LAW LAW LAW

Having a background in Sabbatarian groups creates a skewed understanding of law in general and the old covenant law specifically.

By referring to it as THE law of God, with the attributes of God; eternal, unchanging, a “transcript of God’s Character”, a vision is built of a law that is unassailable. It stands immutable, solid as stone, despite the fact the first set of tablets were reduced to rubble by Moses.

With this view of the law ingrained into the mind, even Jesus’ words about good works on the Sabbath being lawful and not a sin requires quite a bit of mental gymnastics to reduce the apparent cognitive dissonance.

What I find truly amazing is that the same people who instilled this mindset of a perfect, infallible and immutable law have altered the law themselves, in multiple ways, both adding to and taking away from, while convincing the laity that their ‘interpretations’ of the law are valid. Those that are outside of the organization who might well provide truth and understanding are summarily rejected. Any attempt to point out the inconsistencies is seen only as an attack. “Truth only comes from within,” and not without, especially from ex ‘disgruntled’ members with an ‘axe to grind.’

The law, the Decalogue, becomes sacrosanct; above examination and reproach. Unassailable as imperfect or insufficient. It is sold as the ultimate expression of God’s will for mankind.

What Jesus said and did in relation to the Sabbath becomes an interesting test to those with the wit to recognize it. It comes down to who or what you are going to believe in regards to which one has the greater authority in your mind, heart, and soul.

Jesus, God Incarnate, who identifies Himself as the One who was there providing Israel with their “salvation” from Egypt, and the one who thundered verbally the Decalogue to the Hebrews from Mount Sinai, was now declaring to the offspring of those Israelites that good works are lawful on the Sabbath; good works as contrasted to evil works, with no other categorization, explanation, or clarification in regards to the commandment which declares no one was to do “any” work on the Sabbath; labor that included even the preparation of a meal.

Instead of choosing between the two opposing issues, people attempt to reconcile the two, where one has to be modified to eliminate the cognitive dissonance or reduce it to a point where the dissonance can be tolerated.

The two greatest commandments in the law, which are not found in the Decalogue, state:

(Matthew 22:36-40) Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Everything else in the law, including the Decalogue, hang on these two primary commandments.

The Sabbath was being used by Jesus as a test, even as He tested Adam and Eve with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where the serpent was right there promoting it.

When it came to the old covenant law at the time Jesus walked the earth in the flesh, it was the Pharisees and other religious elite who administered and taught the law, even the Decalogue. Jesus pointed out these same Pharisees were evil-hearted, doing the will of their true father, the devil. How then are they any different than those today who claim to be the religious elite who do the same exact thing those Pharisees did in teaching the law?

But but but… it’s GOD’S LAW!

Yes indeedee. And so was that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil "GOD’S TREE", whose fruit, the outcome of partaking of it, brought death. God created that tree. He put it there. It was God's tree. The tree itself wasn't evil.

This doesn’t change the situation between God Incarnate and the Sabbath of the Decalogue where the Sabbath said all were to cease from any work and Jesus now declaring good works lawful; good works as contrasted to evil works.

You, the Adventist or other Sabbatarian reading this, underwent conditioning by the leadership so that you could not see the real and true way this is reconciled. You are conditioned not to see it; not to agree with it; to reject it out of hand.

Good works - truly good works - are never a sin, and evil works are never good and lawful. And God, foreseeing this situation, inspired Isaiah to write:

(Isaiah 5:20) Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Now an important question to ponder… do evil people believe they are good or evil?
By embracing the law, as did the Pharisees, the evil children of the devil, they thought they were good, doing the good will of God, being the legitimate children of righteous Abraham. And the people who saw their works of law thought them to be righteous. Unlike this Jesus, who they intimated was an uneducated pauper from a backwater village and illegitimately conceived.

Legalism is a condition of the mind, heart and soul. Some people look to the law for their answers to life’s situations, where the “transgression of the law” is deemed to be sin, regardless. Good and evil are determined by and through the law. Keeping the law is good and righteous; breaking the law, transgressing it, is evil and sin.

But… the Pharisees kept the law. They did. And with greater dedication than any Adventist or Sabbatarian alive today. And Jesus STILL referred to them as children of the devil, doing the will of their father the devil, even though they were focused solely on the law. They would transverse earth and sea to convert a proselyte who ended up twice the child of hell those Pharisees were, according to Jesus’ assessment of their activities, where it is unavoidable that their proselytes were being taught the law and how to keep it.
And so the excuse is concocted that the failure of the Pharisees was that they added to and took away from the law; a thing which modern "law-keepers" also do. But Jesus' true diagnoses of their problem was not about their actions, but about their hearts. The motivation and the intent which was being masked by the outward display.

(John 1:17) For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Simple logic should tell you that grace and truth therefore did not come through the law, despite statements by those who were under the law, given that the law was the means whereby God punished those with no love of truth; the Great Lie they believed that, in the end, would be the means to their destruction.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, we are informed that God has a particular fate in store for those with no love of truth, and the law is suspect in this respect:

(2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

If law was by Moses and truth by Jesus, then law is not what is being referred to as "truth" here. The law curses those under the law.

(Galatians 3:10) 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.

Small wonder that Adventists would pare the law down to just the Decalogue. They must, as there is no other way to keep it. But in doing so, they furthered their own condemnation. "All things" it says.

You might well claim that this “unrighteousness” that people had pleasure in could only be related to not keeping the law, but consider there is also an associated unrighteousness in Scripture attached to not believing the Gospel and the law of faith and the Spirit that Adventists and other Sabbatarians insist is still the old covenant law (meaning the Decalogue).

(Matthew 5:20) For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The righteousness of the Pharisees was derived through the law, and it was self-righteousness; a glorification of the self and not God. The glorification of God occurs when one’s righteousness is derived from God through faith, even as was Abraham’s righteousness who believed God and was counted as righteous.

The true believer was saved and even loved by God while still a sinner; where God justifies the ungodly, who in turn are truly thankful and offer up praise to God to His glory, whereas the Pharisee in the narrative with the Publican, was busy adulating Himself while denigrating the Publican who ended up going home justified by God.

Scripture is replete with clues about the law and those with evil hearts who embrace it then use it to further their evil agendas. The argumentations that abound against this whole concept are replete with denials based not in biblical evidence but in rationalizations and accusations and other methods commonly employed in deceptions and deceptive reasoning. And, you will always hear about the sin of rejecting the law, of speaking against the law, even as they so charged Jesus, Paul, and Stephen the Martyr. Law, law, law, all the while ignoring the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, love, and faith; something the faithless Hebrews, who were given the law, could never in a million years comply with, given the condition of their evil hearts of unbelief.

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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )

Acts 17:11

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