This post is written in response to a comment on my first post - "The story of Salvation". The visitor asked for an explanation to a scripture in the book of John. John 14:15 - "If ye love me, keep my commandments."
In answering your question, let me start by taking you way back to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 18:18 "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." I want you to take note of several key words and phrases in those two verses. 1. 'Prophet' 2. 'Like unto thee' 3. 'Put my words in his mouth' 4. the entire second verse.
So as you see from the passage above, God told the children of Israel that he will raise up a Prophet similar to Moses and that the children of Israel should listen to all that this prophet would say to them(Acts 3:22-26). I am sure that you do know that this prophet was Jesus. So when Jesus was here on earth that's what he was, a prophet, among other things(Messiah, deliverer etc) . He was a servant of God doing the things of God on behalf of God. He emptied himself of his godliness(Philippians 2:5-8) and became an even more obedient servant than moses was to God.
So what are some of the similarities that Jesus and Moses had? Well subsequent to miracles that Moses performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, no other prophet in the history of the nation of Israel perform the magnitude and proportion of miracles that Jesus did when he was on earth. Jesus also did miracles that was reserved only for the Messiah to perform as a sign to the Jews of his identity(John 9:32).
The next similarity that Jesus and Moses had is that they were both intermediaries to God and the children of Israel. They both received communication from God that was intended for the people and delivered it to the people. I will list some scriptures which clearly shows that neither Jesus or Moses were speaking on their own behalf.
Scriptures relating to Moses: Exodus 19:3-6, Exodus 24:3(In this verse Moses relayed to the children of Israel all that God told him from exodus 20:22-25, and all that God said in chapters 21, 22 and 23.), Exodus 25:1, Exodus 31:12-18, Exodus 4:32-35, Exodus 35:1-3, Deuteronomy 4:1-14, Deuteronomy 4:40, Deuteronomy 6:2, 6:6 7:11, 8:1 just to name a few.
Scriptures relating to Jesus: John 10:18, John 12:49-50, John 5:30, John 8:24-32, john 8:38, John 14:31, John 15:14-15, John 15:17.
If you read all the scriptures which I referenced, you should see a clear narrative. In the scripture that relates to Moses, you see where God has some words or instructions for the children of Israel but he told them to Moses so he could tell it to the children of Israel. For example. Exodus 31:12 - "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you". And throughout the books of exodus and Leviticus where God gave the law, statutes and judgments, we see God using the same intermediary method through Moses to communicate with the people. And this was only done at the request of the people who were afraid of the thunderings and lightnings when God spoke.
It was the same scenario when Jesus was teaching in his ministry. For example. John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. My point is that Jesus was in the role of a Prophet just like Moses and he was not God the Father who instructed both him and Moses what to say and teach.
John 1:17 - For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That scripture is distinguishing the roles of the two prophets or the two intermediaries . What Jesus brought(grace and truth) was contrary to what Moses gave to the children of Israel(the law). Or put it this way, what God gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel was contrary to what he told Jesus to say to the Jews (remember salvation was to the Jews first, then the gentiles).
I'm sure some people are now saying that God words never changes. But it is important to remember that the covenant that God made with the children of Israel, the law, was conditional. They were supposed to keep the law and they didn't, rendering it of none effect.(Acts 7:51, John 7:19, Hosea 8:1, Hebrews 8:9).
The the law of Moses was the major point of contention between Jesus and the Jews(Acts 6:13-14, Acts 13:38-39). They revered Moses but they did not want to acknowledge Jesus for who he is and for what he was telling them. Take for instance this encounter between the Jews and a blind man that Jesus healed. John 9:28 - "Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. 9:29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is". The Jews there clearly renouncing Jesus whilst honoring Moses.
With the arrival of Jesus on the scene, the Jews, including the disciples were placed in a unique situation. Do they believe this new guy Jesus, who was telling them something different from what was in the law of Moses or do they continue in the law of Moses. Jesus had the difficult task of convincing these Jews whom he came into the world to give salvation to, that its through the remission of sins that they could receive salvation, not the through law of Moses.
Therefore when Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments" and John 14:21 "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him", the possessive pronoun "my" was to indicate the commandments that he had, given to him by God the Father as opposed to the commandments that Moses had received from God.
Another reason why I know this is so is because Jesus never referred to the law as his commandments. Most of the time when he is making reference to the law, he attributed it to Moses, calling it the 'law of Moses' or sometimes just as 'the commandments'. Read John 7:19. John 7:23, Luke 24:24, Mark 7:10, Matthew 19:7. And when Jesus spoke of 'my father's commandments', he was speaking of the commandments that God gave him to accomplish. For example John 15:10 "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love" and "John 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
So the question I guess you are now asking is, what are some of the things that Jesus commanded as he enunciated here in John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another. Well, he said a lot of things, both to the disciples and to the rest of Jews. He said in Matthew 22, "hang all the law and the prophets on these two commandments". The two commandments being 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And 2. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. When Jesus made that statement, he was not making a suggestion to the Jews. He gave a clear command. So instead of churches having the 10 commandments written on the walls in their pew, these two commandments are what should be written in churches. God was clearly overriding the old covenant with a new covenant, the new covenant being Jesus himself. Jesus amplified the changes to the law in Matthew 5 starting from verse 19.
In verse 17 of Matthew 5, Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law. Meaning that from the time the law was given in exodus 20, there was an element missing(Hebrews 9:8). Jesus, the perfect lamb of God was that missing element. Therefore the law was fulfilled or brought to completion at the cross. Looking ahead to his death at the cross and anticipating the ending of the law, Jesus explained to the multitude how they were to live subsequent to the law. Read from verse 19 to the end of the chapter. You should see a complete alteration of the law, the 10 commandments and also the rest of the law. Take for example verse 21 where Jesus spoke about the sixth commandment, Thou shall not kill. Jesus is saying that being angry at someone else is just as killing them. So your general disposition towards a fellow human being should be that of love. No matter who it is. Even your enemies or people who don't like you.
Conclusion
Luke 16:16 "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it". That's Jesus there saying that the creed of the nation of Israel, starting from the giving of the law, was to keep the law. But when Jesus came along, starting from the ministry of his forerunner, John the Baptist, the message to the Jews had changed.
Hebrews 8:6 - "But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, 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: 8:9 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. 8:10 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: 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more. 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away". Hebrews 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".
Keeping the law cannot stop people from sinning. As Hebrew 7:19 said, it made nothing perfect. The purpose of the law was lead the Jews to Jesus for the remission of their sins. The word remission means the 'cancellation of a debt, charge or penalty'. And even though gentiles did not receive the law from God as the Jews did, we have the bible to read and gain knowledge of the implication of the law when it was binding. God wrote the bible so the entire world could know him through the word. At time past gentiles were excluded from the promises of God(Ephesians 2), but now the blood of Jesus has brought both Jews and Gentiles under one building. Thats the reason why Jesus commanded his disciples to preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations, extending his grace to the entire world(to the Jew first then the greek).
So to explain the scripture you presented Andrew, John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Jesus was beckoning to his disciples to hear his words as opposed to keeping the law of Moses. And not as if we gentiles were commanded to keep the law of Moses, but we should take heed as well. God himself spoke from out of the cloud in the mountain when Jesus was transfigured and talking to Moses and Elijah. What did God say when peter said let us build three alters? He said "This is my beloved Son: hear him". In essence, God is telling the three disciples to disregard whatever they may have thought about the law and the prophets, and listen to what Jesus have said to them. Just as he foretold there forefathers in Deutoronmy 18:18-19.