What does the Scripture say on this matter, did the Law make anyone holy?
“For Christ once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh . . .†(1 Peter 3:18); “. . . being justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him†(Rom.5:9); “So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many . . .â€Â(Heb. 9:28). “ . . . to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly†(Rom. 4:5); “...no man is justified by the law in the sight of God†(Gal. 3:11); “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ...â€Â(Gal. 2:16).
One theologian writes:
Had Christ only kept the law, neither your soul nor mine could have been saved much less be blessed as we are. Whoever kept the law, it would have been a righteousness of the law, and not God's righteousness, which has not the smallest connection with obeying the law. Because Christ obeyed unto death, God brought in a new kind of righteousness â€â€not ours, but His own favor. Christ has been made a curse upon the tree; God has made Him sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.
Does the righteousness of God mean simply that, or does it mean law keeping? For the Reformer, it means keeping a shadow of the Mosaic Law for personal holiness. But what does the Scripture say? Doesn't it say we will bear fruit, and why does it never ever say the fruit of the Spirit is the ability to keep the Mosaic Law?
We are saved by Grace, but we are also sancified by Grace as well. Romans 8 makes this clear.
I'm don't believe in lawlessness, but being in Christ to fulfill the Law. We must abide in Christ as our rule of life.
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"And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT" (Ephesians 5:18).
"This I say then, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
"Likewise RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD, AS THOSE THAT ARE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6:13).
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK YE IN HIM" (Col. 2:6).
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye WALK WORTHY of the vocation [the believer’s high, heavenly, holy CALLING] wherewith ye are called" (Eph. 4:1).
"And that ye PUT ON THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT" (Eph. 5:8).
"If ye then be risen with Christ, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1).
"PUT ON therefore, AS THE ELECT OF GOD, HOLY AND BELOVED, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Col. 3:12).
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and LET US RUN WITH PATIENCE THE RACE that is set before us, LOOKING UNTO JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2).
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WHAT THE LAW IS
"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:12),
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14).
"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Rom. 7:22).
"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (I Tim. 1:8).
"And the law is not of faith" (Gal. 3:12).
THE LAWFUL USE OF THE LAW
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (Rom. 7:7; see also verse 13).
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20).
"Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because Of transgressions" (Gal. 3:19).
"Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Rom. 3:19). Law has but one language: "what things soever." It speaks only to condemn.
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3: 10).
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).
"The ministration of death, written and engraven in stones" (2 Cor. 3:7).
"The ministration of condemnation" (2 Cor. 3:9).
"For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Rom. 7:9).
"The strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56).
"It is evident, then, that God's purpose in giving the law, after the race had existed twenty-five hundred years without it (John 1: 17; Gal. 3:17), was to bring to guilty man the knowledge of his sin first, and then of his utter helplessness in view of God's just requirements. It is purely and only a ministration of condemnation and death.
WHAT THE LAW CANNOT DO
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20).
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Gal. 2:16).
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21).
"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith" (Gal. 3: 11).
"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" (Rom. 8:3).
"And by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39).
"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God" (Heb. 7:19).
THE BELIEVER IS NOT UNDER THE LAW
Romans 6, after declaring the doctrine of the believer's identification with Christ in His death, of which baptism is the symbol (verses 1-10), begins, with verse 11, the declarations of the principles which should govern the walk of the believer-his rule of life. This is the subject of the remaining twelve verses. Verse 14 gives the great principle of his deliverance, not from the guilt of sin that is met by Christ's blood, but from the dominion of sin-his bondage* under it. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."
Lest this should lead to the monstrous Antinomianism of saying that therefore a godly life was not important, the Spirit immediately adds: "What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid" (Rom. 6:15). Surely every renewed heart answers 'Amen" to this.
Then Romans 7 introduces another principle of deliverance from law. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should he married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:4-6). (This does not refer to the ceremonial law; see verse 7.)
"For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Gal. 2:19).
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up, unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Gal. 3:23-25).
"But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man" (I Tim. 1:8-9).
WHAT IS THE BELIEVER'S RULE OF LIFE?
"He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (I John 2:6).
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I John 3:16).
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (I Pet. 2:11; see also verses 12-23).
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love" (Eph. 4:1-2).
"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us" (Eph. 5:1-2).
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8).
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15-16).
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
"For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have, done to you" (John 13:15).
"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" (John 15: 10).
"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John 14:21).
'And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment" (I John 3:22-23).
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb. 10: 16).
A beautiful illustration of this principle is seen in a mother's love for her child. The law requires parents to care for their offspring and pronounces penalties for the willful neglect of them; but the land is full of happy mothers who tenderly care for their children in perfect ignorance of the existence of such a statute. The law is in their hearts.
It is instructive, in this connection, to remember that God's appointed place for the tables of the law was within the ark of the testimony. With them were "the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded" (types: the one of Christ our wilderness bread, the other of resurrection, and both speaking of grace), while they were covered from sight by the golden mercy seat upon which was sprinkled the blood of atonement. The eye of God could see His broken law only through the blood that completely vindicated His justice and propitiated His wrath (Heb. 9:4-5).
It was reserved to modernists to wrench these holy and just but deathful tables from underneath the mercy seat and the atoning blood and erect them in Christian churches as the rule of Christian life.
WHAT IS GRACE?
"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared . . . according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:4-5). "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7).
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
WHAT IS GOD'S PURPOSE IN GRACE?
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:11-13).
"That, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).
"Being justified freely by his grace; through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24).
"By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2).
"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20:32).
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved: in whom we have redemption through f. his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:6-7).
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need"(Heb. 4:16).
"How complete, how all-inclusive! Grace saves, justifies, builds up, makes accepted, redeems, forgives, bestows an inheritance, gives standing before God, provides a throne of grace to which we may come boldly for mercy and help; it teaches us how to live and gives us a blessed hope! It remains to note that these diverse principles cannot be intermingled.
"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Rom. 11:6).
"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:4-5; see also Gal. 3:16-18; 4:21-31).
"So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free" (Gal. 4:31).
"For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words: which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more (for they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall he stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake). But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Heb. 12:18-24).
It is not, then a question of dividing what God spoke from Sinai into moral law and ceremonial law-the believer does not come to that mount at all.
As sound old Bunyan said: "The believer is now, by faith in the Lord Jesus, shrouded under so perfect and blessed a righteousness, that this thundering law of Mount Sinai cannot find the least fault or diminution therein. This is called the righteousness of God without the law."
Should this meet the eye of an unbeliever, he is affectionately exhorted to accept the true sentence of that holy and just law which he has violated: "For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22-23). In Christ such will find a perfect and eternal salvation, as it is written: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9); for Christ is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4).
Read the Bible, not Ellen White.
As if that wasn't enough!
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10 Commandments for Sabbatarians!
Thou Shalt not divide the first covenant up into moral and ceremonial laws!
Thou shalt not arbitrarily switch the definition of terms like "commandments" and "the law" in passages to avoid contradiction with your own theology.
Thou shalt realize that the book of Genesis does not contain the word "Sabbath" and nowhere in the New Covenant is the Sabbath day commandment found, instead, it says the Sabbath was abolished!
Thou shalt never again misquote Matthew 5:17 (jot or tittle) as a proof text for Sabbath keeping.
Thou shalt not make the keeping of days (Sabbath day) into a moral law, when it is clearly a ceremonial law.
Thou shalt never teach that if the Ten Commandments are abolished, we can steal and commit adultery.
Although you may not like it, thou shalt learn that the current and historic "official position" of the Seventh-day Adventist and most other Sabbatarians churches is that Sunday worship IS THE Mark Of The Beast.
Thou shalt remember that the two greatest commandments were not in the 10 commandments.
Thou shalt stop misrepresenting history by ignoring the fact that early Christians always worshipped on the first day (Sunday) and never kept the Sabbath!
Thou shalt not claim that Ellen G. White was an inspired prophet, when in fact she plagiarized (copied) most of her major books from the local library including many of what she claimed were visions from God!
Thou shalt not teach that the Ten Commandments and the Old Covenant that was abolished, are two different things!
Thou shalt not reject everything the Catholic church teaches EXCEPT their claim to have changed the Sabbath day.
If thou claim that since Jesus is our example and that He did keep the Sabbath, therefore we should keep the Sabbath... Also keep animal sacrifices, the day of Pentecost feast, the Days of Unleavened bread, since Jesus also kept these...being our example. Thou shalt be consistent.
Thou shalt teach that although God never changes, the Sabbath law does change!
Thou shalt not say that the Sunday worship is of pagan origin by quoting from Bible haters like Arthur Weigall, who trash not only Sunday, but Sabbath, the virgin birth and resurrection of Christ!
Thou shalt not fail to understand that OUR POSITION is not that the Sabbath day was not changed to Sunday, it was abolished before you contact us.
Thou shalt not ever teach that that Apostle Paul kept the Sabbath 84 times, when in fact he never kept the Sabbath as a Christian.
Thou shalt learn that the Seventh-day Adventist church has a long record of suppressing information of its members to hide proof it was founded by a cult leader.
Thou shalt fully understand why former Seventh-day Adventists left the movement and criticized the church about 100 years ago.
Thou shalt learn that the only day ever mentioned in connection with worship of Christians after the resurrection was the first day of the week communion (Acts 20:7) and first day of the week collection (1 Cor 16:1-2)
: Israel WAS IN FACT in the wilderness, simply translate the word ecclesia/called-out assembly, but this is in contrast with the N.T. ecclesia.
