Exodus 19:5

If ye will obey. Rather than command the Hebrews to keep His covenant, as was His sovereign right, God graciously invited His people to do that which would be for their own benefit. The only avenue upon which we can walk with God is that of obedience. On no other terms but obedience could God consent to be their God or to have them for His chosen people. The grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings salvation to all men (Titus 2:11) does not release them from their obligation to obey the divine law (Rom. 3:31). Faith in the redeeming Christ is inseparably joined to the power of the indwelling Christ, which enables one to keep the Ten Commandments (Rom. 8:1-4). Jesus and the apostles most emphatically affirmed the principle of obedience to divine law (Matt. 5:17, 18; 19:16, 17; 1 Cor. 7:19; James 1:25; 2:10-12; 1 John 2:3, 4).

My covenant. The covenant God made with Israel at Sinai is generally called the “old covenant” (Heb. 8:13). Owing to the failure of the people to appreciate fully the purpose of God and to enter into the true spirit of the covenant, it stood forth in contrast to the new, or gospel, covenant as follows: (1) It was more elementary (Gal. 4:1—5). (2) It was more closely related to outward rites and ceremonies (Heb. 9:1). (3) Its motives were largely penalties and rewards, for, as “children,” these were the only incentives Israel was yet prepared to understand (Gal. 4:3; PP 371). (4) Its blessings were largely temporal. (5) It trusted in human accomplishment and good works rather than in divine grace and a Saviour from sin (see on Ex. 19:8). The signal blessing of the new covenant is that through faith in Christ, power is imparted to the believer to fulfill “the righteousness of the law” (Rom. 8:1-4; cf. Acts 13:37-39).

God permitted Israel to attempt to keep the law, so they might become aware of their inability to do what they mistakenly felt able to do. They would thus be led from trust in self to trust in God, from confidence in their own endeavors to faith in divine accomplishment. Thus, the law would become the means of leading them to Christ as their only Saviour from sin (Gal. 3:23-26). Thus, the way was prepared for the new covenant relationship, the gospel of divine grace, the law kept in and through Christ (Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 3:21-31; 8:1-4; Heb. 8:7-11). As Paul declares, this new covenant relationship does not “make void the law through faith” (Rom. 3:31). The law remains the standard of duty, the norm of holy practice. The new covenant establishes the law as the eternal code of righteousness, without which there can be no holy conduct.

A peculiar treasure. Rather, “my own possession” (RSV; see also Ps. 135:4; Isa. 43:1-4). In the sight of God no other nation was equal to Israel. Every child of God, every consecrated Christian, is a jewel in the crown of our Lord, and is so considered by Him (Mal. 3:17; see on 1 Peter 2:9).