The purpose of the Law of God
Hi Daniel,
I finally got home from a trip to see my wife in Georgia. I needed to visit my parents in Florida while I was down south, and also to pay my taxes. I did some work on our leaky roof also. There wasn’t much time to sit and study, but my drive down and back was nice while I listened to the Bible on CD. I played 3 CDs during the 11 hour trip. Each CD I played 3 times to really let it soak in. I was hearing the Psalms and the first 10 chapters of Proverbs.
It amazed me how perfectly David agreed with later prophets, and Ellen White. Every time I heard him speak of the Lord having a special regard for Israel, I realized that He has the same special regard for His remnant church, because we are the depository of present truth at the end before He comes. Literal Israel isn’t the depository any more. They were at one time, but when they rejected their one purpose of declaring to the world the Messiah, they had no more a purpose to fulfill. The divine purposes transferred to the group that accepted the Messiah—the Christian church.
The divine will has changed hands a few times during the Christian dispensation when Providence brought up dividing questions, i.e. Justification by faith, when the divine purpose left the Catholic church and transferred to Protestantism; then 300 years later, Salvation by faith became the dividing question when the time of the end began. The Sabbath rest, the Sanctuary picture, and the Spirit of Prophecy formed the basis for Salvation by faith. The Sanctuary helped us to see that God was expecting the holiest character in His people before He could come. The Sabbath showed us how rest would get us to that holy character. And the Spirit of Prophecy gave us the constant motivation for getting to the Sabbath rest to get that character.
It was the law, constantly being laid on us by the Lord through His servant, that would bring us to Christ for the rest that remaineth for the people of God. No one can come to Christ by himself or herself. None of us have the pure enough motive to come to Christ for His grace. We all need the heavy hand of the Law to make us feel sufficiently needy of a loving Savior. It is the eternal principle, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24).
We SDAs still have the Law; we still have the prophet; therefore we have the best chance of coming to Christ. We have the best chance of a legitimate relationship with Jesus. The work of coming to Christ through the Father has been going on in the other religions around the globe, and even among atheists and folks caught in spiritualism. God is able to get through to people everywhere. But His best method is the clearest one—through the Spirit of Prophecy’s high standard and faithful and clear exaltation of the Law of God. Without conviction, we would never come to Jesus. This is what was going on with you, Daniel, a couple of years ago. You were convicted and terrified. You were humbled and able to be brought to the Judge to see if He would accept you. You trusted in Him to do to you what was fair, and you found out that He accepted you and forgave all your sins. Your relationship is legitimate, so long as you keep coming to Jesus for His mercy and justice.
But there are others who never were humbled by conviction. They refused to be corrected by EGW and humbled. They have yet to come to the Savior. They may talk of a relationship, but its mere talk. Its all dead theory. And let us also not be high-minded, but fear, that our relationship doesn’t go dead. Balaam proved that it can.
This past Sabbath I heard SDAs talking about how its not the Law that gives us power to obey, but a relationship. I barely was able to convince a conference leader of that faulty thinking. The Law is utterly essential for our salvation. Otherwise, the Lord wouldn’t have kept sending EGW continuous messages to scold our consciences. Except for a small respite during the 1888-1892 period, she kept scolding us til she finally was laid in her grave.
That speaks volumes about how important the Law is for our salvation. Without the schoolmaster, we are never brought to Christ to be justified by faith. This is such a point of deception!!!!!!!!! Multitudes of SDAs are dismissing EGW and believing they are coming into a relationship with Jesus. What a delusion!!!!!!!!! What a dangerous deception!!!
Brother, please make this a matter of thought, study, and prayer. If you see this going on in Uganda or Kenya, you need to work against it. It is becoming a growing thing in the U.S. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” That’s good news, for sure! But before He said that, He informed us, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” (Jn. 6:37). Its the Father’s work to convict us through His Law by His Spirit. “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19).
The news of no one being cast out is only good news for those who have legitimately been brought to the Son by the Father. The vast multitudes following Jesus weren’t really following Jesus (as they thought they were), and He was warning them of that very thing. And when He began using some hard requirements, they were proven unqualified as having a relationship with Him. They left and never followed Him again. But it was in mercy to them that He had to force them to know that they didn’t have a genuine relationship with Him. To not show them that would be misleading them in a false idea of their standing with God.
He didn’t always use harsh statements to others like He did with that self-sufficient crowds. “With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself upright; With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward.” (Ps. 18:25,26).
He gives us just what we need, in mercy to us. If we are stubborn, He will speak harshly in order to show us that we can’t be tougher than our only hope—the Son of God. He is a King and a High Priest, “to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31).
He works together with His Father in bringing us to a sense of need.
Daniel, thanks for remembering me. I hadn’t forgotten you, but didn’t have access to a computer while at home—just one email when I was at my parents’ home. I hope this was clearly explained. I think I’ll post it on my blog.
Love you, brother.
David
I finally got home from a trip to see my wife in Georgia. I needed to visit my parents in Florida while I was down south, and also to pay my taxes. I did some work on our leaky roof also. There wasn’t much time to sit and study, but my drive down and back was nice while I listened to the Bible on CD. I played 3 CDs during the 11 hour trip. Each CD I played 3 times to really let it soak in. I was hearing the Psalms and the first 10 chapters of Proverbs.
It amazed me how perfectly David agreed with later prophets, and Ellen White. Every time I heard him speak of the Lord having a special regard for Israel, I realized that He has the same special regard for His remnant church, because we are the depository of present truth at the end before He comes. Literal Israel isn’t the depository any more. They were at one time, but when they rejected their one purpose of declaring to the world the Messiah, they had no more a purpose to fulfill. The divine purposes transferred to the group that accepted the Messiah—the Christian church.
The divine will has changed hands a few times during the Christian dispensation when Providence brought up dividing questions, i.e. Justification by faith, when the divine purpose left the Catholic church and transferred to Protestantism; then 300 years later, Salvation by faith became the dividing question when the time of the end began. The Sabbath rest, the Sanctuary picture, and the Spirit of Prophecy formed the basis for Salvation by faith. The Sanctuary helped us to see that God was expecting the holiest character in His people before He could come. The Sabbath showed us how rest would get us to that holy character. And the Spirit of Prophecy gave us the constant motivation for getting to the Sabbath rest to get that character.
It was the law, constantly being laid on us by the Lord through His servant, that would bring us to Christ for the rest that remaineth for the people of God. No one can come to Christ by himself or herself. None of us have the pure enough motive to come to Christ for His grace. We all need the heavy hand of the Law to make us feel sufficiently needy of a loving Savior. It is the eternal principle, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24).
We SDAs still have the Law; we still have the prophet; therefore we have the best chance of coming to Christ. We have the best chance of a legitimate relationship with Jesus. The work of coming to Christ through the Father has been going on in the other religions around the globe, and even among atheists and folks caught in spiritualism. God is able to get through to people everywhere. But His best method is the clearest one—through the Spirit of Prophecy’s high standard and faithful and clear exaltation of the Law of God. Without conviction, we would never come to Jesus. This is what was going on with you, Daniel, a couple of years ago. You were convicted and terrified. You were humbled and able to be brought to the Judge to see if He would accept you. You trusted in Him to do to you what was fair, and you found out that He accepted you and forgave all your sins. Your relationship is legitimate, so long as you keep coming to Jesus for His mercy and justice.
But there are others who never were humbled by conviction. They refused to be corrected by EGW and humbled. They have yet to come to the Savior. They may talk of a relationship, but its mere talk. Its all dead theory. And let us also not be high-minded, but fear, that our relationship doesn’t go dead. Balaam proved that it can.
This past Sabbath I heard SDAs talking about how its not the Law that gives us power to obey, but a relationship. I barely was able to convince a conference leader of that faulty thinking. The Law is utterly essential for our salvation. Otherwise, the Lord wouldn’t have kept sending EGW continuous messages to scold our consciences. Except for a small respite during the 1888-1892 period, she kept scolding us til she finally was laid in her grave.
That speaks volumes about how important the Law is for our salvation. Without the schoolmaster, we are never brought to Christ to be justified by faith. This is such a point of deception!!!!!!!!! Multitudes of SDAs are dismissing EGW and believing they are coming into a relationship with Jesus. What a delusion!!!!!!!!! What a dangerous deception!!!
Brother, please make this a matter of thought, study, and prayer. If you see this going on in Uganda or Kenya, you need to work against it. It is becoming a growing thing in the U.S. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” That’s good news, for sure! But before He said that, He informed us, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.” (Jn. 6:37). Its the Father’s work to convict us through His Law by His Spirit. “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19).
The news of no one being cast out is only good news for those who have legitimately been brought to the Son by the Father. The vast multitudes following Jesus weren’t really following Jesus (as they thought they were), and He was warning them of that very thing. And when He began using some hard requirements, they were proven unqualified as having a relationship with Him. They left and never followed Him again. But it was in mercy to them that He had to force them to know that they didn’t have a genuine relationship with Him. To not show them that would be misleading them in a false idea of their standing with God.
He didn’t always use harsh statements to others like He did with that self-sufficient crowds. “With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself upright; With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward.” (Ps. 18:25,26).
He gives us just what we need, in mercy to us. If we are stubborn, He will speak harshly in order to show us that we can’t be tougher than our only hope—the Son of God. He is a King and a High Priest, “to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31).
He works together with His Father in bringing us to a sense of need.
Daniel, thanks for remembering me. I hadn’t forgotten you, but didn’t have access to a computer while at home—just one email when I was at my parents’ home. I hope this was clearly explained. I think I’ll post it on my blog.
Love you, brother.
David
posted by David | 7:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home