I've been interested lately in the root causes of Sabbatarianism. For example, read my "Road To Sabbatarianism" series. I am not talking about how Sabbatarianism originally started back in the 1500s. I mean for people today. There are big challenges in writing about Sabbatarianism and the New Covenant. There is so much to go over. In my (at this point 18) years of writing, I've written countless individual articles addressing Sabbatarianism (Armstrongism, really) from various directions. Lately, I find myself consistently going back to the nature of righteousness. I feel that is the key. Sabbatarianism, given its emphasis on law, naturally believes sin and righteousness come from laws; the Old Covenant law, specifically. I disagree. I have tried in the past to demonstrate that both sin and righteousness can exist apart from laws. Yet, even after all this, I still have a nagging feeling that there is something I have not written about fully; there is something important that I've missed.
Today's post is about the nature of righteousness, law, and faith, Paul and Jesus. It all comes down to Jesus. He is sufficient. But to understand Jesus and the law, I need to explain something about Paul.
Let's start with Jesus, though.
HE'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL
In the past, I've mentioned Sabbatarianism tends to minimize Jesus. Most recognize Jesus as the second member of the Godhead, as the Messiah, as the Passover, and as the one who died so our sins could be forgiven, among other things. Yet, they minimize Him in certain important ways.
I find this unfortunate, because there is quite a bit to understand about Jesus.
He is the member of the Godhead who made the covenant with Israel; a covenant He promised to keep. Israel failed at their end, as predicted (DEU. 4:27). Usually, here is where I would head towards Jesus' death being the termination of the Old Covenant. But today I want to go in a different direction and emphasize God's commitment to keep the covenant. It was unwavering. In fact, it goes beyond what most people realize.
In Matthew 2:14-15, Matthew, under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, associates Jesus with Hosea's words about Israel:
(HOS. 11:1) When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
This verse has two equally valid interpretations: Israel and Jesus. It's not either/or; it's both/and. Prophecies are rarely just predictions of the future. They are actions that are reenacted later on. The nation of Israel experienced many things which Jesus, in His life and ministry, reenacted. Just for example - the Massacre of the Innocents, the calling from Egypt, the forty days of temptation in the wilderness, and His baptism in the Jordan. Israel was the type, and Jesus the antetype. Yet in all places where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded.
To put it quite bluntly: Jesus is the True Israel. The Israel of God.
As both the God who made the covenant and the True Israel who kept the covenant, He is the fulfillment of both ends of the deal. God's commitment was so thorough, He took it upon Himself to keep the covenant on Israel's behalf. Though the nation of Israel failed, He would not let that be the end of it. That is why I say God's commitment to keep the covenant goes beyond what most people realize. It has been kept. Perfectly. He fulfilled it. All of it. This has implications; implications that are not explored in Sabbatarianism.
Now, read this and really chew on it:
He is the law-keeper.
He is the giver. He is the goal. He is the keeper. Mainstream Christianity and Sabbatarianism argue endlessly over the meaning of the word "end" in Romans 10:4: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Sabbatarians say He is the goal. Mainstreamer say He is the completion. Guess what... you're both right!
It all pointed to Him, and He is the fulfillment of it. All of it.
And now, read this and really chew on it:
In faith, you are one with Him.
Physical Israel did not keep the law perfectly; the True Israel did. They broke the Covenant; He kept it for them. And He kept it for us who join with Him.
I went back and forth in my mind over starting this post with Paul or starting it with Jesus. I decided to start with Jesus and then go to Paul. It seemed fitting. With those things we just reviewed in mind, let's go to Paul now, because what we just reviewed would come as no surprise to Paul.
PAUL'S PERSPECTIVE
Have you ever wondered how there can be such a dichotomy in how we understand Paul? In places, he seems to be so very much against works of the law, yet in other places, he seems to be very much for the law. Grace in one place, works in another. Law here; faith there. Mainstream Christianity emphasizing one part; Sabbatarianism emphasizing the other. Why is that?
The answer is because Saul was a believing Jew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, but once he encountered the Christ event, which he could not simply deny, he realized that everything he once knew had to be reconfigured to fit with the Christ event. Jesus Christ had fundamentally altered the game, and Paul - the very one who persecuted the church because he refused to believe the game could be altered - had to come to grips with this new reality. God had changed things, and it was all predicted in the Scriptures. Paul had the law, and Paul had grace, and Paul had Christ, then Paul had to understand how they all fit together. His solution: Jesus is the answer.
The Covenant was given to Israel, but they found themselves time and again under foreign control. Is that all there was? If so, then how disappointing! How Israel's soul must have longed and craved for something that would satisfy. The Christ event is that thing which truly nourishes, satisfies, fulfills, and delights.
Everything that once revolved around Torah now had to be understood in a new way as revolving around Jesus the Christ. Because one who is greater than the Torah had come. This is the theme of the entire book of Hebrews (which most believe was not written by Paul, so it wasn't just Paul who understood this).
A great deal of the law, the psalms, and the prophets was about Him (LUK. 24:44). What Paul had come to realize is that the only way for the law to be kept as God demanded was for God Himself to keep the law. Therefore, Christ is the giver, the goal, the fulfiller, and the keeper of the law. If you want to truly observe the law, the only way is to become one with the One who succeeded where all else failed. To be one with Christ through faith, and His righteousness, God's righteousness - which is not temporary, nor fickle, nor like filthy rags - the only righteousness that can truly satisfy even God Himself - will be yours. Not because of you and your failed attempts at law-keeping, but because of Him and His uncompromising success. It is counted to you by faith.
So this, grace-based and faith-based total fulfillment of the law by God, credited to us by faith, is the answer to why Paul in some places seems to advocate for the law but in other places seems to speak harshly against the law.
In Him, the law is kept and the Covenant is dissolved. Now, only the spirit of the law, the root purpose of the law, remains.
Paul tried to explain this many times. [I am going to put several verses here, and I do recommend you read them but I understand if you just skim. I apologize in advance.]
(COL. 2:11-17) 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
(PHP. 3:3-11) 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
(ROM. 2: 25-29) 25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
How can anyone fulfill the letter of the law when they are not circumcised? Circumcision is in the law! Circumcision was the very first step toward the law. Even Armstrongism teaches this much. So, how can you fulfill the law when the very first step toward the law is gone? You cannot. How can you be circumcised if you are not circumcised? It cannot be by the letter!
What is our circumcision? (DEU. 10:16; JER. 4:4) Is it not of the heart? If you want circumcision, true circumcision, then you must look to the spirit of the law - to Christ, who circumcises the heart (EZE. 18:31; 36:26). But it's not just circumcision; it's everything. Sabbath, too. It has all been refocused onto Christ.
Paul had the letter of the law. He had all the bona fides anyone could ask for. He counted them all as dung so that he could grasp hold of Christ.
WE MUST KEEP THE LAW
Sabbatarians make a very large to-do about Paul saying the law was good and just. "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." (ROM. 7:12). It is! What then was the problem? The human heart was the problem. Jeremiah 17:9 says it is desperately wicked! The law from the outside cannot change the heart inside. Read about Paul's struggle with his heart in Romans 7:8-24. Or, Bill has several good posts about this very thing.
But God puts a new heart in you. When He says, "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people," (JER. 31:33), He doesn't mean He will put a heart in you with the law scratched onto it, or that He will put a heart in you so you can keep the letter of the law, as Sabbatarians so often claim. No! Why would He when He's already accomplished everything you need? Think about it.
Do you truly keep the law? On your best day you barely keep a fraction of the 613 laws, and you know in your heart of hearts that you fail even at that fraction you attempt to keep. Over and over and over. This is not about God putting the letter of the law in your heart, or magically enabling you to keep the letter of the law. If it was, you'd be doing it. I have some very troubling news for you. You thought the law was the standard? Oh, it's much more than that.
(MAT. 5: 48) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
(I JON. 3: 3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
(I PET. 1: 15) but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct
You must be perfect as God is perfect. How's that going for you?
There is only one way you're going to pull this off.
(PHP. 3: 9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith
It's not about the law in you and your partial successes; it's about Him in you, and you in Him. The author and goal and keeper of the law will be in you. Not to repeated failures and beating yourself up, fearfully awaiting judgment while hoping for forgiveness, but to a victory and an overcoming beyond words. Freely given and wholly undeserved. Because He took your sins on Himself so that He could put His righteousness onto you.
(II COR. 5:21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Do you want to finally keep the law? Do you want real righteousness? Then hear what I am telling you today.
You must be one in faith with Him who kept the law. He is the law-keeper. He is the circumcision of the heart. It says that in Colossians 2:11, which we read above.
What was Paul's solution to his personal failure?
(ROM. 7:25) I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Through Christ Jesus. Through Him, and with Him, and in Him. He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. He is the answer. He is sufficient.
I've mentioned many times in the past that the only way to surpass the Pharisees' righteousness is to become one with Jesus. I think this bears repeating.
(MAT. 5:20) For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Being one with Jesus by faith is the only way. You, by your own efforts, will never have more righteousness from the law than the Pharisees, who were absolutely fastidious about law-keeping and who lived while the whole law could be kept. It isn't that you need what the Pharisees had, only more. No. It's that you need a different kind of righteousness altogether.
So, this is how Paul can in some places be against the law - because he was against the way things had been done up to that point; with Israel trying to obtain their own righteousness from the letter of the law - and in other places be for the law - because he was a Jew who understood the law and was for the spirit of the law, in the way things were to be done from that point on: seeking and obtaining the righteousness of God by faith. Because law had been fulfilled by Christ and we will be one with Him.
(ROM. 3:28-31) 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? [those with the law] Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? [those without the law] Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
Of course we establish the law - even though we don't have the law, precisely like we saw earlier with circumcision - because we, through faith in Christ Jesus, obtain what the law was intended for to begin with. What remains then, but to observe the spirit of the law? And what is that? Faith and love.
CONCLUSION
Was Paul for the law? Yes! Was Paul against the law? Yes! But we must understand what Paul was doing - focusing and centering everything on Jesus.
Jesus did not come to make the world into better Old Covenant Jews. Sabbatarians get caught up with laws because they understand sin and righteousness as things that come from laws. Sin and righteousness do not come from laws; they come from God. Look to the One who is the source of it all. Righteousness comes to us through our oneness with Jesus by faith. It's about a relationship. It's not that righteousness doesn't matter for Christians, but where it comes from. Then go, and in spirit and in truth follow the Holy Spirit into a life of faith and love.
(ROM. 8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
To help you move forward, I suggest these articles:
Jesus: He's Kind of a Big Deal
The First and Greatest Commandment: Greater than you Think
Physical vs Spiritual
God Judges According To The Heart
The Road To Sabbatarianism - Part III
Covenant Loyalty, Righteousness In Faith
Common Legalist Arguments - Part II
If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments
Lawlessness and I John 3
Sin Is The Transgression of The Law?
Confusing The Covenants
Two Trees - Two Covenants
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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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