COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine
As Nikki Stevenson and I are walking through the book of Romans in the Former Adventist Podcast, we are bumping against many deeply rooted ideas that many of us shared inside our Adventist worldview. Of course, one of the most difficult ideas to release is that the Law—especially the Ten Commandments (and especially the fourth!)—is eternal.
We were taught in so many ways that because God wrote those commandments with His own finger on stone, they MUST be eternal. After all, the Adventist reasoning goes, stone is permanent. The Ten, therefore, are permanent and eternal, and no person is ever judged apart from his or her obedience to those Ten Commandments.
Of course, 2 Corinthians 3 exposes this argument as spurious. In fact, Paul’s clarity almost suggests that God might have known that people would make that “permanent stone” argument! Yet look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:4–11:
Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as [coming] from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate [as] servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading [as] it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses [it.] For if that which fades away [was] with glory, much more that which remains [is] in glory.—2 Corinthians 3:4–11 NASB95
Look at the details this one passage reveals:
- We are not adequate to please God ourselves; our adequacy comes from God.
- Christians are servants of a new covenant.
- This new covenant is “of the Spirit”, not “of the letter”.
- The “letter” is the law, and the law kills.
- The Spirit, in contrast, gives life.
- The ministry of the Ten Commandments—letters engraved on stones—is a ministry of death.
- The ministry of the Spirit is one of righteousness.
- The ministry of the Law had glory in its time but now is fading away.
- The ministry of the Spirit is surpassing and permanent; it remains in glory.
It’s hard for the Adventist mind to realize that the law has been fully superseded by the ministry of the Holy Spirit because of Jesus’s completed atonement. He filled the law full of the meaning it foreshadowed, and now we worship in spirit and truth, not with the shadows of laws and sabbaths.
How Are People Saved?
As Adventists we had “salvation confusion”. We learned that we are saved through faith by grace, yet we also learned that we were judged by the Law. We held conflicting beliefs in our heads: our obedience didn’t save us, yet our obedience was expected and was the means of determining whether we were ultimately safe to save.
We learned that Sabbath-keeping was not necessary for salvation, yet keeping the fourth commandment was the mark of those who would be saved when Jesus returned. The dissonance was crazy-making, but most of us Adventists learned to live with the dissonance and to rationalize it to some extent.
Romans 4, however, takes us back to Genesis 15 and settles the question about how people are saved. Paul looks at Genesis 15:6 and explains in detail how significant it is that Abraham believed God. Here is what we learn in Genesis:
Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”—Genesis 15:4–6 NASB95
Everyone is saved as Abraham was saved: by believing God and trusting Him to do what He has said He will do.
The question, though, is what is the role of the Law?
As Adventists we were taught that Abraham obeyed God’s commandments, and within the Adventist worldview, “commandments” were understood to mean the Ten Commandments. Of course, this understanding really didn’t make sense in light of the biblical account because Abraham lived BEFORE there was a nation of Israel. Israel descended from Abraham—and Moses, the mediator of the covenant at Sinai, wasn’t born until nearly 400 years after Abraham received his covenant promises from God.
Yet Adventism “solved” this problem by saying that the Law was eternal, that the Ten Commandments were eternal, governing the inhabitants of heaven before God created the earth. The fact that Abraham believed God’s covenant promises to give him seed, land, and blessing in spite of his and Sarah’s childless status, and the fact that he obeyed God’s direct commands to him to leave Ur for a place he did not know, to circumcise his entire household, and to prepare to sacrifice his promised son Isaac—these acts of obedience do not satisfy Adventists when they speak of Abraham’s obedience.
Adventists need Abraham to have known “God’s commandments” including the seventh-day Sabbath in order to hold their arguments together about the eternal perpetuity of Saturday-sacredmess.
Adventists need Abraham to have known “God’s commandments” including the seventh-day Sabbath in order to hold their arguments together about the eternal perpetuity of Saturday-sacredmess. Over the years I have had many Adventists argue that Abraham kept the Ten Commandments because the Bible said he obeyed God’s commands. The idea that he might not have had the Sabbath commandment is too much for them; instead, despite the context of Abraham’s own life, they insist that if the Bible says he obeyed God’s commands, those had to include the Sabbath.
Yet the biblical account is clear that Abraham lived before God gave the Law at Sinai. Abraham believed God when God spoke to him, trusting that God would keep His promises against all odds—and Abraham obeyed in trusting obedience when God asked him to act in faith.
Enter the Law
Every Adventist (and former Adventist) knows the story of God’s giving the commandments to Moses on behalf of Israel on Mt. Sinai. Recorded in Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments were the very “words of the covenant” (Exodus 34:28) which God made with Israel after He took them out of Egypt.
The Mosaic covenant, of which the Ten Commandments were the heart—the “abstract”, if you will, of the entire covenant containing 613 laws that explained how the nation was to live out the principles of the Ten—defined the nation and established the system of Israel’s worship.
Hebrews 7 explains that the Law God gave to Israel was based on a specific foundation: the levitical priesthood. The Mosaic covenant defined Israel’s relationship to God and spelled out exactly how the Israelites were to stay in relationship with God.
The law brought boundaries and order to a fledgling nation that had just been released from slavery in a thoroughly pagan culture.
The law brought boundaries and order to a fledgling nation that had just been released from slavery in a thoroughly pagan culture. God had formed them in Egypt and delivered them exactly on time as He had promised Abraham He would do (Genesis 15:13), but their deliverance did not include a system of worship.
The law brought Israel a rigidly prescribed system of prohibitions, permissions, ritual cleansing, and blood atonement so that they would learn that God was holy and they were not. They also had to learn that this holy God who loved them and brought them out of slavery could not be approached or worshiped on the basis of each Israelite’s personal ideas about Him. He was sovereign, and He, not they, established the terms of their relationship to Him.
In the terms of the ancient Hittite covenants (after which the Mosaic covenant was patterned), God was their suzerain; they were the vassals. Their sovereign God demanded blood atonement for their sins—but significantly, they were NEVER to offer human sacrifices. They were to offer representative animal sacrifices and grain and drink offerings as well as obeying God’s demanded sacrifices of time. God gave them yearly, monthly, and weekly sabbaths as part of His system of worship. (See Leviticus 23 for descriptions of every Israelite sabbath, beginning with the weekly Sabbath and including all the sacred feast days.)
All of these required sacrifices and observances were administered and presided over by a designated priesthood: the descendants of Aaron. The levitical priesthood was the backbone of the covenant God made with Israel. No one—not even the kings of Israel—was permitted to offer the required sacrifices on behalf of the people except the levitical priesthood.
Over all this detailed system of worship was the reality toward which it pointed: a coming Savior, a Messiah who would be the reality that all these shadows foretold. In a nutshell, the entire Mosaic covenant was a physical, real-time “shadow” of the eternal atonement that the Messiah would realize.
One of the most important facts about this covenant which we did not learn as Adventists is revealed in Hebrews 7:11, 12:
Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need [was there] for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.—Hebrews 7:11, 12 NASB95
It came as a shock to me, as I was leaving Adventism, that the Mosaic covenant including the Ten Commandments stood on the basis of the levitical priesthood!
Furthermore, the levitical priesthood presided only over the Mosaic covenant. If that priesthood was changed, that law also had to change. In other words, the commands and ceremonies and holy times had to change along with the priesthood.
Even more convincingly, Hebrews 7 further reveals that the priesthood that finally replaced the levites was a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek—the ancient king/priest of Salem to whom Abraham paid a tithe of his spoils of war (see Genesis 14)! Abraham lived BEFORE Levi was even born. There was no levitical priesthood when Abraham was alive, and there was no Mosaic system of laws, sacrifices, ceremonies, or holy observances. All we know is that Abraham gave an offering to Melchizedek, a priest of God who PRECEDED the law!
We know, therefore, that Abraham believed God, and his faith in God was credited to him as righteousness. We also know that Abraham obeyed God’s commands to him—and those commands were NOT the law God gave to Moses at Sinai.
What about the new covenant?
When God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful man, exactly on time, he came to redeem those who were under the law:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.—Galatians 4:4, 5 NASB95
Even we as Adventists knew that Jesus came to become our new high priest—but we did not learn that for Jesus to be our priest—a priest in the order of Melchizedek who was NOT under the Mosaic law—the law had to change because the priesthood had changed.
We understood that Jesus continued to function like a levitical priest—only He was in heaven applying blood to confessed sins. Of course, we were not taught that Jesus was a levitical priest, but all the Adventist art portrayed Him as a levitical high priest in full high-priestly garb, including the ephod and the breastplate with the stones representing the twelve tribes and with the urim and thumim on His shoulders.
This representation of Jesus clothed like Aaron and applying blood to sins was an egregious heresy.
Furthermore, now that we have a new high priest, we can’t live under the law which was governed and shaped by the levitical priesthood! The Messiah had come in order to fulfill all the shadows of the Mosaic system of sacrifices, ritual cleansing, and holy time.
In fact, Jesus fulfilled all the shadows of the law by being the one and only human Sacrifice that could atone for human sin. He was God the Son, and He took human flesh and the identity as the prophesied Son of Man. As the unique God-man, He was the only One who could offer an eternal, sufficient sacrifice of human blood to atone for human sin.
By His death He fulfilled the demands of the Mosaic law, and the shadows of animals, grains, oblations, and levites were rendered obsolete.
Our new High Priest did what the levites and their rituals could only prefigure—and now we live under a new covenant and a new law.
What Is Appropriate Worship?
This week someone wrote a question on the Former Adventist YouTube channel:
If in the Old Testament they were saved by faith, then can you explain to me what you meant when you said “The Lord Jesus fulfilled…the law and released us from its governing power”? If in the Old Testament they were saved by faith and in the NT they are also saved by faith, then does the “US” in your quote include the people in Old Testament as well? Thanks for your time.
Here is our response:
The Israelites were given the Law by God as a conditional covenant for the nation. That law was filled with shadows of the coming Christ—but Israel didn’t always understand the reality that the shadows foretold. They, too, were saved by faith, but God determined that their worship of Him had to include the shadows of the coming Christ: sacrifices, holy days, ritual cleansing, etc. They were saved, as Romans 3:26, 27 reveal, by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, but they didn’t see that sacrifice in their day and time. Instead, they had the sacrificial shadows, and offering the sacrifices was the way God commanded them to worship. So—salvation has always been the same: we are saved by believing God, by having faith in what He says to us and acting on what He says. But the practical ways worship is carried out has changed as God has revealed His provision more and more. The book of Hebrews explains this change from the Israelites’ worship according to the law to the Christian’s worship of God according to the Lord’s fulfillment of the law. Hebrews is a wonderful and revealing book!
God has always saved humanity by His grace through their faith in Him, but this exchange has always been made possible because God Himself is the One who is both just and the justifier of those who believe (Roman 3:26).
The details of appropriate worship, however, have been determined by God for each age in human history. We see from Genesis onward that God has always expected that people would offer blood sacrifices as part of their worship of Him. They could only approach a holy God by acknowledging that their sin demanded death, and they had to offer sacrifices as a way of acknowledging their own need of forgiveness and atonement.
Yet the details of these worship forms changed from age to age.
Abraham lived before the law, and he obeyed God directly—even offering his own son as a sacrifice—which the Lord stopped at the last minute by providing a ram instead.
The Israelites were required to worship by bringing sacrifices so that they were always confronted with their sin and the need of a Savior.
On this side of the cross, though, the true Sacrifice for sin has come and has been offered. Now all the shadows of animals, rituals, and holy days are fulfilled in Christ.
Salvation is exactly the same today as it has always been. Even the Israelites, consumed and defined by their lives of sacrifice and ritual, were not saved by those requirements. They were saved by believing God and trusting Him. Yet as long as they were living under the terms of the old covenant, they had to worship according to the standards God set.
Then what are the standards for worship in the new covenant?
Jesus defined new covenant worship when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well:
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”—John 4:21–224 NASB95
Now, instead of worshiping in shadows and rituals that point to Jesus, we worship Him directly. We approach Him boldly on the basis of His eternal sacrifice, and as the writer of Hebrews said, we go to Him outside the camp, outside the physical symbols of law.
Now, in the new covenant, He gives us new commands. He asks us to be baptized to signify our trust in His death, His burial, and His resurrection by which He fully atoned for our sin. He gives us the Lord’s Supper, not to bring blood sacrifices to Him in recognition that we need to be forgiven but in remembrance of the fact that He has already shed His blood for us—He died for our sins according to Scripture; He was buried, and He rose on the third day according to Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). He also asks us not to forsake meeting together, encouraging each other daily. In fact, after we have obeyed His command to believe in the Lord Jesus, all the commands for holy living contained in the New Testament are for us.
We even have sacrifices to offer—but now the sacrifices we offer are not animals, grains, rituals, and sacred time; now we offer sacrifices of praise and love for one another:
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking [the city] which is to come. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.—Hebrews 13:15–16 NASB95
The worship God desires is always the trust and faith of a believing heart, but throughout the ages, the practical details of worship have changed as the Lord has revealed His salvation of us. Now that the once-for-all sacrifice has spilled out the blood of the eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20), we no longer live under the law of shadows defined in the old covenant.
Now we live, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, with “unveiled faces”. If we persist in living under the law now that Christ has come, we are deliberately hardening our minds. Now worshiping God requires us to act in truth and to worship Him directly with hearts that trust and honor Him.
Paul has the last word for us as we learn what it means to live in the new covenant, trusting the One who died for us:
Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in [our] speech, and [are] not like Moses, [who] used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, [there] is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.—2 Corinthians 3:12–18 NASB95 †
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