Expert: Dr Don Howe - 5/25/2008

Question
If christians are not to keep the commandments of God are we to ignore Rev. 22:14. Did Christ keep the commandment? Where the commandments around in the garden of eden, or did humans first learn of them when God wrote them with His own finger and gave them to Moses?

Answer
If Christians are not to keep the commandments of God

    John, thank you for your question, which has many different part. Who said that Christians are not suppose to keep the commandments of God? You will not find that in God’s Holy Word; in fact you will find the opposite. Here is a few of the verses that tells to keep His commandments: Gen. 26:6; Ex. 15:26, 20:6; Lev. 4:2, 4:2, 26:14, 26:15, 27:34; Num. 15:40; Deut. 4:2, 4:40, 5:29, and so on til you get to Amos 2:4 in the Old Testament. In the New Testament there are numerous verses including the following: Matt. 5:19, 19:17; Lk 1:6; Jn. 14:15, 15:10; 1 Cor. 2:22; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:22; Tit. 1:14; 1 Jn. 2:3, 2:4, 3:22, 5:2, :3; 2 Jn. 1:6.  So these verses show that we are to keep God’s commandments which include the ten commandments.

Are we to ignore Rev. 22:14

    John, you have taken Rev. 22:14 completely out of context. Revelation Chapter 22 has nothing to do with the church age were are living in; as this dispensation will be completed at the Rapture of the Church. Chapter 22 of Revelation has nothing to do with the present Church, but has everything to do with the Future Eternity. Before coming to Revelation Chapter 22 the following has occurred: The Second Coming of Christ has occurred (Rev. 19:11-21), the 1,000 Millennial Reign has begun (Zech. 14:4 has occurred),  Satan is bound and thrown in Lake of Fire for thousand years (Rev. 20:1-4), Satan will be loosed for a little while (Rev. 20:7-9), the Great White Throne Judgment occurs (Rev. 20:11-15), and Satan, his demons, and the those judged from the White Throne Judgment are thrown in the Lake of Fire for eternity, New Heaven and New Earth and New Jerusalem is described in Rev. Chapter 21, and finally leads to Chapter 22 of Revelation.
    Opening of Chapter 22 of Revelation gives more additional facts about the New Jerusalem, remember which is still future after the millennial reign. Rev. 22:14 states “Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” The KJV refers to “that do his commandments” and other translations stated “those who wash their robes” but both are dealing with the righteous who are living in the New Jerusalem. So John even in the New Jerusalem the saints still have to keep God’s commandments.
  We do not ignore Rev. 22:14, but remember it is not for the church age in this present time we are living in.

Did Christ Keep the Commandments

  Jesus not only kept the commandments but he fulfilled the commandments. Matthew 5:17-18 states “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Jesus did not come to destroy the Law and the prophets but to fulfill it by obeying it perfectly and would fulfill the prophets’ predictions about the Messiah and His kingdom.  In fact Jesus fulfilled every jot and tittle. A jot would correspond in English to the dot above the letter “i” and the tittle would correspond to the last curl on the tale of the letter “Q.” PERFECTLY.

God’s Commandments was present at the Garden of Eden and where man received his first commandment.

  Gen. 2:16-17 tells us “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The Bible is very exact it says “God commanded.” He did not say “pretty please” but commanded by His authority. Commanded is a Greek verb, tsavah, which means to  lay charge upon or  give command to. This is the first commandment God gave Adam in the Garden of Eden and then he gave the second commandment “do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” So God’s commandments were in place before he wrote the Ten Commandments with his own hand.  

I hope this helps.
Blessings.

Dr. Don Howe, RN, PhD, ThD