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Commentary on "Garments of Splendor"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - Garments That Do Not Last

 

Overview

“Read Isaiah 51:7, words addressed to those who know what is right, who have God’s law in their hearts. What should that mean to us today? How does having the law in our hearts help us to know what is right? Is knowing what is right enough in and of itself to cause us to do right, or is more needed? If so, what?” (Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 94)

 

Problems

Inadvertently, perhaps, the author makes my point with these thought questions. The power of the Law is the power of sin and death. The Law confirms what Adam and Eve learned by dreadful experience in their first sin-induced action. They learned all about good and evil, and they learned that they had no power to achieve the former or avoid the latter.

Here is the purpose of the Law:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. (Romans 7:7-14 NASB)

If God had not given the Law, the entire Mosaic Covenant, we would not have realized how dead we are apart from Jesus. We must allow the Law to be the Law and to do what it was intended to do.

But never, never attempt to use the Law to engender holiness in yourself. You will fail every time. Why? “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20) All our righteousness is as filthy rags (see Isaiah 64:6), compared to the righteousness of Jesus.

Therefore, absolutely there must be something else, something apart from Law, that enables us to live as children of God. Will Wednesday’s lesson define what it is?

 

Summary

  1. The Law’s purpose is to point out sin.
  2. The Law can never make us righteous or holy.
  3. There must be something else, something apart from Law, that enables us to live as children of God.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

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The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 8

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