What God Requires

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 “And now, what does the Lord your God require of you but reverently to fear the Lord your God, that is to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and with your entire being, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?”

I read how this sounds simple enough, revere, respect and worship Almighty God above all, study, learn, know and obey His holy will, word and way found in the Bible, love your Creator Father in heaven in humble adoration and serve the Lord your God with all your mind, heart and with your entire being, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes. Statutes are distinguished from common law. The latter owes its binding force to the principles of justice, to long use and the consent of a nation. The former owe their binding force to a positive command or declaration of the Supreme power of God. I read that the people of Israel then readily agreed, and Christians today readily agree with Moses to do these things. But the problem is this: Who dares claim to “walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord their God with all their heart?” Anyone who makes such a claim would be breaking God’s commandment against lying. Jesus tells us in Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” No matter how much we try, we, flat out (with all our effort), cannot do it on our own. But, uselessly trying to do the impossible in living perfect lives was not the purpose of God’s Law. It was to teach us to stop depending on ourselves and to depend upon the Lord. Die to sin; live for Christ. The Apostle Paul explains:

Romans 7:5-8 “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.

An article points out that Solomon reached a similar conclusion: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” - Ecclesiastes 12:13. Undeniably so, but who can keep his commandments?  James 2:10 tells us: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Yes, but the problem is that “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” - Ecclesiastes 7:20. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” - Romans 3:23.  It clearly declares our duty to God and again teaches us to stop depending on ourselves and to depend upon the Lord. Die to sin; live for Christ. Who is without sin?

There was one such man, of course! The Lord Jesus Christ “did no sin,” yet was willing to “bare our sins in his own body on the cross, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” - 1 Peter 2:22-24. What we could never do, He has done for us. Now, through faith in the finished work of Christ, we have been set free from the bondage of sin and can indeed “have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” - Romans 6:22.

In Christ, Brian