The Law of God
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the September 6, 2014
Sabbath School Lesson
“Tell me, you who want to be under
the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son
by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free
woman was born as the result of a divine promise.”
“These things are being
taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from
Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar
stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of
Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that
is above is free, and she is our mother.” Galatians 4:21-26, NIV
This has
been an unusual year for the Sabbath School Lessons. Twelve of the published lessons
so far have focused on obedience to the Law. This is about 25% of the lessons
for the year and does not take into account the coming quarter’s focus on the
Epistle of James, which is well known for emphasizing works of righteousness.
We might well ask, why all this focus on the Law? Perhaps there is a perception
within the denomination that the primary problem with the church is a lack of
obedience to the Law. Maybe this also illustrates the source of the perception
among the non-Seventh-day Adventist denominations that SDAs are legalistic and
have yet to discover the merits of grace.
It may be
easy to see how we might arrive at that perspective as a church. We like to
refer to ourselves as the remnant from the final verse of Revelation, chapter
twelve.[i]
That verse identifies the remnant with two characteristics: keeping the
commandments and having the testimony of Jesus. Although the text does not say
so, the common understanding among Adventists is that “the commandments” refers
to the Decalogue.[ii]
The testimony of Jesus is linked by some to Revelation 19:10,[iii]
where it is identified as the spirit of prophecy, a term commonly applied to
the writings of Ellen White. While this latter phrase is an interesting study
in and of itself, the topic this week is the Law of God, so we will refrain
from running down that rabbit trail.
Those “who
keep the commandments” is listed as the first trait so we might be justified in
thinking it is the most important of the two. Indeed, some would have us believe
that personal obedience to the commandments is essential for entrance to
eternal life. That being the case, Adventism is at times prone to fall off the
road of grace into a perfectionist theology. Never mind that one can easily
look at his or her life and see any number of imperfections, he or she can push
the perfectionism into the future to be assumed at some time prior to Christ’s
return or our death, whichever comes first. This way an imperfect sinner can
nonetheless preach perfectionism. In a slight irony, they may not be totally
wrong for Paul assures us of a type of perfection to be taken at the Parousia,
when mortal becomes immortal and corruption becomes incorruption.[iv]
However, the apostle reveals this as something accomplished by God and not by
our strenuous effort. This becomes a completed work of grace as it were.
An
interesting side light to all of this focus on the Law of God is that the focus
is not uniform across the entire Decalogue. Instead, the fourth commandment is
highlighted above the rest as it has been determined by some to be the seal of
God[v]
in opposition to the Mark of the Beast.[vi]
This has been explained at times by the equivalency of a seal today which may
contain the name, office and dominion of the one who owns the seal. In this
case the name would be The Lord God, the title would be Creator, and the dominion
would be heaven, earth, sea and all life in them as taken from the Fourth Commandment.
This
interpretation becomes even more focused when the three angels’ messages of
Revelation, chapter thirteen are thrown into the mix.[vii]
Seventh-day Adventists commonly view these messages as the final messages to be
proclaimed to the people of the Earth. Especially apropos to the idea of the
seal based on the Fourth Commandment is the first angel’s message identifying that
God as Creator will be an area of contention during that final time. Also,
there is repeated in the third angel’s message the emphasis on commandment
keeping.
Perhaps a re-examination
of the idea of a seal of God should be done, though. When we consider the fact
that no document seals itself but is instead sealed by the owner of the seal,
we can begin to understand that we cannot by commandment keeping, not even in
the instance of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, produce the seal of God.
Logic tells us that God must put it there. The Bible agrees. Jeremiah, the
prophet, wrote that God himself would place His law in our minds and our
hearts.[viii]
Therefore, the sealing of His servants is a work of God and not ourselves. It
is a work of grace, a gift not based on who we are, but on who God is.
Why then do
we at times find such an emphasis on the obedient works of perfectionism? Maybe
we condemn ourselves to this Sisyphean effort for no other reason than it
allows us to feel like we are doing something to contribute to our salvation. But
we overlook the implications of that, for if we must do something to contribute
to being saved then Christ’s death on the cross is insufficient to save us. It
also implies that the Holy Spirit is not able to take us all the way to heaven.
He can only extend a hand to help and if our hand does not reach quite all the
way to His then too bad for us.
Picture, if
you will, a disabled veteran who has lost both of his
legs in battle for his country. Now picture a physical therapist that gives him
a wheelchair and says, “OK, now I want you to run a three-minute mile.” The
veteran may try but his efforts are doomed from the start. This may be an
allegory for Israel at Sinai, when the Commandments were given. They looked
only to their own ability, an ability that was inadequate. That woeful fact was
well illustrated on the borders of Canaan.[ix]
After refusing to follow God’s leading and going up into Canaan, they then
relented and tried to go up in their own strength. Disaster followed that
effort.
Now suppose
the therapist tells the veteran, go as far as you can, and then when you fail,
I will step in and carry you the rest of the way. This is the perception that
Americans like. It demonstrates the “can-do” individualism popular in this
country with God only stepping in when we need bailing out. The two problems
with this are that we rarely allow God into our lives until we need bailing
out, and we always need bailing out. The picture it paints of God is that of
someone who is happy to bandage the wounds when they occur but will let a child
place its hand on a hot stove in the meantime. When the child cries, the
bandages and comforting come, but until then, the child is on its own.
The third characterization
of God and perhaps the correct one is when the therapist tells the veteran, I
see you have no legs, so I will carry you. My legs will become your legs and
you need have no fear of not completing the race. We have no righteousness of
our own. We cannot be obedient to the Commandments or Christ would never have
needed to come. It is for this reason that his legs, his righteousness takes
the place of ours. When He comes into our hearts, His righteousness is written
in our hearts and our minds, removing the condemnation written against us.[x]
Do we then want to continue circling Mount Sinai seeking a bondage that cannot
deliver us? That would be like our veteran refusing the offer of the physical
therapist and saying “No, Thanks. I’ll stick to the wheelchair.” Knowing he
would never make the three-minute mile, he pushes on in frustration
nonetheless.
We may spurn
the love of God in this way, but fortunately because “God is love,”[xi]
He does not rescind the offer. No matter the sin or its frequency, His grace is
always there, offered in love. Then when we finally surrender to that grace and
receive it, we will ask ourselves, “Why did I try so hard to do this myself?” and
we will discover how light the burden truly can be.[xii]
