The Law in Galatians

It saddens me when I cannot perfectly clearly express what I’ve learned from heaven and from God's word.
 

I’ve seen a beautiful and powerful truth in righteousness by faith that is extremely difficult for most moral Christians to comprehend. But it was the same difficulty Paul had with the Jews in his day.
 

Most moral people (and the whole human race falls into that category) believe that by doing good acts that they are good in the eyes of God. They see their good deeds and, from the defective perspective which sin puts in us, they naturally conclude that they must be righteous people. But, this the Bible has proven a falsehood. (“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” Jn. 16:2). Much, much (self-)righteous indignation has ruled the world since the beginning of the fall.
 

Yet, the legalistic mindset is only one of the ditches that line the path of truth. And it is the least recognized. The other ditch is the most obvious—the ditch of lawlessness. On the one extreme, Satan has sold to people his wares of outright skirting the works orientation of God’s Law. The works orientation, or behavior, is something we see with our eyes and hear with our ears. It’s easy to observe. The lawless concept is even found in Christianity. It goes like this: “the Law was abrogated at Christ's death on the cross.”
 

But, the not so easy orientation is the legalistic approach. In this we see a good look to lawlessness. Bad religion doesn’t look like its breaking God’s Law, when it is doing so ever more effectively than the outlaws can do it, because it looks holy, moral, vigilante. It is void of the spirit of God’s Law, yet purports to uphold God’s will.
 

I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, “Father, give us Thy Spirit.” Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Early writings, p. 56.
 

 Legalism has no sweet love, joy and peace; all that it can produce is violence and force. But that force is what Jesus spoke of among the Jewish leadership and others who desired the power over the masses. “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt. 11:12). This is a sad commentary on the nation which professed to serve the God of heaven. Yet, they were the ones who would kill thinking they were doing God service. It was no different from the papal Inquisition of the Dark Ages.
 

 

There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father. On the hem of His garment was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate. Those who rose up with Jesus would send up their faith to Him in the holiest, and pray, “My Father, give us Thy Spirit.” Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much love, joy, and peace. Early writings, p. 55.

 

 

Only those who know the sweet love, joy, and peace with God can have access to the force of love to correct sinners and bring them into the way of holiness. Only they can obey the injunction, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” (Jas. 3:17, 18). Everyone else is so mired in mental and spiritual torment that the best they can produce is the fruit of the devil. “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” (vss. 14-16).
 

Neither lawlessness or legalism ever bring the soul to God. Both take a person further and further away from God, and end in perdition, held in “the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2Tim. 2:26).
 

But, the truth of God alone will lead us to God and the fruits of the Spirit, that sweet love, joy, and peace. Yet, here Satan has a most ingenious ploy to siphon away many well-meaning Christians. The devil gets God’s children to busy themselves with their sins in order to come to Jesus. Or, even more deceitfully, he gets them to work on repentance, and then using their own repentance to come to Jesus. Its built right into religion; and it’s a religion that encompasses the whole world. Repentance is a good thing. How can anyone be criticized for working on repentance? Yet, God rejects such attempts and can give such a person no peace from His Holy Spirit.
 

How does this device of Satan's work? He convinces the whole world that they are good enough to produce their own repentance. But, God says that we are never good enough, even to repent!
 

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways:

And the way of peace have they not known:

There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10-18).
 

All of our righteousness is gross, loathsome, messy dirty diapers; and that describes our repentance, also. The only repentance God can accept is the kind He gives us. (See Acts 5:31.) Yes, repentance is a gift from God. That is good news for anyone who needs repentance and peace with God, but feels so angry with God and His Law that they cannot seem to call up any sorrow for their sins.


But the concept of God rejecting all repentance that He has not produced is bad news to everyone who has gotten pretty good at overlooking their gross character and have been expending much self-made emotion, pleading for God to accept them, for all their tears and groveling.
 

Here we see the essence of the one true religion and the one global false religion of many colors. Everyone who admits to their inability to ever please the holy God are the real worshipers of “the only true God, and Jesus Christ.” (Jn. 17:3). And Jesus said, “This is life eternal” to know this God. This is why Jesus had so much success with the publicans and sinners. They could admit that their lives were a mess, and the friendliness Jesus offered them, as one who represented God to them, was irresistible! He never exposed their sinful lives to the public, and treated their condition with such gentleness! Mary Magdalene was so far from God that Jesus had to cast out seven demons before she was free to serve Him with her whole heart. But with her whole heart she became His slave, to work with all of her heart, mind, and strength to keep Him from suffering any more from her reckless life. Hundreds of others did the same.
 

This is righteousness by faith. Honesty before God. The humility to admit to the impossible—of ever being good enough. Such a person will depend heavily upon God for everything, everything! This includes the very first step, repentance. They will look to Jesus for their propitiation to God, His mediation, intercession to God. When they find that they can trust Jesus, they will never attempt to approach God alone.
 

But, everyone who refuses to admit to their decrepit hearts and characters, will spend their whole lives propitiating God without the need for an intercessor. Like the priests of Baal, they will jump up and down, and howl at the moon, and do others ridiculous things to get His attention and receive peace of mind. But, they will receive not a word from heaven. They will pray to Mary, or some saint, Ashtoreth or Venus, or Diana, or even to Moses or Ellen White. They will go to a priest who will tell them to repeat some gibberish so many times so that they can be blessed.
 

But, the God of heaven has given us just what we need to come to Him. Yes, of course He gave us His Son as the source of grace; but He also gave us His Law. That Law is immutable. Let Hollywood say what it will, let science and psychology and philosophy and even Christianity say what they will about God’s Law and condemnation. But, the whole of humanity is subject to God’s Law; no one can escape it. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). That didn’t come from Moses, but from Paul.
 

Jesus said the same thing. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:18, 19).
 

Then, He goes further into spiritual things: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (vs. 20).
 

These all-compassing statements of Christ concerning the eternal accountability to God’s Law expose both ditches on the road to everlasting life, lawlessness and legalism. His words relate to the two groups seeking eternal life, the true child of God who will serve God for the blessing of His peace, and the group that follow either or both, lawlessness or legalism, to live a good life without surrendering their heart to God’s fullest gift, repentance.
 

God’s Law is instrumental to bring us to need the Savior. “The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.” (Gal. 3:22, 23). Everyone who will come to the light of God’s word and His Law found therein, will find it a very hot, disturbing experience. Caught in the grip of inadequacy before God, we wrestle and fight against the Law’s constant barrage of condemnation. Kept under the Law, “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17). We are bound down under our responsibility to obey God, and our inability to do it.
 

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:18-24).
 

Then, finally the Spirit of Christ gets a word in edge-wise and the dawning of a new day appears. “... through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (vs. 25). We have learned the most important lesson of this life. We couldn’t do good! We didn’t have it within us! “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:1, 2).
 

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24). The Law grinded on us until we finally surrendered to its authority. Then we crumbled before it and the new power of faith brought us to Jesus. “Whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44).
 

“But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (vs. 25, 26). As a schoolmaster the Law no longer functions. Now is it our guide and best friend. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” (Ps. 19:7).
 

We see Jesus in it all. It’s no longer “the Law” (Rom. 6:14; Gal. 2:19), but, “Thy Law” (Ps. 119:18, 29, 44, 51, 53, 55, 61, 70, 77, 85, 109, 126, 136, 142, 150).
 

“Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” (Ps. 119:92).

“O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97).

“I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.” (Ps. 119:113).
 

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5). We finally have obedience. We have repentance, forgiveness, justification, sanctification. But it was all God’s power and doing. We only came to Him for our needs and responded by accepting His gifts. We rest in His love. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10).
 

But everyone who cannot bear the thought that they aren’t good enough to stand before God will avoid His condemning Law because they have no hope in God’s goodness. They skirt the condemnation of the Law and never receive the faith that frees them from their tormenting sins and unrest. They never wrestle with God and His Law. They never have peace with God through His Son, Jesus. They perform ever increasing penances and great works, finally listening to Satan’s guidance to destroy those who have the coveted peace of mind.
 

They also become the devil’s favorite false prophets and teachers. “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.” (1Tim. 1:5-7). They are the ones Jesus will call, “workers of iniquity” (Lk. 13:27), in spite of all their “many wonderful works.” (Matt. 7:22).
 

It was in this context that Paul wrote,
 

“The strength of sin is the law.” (1Cor. 15:56).

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14).
 

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Gal. 2:19-21).
 

None of this releases us from the duty to obey God and His Law. Rather, it does provide the only true power to obey Him. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” (Rom. 3:31).

God bless you all for reading my blog

 الله يبارك فيكم

Gud välsigne dig

Gott segne dich

Господь тебя благослови

будьте здорові

上帝保佑你 (Chinese)

Tuhan memberkati anda

Deus te abençoe

Dieu vous Dieu vous bénisse

Niech cię Bóg błogosławi 

And I want to write more after I finish my up-coming book on the Trumpets of Revelation and the Investigative Judgment. I'll let you know what its finished. It will include some of what I've written in my posts on this blogsite.

Blessings, brothers and sisters.
David

Righteousness by Faith, biblical righteousness

Hi G____,

  I am so glad to hear from you. I was afraid you had succumbed to the health issue you had a few years ago. I really didn't expect you to answer me back. How are your wife and family? I hope they are doing well. I believe you had at one time said your wife was attacked like you were.

  I didn't mean at all to burden you down or anyone (who I assumed had taken over for you, but I'm glad that is not the case.) I am a 3rd generation SDA and a 10th generation sabbatarian. I come from a long line of SDBs (not that I know any personally, as SDB is almost an extinct denomination).

  But, I still see that the issue Paul was fighting was the other ditch on the road to life. As SDAs we have fought the ditch of lawlessness and in 1888 that pulled us into the other extreme. Uriah Smith swayed most of the leadership to run Jones and Waggoner out of town. But as you know EGW stood behind them. Not that she is infallible, but very trustworthy as a leader.

  Still, I see her concept of justification and grace to be different from Jones and Waggoner. Hers was heavily laden with law and obedience. This comes through in Desire of Ages. No one can read that book without getting a heavy dose of responsibility to God's Law. It’s in every chapter! This is very good.

  Yet, we still hear in those pages a firm stance on dependence on Christ for that obedience. And this is all that Paul was putting forth in Galatians. He was in no way downgrading the Law of God. He stands behind the Law of God in Romans. But, the balance for that Law-based stance comes from what he put forth to the brethren of Galatia. And I must say, that only SDAs and the apostolic Christians can understand Galatians.

  This is because the Law has been ingrained in our thinking. This is what I was trying to put across on your website. Once the Law is written in the heart, it comes out in the character and life. That in no way means that we put the Law of God aside!!!! No Way! and I should have made that clearer. Paul's example is of the prince training to become king (Gal. 4:1,2).  Once king, does that mean he forgets all that the royal teachers drilled into him? Should he lose his loyalty to his people once he becomes king? Not at all. He would never be made king, or he should soon be forced to abdicate.

  Likewise, once the soul has wrestled with the Law until it surrenders to it and comes to Christ, the mercy of Christ hardens that surrender to a permanent loyalty and then we are fully justified. "And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." (Rom. 4:22). I normally call it justification when we first look to God by faith. And this is true. But the fullest justification comes after the wrestling. Just as EGW experienced as a young girl.

  This is all I was trying to say. Once the Law has grinded on us and we are broken, then the grinding goes away, because we are surrendered to God and His Law through the ministry of Christ in the Most Holy Place. The Law as a schoolmaster retires and we have peace with God through our Lord. Now the Law is ingrained in us and in our loyalties. The Spirit now has much to work with to keep us in His way. The angels can train us further in sanctification, like they couldn't before. And we don't feel so straight jacketed. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5:17).

  This is righteousness by faith. It doesn't come over night. It is a gift. We must wait for it. "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Gal. 5:5). That amazing text has 4 participial phrases! That's because a lot of factors go into salvation. We have one of those parts to play--the waiting! That doesn't mean we sit still and let God do it all. Trust me, He won't let that happen. He will bear down on our conscience like He did with Martin Luther as long as we will let Him. Every son and daughter of Adam must choose to stay in the crucible or bail out. The heat goes up higher and higher. Finally we melt, if we stay in. And what a boon to health! "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim. 1:7).

  "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." (1 Tim. 1:5,6). This shows where false doctrine springs from. Everyone who would not let the Law do its perfect work, end up being filled with Satan's doctrines. Only those who stayed in the crucible until God was done, have the spring of truth in their hearts through righteousness by faith.

From: G
To: D
Sent: Monday, June 3, 2013 5:53 PM
Subject: Re: The essay on the law in Galatians

Hi David,

Nice to hear from you.

I got challenged by someone who asked why was I teaching different things and I did not know that was what you had written.

The real issue was that some judaizing teachers from Jerusalem insisted that they should still be observing all the rites of the Jewish religion such as circumcision and the ceremonial law with all its feast days etc. These teachers taught that Paul was inferior to the other Apostles where they had come from and insisted that the Law of Moses was still binding and was necessary for justification.

Now we know you cannot be saved by keeping either law in this fashion. But the issue still lies as in what law they were trying to keep to be justified. That is clear.

Paul said it was what was written in the book of the law. That is not the Ten Commandments.

Paul then said this law was added because another law was transgressed. They did not break the sacrificial law and God add the Ten Commandments because of it.

It also said this law was only until Christ. Did the Ten Commandments end with Christ? This is what SATAN wants everyone to believe and what those who are trying to avoid the Sabbath are teaching and is one of the reasons. And if it was referring to the Ten Commandments then they would be right!!! But not so.

It also calls this law a schoolmaster that was until Christ ONLY!! If  you include the Ten Commandments then they are gone and so is the Sabbath and Satan is very happy with that teaching! I will not help Satan with that one by teaching what Paul never said!

The feasts and sacrifices did not take away their sin. But what it pointed forward to did. Clearly the sanctuary system taught them what was to come and then it was gone with Christ. Not hard to see this was a schoolmaster and remains consistent with everything else Paul said.

There is heaps more but if you include the Ten Commandments then they ended with Christ and were written in a book and were added because another law was transgressed. This is impossible and totally wrong and not hard to see.

Now while I respect Allen White and have no problems there, not every thing she wrote was inspired. She did have to learn many things on her own and study the Word like everyone else.

Is she infallible and incapable of getting anything wrong scripture? I am not about to make her as perfect as Christ and incapable of being wrong as only a fool would believe that. This type of teaching is what again makes Satan happy and he uses such nonsense to attack the SDA Church. Again, I will not help with something that is so clearly absurd.

So while she had her opinion there, I choose to acknowledge the Word of God when it shows she is wrong. She was not perfect add she was not infallible and she can get things wrong and did. We become a delight to the enemy when we put her up on a pedestal and worship her as perfect and blindly accept anything she says as perfect. Satan will and has used that and I will not help him in his attack on her and the SDA Church on those who walk this path. We need to be very careful how we tread here.

There is NOT one reference to the moral law ANYWHERE in Galatians until Paul changes topic in chapter 5. All references are to a law written a book that ended with Christ.

Even all the famous theologians agree and many Adventists before have also agreed. I find the only ones that don’t are the ones that have put Ellen White as infallible and before the Word of God and that is clearly wrong.

This is a page I wrote on the issue and I got asked why I was teaching two different things and said my page made sense but the other view could never fit. I said I agree and did not know about this and had to apologize.

http://www.the-ten-commandments.org/galatians_ceremoniallaw.html

http://www.the-ten-commandments.org/galatians-commentary.html

The issue is clearly being saved by grace through faith BUT...that can apply to any law in scripture! The question is what law were the Galatians trying to keep to be justified by works? Paul makes that clear over and over again. So I agree with the issue but the law is beyond doubt wrong.

I will not and cannot help the enemy with what is not only wrong but what helps him keep people from the kingdom of God and away from the truth on the Sabbath.

Obeying the moral law is not legalism David. I though as an Adventist you would understand this issue. Here it is put very simply on a new web site I put up. http://www.saved-by-grace-through-faith.org/

I am struggling to deal with this right now and are fighting to stay alive due to ill health still. I need to say away from stress as this is very damaging.

God bless,

G_____

Our brethren

The Protestant denominations are the brethren of the Advent movement. Just as Jehoshaphat King of Judah said to Ahab, King of Israel, "I am as thou art, my people as thy people" (2Ki. 3:7). "Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel." (1Ki. 22:44).

We are all from the same spiritual stock. We are all born from freedom and our roots are the Bible. Whether atheist or churched, whether Sunday keepers or Sabbatarians, we think alike, at varying degrees. Basically we all agree upon liberty and the separation of church and state.

Whether or not that last principle is being eroded and a re-education program is going on, that is another post. But, certainly it is true, we are brethren and our common sympathies go deep.

True it is, that the Bible is playing less and less of a central role in the denominations; but, at one time it molded our English language. Protestantism, at one time, lived by and died for that Book. In America especially, the words of the Bible were heard so often in the ears of the populace, that we have, passed down to us, many idioms of our culture that use King James Version phrases built right into our every day speech. Few atheists realize they are quoting Scripture so often.

“Skin of my teeth” (Job 19:20), “count the cost” (Lk. 14:28), “the stroke” (Ez. 24:16), “the writing on the wall” (Dan. 5:5), “safe and sound” (Lk. 15:27), etc. just to name a few; not to mention expletives and some crude sayings. So far, I’ve counted 53 KJV secularized idioms. I found another one just the other day, “fell flat on his face.” It comes from Numbers 22:31. When Balaam, running after his reward for curses on Israel, saw the angel with a sword about to destroy him, “he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.”

Even if we don't recognize our unity, Protestants are bound to Adventists by ties that cannot be broken without a severe effort. So, we are not a cult, as our doctrines come from the Bible. We didn't come up with our own version. The Clear Word Bible is not our authorized version. The King James is all that I ever use and refuse to use the Clear Word because I've seen a problem with it. The Spirit of Prophecy is not our Bible, but the best motivator to study the Bible and to think on our own. In fact, I'm finishing up a manuscript that I hope will go out soon as an e-book that has a whole different take on the seven trumpets of Revelation and the Investigative Judgment. Its really exciting.

I want to reach Laodicea--that is Adventism and our brethren Protestants. We have all fallen asleep. I've been praying that I don't offend anyone, Adventist or otherwise. But I do feel the need to wake everyone up, myself included.

Take care, everyone. I'll let you know when my book is out.
David

The essay on the law in Galatians

This email was in response to an article I wrote for http://www.the-tencommandments.com/

I appreciate letting me express my loyalty to God’s Law on your website, and I’m glad to know your website is exalting God’s Law.

I was reading it over again because today I received an email from a certain A_____ V___ who saw a billboard on the Ten Commandments and must have got on the internet to learn more and found your website.

What I wrote in my article that you are using was not meant to confuse, but to balance Law and grace, and to help understand the apparently confusing words of Paul. It all makes sense when explained the way I presented it.

In this article a paragraph was changed. I understand you have the right to make any changes you deem necessary. That I don’t dispute.

But, I would like to clear up any misunderstanding that you might have regarding what I wrote.

Your change reads, “Many sincere, well-meaning Bible students have concluded that Paul speaks of the Ten Commandments when writing to the churches of Galatia. But, this is incorrect. The context indicates that he was only speaking of the ceremonial laws. As much as the moral laws, God’s ceremonial law also dealt with ‘righteousness’... ‘sin’ and ‘justification by faith’....”

But, Ellen White makes it clear that Paul was referring to the moral law, even more so than the ceremonial law. If you have an Ellen White study Bible, look at her comment on the page of Galatians 3:24.

But, that sounds like a real quandary when it comes to Paul’s statement that after faith we have no more need of a schoolmaster. I understand that seeming departure from our Adventist background. But, this really is no departure from the immutability of the Law of God.

The answer to that is what I continued to write, that the Lord, through 600 years of 4 empires maintaining law and order, and of the law in Israel, though packed with humanism, God had saved the world from the onslaught of lawless spiritualism, until Christ could come and re-establish God’s Law in the context of grace and mercy.

There is no problem or danger of license to say that the Law in Galatians was the moral law (as EGW agrees) because the faith of Jesus, which is His gift to every surrendered soul in Galatia and today, contains the Law of God, a millions times better and stronger than the law without His gift.

This was the issue Paul was striving against so bluntly to the Galatian Christians. This is true Righteousness by faith, the phrase which is so kicked around in our circles, and which originated from the epistles to the Galatians.

This is the new concept that Jones and Waggoner understood, which the hard-liner, old regime couldn’t fathom, just like you have difficulty today. But, Ellen White was all behind it in 1888.

But, I will also say, that her understanding of Righteousness by faith defined faith as full of obedience. I think Jones and Waggoner were quite light on that aspect of faith, which showed when they couldn’t bear her correction.

Therefore, the 1888 movement of today, which places so much emphasis on Jones and Waggoner, have their hopes misplaced in two faulty humans who must be examined more closely in relation to Ellen White, the prophet.

Nevertheless, what Paul was saying is that when we are sealed through the Latter Rain, we will have the Law so embedded in our thinking and in  our hearts (that is, for those who survive the onslaught of temptations today in this civilization’s strong delusion) and through the “special work of purification” so that “not even by a thought” will we cave to temptation like our Savior exemplified for us, that we will have the freedom to focus on faith and love instead of on the details of the testimonies for the church. This will be so because we will have already studied the testimonies and “through the blood of sprinkling” will have found the testimonies our greatest joy. We will appropriate them and inculcate them. Through the grace of Christ, we will live the testimonies for the church. God will have “the seed that should come to whom the promise was made.” (Gal. 3:19). God will have a generation who have perfectly reproduced the character of Christ.

This was what I was trying to communicate. To leave this out is to deny the gospel, and also to alienate many Sunday Christians who are trying to make heads or tails of Paul’s formula. I’m not trying to lower the standard. But the true standard will make of twain one new man. A false standard, however it looks like it is protecting God’s Law, will never do His last gospel work. And I firmly believe Ellen White would agree with this.

“...But is under tutors and governmors until the time appointed of the father.” Gal. 4:2. Here Paul is reaffirming his premise that “the [moral] Law was our schoolmaster.... But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:24-26).

The prince of the kingdom is no longer under tutors and governors when the time appointed by the king is decided. Then the prince, who has proved himself trained and capable of governing, ascends to the throne and rules alongside his father king. Eventually, he stands alone, as we will in Jacob’s troubles. At that time any weakness toward God’s Law will prove eternally fatal; nevertheless, we must be proven perfectly flawless without a mediator.

I hope I’ve clarified my original stance before you changed my words to suit the going perception that the schoolmaster in Galatians was only the ceremonial law. I don’t remember now what exactly I had written, but it wasn’t what is there now.

Lastly, I remind you that there are two ditches on the narrow road to life. Lawlessness is only one of them. The other ditch is legalism, and to deny the schoolmaster as the moral law sends us right into legalism.

Only Righteousness by faith produces the obedience that God accepts, “the righteousness of faith.” (Rom. 4:13). “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

And that “righteousness of faith” will only come through the surrender to God’s Law.