God's Command and Our Duty

God’s Command and Our Duty

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

Matthew 5:48

A.J. Ison

            It is true that whatsoever God is pleased to give us by way of command is ours in a way of duty. Whatsoever God commands, that is our duty toward God for we are his creatures. God has the right to command whatsoever he will, the will of God, made known to us by his command shows us our duty. God’s command shows us the revealed will of God, but the secret things belong to the Lord our God, Deut. 29:29.

                                    Man, in his created condition, or as he was when first created, had in himself abilities to comply with whatsoever God was pleased to command, Eccl. 7:29; Gen. 1:26- 31. Just how long man continued in his created condition is not known by the writer, it is clear that man fell into a ruinous, corrupt, evil, and totally depraved condition. God had warned man that, in the day that ye eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ye shall surely die. Now when the first man ate of the forbidden fruit the warning was fulfilled and man died spiritually, he was separated from God his creator by sin and an evil conscience, and fell into the likeness of Satan, with sin as his new inward ruling principle of life (Romans 7:14-25), and so had no ability in himself to comply with God’s command. Man being by the fall, conformed to the image of Satan, ruled by an inward principle of sin, and spiritually dead in sin and trespasses, had no desire nor ability to obey the command of God, But God still has the right to command whatsoever he will of all and every man without exception and without distinction; though we as we come into this world, have no ability nor any desire to obey God. That the natural man has no ability to come to God, in a way of faith, see the following proof texts: John.6:44, 65; 3:27; Romans 11: 35, 36; 8:7; 1 Corinthians 2; 14; 4:7; 2 Corinthians 3:5; Job.14:4; Jeremiah. 13:23; that the natural man has no desire to obey God, see the following proof texts: John. 5:40; Jeremiah.6:16, 17; 13:11, 27; 18:12; Ezekiel. 20:19-21; Hosea.5:4; Pslams.58:3, 5; Isaiah.48:4, 8; Job. 15:16; Luke 19:14.

            From what has been set before us in the scriptures it is evident that the natural man has the command and therefore the responsibility to perform whatsoever is commanded of God, which is his duty. We are also made aware that the natural man has not the ability to perform that to which he is bound by the command of God. It is therefore evident that God’s command shows us our duty without regard to our ability. 

            We may learn from this that God’s command shows our duty and not our ability, and from that we may conclude that whatsoever God requires of us in a way of duty he must freely give his elect in a way of grace, according to his covenant promise, (Jeremiah. 31:31-34).Those whom the Father has chosen in Christ from eternity, he has predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 8: 29. This confirmation to the image of Christ can only be found in Christ. Those who would be conformed to Christ must be in Christ. The Apostle Paul put it this way “…that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” Philippians 3:8,9.

            Now in the elect, God is pleased, for his own glory, to break up their hard and stony heart and to give them a heart of flesh; that is God freely gives them a heart which is capable of receiving the impress of the image of God. Flinty rock will shatter before it will receive the impression of any impressing stamp, warmed wax is easily stamped with the impression of some image. Just so, man’s flinty heart will not bow to the rule of God and so in the non-elect sinner his hard heart, and rebellion, his own sinful self will brings on his eternal damnation, and everlasting ruin. In the elect it is the sovereign grace of God that delivers the elect sinner from his or her own corrupt nature, Satan, the world, and it is the sovereign grace of God that gives a new heart, and new spirit, so that the elect sinner most freely comes to Christ for all salvation when God is pleased to give spiritual life. Now to say what has just been said another way; in the elect God is pleased in sovereign grace to break up the hard and stony heart and freely give a new heart which most freely comes to Christ for all salvation. In the non-elect his hard heart will never bow to the claims of God upon him. So that in the elect it is the sovereign grace of God that is to be thanked for salvation, in the non-elect it is his own hard heart, rebellion, self will, corrupt nature, in short it is his own sin that is at fault, and it is that sin that puts him in eternal contempt of, as well as before, God, Daniel 12:1-2; Ezekiel. 11:19-21; 36:25-27.

            God promised eternal life before the world began, Titus. 1:1-2. Since the reward of life is conditioned upon perfect obedience of God’s law, and since the law of God has proved that we in ourselves are incapable of that obedience, we are driven from hope of life based on our own personal obedience of that law, we are obliged to look to the only one who is able to fulfill the law as a federal and covenant head for others. The law kills by pronouncing sentence of death for sin, the Spirit freely gives life by the gospel, to those who by election of grace are in Christ. Both the law and the gospel demand perfection and both sentence to eternal ruin in case of failure. Since God requires unabated perfect righteousness, and because all our righteousnesses are filthy rags in God’s sight, it is evident that we must look outside ourselves and to Christ for that which satisfies the demand of God upon us. Christ’s perfect righteousness charged to the account of the sinner is that which is well pleasing to God, that righteousness was established by the Lord Jesus as he lived a representative person for others, he is the federal head, the representative, and substitute for his elect. As federal head the elect are his, they were given of his Father in eternity past, and in that unconditional election of grace they were chosen unto salvation in Christ and so, in federal union, by election, from all eternity. As representative of his elect, he fulfilled the law in absolute perfection, to the credit of the elect, and that perfect work is imputed to his spouse, the church of his elect. His entire sojourn on earth was as a representative person, living, dying, raising from the dead, ascending to glory, and setting at the right hand of God as the representative and federal head of his body, the church, and they considered as in him in all he does. As substitute he stood in our law place, he bore the sentence of law and justice against and in the place of the elect, he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5:21, he was made a curse for us to redeem the us from  the curse of the law, Gal. 3:13. That perfect righteousness which is our duty toward God by his command, and which was established by the Lord Christ in his sojourn on earth as our representative, is received by God given faith. In the order of nature, righteousness is imputed, the spirit of life is granted, and all the faculties of life ensue, as faith, repentance, seeking the Lord, prayer, and all things that are related to living unto God.

            Now all these gifts of God’s grace to the individual elect sinner are;” according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”Eph.1:4 or because God chose the elect in Christ from all eternity. In their nature, election of grace is the first and greatest gift of God, for election of grace is unto salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.

            None are commanded to discover their state with respect to election of grace; whether elect or non-elect. That is the God’s secrete, but it is manifest in this, that all the elect are infallibly given “the faith of God’s elect“ Titus 1:1. It is therefore incumbent upon that person who cares for his or her soul to find whether he or she is able to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not enough to go to church, profess faith, be baptized, be the model citizen, and do all the things that moral and religious people do. No you must hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. If what you believe is that your salvation is based on your choice, and not the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, confirming the covenant transactions between the three persons of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then dear reader you have not believed the gospel. No, sadly what you have believed is a perversion of the gospel, Galatians 1:6-7, and that perverted gospel is based on another Jesus, 2 Corinthians 11:4. The Jesus that is currently as well as almost universally preached is a, want to be, Lord; who abandons his own prerogatives and advances man to the throne of master of his own destiny. The Jesus, who is another Jesus, wants to do many wonderful things for every man without distinction or exception, but in the frame of another gospel is unable to accomplish his desires. That Jesus who is the authentic word, wisdom, and power of God, quickens (gives spiritual life) to whom he will, John 5:21. For that Jesus who is the word, wisdom, and power of God, the authentic Christ of God, is Sovereign Lord of all, both elect men and elect angels owe their happiness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear reader, as you care for your soul, pray that God will lead you to a place where the truth of the gospel is openly, and freely, believed and proclaimed, and set under the gospel, hear the gospel message, and ask God to give you a new heart to believe that, that is according to the word of God.