“God,
who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by
the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir
of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” It is contextually correct
to interpret Hebrews 1:1-2 as directly referencing the Old Testament and New
Testament respectively, since the broad context of the whole book of Hebrews is
the comparison of these two covenants and the replacement of the lesser, the
Old Testament Mosaic Covenant of the Law, with the greater, the New Testament
Covenant of Grace.
The New
Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of His Son. The prophets spoke as mere mouthpieces, but
when the Son spoke it was God Himself speaking, and in a sense it is God being
revealed By His Son in and through the Son’s life, the Son’s message, the Son’s
redemptive work, and the Son’s return to
establish His (i.e., God’s) eternal Kingdom. The New Testament reveals to
mankind God’s redemptive plan established before the foundations of the world
with the foreordained sacrifice of the Son of His love, that we, the “us” of
Hebrews 1:2, might be partakers of salvation and know eternal fellowship with
God through His Covenant of Grace –indescribable grace.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments … He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he
who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love
him and manifest Myself to him. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My
Father’s commandments and abide
in His love.” (Jn.
14:15, 21, 15:10)
Notice Jesus specifically said to keep “My” commandments
in these three passages; scripture repeats this command thirteen times. “His
commandments” are the commandments flowing forth out of the life, words, and redemptive
work of Christ recorded in the New Testament. There are 1050 New Testament
commandments, which reduces to about 800 when redundancies are removed. These
commandments cover every phase of man’s relationship to God and his fellowmen,
now and hereafter. If obeyed they will bring rich rewards now and forever.
These should not be confused with the Old Testament Ten Commandments which are
part of the Law of Moses applicable to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant of
Grace abolishes the Law of Moses including the Ten Commandments. The fourth
commandment is the only commandment of the Ten Commandments that is not
specifically reintroduced as a New Testament commandment (some in modified form), so nine of the Ten
Commandments are still in force in the New Covenant as New Covenant
commandments. Keeping the Sabbath holy, the fourth commandment, is no longer
applicable so we are free to set aside Saturday or any other day as a special
day devoted to God. To make keeping the Old Testament Sabbath a New Covenant commandment
would be paramount to dragging the Law into Grace. We cannot do that…
“Now by
this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments … And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we
keep His commandments … Now he
who keeps His commandments
abides in Him, and He in him.” (Jn. 2:3, 3:22, 24)
Now these are serious thoughts from a
serious God. Since God the Holy Spirit wrote the commandments of God the Son
down for us we can be sure God the Father is serious about how we conduct ourselves.
“Be holy, for I am holy … Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” It is in obedience that
we “pursue holiness.” For a list of New Testament
commandments with scripture references see Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible,
pages 544-548 or visit Christian Assemblies International at https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/1050-new-testament-commands
(1 peter 1:16; Heb.
12:44)
“KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”
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