What Does God Require Of Man?

John 6:29

The Jewish Talmud says, "The whole law was given to Moses in six hundred thirteen precepts." It was summarized and given to the children of Israel in ten commandments (Ex. 20:1-17). Those ten commandments are, like all the other precepts of the law, holy, just, and good. They reveal something of God's character and our sin. They identify sin for us, condemn sin in us, and show us our need of a Savior, a Mediator, a Substitute and Representative, One who can stand between God and man to meet the demands of a holy God and the needs of fallen men. That Mediator is Jesus Christ, the Son of God (I Tim. 2:5-6).

Isaiah, writing by Divine inspiration, reduced all the commandments to six (Isa. 35:15-16). The prophet Micah reduced them to just three (Mic. 6:8). The incarnate Son of God reduced them all to just two (Matt. 11:37-40). All the commandments of God, when reduced to their essence, require only two things from us: that we love God and love one another perfectly. Yet, these two great commandments condemn us all. Not one of us loves God or his neighbor perfectly. But hope is not gone.

The gospel of Christ declares that it is yet possible for fallen man to fulfill all the law of God perfectly. There is one commandment to which God promises eternal life. If you will obey that one commandment, if you will do this one thing you will live forever. Obey this one commandment and you fulfill all the law of God. Are you interested?

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ" (I John 3:23). By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ sinners fulfill the whole law of God, offering God perfect obedience and complete satisfaction in the person of Christ (Rom. 3:31; 8:4). There is no fulfilment of the law but by faith in Christ.

If you now obey God's commandment, if you now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your faith in him is the gift of God's grace, the result of his grace operating on you and in you (Eph.2:8; 1:19; Col. 1:12).

Don Fortner