Nine of the 10 commandments are about how we treat God and our fellow man. Those commands are about morality. The fourth commandment is about a day just as were all the special days God asked Israel to observe. We call those commands ritual. The Sabbath, command according to the list of the 10 commandments in Deut 5, tells Israel to keep the Sabbath in remembrance of God delivering them out of Egypt. It was not any concern to the Gentile nations and God has never asked any other nation to observe any day. For Christians God's new covenant doesn't ask us to observe days. Jesus asks us to keep His commandments just as He kept the Father's commandments. Jesus in Jn15 makes a definite difference between the old covenant laws and the laws or commandments He has given you and me.
Brother, we have never seen the Father’s commandments. Jesus is not separating His own ten commandments written by His own finger and the added commandments under the new covenant that make our “righteousness” greater than that of those who preceded us. Your misunderstanding wrongly eliminates the “righteousness” of our predecessors, instead of surpassing it as Jesus demands.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20 NIV)
As Jesus stated earlier, “He has not come to abolish but to fulfill”, and fulfilled is the law when we obey it. Thanks to Jesus’ cycle of forgiveness that removes the past from interfering with our future fulfillment of the law, routed out is the sin in us as we grow within Jesus’ faster cycle of forgiveness than the animal sacrifices of our predecessors. You have not understood the message, Jesus came to remove sin not the law that exposes sin in us. The fact is that in the new covenant Jesus added to the law exposing even more sin in us to correct through His new faster cycle of forgiveness than the animal sacrifices could practically deal with; Jesus expects more “righteousness” now than before.
Why you insist on saying that the old covenant laws were Jesus laws when Jesus said they were the Father's laws is beyond me.
The Bible opposes your unsubstantiated assumption as inconsistent with Matthew 5, where Jesus says He has come to remove nothing of the ten commandments and begins to add to the ten commandments stating that our “righteousness” is to surpass that of our predecessors. You are removing the “righteousness” of our predecessors instead of surpassing it as Jesus demands by Jesus adding to the demands already revealed in the ten commandments.
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:12 is better translated as: “This is what makes a commandment of mine: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” One more command, consistent with the fact that it is not the only commandment Jesus has given us in the New Testament. Here is a reminder in the new covenant of one of the ten commandments previously given:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3 NIV)
Therefore, Jesus is not abolishing commandments, but is adding commandments to the ten already given with His own finger before the incarnation so that are “righteousness” will be greater than those who preceded us. He asks us now more and not less having more help with the Holy Spirit.
Exactly, My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Jn 14:15 does not tell us to keep the 10 commandments, it tells us to keep Jesus commandments.
A lifelong study of the New Testament by Mr. Finnis Jennings Dake shows 1,050 commandments in total, including the ten previous commandments as remembered in Ephesians 6 above. Therefore, Jesus has not removed any of the ten commandments and has added many more to increase our “righteousness” over our predecessors who gain forgiveness of their sins through the slower cycle of animal sacrifices and could not practically deal with as much sin as we can now under Jesus’ heavenly temple ministry as our high priest.
What you and the SDA church is doing is trying to add to what scripture is telling us. There is no 10 in Jn14:15! 1Jn3:19-24 tells us again what Jesus commandments are, but you have never recognized the posts I have presented with those commands yet Jn is telling you and me: 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us. I refer you back to Jn15:10.
Study the word “
righteousness” and you will understand that Jesus wants more of it and not less. Jesus made it clear that the ten commandments were His own when He stated that before His baptism no one had ever heard or seen the form of the Father, when everyone knew that Moses had seen the form of the finger writing the ten commandments. What Jesus was revealing is that Moses saw Jesus’ own finger before the incarnation writing His commandments that do not have the commandments of the Father that allowed Jesus to take our place for the forgiveness of our past sins in the heavenly temple as our high priest. We have not seen the Father’s commandments, but from what Jesus has already taught us it is more than Jesus’ minimalist ten commandments, Jesus now having added more commandments for a total of 1,050 according to the before mentioned study of the New Testament.
The Spirit He (Jesus) gave us doesn't convict some one way and others another way. The Holy Spirit has never convicted me to observe a day given only to one nation. Man did and it was because man didn't understand that man is not under the Sinai covenant law. It isn't because God has not revealed to Christians that man is not under the Sinai covenant law, Paul has revealed the fact in many of his writings. Paul wrote in 2Cor3 that the 10 commandments are done away, (KJV) and now our guide is the Holy Spirit. You have never responded to any of this. How can you ignore what is written for our admonition Jorge? You accept what Adventists teach instead of what the Bible says. If you really believe I am not telling you the truth why are you not ever responding to my statements and questions?
The Holy Spirit has already revealed the truth in the Bible that you resist with the excuse that the Holy Spirit has not personally convicted you of it, that is not a valid excuse to ignore what the Holy Spirit has already given us in the Scriptures. You have not understood Paul, the requirements of the ten commandments have not been lessened but increased. Jesus tells us that our “righteousness” must be greater than that of our predecessors by adding to the ten commandments a total of 1,050 commandments according to the study before mentioned. The law is “fulfilled” when we obey it and Jesus did not come to abolish any of the ten commandments but to make it possible for us to fulfill their demand on us and has added commandments to increase His demands so that our “righteousness” is greater than that of our predecessors. You made an unsubstantiated assumption that the ten commandments were not Jesus’ when written by Jesus’ own finger. We have not seen the Father’s commandments Jesus is obeying: where in the ten commandments is our salvation through Jesus sacrifice stated? The Father’s “righteousness” is greater than the mere ten commandments that Jesus demanded from those that preceded us and under the new covenant with the extra help of the Holy Spirit, Jesus asks us more than the ten commandments without eliminating any of the ten commandments He already gave us: He extended the requirements under the extra help of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18-20 NIV)
You want Jesus to ask for less than the ten commandments when He is asking for more than the ten commandments: our “righteousness” must be greater than the ten commandments required of those that preceded us. The ten commandments are “accomplished” when we obey them; Jesus gives us that opportunity through His forgiveness, preventing our past from taking away the benefit of our future obedience through a current cycle of growth that needs less and less forgiveness to perfection. Jesus asks for more than the ten commandments, making our “righteousness” even greater than that of those who preceded us: there was no condemnation under the ten commandments of looking with lust at a woman in the heart, but my “righteousness” must be greater than that of those who preceded me: not only must I not commit adultery, a much easier demand in comparison, but now even more demanding, I cannot look with lust at a woman, a demand much more frequent and difficult to overcome in comparison. With the faster cycle of forgiveness with Jesus as our high priest in the heavenly temple in comparison with the slower forgiveness of the animal sacrifices I can overcome not only the external act of adultery but also the new greater demand of the internal thoughts of looking at a woman lustfully.
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell… “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Mathew 5:21-22,27-28 NIV)
United in our hope of the soon return of Jesus, Jorge