When a Christian's soul breathes, it inhales by taking in God's loving grace. It exhales God's love back to the Creator and to Creation. It is God's love that comes out of us, not our love. The actions that occur are a result of an overflow of a relationship with Jesus, and not our own actions.
God is not interested in you sticking to a values system...if He did, the Law of Moses would be good enough. He is interested in us sticking to a person, Jesus Christ. If you perform all the values of the New Testament without the proper relationship to Jesus, and if it isn't done out of grace and faith, then it is humanism....trying to build a Tower of Babel to heaven.
But what about the New Testament Commandments? As you move forward into grace, a mental shift takes place that causes you to see the commandments in a positive way. You begun understand them from a basis of love.
A grace perspective lets us see the commandments not as obligations, but as opportunities for the life of Christ to be revealed through us. We *want* to respond in obedience to them because the commandments are a beautiful picture of the many ways that Christ's life can be seen through our lifestyle. God has written his commands on our hearts with His love (Hebrews 8:10).
Set free by grace, we don't face the commandments with self-condemnation, but with spiritual anticipation that Jesus Christ will reveal His life in us. Jesus didn't break the Law 2000 years ago, but rather fulfilled it. As He lives His life through us today, He will fulfill the commands of the New Testament. The Christian *abides* in Christ, *chooses* to obey His commandments, and then acts in faith.
Are you struggling for victory in your Christian life? Don't focus on the commandments as a doorway to victory. *Christ* is your victory! As you learn to abide in Him and he expresses His life through you, the commandments will become a blessing, not a burden. You will experience the joy of walking in grace, not guilt.
David