Righteousness by works

“If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” (Jn. 14:15).

Did Jesus say, If you love Me buy Me a gift? Did He command a Christmas or birthday present? Did He say, “Fall down and worship Me”?

Keep My commandments. Let’s keep His commandments through the faith of Jesus. Does a relationship with Jesus mean we don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments?  No.  “Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law.” (Rom. 3:31). If we love Jesus we will love God in whose image Jesus is.

“God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, …who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” (Heb. 1:1-3). “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (Jn. 14:9).

So, if all Jesus wants is for me to keep His commandments, and I decide to buy Him a gift instead, would I make Jesus happy? Should He be satisfied with my gift in lieu of obeying His expressed will? Isn’t this the whole basis of righteousness by works—that I will bend over backwards and suffer for Jesus so that I can skirt His commandment.

Would a husband be happy if all he desired of his wife was to be a good wife by cooking the family’s meals, cleaning the house, and raising their kids in a godly home; but, she decides she will bypass those requirements while her husband is at work, and buy him a necktie or a hammer or a golf club, and when he gets home she may cook dinner, but the kids are out of control and the house is a mess, because she watched TV all day? Would that make a good Valentine’s Day for the husband?

And then, let’s say this kind of thing goes on for years, no matter what the husband tries on order to help his wife see the wisdom of his wishes, Valentine’s Day after Valentine’s Day; meanwhile, the children have grown up filled with horrendous habits, hateful and irreverent to their parents, and swept up by the world. Should he say, “Well, honey, you got one out of three right. I can live with that”?

This would be hard for most husbands and fathers. It would be difficult for wives and mothers if they were the breadwinners, and their husbands sat around all day joking and getting drunk with their friends. Why shouldn’t it be infinitely harder on the Lord for His church to do the same to Him?

Worse than all that is when false religion moves in. The Lord will discipline us because of our righteousness by works, if we strive to know Him and keep His religion of law and grace. The children are sunken in depression and He grieves over them sorely. But, if we are honestly striving to keep the lines of communication open He will be happy to meet us more than half way, to correct us and to get His earthly wife up to speed with raising her babes in Christ, and keeping the church free from deceptions.

But, when the one false religion comes in to play, then we are serving Satan and pouring out our heart and will to the devil. His one false religion has no law or grace; but, instead it’s all about emotion and make-believe and fake peace. It’s a lot of show and pretense and the Lord despises this dog and pony show when the hearts are bowing down to another lover. So, the servants of Satan make a show of morality, but because they have dispensed with God’s Law and have switched from His solemn service to the wild, raucous celebration service, He shuts His ears to them.

“Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts?

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them.

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” (Isa. 1:10-15).

“What hath My beloved to do in Mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.” (Jer. 11:15).

“In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 51:39).

“I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand: for Thou hast filled me with indignation.” (Jer. 15:17).

Let’s return to our Husband with our whole heart. It’s true that we naturally rebel against God’s Law. That is a given—no argument. Then, that being the case, Jesus must be available to give us repentance and power to keep His commandments.

Where is His power to keep His commandments? At the cross, where He laid His life down at our hand, “and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5).

Otherwise, we easily slip into the same habit of past millennia, serving a god of lawlessness and vain foolishness. “Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” (Matt. 5:26).