By Margie Littell
An Adventist asked me a good question recently: “Do you think God has to keep the Ten Commandments?” (We had been discussing, not surprisingly, the fourth commandment.)
I answered, “No, I don’t think an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful God needs rules of behaviors. Do you? On the other hand, weak-minded people do need rules!”
There is inbred within us a sense of what is right and what is wrong. We call it our conscience; the Bible calls it the “knowledge of good and evil”.
Think about it: does having the rules prevent bad behaviors? Of course not! Rather, it is the FEAR of punishment which prevents most people from breaking these rules.
No wonder the Ten Commandments are called “The ministry of DEATH written on stone” (see 2 Corinthians 3). They carry the curse of death for anyone who breaks them!
What if God removed all the rules and all the punishments contained in all the laws of all the nations? Would people go out of control?
Probably.
That is, they might become out of control UNLESS He gives them new heart sand new spirits which had no desire to do those bad behaviors any more.
Guess what! God can and does make people new all the time!
Born Again
Jesus called this becoming new being “born again” when He talked to Nicodemus, the teacher and protector of the law. In fact, Jesus explained this new birth by saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (Jn. 3:5–7).
Never underestimate the power of a MIGHTY God!
2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “When anyone lives in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone! The new is here!”
The old covenant’s commandments allowed people to try to scrub off their dirt (SIN). It provided ceremonial cleansing through the sacrifices of animals and through ritual washings, but those old covenant commandments couldn’t take away people’s sin.
In fact, Paul explains the purpose of the law like this in 1 Timothy 1:8–11: “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.”
After we are re-born and made alive by the resurrection power of the risen Jesus, however, the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit takes us out of our dirt (sin). Again, Paul explains this miracle clearly in Titus 2:11–14: “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
A mixture?
So, can we mix the new covenant in Jesus’ blood and the commandments of the old covenant? Can we believe in Jesus and keep the law “just in case” it pleases God to see us trying?
Galatians 5 is the powerful answer to this question, but verse 4 sums up its essence: “Some of you are trying to be made right with God by obeying the law. You have been separated from Christ. You have fallen away from God’s grace.” And in verses 25–26 Paul says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
If a born-again believer in Jesus can fall away from grace by trying to please God by keeping the commandments, certainly the answer to the Adventist’s initial question is clear: God does not “keep” the Ten Commandments!
I ask you again: can we mix believing in Christ and law-keeping?
I would not advise it. †
- Jesus Broke the Sabbath and Declared Himself God - February 22, 2024
- God Told Daniel the Future - January 18, 2024
- A New Covenant Needs New Words - November 23, 2023
GALATIANS 1 and 2 or Paul’s Defense of His Gospel
By William Newell
http://www.4himnet.com/bnyberg/Pauls%20Defense%20of%20His%20Gospel%20-%20Newell.pdf
… There are not three greater verses in the Bible regarding the exact attitude of the Christian’s heart, in his heavenly walk through an earthly scene, than these three.
Galatians 2
19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
(KJV)
… Now Paul asserts in verse 19 that our being made dead to the law by the body of Christ (Romans 7:4, R.V.) was necessary, before we could bring forth fruit unto God at all. In Gal. 2:19 Paul says, he through the law, died to the law that he might live unto God. Before that, he was living unto himself in this sense—he was eternally endeavoring to secure righteousness for himself. He was not free to live unto God; for how could he live his life freely and gladly toward a God whom he regarded as his judge, demanding this and that of him ere he could have a proper standing before Him?
… But dare you believe in your heart that you are dead to the law? Dare you forget all traditions and teachings except the Word of God? And boldly declare, “I through the law died unto the law that I might live unto God. I am free. The law has ceased to make demands on me, for God declares I died righteously unto it, the law itself being the executioner!”
… Paul, in Gal. 2:20, is declaring with the clearness of a bell his attitude of personal faith in that gospel which he gave us in Romans 6:1-11 and Romans 7:1-6. (Read these passages most carefully.) … Nay, Paul declareth that at Calvary with that Christ to whom he is now united in resurrection life, he, Paul, was crucified, having been identified there at Calvary with this last Adam, Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ.”
… Oh, the bliss of being able to say and to know it is true: “It is no longer I that live.” What a relief from effort, what a release from responsibility; what a rest from our labors, yea— what a relief from our very selves.
… He did not yield for one second to the influence of the most religious people on earth, but declared the fact that he had been crucified with Christ, and it was no longer he that lived. How, then, could he keep the law? How could he have righteousness of his own when it was no longer he that lived. He had Christ instead of the law and his own self and self efforts. Christ liveth in him. These were the facts about him as they are the facts about every Christian.
… Therefore, in this great verse, Gal. 2:20, we have, so to speak, two phases of faith, one toward facts, the other toward a Person. When Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live” he referred to what happened at the cross, with which death, being in Christ, he had come into vital union. Those facts were true and he believed them. He had been crucified. As to his life below, he, moment by moment, trusted the Son of God. He believed that this Son of God had loved him and had given himself for him. It was an individual faith on Paul’s part directed towards a Person, even Christ, the Son of God. Paul received everything moment by moment of his life from his Head in Heaven.
… If God is on the throne of grace, to turn to law is to turn one’s back on God and all his unfolded love in Christ in the gospel. “Christ died for nothing!” crieth Paul. … Grace is favor and blessing for the unworthy and often for the unseeking as in Paul’s own case, who was not seeking righteousness on the Damascus road when he found Him who is our righteousness!