By
Jack Hertzog
Jesus the Christ came to fulfill, and He did fulfill, and He will fulfill.
Fulfill, means to fill full, and Christ died because we did not obey God's laws, and therefore brought the death penalty upon ourselves.
Part of what Christ fulfilled was a promise that He would put enmity Between the serpents seed, and the woman's seed, and that He came to give us life, and Everlasting life at that (John 6:40,47).
Those begotten of God, not only try to obey God's commandments, but they do obey them as a way of life, they fall down here and there, I do, we all do (those who are converted), we all have weaknesses that will bring us down every time that we cease praying to God, then Satan can tempt us into sinning, so We have to go before God's throne, with Jesus Christ as intercessor to forgive and intervene, and upon our repentance (I John 2:1,2), to give us strength to not continue sinning.
All of God's converted have to do this, because they know that they cannot obey God, except by the power of the Holy Spirit.
God's Spirit begotten children also know that they are in a battle against evil spirits in high offices, that were able to deceive 1/3 of the Angels, so; how much more can they deceive puny weak humans, but they cannot deceive those who are actively seeking and obeying God.
Christ fulfilled (filled full) the law, and that does not mean that he is going to empty what he has fulfilled (or filled full).
He is going to fulfill,fulfill and fulfill forever, he came not to do away with the Law or Prophets, he came to fulfill and continue to fulfill forever, but, for those that say we no longer have to obey the commandments, the reason they do this is because they fall into the age-old trap that Satan has had men in, of self deception, that is; wanting to be good, wanting to be thought of as good, wanting to think we are good, but not wanting to do good (keeping the commandments).
Disobedience to God's commandments is very appealing to human nature, especially the Sabbath Command, but for those who do not want to obey God, Christ has this to say to them in Luke 16:31, and there is much more to obeying God in the Spirit than we can physically see.
The only way that we can really please God, is to obey Him in the Spirit.
God gave us (Israel) His Laws, yet He said, that they did not have a heart to see.... (Deut.29:4).
Many people have obeyed God's laws though, yet Israel was forced to obey the law by a strong bridle, but when the bridle was removed they quit obeying God.
That shows that they didn't really love God, or His commandments, they were keeping God's laws under a forced service.
They couldn't have been doing God's will, because they were not willingly obeying, either in the flesh or the Spirit.
Judah, however, continued keeping God's laws, and one reason, was that they had more influence to do so, because of there being more priests and Levites in Judah, having the temple looming right up in front of them in Jerusalem, and also having the kingly line of David.
Yet, even Judah eventually went into debauchery. Why did they go into debauchery? Because they really didn't know God, but when they returned from captivity, then they were told why, they went into captivity, and the disobeying of the commandments and certainly Sabbath breaking was one of the major reasons that they were taken into captivity, so when they came back from captivity, they were exceedingly fearful about breaking the Sabbath.
So, then they took Sabbath breaking very seriously, and also took it to the other extreme, and by the time of Christ on the Earth, they had added so many dos and don'ts about how to keep the Sabbath, that they were still not pleasing to God, and they were hiding the intent of how God wants the Sabbath to really be kept.
The Jews still didn't understand that God wants the Sabbath kept in a joyful, happy way, as a day of Spiritual communication with the Creator, not a day of worrying about whether we've swatted to many flies, or walked 100 feet more than we should have walked. They were not keeping the law in the Spirit either
Now today, there are those who keep the commandments in greater or lesser degrees, they also keep them because they want to keep them, or maybe because of tradition or because they think that they are pleasing to God, and truly they are more pleasing to God than those who don't keep the commandments at all.
Yet, are the commandment keepers in general, keeping the law by the Spirit? If they do not understand God's plan for humanity, then they are probably not keeping the laws by the Spirit, they are keeping the laws by their own spirit, man's spirit.
Paul said that "The Law is Holy, Just And Good....", but it had become death to him (Rom.7:12,13), why had it become death to him? Paul was a great law keeper, "A Jew of Jews", doing "everything" required, because the fact is, that he was not doing everything that was required.
Paul was formerly keeping many of the points of the law, by his own spirit, and he said that "he was alive once, without the law"(Romans 7:9), this is strange, since Paul was a great "Lawkeeper".
So, what law was it that he was alive without? He said "The commandment came, sin revived and he died" (Same verse). What Commandment? The commandment of keeping the Law by the power of the Holy Spirit! God's Spirit!
Any other way that we keep the law, if we do not have the Holy Spirit is just man, keeping the law by man's power, and it will purify the flesh, but if we have the Holy Spirit, we will be keeping the law by the power of God, and our minds will be receptive to the things of the Spirit, and we will have a great desire to please God, and we will have great love for Him, and His commandments.
David said "How I love your law", also we will have His love for others; this transcends just being "Lawkeepers", because God Himself has come into our minds, and is doing the ultimate works within us.
Those with the Spirit of God, will not be getting hung up, with trying to equate sacrifices, oblation and temple rituals with the Spiritual intent of God's mind at this time, though temple ritual and sacrifice did ultimately point toward Christ and the New Covenant, and we will need no outward signs, like crosses, stars of David, circumcision or any other signs to prove that we are of God, in fact, we will not need to prove anything to anyone.
The proof of the Holy Spirit will be, that we love God and His Laws, and our fellow humans.
The keeping of the laws by the Spirit can be done in one way only, and that is by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we do it by the fact that we have God's mind within us, and we just have a minute portion of it, but just this minute portion or earnest of God's mind is enough to change our minds, from the mind of man into a basic portion of the mind of God (1 Samuel 10:6, 16:13), and only those who have God's mind can understand the things of God, but those that do not have God's mind, can only see things from the physical point of view(1 Cor.2:11), but with the Spirit of God, we can begin understanding the things of God.
Those that don't have God's mind need to repent and receive the Holy Spirit, if indeed God gives them understanding, at this time to do so ( Deut. 29:4 ~ John 6:44).
The part that we have in the process, is continuing to strive to become perfect, but all the while asking God for more of the "Helper"(The Holy Spirit), and we all do have to fight the fight or we will fall down, but we will still fall down many times (Psalms 51:11, Romans 7:24), but our over all goal is still to obey God (Psalms 51:10,12-15), and those Spirit led children of God will get up and ask God for the help that He will quickly send (1 John 2:1).
The answer to the question of "How do we obey God in the Spirit" is, 'We obey God in the Spirit, by the Spirit, by having God's Spirit.
Jack Hertzog is a member of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God. He lives in New Mexico.
