“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Ping.
The New Covenant musters Christians to do something that is more, not less, than the scope of the Hebraic commandments, which were part of a covenant that was a shadow of what was to come and is now obsolete.
The sabbath, in particular, has gotten transmuted from a ritual calendar day observation to an attitude. For 24/7 it is always a sabbath now for every Christian who walks by means of catching God’s blessing and power.
We need to not be shy about abandoning shadows for light. The danger of legalism is that it offers God too little, not too much.
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 Jn. 5:1-4 AV).
As Spirit-born followers of The Christ, we should be very careful of overdoing righteousness, which practice breeds hypocrisy:
"Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise:
why shouldest thou destroy thyself?" (Eccl. 7:16 AV).
On the other hand, we need to stay very far away from antinomianism, the misinterpretation of The God's grace:
"Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish:
why shouldest thou die before thy time?"(Eccl. 7:17 AV).
Walking in The God's Ways means fearing Him; which means dreading to disappoint Him through disobedience or dismay Him by pretending to be holier than Christ's imputed righteousness demands:
"It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand:
for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all" (Eccl. 7:18 AV).
The balance is achieved only by walking in The Spirit, a path neither available nor accessible to the pagan moralist or unregenerated religionist.
Yes, quite true unfortunately. In that spirit, I found this very interesting and thought provoking: The Ten Commandments.