Comment to a comment on another blog
Hi Ellamae,
You may not even read this, but I thought I’d chime in anyway. I like the way you said, “the law is the schoolmaster (it teaches) how to love.”
I know that Steve corrected you by changing the “is” into a “was” which is how Paul wrote it. But for Galatians and the rest of scripture to be relevant and profitable for doctrine, reproof, etc, as Paul also said, I believe he would say that we need to apply everything in the Bible to our current circumstances. Otherwise, it becomes a 2,000 year old statement and meaningless to us fighting sin today.
The Law is our schoolmaster to keep bringing us to a need of Christ’s grace. As we walk in the advancing light of truth, we have fellowship with God. Ellen White through the Holy Spirit did a lot to advance the light of the Bible, much like Moses did in the wilderness. It’s all our schoolmaster, giving us good reasons to flee to our Savior for His mercy. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” All those who came to Jesus and received Him were driven there by the Father’s powerful consequences to the breaking of His Law. And He gives us the certainty of acceptance to all who have been thus humbled and moved by the Father: “and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (Jn 6:37). What a beautiful arrangement They have going to get our attention and love, and get us safely in Their embrace!
We need all the help we can get for getting to and staying with Jesus. Abraham, the father of faith, did. Remember Pharaoh rebuked him through Sarah for lying? David, the man after God’s own heart, did. Remember what happened when he numbered his army for his own vanity’s sake? Both of these men knew grace, and that abundantly. Yet, there was the Law and its consequences if broken.
Then there was Paul, who also discovered what Abraham and David had found in grace, using sharpness to the Corinthians when needed because the Law still had a place in “his” gospel. Nothing has changed since Christ spoke in kind warning to Cain before his murder. He spoke the same way to Judas when he wanted to join the following.
What we need is to understand the relation between grace and Law.
The only thing that changed when Christ came was an increased knowledge of God’s compassion for us. His grace could be more abundantly revealed because the status of the great plan for justification of sinners through faith moved from the potential to the actual, the promised to the fulfilled, from deep within the counsel of God’s heart to demonstration before the whole onlooking universe.
But as offense abounded and grace much more abounded; likewise, when grace much more abounded, the standard of the Law raised. God didn’t love His fallen children more than before, but His love was so much more increasingly manifested. And for love to be love, it must have equal parts of grace and truth, mercy and law, peace and righteousness. For divine love to remain true love, if the grace/mercy/peace aspect moved up many notches, we must expect the truth/law/righteousness aspect to move up with it. And that is exactly what happened. Both moved up abundantly.
So, we hear Christ raising the standard of the Law in His sermon on the mount. We hearken back to the prophecy regarding the Messiah, “But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” (Is. 11:4,5). We see Him cleansing the temple of the wicked, yet sanctimonious law-breakers, and opening it up to the genuine “meek of the earth.”
This was to set the stage for His ministry to heal the brokenhearted and preach the gospel to the poor in spirit. He wanted to send the message that the amazing sacrifice of Father and Son would not be presumed upon. “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Ex. 34:7). When the Jews swore, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” (Matt. 27:25) their children experienced the besiegement and scourging by the Romans and the scattering of the surviving generations for 2,000 years.
The Law cannot change, lose luster or authority. If it did, a man’s law would move immediately in to take its place of reverence. Satan would make sure of it. He is already preparing for this very thing today.
You may not even read this, but I thought I’d chime in anyway. I like the way you said, “the law is the schoolmaster (it teaches) how to love.”
I know that Steve corrected you by changing the “is” into a “was” which is how Paul wrote it. But for Galatians and the rest of scripture to be relevant and profitable for doctrine, reproof, etc, as Paul also said, I believe he would say that we need to apply everything in the Bible to our current circumstances. Otherwise, it becomes a 2,000 year old statement and meaningless to us fighting sin today.
The Law is our schoolmaster to keep bringing us to a need of Christ’s grace. As we walk in the advancing light of truth, we have fellowship with God. Ellen White through the Holy Spirit did a lot to advance the light of the Bible, much like Moses did in the wilderness. It’s all our schoolmaster, giving us good reasons to flee to our Savior for His mercy. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” All those who came to Jesus and received Him were driven there by the Father’s powerful consequences to the breaking of His Law. And He gives us the certainty of acceptance to all who have been thus humbled and moved by the Father: “and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (Jn 6:37). What a beautiful arrangement They have going to get our attention and love, and get us safely in Their embrace!
We need all the help we can get for getting to and staying with Jesus. Abraham, the father of faith, did. Remember Pharaoh rebuked him through Sarah for lying? David, the man after God’s own heart, did. Remember what happened when he numbered his army for his own vanity’s sake? Both of these men knew grace, and that abundantly. Yet, there was the Law and its consequences if broken.
Then there was Paul, who also discovered what Abraham and David had found in grace, using sharpness to the Corinthians when needed because the Law still had a place in “his” gospel. Nothing has changed since Christ spoke in kind warning to Cain before his murder. He spoke the same way to Judas when he wanted to join the following.
What we need is to understand the relation between grace and Law.
The only thing that changed when Christ came was an increased knowledge of God’s compassion for us. His grace could be more abundantly revealed because the status of the great plan for justification of sinners through faith moved from the potential to the actual, the promised to the fulfilled, from deep within the counsel of God’s heart to demonstration before the whole onlooking universe.
But as offense abounded and grace much more abounded; likewise, when grace much more abounded, the standard of the Law raised. God didn’t love His fallen children more than before, but His love was so much more increasingly manifested. And for love to be love, it must have equal parts of grace and truth, mercy and law, peace and righteousness. For divine love to remain true love, if the grace/mercy/peace aspect moved up many notches, we must expect the truth/law/righteousness aspect to move up with it. And that is exactly what happened. Both moved up abundantly.
So, we hear Christ raising the standard of the Law in His sermon on the mount. We hearken back to the prophecy regarding the Messiah, “But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.” (Is. 11:4,5). We see Him cleansing the temple of the wicked, yet sanctimonious law-breakers, and opening it up to the genuine “meek of the earth.”
This was to set the stage for His ministry to heal the brokenhearted and preach the gospel to the poor in spirit. He wanted to send the message that the amazing sacrifice of Father and Son would not be presumed upon. “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Ex. 34:7). When the Jews swore, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” (Matt. 27:25) their children experienced the besiegement and scourging by the Romans and the scattering of the surviving generations for 2,000 years.
The Law cannot change, lose luster or authority. If it did, a man’s law would move immediately in to take its place of reverence. Satan would make sure of it. He is already preparing for this very thing today.
posted by David | 3:38 PM
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