The Law of Christ

Psalm 119:97 -- This verse has gone out of style, hasn't it? It's not fashionable or popular to love God's law, certain not outside the Adventist Church, and sometimes not inside it. I'm coming out of the closet-- I have been a secret lover of the law of God, but now I'm going public. I'm not going to be ashamed to love God's law!

Why? I'm convinced that the present truth for this time includes both the everlasting gospel and the keeping of the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus. Those are phrases lifted from the 3 Angels' Messages, the prophetic message God gave us to deliver to the world. Obviously, we haven't finished that delivery yet--we're still here!

So I love the law, especially when I think of it as the law of Christ. I understand how hard it is to avoid being pushed to either extreme-- like the liberal Sadducee or the legalistic Pharisees. But a prayerful, reverent study of the ten commandments, seeing each one from the perspective of Jesus our Savior, is a positively powerfully sanctifying experience. This is the new covenant!

Hebrews 8:6-13 quotes these verses and applies them to Christ's two-fold new covenant work: First, as a sacrifice for sin and second, as the High Priest applying the power of that sacrifice to save His people from their sins. In other words, the New Testament takes Jeremiah's Old Testament prophecy of a new covenant and applies it to the law of Christ. It says Jesus died on the cross to write the law on our hearts. As He died in this way, He enabled our sins to be forgiven and our sinfulness to be replaced with obedience, all by the power of grace.

More than ever before, we need to understand that Jesus did not nail the ten commandments to the cross, making them optional for Christians (this error is called antinomianism). We also need to know how to keep the commandments of God by faith in Jesus Christ, without trying to add anything to the perfect righteousness of God (this was the error addressed in Galatians, called judaizing, or as I call it, galatianism). Counterfeits of the gospel abound, but we must refuse to be pushed to either of the extremes -- antinomianism on the left, or galatianism on the right. A Christ-centered perspective on the ten commandment law is one of the beautiful possibilities of Seventh-day Adventist teaching. It makes the Good News as good as it can be.

Imagine: The scene at Mount Calvary; a crowd of unruly people and rough soldiers, dark clouds over a normally joyful holiday (Passover), rumblings from the sky and from the earth, weeping, insults, indifference, and pity. Jesus is dying for my sins; it's an awesome scene that few appreciated at the time, but that with every passing year becomes more and more significant to people who need grace. What was being accomplished on that cross? Forgiveness of sins, substituting His death for ours, sacrificing His life for the world, fulfilling prophecy, earning the right to be our High Priest, answering the accusations of Satan in the great controversy, atonement, etc.

Imagine: The scene at Mount Sinai; a crowd of trembling ex-slaves, some believe in God, some long to return to Egypt; Moses, Aaron, Miriam; rumblings from the sky and from the earth, trumpet blasts, lightnings, the voice of God, another awesome scene. This time, what was being accomplished? "Do not fear," Moses told them, "For God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." (Exodus 20:20). The schoolmaster was being given, as Paul says in Galatians 3:24, to lead us to Christ. Sin was being made exceedingly sinful, Romans 7:13. The definition of sin was being made clear: It's transgression of the law, 1 John 3:4.

Now, a Question: How are these two scenes related? Both scenes exposed sin for what it really is, and both revealed God's character. One scene condemns me for my sins, and the other one saves me from my sins. But both scenes show how eternally important God's law is and both show how extravagantly huge God's love is. God loves sinners; God hates sin. God takes sin out of sinners and recreates them into the original design. That is the Law of Christ, or the new covenant.

So, the very heart of that heavenly work is this new covenant work of putting the law in our minds and writing the commandments on our hearts. Is it in your heart and mind yet? Or are you still struggling with one of the two extremes, antinomianism or galatianism? There are many Adventists openly proclaiming one of those two extremes as the "genuine" Adventist Present Truth.

Consider with me now the ten commandments as the Law of Christ. Let the Holy Spirit settle you into the new covenant, so you can fulfill your commission to deliver the message Jesus is giving to the world.

1. Exodus 20:3, commandment number one, "You shall have no other gods before Me." Background: Israel had just spent 400 years as a slave nation to Egypt. They had no freedom to worship in the way they chose; there were many false gods in Egypt, not the least of which was pharaoh himself.

And what are people substituting for God these days? Money, fashion, appearance, music, TV, self; even church, the Bible, faith. None of these are God. Only God is God! Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Three in One. Did the second person of the Trinity make it optional to keep this commandment? Does that make sense?

How would our world be changed if suddenly, no one had any other gods except the one true God? All those other gods like Allah, Krishna, Buddha, money, work, entertainment, science, self, power, would all either fade away or take their rightful place in the world, and God would be the God of all. What a great world! Sounds like heaven, doesn't it?

Background: Egyptians carved statues of cats (Sphynx), snakes, cows, and fish, worshiping them as gods, but those are not what this commandment forbids. Those are outlawed by the first command. This command never mentions false gods, "other gods." This commandment forbids worship of the true God by using images or statues. Bowing down to statues of Jesus or angels or saints, adorning them with flowers, and carrying them around as if they were real people all come under the jurisdiction of the second commandment.

Law of Christ: God is a Spirit, and spiritual things are not physically discerned. And the harm in idolatry is reducing your picture of God (your concept of His character) to what you can see. This hurts faith.

How can you restate this in the positive? "Worship God in spirit and in truth" might work best, or "Have an accurate picture of God." Don't distract your attention from the true God by focusing on imperfect images of Him. Worship the invisible God spiritually, not physically (although there is a connection between the two). We are called to walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is the evidence of things NOT seen. Idolatry is worshiping things you CAN see.

Did Jesus' death change this commandment? God is still a Spirit; spiritual things are still spiritually discerned. Our picture of God is still based on His character. To change this commandment, God Himself would have to change. He never changes.

How would this world be different if all humanity suddenly abandoned all their false and limiting images of God, and worshiped Him in Spirit and in truth, learning of His true character? Again, heaven comes to mind.

Background: Names are more meaningful in the kingdom of God than they are in this world. For example the name Lucifer means Light-Bearer. This implies that the Devil is more properly known by his new name, Satan, meaning Accuser, for he is no longer a light bearer. Jesus means Savior. Christ and Messiah both mean Anointed One.

God's names all describe His character, the kind of God He is: Father, Counselor, Almighty, Wonderful, Lord, Judge, Savior. Name and character are closely connected in the Kingdom of God. It hurts when someone misuses your name, especially if they do it to be mean. Conversely, respect is often shown by forms of address. How you use someone's name reveals your attitude toward them. Listening to how a person uses a President's name tells a lot about their politics.

Law of Christ: How much more important it is to be careful how we use God's name, especially since "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved," Acts 4:12. If we use the name of Jesus as an expletive, expressing our surprise, pain, rage, or despair, look at what we do to God's reputation: We are associating it with all the worst moments of our lives! Did Jesus die to make it okay to use His saving name carelessly? Of course He didn't!

How would this world be different if all people not only stopped misusing God's name, but did as Jesus positively restated this command when He prayed, "hallowed by Thy name"? Holy is your name; your name is sacred, and I will give it that sacred importance by only using it properly.

Background: Think of Israel, coming up out of 400 years of hard slavery, being commanded to rest from work! That's my kind of God! They surely saw no burden in the Sabbath.

Law of Christ: A positive restatement of the Sabbath command to do no work is to rest, to focus away from work to the Giver of talents and abilities for work; away from creating to the Creator. The best reason to keep Sabbath is to worship Jesus as Savior and Lord on His day; Mark 2:28, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." When did this same Jesus ever claim Lordship of any other day? If He had, He would have let us know, for "surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets," Amos 3:7. Which true prophet changed the Lord's Day from Sabbath to any other day? Why would Jesus die to release people from the blessings of the Sabbath?

Background: This command has always made perfect sense to fathers and mothers, and is already stated as a positive. To "honor" includes the concept of obeying, as the New Testament implies in Ephesians 6:1, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." And certainly, when God and parents disagree, the children must obey God rather than parents. But most of us can testify that 90% of the time, when we did disagree with our parents, they were right. And how much easier life would have been if we had just listened, and obeyed!

What would happen if everyone in the world always obeyed their parents in the Lord? All the way back to Adam and Eve? Their parent was God, and if they had obeyed always, there would be no sin!

Background: This commandment, the sixth, is enshrined in the state laws of most countries, including the United States. No one seriously questions the value of this law, although many break it.

Law of Christ: How would you say this one positively, with no negatives? "Respect life; it is sacred. Guard it, protect it, enjoy it, allow others to enjoy it, improve it, and allow others to improve it." Jesus let Satan murder Him while God was accomplishing our salvation. Why? To show the dreadfulness of sin, and the blindness of hatred.

How would our world be different if everyone suddenly kept the sixth commandment perfectly? What would it be like if the only deaths that occurred were due to either natural causes, accidents, or diseases? What if everyone suddenly stopped hating each other?

Background: The power to procreate is an awesome responsibility, as the fifth commandment has already shown us. The intimate relationship required to procreate in a healthy, holy way makes marriage the only right place for sex. If that level of intimacy is ever given to anyone except your spouse, the act of sex is cheapened and degraded to a mostly physical or emotional experience.

Law of Christ: Jesus pointed out that adultery begins in the mind long before it is ever acted out in bed; it is just as impossible to "accidentally" commit adultery as it is to mistakenly murder. Premeditation is always required. So both the 6th and 7th commandments strike deep into our secret inner mental processes, the place only God can see.

This commandment can be positively worded as "Keep yourself faithful to your spouse, whether future or present." Christ loves the church even as a husband loves his wife. Why would He nullify this commandment?

Background: The act of stealing is often done as an act of desperation, and not purely from evil motives. But even stealing something you really need, instead of seeking it honestly, automatically cuts God out of the picture. He knows what we need, and faith in Him creates contentment with what we have. He would never withhold from us something we really need, would He?

Law of Christ: So a positive restatement of this would include being content with what you have, not just respecting others' property. Christ gave up all of heaven to buy back what Satan had stolen from Him: you and me.

Background: In a world of error, deception, exaggeration, insinuation, misinformation, propaganda, lying, and falsehood, this may be the worst kept commandment. The larger issues in the Great Controversy have to do with his lies about God. From the most harmless-seeming "little white lies" to the darkest, most enormous conspiracies, untruths are running rampant in this world. Law of Christ: How different would this world be if everyone always only told the truth? The comedy in a movie such as "Liar, Liar" is more than ironic when you consider this commandment; it's a sign of the times when a man makes money off of the "ridiculous" idea of telling the truth! Think of the personal value of being an honest person; how much easier life is when it consists of only one story-- the true story.

The greatest truth ever told was the good news of the gospel; when Jesus died for me, taking my sins on Himself, putting His righteousness on me, leading me onward and upward to the kingdom of heaven, He bore a true witness to His neighbor, His creation, humanity. Surely He would not have done away with this commandment advocating truth as He died on the cross, accomplishing the greatest truth!

Background: To covet is to desire something with wrong or evil motives. Simply wanting is not coveting, until it becomes an expression of selfishness. Wanting a wife is not sinful; wanting more than one is. Wanting a house is a good want; wanting a bigger house than you should have is coveting.

Selfishness breaks the fifth commandment when it considers itself to be better than its parents. (This is the inherent selfishness in Evolution; we are better than before, we have evolved, we are the fittest who have survived.)

Selfishness breaks the seventh commandment when it uses sex as self-gratification rather than as making the love between spouses more faithful, loyal, and intimate.

How would the world be different if everyone suddenly stopped coveting, if greed and selfishness simply ceased to exist? For starters, all ten commandments would be kept, and we know what a heavenly world it would be if any one of them were obeyed.

In fact, maybe you've noticed by now that if the world was perfectly in harmony with any one of the 10 commandments, a spin off effect is that all the rest are kept as a natural result of one of them being kept. There is a unity in these commands, there are eternal qualities; there is a perfection. And, conversely, if you break one, you break them all, James 2:10 teaches.

So, let the Holy Spirit write God's law on your heart and mind. As you meditate on it (Psalm 119:97), become sealed in the new covenant. Let Him use you to deliver the last message for the world. Then we can sincerely mean the words of hymn #330:

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee. Take my will, and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine; take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne. Take myself-and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.