To prove it, do this one thing for two minutes: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV)
The Jeopardy theme is playing… GO…
Now, if you tried to do what was commanded on your own strength, you just encountered epic failure. You cannot meet the command by your own effort. Within 15 seconds your mind probably drifted on to something else, carrying your heart and might with it.
Try this one: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And GO…
Again, epic failure. This is why you never seem to see commands of this type standing alone in the New Testament. Because Biblical commandments set a bar so high that the inevitable result is epic failure without an understanding of God’s success on our behalf. When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians he knew that they would immediately pick up on his command to set their minds on things above, which is why he continued with “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3 ESV) It is the knowledge that you have died and are hidden with Christ that makes it possible for you to set your minds on things above. A deep understanding of these truths removes the burden of the commandment.
Now I think we intuitively know this. The problem is that the dying makes us uncomfortable so we skim over that part. Our humanity searches for the ‘can dos’ of scripture because we want to be vitally involved in our salvation. The ‘is dones’ of scripture force us into the uncomfortable realm of death to self and so we simply gloss over them as we look for what we feel we need to accomplish to satisfy God. As a result we bounce from one epic failure to another until the day, by the grace of God, we are so worn down by failure that we recognize the futility of it all and fall back on what God has already accomplished for us.
Most evangelism today is very focused on the love of God. Of course the love that God has for us is the motivating and fruit-producing force behind true Christianity. But a very important part of evangelism is to reveal human fallibility. The Old Testament Commandments were given for this purpose. They reveal the epic failure of mankind to please God by what he does. Many of us were lured to Christ by a message of love and forgiveness which did not show us our complete inability to please God by our fleshly ability. The result is that we enter into Christian life trying with all our might to meet the commandments of scripture instead of accepting the fact that Christ met the commandments on our behalf. Christian life then becomes a long string of epic failures, which is why so many drop out of it.
The truth is that Christ has kept the commandments for you. Look to his perfect life on your behalf instead of to yourself for the perfection God requires and you will find rest, having died and been hidden in him. Resting in him will allow you the leisure you need to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Accept what he has done in order that, as Paul says, "the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:4 ESV)
God Bless
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