The Royal Law- Study Concluded. Which Laws Do You Keep?

This will conclude the study on the Royal Law- The Ten Moral Laws, God's Ten Commandments.


Truly this study has been very enlightening. Too many people would love to alter God's law- either make it void, or change it to suit their desired idea of truly following God. How many actually take the time to study in depth the truth? How many deem it important …


Rev 22:14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 


Jesus KEPT all of His Father's Law-


Joh 15:10 … I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 


What would have happened if Jesus hadn't kept His Father's commandments? He would NOT have abided in the LOVE of God.


Jesus NEVER made it a point to explain in great depth that the Father's commandments were not good. Could Jesus keep something that wasn't righteous? Yes, He could, but He DID NOT.


People take this-


Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 


-to mean that if we keep Jesus' commandments we don't have to keep the Father's, yet Jesus' commands all magnify the Father's commands that He kept perfectly while doing away with the corrupt traditions surrounding them.  


SURELY if Jesus wanted to prove that we don't have to follow God's commandments He would have led by example, right? He would have broken them all and explicitly made it known. If He were no long going to keep the Sabbath He would have made it a point to blatantly disregard it to the point He would have said outrightly- there is NO longer a Sabbath to keep.  Instead, Jesus kept the Sabbath and reminded people of this--


Mar 2:27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 
Mar 2:28  Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.


Why would Jesus say He was the Lord of something that no longer existed? Truly where is the logic, if you want to look at it that way?  To say I'm the Lord of something would mean that something existed.


Jesus would NOT have left people in the dark concerning the Sabbath if He were going to abolish it, do away with it forever. Jesus would have made it a very huge point to do NOTHING that was expected of one keeping the Sabbath.


Yes, Jesus healed on the Sabbath and made it a point to tell those who wanted to claim He was disobeying the Sabbath law, that they would help on the Sabbath and His helping was no different than theirs.


Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath again when His disciples took some corn from the stalks they were walking through to eat it because they were hungry.  And Jesus told His accusers this--


Mar 2:23  And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. 
Mar 2:24  And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? 
Mar 2:25  And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? 
Mar 2:26  How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? 
Mar 2:27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 
Mar 2:28  Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath


That the Sabbath was to be kept wasn't a question here at all- it was HOW it was to be kept that came into question. Jesus did NOT say to the Pharisees that the Sabbath is finished.   The Pharisees would have loved to accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath by His NOT recognizing it as being different from any other day of the week, yet they couldn't.  This is the Sabbath commandment…


Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 
Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 
Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 


Neither Jesus, nor His disciples engaged in any secular work at all on the Sabbath or you can be sure the Pharisees would have been all over them for working for pay on those days. If Jesus intended that the REST aspect of the Sabbath was going to be done away with and the day was going to be like any other, Jesus would have been accused of a lot more than healing and such.


Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath as was His custom…


Luk 4:15  And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 
Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 


 A Sabbath action.. Kept by Jesus so that is was His custom.


Just as Jesus told people that if they looked at a woman to lust after her, they were committing adultery already- Jesus was MAGNIFYING, Jesus was FULFILLING the commandments properly and teaching people the proper way to keep the truth of God's Commandments. He wasn't telling people that they should NOT keep the Sabbath any more… He would have had to be very clear if that were to be because His disciples and His apostles most certainly continued to keep the Sabbath even after they stopped offering sacrifices in the temples and such. When they brought circumcision into question God showed them plainly what was to be done and didn't leave it to question and the Bible records the whole matter with some Apostles wanting circumcision to be enforced and others not wanting it enforced on Gentiles.
 
People we NEED to read our Bibles, we NEED to study them in-depth. We CAN'T simple take one verse of the Bible, or even several and ignore the multitudes of other verses contrary to them. 

Jesus KEPT the commandments  ALL of them perfectly, even when He was accused of NOT keeping them. He KEPT THEM PERFECTLY, He did NOT break them, destroy them, do away with them, exchange them for another set of commandments. His own commandments expounded upon God's not erased them! The loving and honoring God encompassed the first four commandments, while the loving of our neighbor encompassed the last six of the commandments. NONE were erased, NONE were deemed no longer revelations of God's love… Jesus COULD NOT have kept any commandment that was NOT OF THE LOVE OF GOD! So why do people want to say He did away with them? WHY?


Anyway, I've droned on and on…. Please if you have ANY doubts as to whether the Ten Commandments are still in effect…revealing the love God…convicting of the sinfulness of sin… READ this study and then read it again! Don't be afraid to STUDY deeply. It's very easy to want to make up our own religion as we go along, but our Savior never told us to do that, not once.

May God bless us all as we finish this study, opening our understanding ONLY to His truth!




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The Perpetuity of the Royal Law
Or, The Ten Commandments Not Abolished. Advent and Sabbath Tract, No. 4.
By J. N. ANDREWS
Continued….
The remainder of chapter 7 exhibits the powerful struggle of Paul, as an awakened sinner, to keep the law of God. He is constrained to call the law holy, and the commandment holy and just and good; and he testifies that it is by the commandment that sin becomes exceeding sinful. He adds that the law is spiritual, but that he is carnal, sold under sin. His language depicts in the most striking manner the power of the carnal mind.


Notwithstanding he approved the holiness and excellence of the law of God, he was earned, sold under sin, and unable to render acceptable obedience to its precepts. The other law of sin in his members baffled all his efforts to keep the law of God. In despair he flies to Christ for refuge and help. He obtains forgiveness of his past transgression of the law of God, through faith in the great propitiation for sin; he is delivered from the carnal mind - that other law of sin in the members - and grace is given him, that he may hereafter render acceptable obedience to the law of God. Rom.8:1-4. 


The guilt of transgression, and the just condemnation of the law, are now gone; Paul is under grace; the law of God is now placed in his heart; and he manifests his love to God by keeping his commandments. The first part of Romans 8, presents this happy change. This narration of the Apostle's experience strikingly illustrates the word of David: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Several important truths are clearly brought to view by this portion of scripture. 


1. The law of God has not been abolished; for here is direct testimony that it existed in its full strength, several years after the crucifixion. 


2. The law here referred to is the decalogue; for Paul quotes its tenth precept. Nor can this be evaded by saying that Paul quoted from the law of Christ. (1.) The words purport to come from "the law:" an expression never used with reference to the words of Christ. (2.) The words in verse 7 are a literal quotation from the decalogue; but as Christ never used the expression, they are not a quotation from his words. (3.) There is direct proof in verses 22 and 25 that Paul quotes from "the law of God." 


3. The law of God is his standard of holy principles; if these were abolished, sin could not be known. 


4. The law of God began Paul's experience. If that were abolished, there could be no Christian experience, for there could be no knowledge of sin, the Apostle being judge. Rom.3:20; 4:15; 7:7.
 
5. "Sin by the commandment" becomes exceeding sinful." Verse 13. The reference to the law and the commandment, in this chapter cannot be mistaken. No one will attempt to deny that Paul refers directly to the decalogue, using the tenth commandment as a representative of all the rest. The sin forbidden by each of the commandments, becomes "exceeding sinful" when viewed in their holy light. How great, then, must be the guilt of those who openly desecrate the fourth commandment, after they have once been enlightened respecting it by the word of God! 


Finally, the great design of the gospel is to deliver fallen man from the just condemnation of the law of God, and to place him where he may fulfill the righteousness of the law. "The Law reveals and makes us know What duties to our God we owe; But 'tis the Gospel must reveal Where lies our strength to do his will." 


"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil." 1John3:4-8. 


This text is worthy of careful examination. Let us notice some important truths here presented. 
1. The New Testament definition of sin is here given: "Sin is the transgression of the law." Every sinner is a transgressor of the law of God. 
2. John establishes the fact that this is the original law of God, by the statement that Christ was "manifested to take away our sins;" (transgressions of the law;) thus showing that it was a law which existed, and was transgressed prior to the first advent. 
3. In Christ there was no sin; no transgression of the law. This ought forever to silence those who affirm that Christ broke the fourth commandment. 
4. "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins." Those who think that Christ was manifested to take away the law of his Father, would do well to consider this verse. He was manifested to take away (not the law of God, but) sin, the transgression of law. If Christ was manifested to take away the law, it follows that to remove our transgression, he took away the law which he had transgressed: thus showing that he had a greater dislike to the law of his Father than he had to sin, the transgression of that law! But how did Christ take away sins? "He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb.9:26. He shed his own blood as a propitiation for the sins of men: thus honoring the law of God, and opening to guilty man a way of escape.
5. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not;" that is, whosoever abideth in Christ, doth not transgress the law. This is a truth of the deepest importance to those who think that the law is made void by faith, or done away by the gospel. Not a few who understandingly break the fourth commandment, quiet their consciences with the thought that Christ is their Saviour. Let such remember that none abide in Christ, who understandingly transgress the law of God. In this matter of vital importance, the Apostle utters a solemn warning: "Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin (transgresseth the law of God) is of the devil; "All thy commandments" says the Psalmist, "are righteousness." Ps.119:172. Every violation of the law is sin. Those who understandingly transgress the law of God, to use the severe language of the beloved disciple, are "of the devil." To break any one of the commandments of God constitutes a man a sinner, and exposes him to the penalty of the law - Rom.6:23; Eze.18:4,20; Rev.20:14,15. 
"My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world." 1John2:1,2. We have already listened to John's definition of sin, and have learned that it is the "transgression of the law." Many affirm that this is the law of Christ. In the text before us we have the means of deciding this point. John begins by exhorting those to whom he writes, not to sin; that is, not to transgress the law. He adds, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Then it is God the Father whose law is broken, and with whom an advocate is needed, by the sinner. There is one Law-giver, whose holy law has been broken by all mankind; and there is one Mediator between that Law-giver and the transgressor. James4:12; Rom.3:19,23; 1Tim.2:5,6. The one Law-giver is God the Father; the one Mediator is our Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ were the Law-giver, then our mediator must be between Christ and us. But instead of this, God the Father is the being whose law has been transgressed, and Jesus is the great High Priest between that broken law and its guilty transgressors. And this fact is confirmed by the next sentence: "He is the propitiation of our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Then Jesus stands between the Law-giver and the sinner, not only as an advocate, mediator and High Priest, but also as the propitiation for the sins of men. In other words, he is the great Sacrifice offered for man's transgression of the law of God. 


How deeply interesting is the thought that in the temple of God in heaven, where the ark containing the law of God abides, we have a great High Priest, who has once offered himself for our transgression of that free pardon of all our transgressions. Rev.11:19; Heb.8:1-3. 


To the professed people of God who still violate his law, we would address a word of exhortation and entreaty. "As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to his law. Pray that God may deliver you from it. Would you possess that charity or perfect love, so fully described in 1Cor.13, which is the fulfilling of the law? Then heed the words of the apostle John: "This is the love of God that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." 1John5:3. 


The fourth commandment has long been trodden down, but under the latest message of mercy to men, the people of God are seen keeping all his commandments and the faith or testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev.14:9-12. Will you not be of this number? The dragon is yet to make war upon this remnant of the church; but he shall not prevail. Rev.12:17. The last testimony respecting the commandment-keepers is given by the Son of God in Rev.22:14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." This is the fruition of our blessed hope, shortly to be realized. 


Concluded.