“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” ( Jeremiah 31:33 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: )

Jesus shatters any absolute dissociation of commandments and love.

He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. . . . Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father” ( John 14:15 15 If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. , 21). “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” ( John 15:10 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. ).

Thinking in terms of commandments and obedience did not stop Jesus from enjoying the love of his Father. And he expects that our thinking of him as one who commands will not jeopardize our love relationship with him either.

This is crucial to realize because the new covenant relationship that we have with God through Jesus Christ is not a covenant without commandments. The basic difference between the old covenant offered by God through the Mosaic law and the new covenant offered by God through Christ is not that one had commandments and the other doesn’t.

The key differences are that (1) the Messiah, Jesus, has come and shed the blood of the new covenant ( Matthew 26:28 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. ; Hebrews 10:29 29 of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? ) so that henceforth he is the Mediator of a new covenant, so that all saving, covenant-keeping faith is conscious faith in him; (2) the old covenant has therefore become “obsolete” ( Hebrews 8:13 13 In that he saith, A new `covenant' he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away. ) and does not govern the new-covenant people of God ( 2 Corinthians 3:7 7 But if the ministration of death, written, `and' engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which `glory' was passing away: –18; Romans 7:4 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, `even' to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. , 6; Galatians 3:19 19 What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; `and it was' ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. ); and (3) the promised new heart and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit have been given through faith.

In the old covenant, the gracious enabling power to obey God was not poured out as fully as it is since Jesus. “To this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” ( Deuteronomy 29:4 4 but Jehovah hath not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. ). What’s new about the new covenant is not that there are no commandments, but that God’s promise has come true! “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” ( Jeremiah 31:33 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: ). “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” ( Ezekiel 36:27 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. ).