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Commentary on "God the Lawgiver"
Day 6: Thursday, February 9, 2012 - The Law in the New Covenant
Today’s lesson tries to establish that the 10 commandment law is part of the New Covenant. So, even though the Old Covenant law (including the 10 commandments) has been declared obsolete, cancelled and fulfilled by Jesus, the author wants the reader to understand that the 10 commandments are still law for the believer.
Instead of taking the opportunity to explore what it means to live in the Spirit (which would address the sin/behavior issue), the author takes us back to reviewing the law and its relevance. The writer seems to believe that if everyone followed the law perfectly (impossible), humanity would no longer be ravaged by the consequences of sin. The truth is, sin would still plague us even if we managed to all live 10-commandment abiding lives.
Two of the verses noted refer to the laws (prural) being written on our hearts. The teacher’s edition asks, “What does it mean to you to have God’s law written on your heart?
The easiest way to these passages and answer these questions is by understanding the word “law.” A law is a rule of conduct and a controlling authority. That controlling authority for the believer is the indwelling Holy Spirit, whose conviction leads us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Here’s Hebrews 10:12-18.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
If this week’s lesson were about the Investigative Judgement, I would take the opportunity to point out that keeping the law is not what keeps us justified or makes us sanctified. According to this passage, when we accept Jesus, he perfects us, remembers our sins no more and forgives us.
He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, not in the Heavenly Sanctuary working on the second phase of atonement.
“So often, we see people seeking to place the law in opposition to God’s love or God’s grace, the idea being that if you truly love, then God’s law is negated,” it says in the lesson. Without attribution to these claims, I am left to conclude that the author misunderstands or is purposefully not conveying the position of those who believe that Jesus fulfilled the law.
Galatians 2:16-21 clearly states what the Bible says about law and grace and the place each should take in the life of the believer.
“Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.”
Though the writer of this lesson is not making a case that we are made right with God through obedience to the 10 commandments, she is suggesting that obedience to the 10 commandments is a great self-help tool for life management. But the purpose of the law is not “how to better manage your life.” The purpose of the law is to show us our need for a Savior.
Through the Gospel, we know that a Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a baby, just as the Scriptures predicted. He lived a perfect, sinless life, and became our spotless Sacrificial Lamb when He was nailed to the cross. He rose again on the third day, just as He said He would. Because of this, when we believe, our sins are forgiven and our guilt is removed. He gives us new life and His Holy Spirit lives inside of us, sealing us and guaranteeing that we will live with Him forever when He returns. That is the purpose of the law. The law is not an end in itself (as the writer correctly states), or a continuing obligation for the believer. There is no verse that says or implies that a born-again Christian needs the law to live a godly life.
Contrary to Adventist beliefs, Jesus did not come to show us how to keep the law and then through the Holy Spirit empower us to do so. The Teachers’ Notes say: [Jesus] was keen to emphasize that life lived at its best, and in the Kingdom of God, was lived with a deep understanding of, and commitment to, the law of God.” Again, the Christian life is not about going deeper with the law, it’s about being in Christ.
Finally, the car part analogy would be perfect if we acknowledged that the part that animates and powers the us (the car) is the Holy Spirit, not the law.
Questions to consider:
- After a suggested activity, the Teacher’s edition says to ask the class: How would the world be different if everyone lived by each commandment? How might the church be different? How might we be different?
- Instead, have you considered, How would the world be different if believers lived by the Spirit instead of the law? How might the church be different? How might we be different?
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised February 6, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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
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