to see and recognize what God in Christ has already done for us and in us. We are now in union with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Our only true possible source for all Life, Holiness, and Righteousness is Christ Himself. As we abide and participate in this union, all the commands will be satisfied by Christ's very presence, sufficiency and faithfulness. In fact it is impossible for these commands to be satisfied any other way.
Remember that the commands can never make you holy, perfect or give you Life.
Heb. 7:19, "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."
God never intended us to live by the commands. Christ in us is our only hope of glory.We are only saved by Christ's Life.
Rom. 5:8-10, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
God in Christ has already placed us in Christ and now we have Christ's very nature and life. Now as a result of what God has already accomplished, all commands are satisfied and fulfilled by Christ's very presence, sufficiency and faithfulness in us. God in Christ actually gives us the obedience that He requires.
Please read these verses carefully concerning the Covenant that God the Father made with God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit before the world was created.
Jer. 32:39-40, "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me."
Ezek. 36:25-27, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances."
Deut. 30:6, "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may live."
Jer. 24:7, "And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."
Jer. 31:31-34, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Ezek. 11:19-20 "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Heb. 8:8b, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."
We are just the recipients and participants of this irrevocable Covenant. It is only by abiding in Christ's Life that these commands can ever be satisfied.