By Colleen Tinker
“The Sabbath is part of God’s law, and God never changes. The Sabbath is eternal,” Adventists often argue. “The Sabbath is God’s day!”
These familiar arguments form the foundation of Adventism’s view of morality. “God’s law,” they say, was written by God’s finger and is eternal, for all men for all time. In fact, they say that even God Himself is subject to His own law.
A former Adventist recently asked about this assumption that the law is “God’s law” in the sense that it is His “property” for which He is responsible.
The letter led with Jesus’ words in John 14:25, KJV: “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” Then came this question, “I am very interested in knowing why Jesus used the third person plural in the possessive when speaking of the Torah. Why didn’t he use ‘our’ law?…If the law was God’s, and God was in Christ reconciling the world, why is the law demoted as a possession of the Jews?”
God’s Law?
John 14:25 must be read in context. The verses around it help us understand what Jesus is saying:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause’ (Jn. 14:18–25).
When Jesus says that the word “written in their Law must be fulfilled,” He the quotes from Psalm 35:19 and Psalm 69:4. Significantly, the context of this quotation is not the Ten Commandments nor even the Torah. Jesus is quoting from the Psalms. In this context, the Law to which Jesus refers is the Old Testament Scriptures—the whole word of God which the Jews had. In other words, the Jews’ hatred of Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures.
Furthermore, the context of this passage is Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He is telling them what is going to happen in the future after He dies and rises and returns to heaven. He is telling them what to expect.
He first establishes that He is their Master (v. 20), and they can expect to experience the same kinds of hardships He experienced. He also explains that the Jews had seen His miracles and His works, but they did not believe.
When Jesus speaks of “they”, He is referring to the Jews. Moreover, because they had seen His ministry, they should have known who He was, and they should have known He had fulfilled their law. He calls it “their law” because that is exactly whose it is. God gave it to Israel for Israel’s governance and worship. He gave it to them to define them as His people, His nation who would bring the Messiah. In the larger sense, He gave them not only the law as their rule of governance but the entire Old Testament which prophesied the coming of Jesus.
Jesus reminds them that the Jews had every reason to recognize Him, but they did not. His miracles were the things which the prophets said the Messiah would do, and all Jews knew that no one but God could make the lame walk, the blind see, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, or the dead to live. Jesus did the miracles that revealed Him to be GOD.
When Jesus quoted the Psalms and said that the Jews’ hatred of Him was fulfilling their law (as opposed to God’s law), He was identifying the purpose of God’s word as being the mandate for God’s people. At the same time, Jesus was revealing Himself as Israel’s Savior, not merely as a man.
The law—and God’s entire revealed word—is authored by God. In the sense that the law reveals God’s words and will, we can say it is “God’s law”. Nevertheless, God is not UNDER the law—even His own laws. God is the SOURCE of law.
While Jesus was born under the Mosaic law, as Galatians 4:4 said, His being under the law was for the purpose of fulfilling it as the Perfect Israel. But the law, while given by God, does not have authority over God. God is OVER law. In fact, the law was not for anyone besides the Jews. No one. Acts 15, Galatians, Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews—they all make it clear that the law was for Israel, and Jesus fulfilled the law. He is GREATER than the law because He is God, and in Him—Jesus the son of Man—all of its righteous requirements were fulfilled.
Think of the house rules
As an example, think of making rules for our children. We are NOT under those rules, and those rules don’t apply to other people’s children. They were the rules we gave to our children for the proper management of our households. They were rules we authored, but they were not for us to “do”. Rather, they were the rules of engagement by which our children were to live in relationship with us. We were OVER those rules. Our kids were UNDER them. In addition, when our children grew up and left the house, those rules weren’t for them any longer. They had completed their time in our houses and fulfilled our requirements; they were now on their own and living by new rules for their new households. Our rules for them were not timeless and continuing. They served to manage our own children as long as they were in our homes. When they grew up and left, those rules became obsolete.
We can think of the Mosaic law as that same kind of law for Israel. It was temporary, coming 430 years after God’s promises to Abraham, it lasted until Jesus came (Gal. 3:17–20), and it governed only Israel.
Now, however, that law is obsolete (Heb. 8). It was Israel’s law; no gentile was ever under it. For example, when the 13 colonies rebelled and fought the Revolutionary War, winning their independence from England, England’s law was no longer the law of the 13 colonies. The colonies became 13 states of the newly-formed United States of America, and they developed their OWN law. Even though the laws of England and of the United States had overlapping requirements, those laws of England had nothing to do with the USA, and the laws of the USA had nothing to do with England. The new United States were never under the laws of England. The new country had new laws designed for it.
Jesus said that Israel was judged by Moses “on whom you have set your hope” (Jn. 5:45). If they had believed Moses, He explained, they would have believed Him, because Moses wrote of Him. Gentiles, however, are not judged by the law because they were never under the law (Rom. 2:12–14).
The law was Israel’s law, and that is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “They have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’” Moreover, the quote Jesus makes is not from the Torah; it was from Psalm 35. “The Law” was a general term relating to entire word of God given to Israel.
Unlike the way Adventists speak of “God’s law” as something eternal which God must respect, God is the Author of “law”. Jesus’ work of reconciling the world to the Father was not about God’s “keeping” His law. Rather, He was doing what He Himself required for reconciliation. It wasn’t the law that dictated what God must do. Rather, the law informed Israel what God required of them, and Jesus fulfilled every requirement for reconciliation.
Thus, in John 15, Jesus is telling His disciples that the Israelites’s hatred and disbelief in Him fulfilled their law that God delivered to them. In telling them these things, Jesus is revealing Himself to be greater than Israel, the One who would deliver them from sin and bondage and who would set them free.
Jesus, God the Son, is the fulfiller of the law, and in Him, the law is made obsolete. †
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