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Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

                    -Romans 13:8-10 NRSV

Many have asked what it means that Jesus is the "New Covenant" and has set forth a new "set of rules" or commandments, freeing us from the seemingly endless (over 600 in fact) rules and commandments for treating each other, for raising our children, for the ordering of our households and even for the treating of our bodies. The pomp and ceremony in the Old Testament scriptures as it relates to sacrifice, dietary laws and even circumcision now seems to be abolished, as Jesus and later Paul repeatedly deny that any of this is directly related to righteous living in and of themselves.

The scripture from Romans is one of many places in the New Testament where love of neighbor as one loves themselves is mentioned. Jesus words are recorded in Matthew (most notably) and in other Gospels as well and Paul repeats them in several of his letters. The gist of all these passages is that it is NOT the abiding by the law that is in and of itself righteous. Righteous living is simply a by-product of loving God, neighbor and self.

Words from a sermon on the idea of "works righteousness" have stuck with me. As a protestant who believes in justification by faith through the saving power of the cross and the promise of forgiveness, I have always struggled with the notion that if all I have to do is believe in Jesus and accept him as Lord and Savior to be saved, what is it with all of these "rules/" Does this mean we can do anything we want, ask for forgiveness and it is done? We are still saved? Well, yes and no.

Salvation  does not free us from sin. The beauty of justification by faith, is that we are free to error, take risks and be wrong. We are acknowledged as human with our own human failings. if we truly accept Jesus and work toward living by his example, we begin to love God in ways we never have before. This love of God transcends to our relationship with self and with others. By doing this, we fulfill the spirit of the law that that has been written down in all of those 600+ "rules" in the Old Testament.

Love of God - the first and greatest commandment becomes a given.

Love of self and others is a two-part second and equally important commandment. By loving ourselves, we choose things that are healthy by restricting what we do with our bodies by staying away from 'unclean" (however we choose culturally to define it) living. Then we pass that same love on to others.

The "punch line" of the sermon I heard was summed up this way: Righteous living i.e. the showing of God's love through our everyday lives becomes our RESPONSE to God for that promise of salvation. It is the way that we show God we are grateful for the sacrifice of the cross. All the good works in this world will not bring us salvation in and of themselves. Our good works are a byproduct of the salvation we have already received.

Gracious and everloving God. No trial or tribulation that we face on this earth can compare to the sacrifice you made by so hideously choosing to die on the cross for us.  Help us to see that you and you alone are our reason for being, our reason for living and our reason for loving each other. Help us to reach out to others with the same type of love and compassion that Jesus showed toward "the least of these." We thank you for the sacrifice of your son Jesus Christ so that we might have new life in you. In your precious name we pray. Amen.