Kathy,

We are commanded to keep his commandments, so those people you refer to who think that we don't have to keep his commandments are wrong.

There are three options: Ignore his commandments unto condemnation, or be a Pharisee using the commandments to our glory, or allow the LORD to keep his commandments through us. The first two are an offense. The last two involve "keeping the commandments". The Pharisees were quite adept at "keeping the commandments". A number of the Pharisees got saved, and continued to pursue their flesh-centered "commandment keeping", causing the entire problem in Acts 15, then later corrupted the entire church of the Galatians with a "Pharisaical Christianity". They never understood the third approach to the commandments, that of the LORD in them, doing the righteousness. That thought was foreign to the Pharisee mind - to them, if they were not the active agent in the keeping of the commandments, then the commandments were not being kept - it had to be them keeping the commandments or nothing. They could not fathom the LORD doing the actual keeping of the commandment in the heart of the believer, but the scriptures tell a different story:

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The LORD works our will and our doing.

Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The LORD prophesied exactly how he would do this in the hearts of his people Israel - their entire history was a failure to truly keep his commandments with all their hearts - and the only way that they will ever really keep his commandments is when the LORD puts them in their hearts.

II Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

It is wrong to think that we can keep his commandments in and of ourselves

Hebrews 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The LORD is the one who is to make us perfect to do his will

Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

The LORD is the one that inclines our hearts to his law, not we in and of ourselves

II Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Not only does he save us "not according to our works", but his calling us with an holy calling is "not according to our works" - both the salvation and the holy calling now that we are saved are only according to his own purpose and grace

Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Only when the LORD puts his Spirit in us is when he "causes us to walk in his statutes" , that is the only way to really keep his commandments.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Even though a Pharisee got saved by grace through faith, they continued to "try" to walk after the flesh after they were saved. They still thought that it was all up to them, so the same burden that they grieved under before they were saved, "trying" to keep the commandments with a nature that was contrary to the commandments - now they found themselves enslaved again by the same impossible thing, trying to force an Adamic nature to keep the commandments. It couldn't work like that before they were saved, and it couldn't work like that after they were saved. They did not understand what the new nature was. They continued to badger their old nature into "commandment keeping", mistaking it for their new nature. They spread this heresy to the Galatians, who were bewitched by it. If they only had understood that if they completely humbled themselves, submitting to and yielding to the Holy Ghost, who was now in them since they were saved, that the Holy Ghost would do his wonderful, good and perfect work in them. All he can do is keep the commandments, as the commandments are a written revelation of the perfect, holy, and righteous nature of the LORD. Only he who is perfect can truly keep that which is perfect, and only he who righteous can truly do that which is righteous. Pharisees continued to walk in the flesh, attempting to "keep the commandments" by the power of their own will, in their own might, for their own glory and self-righteousness. Although they would feign a false humility, and maybe they would even quote the LORD from the gospel:

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

They could "say" that without the LORD they could do nothing, but their "way of Cain" approach to the commandments betrayed their heart. They never realized that the only way to truly keep the commandments is when the LORD himself keeps them in us.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The LORD is the only one who can truly and perfectly keep the commandments, as they reveal his true nature. If we humble ourselves and yield to him, then as born again believers, the Holy Ghost in us will keep his commandments in us - the alternative is to still strive to walk like a Pharisee, bound and determined to do it on our own - but the commandments that we keep that way do not show that we love the LORD, but that we love ourselves - that way, we actually pervert our keeping of righteous commandments, and make a mockery of the entire thing.

Thank you,

Gino