By Pastor Tony Cirigliano
12/3/98
In recent years, the Worldwide Church of God started by Herbert Armstrong went through a great shaking. A few years ago after Herbert Armstrong died, the new church president, there were three co-presidents declared that the Sabbath was no longer valid, and in fact, it was no longer necessary for Christians to keep the law. It caused a split right down the middle, and the church finances took a dramatic drop. Could this same danger be facing the Seventh-day Adventist Church?
It is vitally important for us to know the relationship the law of God has to the gospel.First of all, we must understand that two very important principles. First, when we are in Christ, all the requirements of the law for salvation are met through Christ's life, death, and resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11, Paul tells believers "ye were washed, ye were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God." In Christ we have already been justified, and sanctified, and washed! Praise God!
In Colossians 2:10. It says there that we are COMPLETE IN HIM! And in Romans 5:18-19, it is written: "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Verse 18 says that by the offense of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men, and we all were made sinners. Verse 19 says that by the obedience of One Man (Jesus) many will be made righteous! Jesus' perfect obedience is ours when we are in Christ, when we have received the atonement.
Objectively, Jesus has already accomplished everything necessary for sinful men and women, and boys and girls to be declared righteous and candidates for heaven. Amen and amen!
For the purposes of this article, I am going to talk about the subjective good news of Christ in us the hope of glory! Christ in us, the victory over sin, over unrighteous living, over lawlessness! This is also good news! This is also gospel!
The law is a mirror that shows us the dirt on our face, but the mirror cannot wash the dirt off, it can only call you dirty! The blood of Christ is the soap that can wash you clean! I am writing in this short article about the grace of God, the power of God, the power of His resurrection, and how God's law will be obeyed, not to earn any merit whatsoever, but to give glory to God!
In Matthew 5:19, it says: "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." To teach others that it is of little consequence if God's law is broken is a serious matter.
In John 14, verse 15, it is written: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. In John 14:21, it says: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. The word translated "loveth" in the above text is the Greek word "agapao."
Jack Sequira, who is one writer popular with many Adventists, in his book Beyond Belief defines AGAPE love as "pure love untainted by any selfish motive." page 20 He also writes that "not until we become rooted and grounded in His (Jesus') agape love will we be able to cast out all fear and serve Him with unselfish motives." He also says, on page 20 of that book "the New Testament writers wrote in Greek, so they had these four words to choose from in order to distinguish God's love from human love, and they did." He's talking about the four words used in the New Testament that is translated love. 1. Storge - family love, love for one's kin. 2. Philos - brotherly love, affectionate love, 3. Eros - Love between the sexes . and 4. Agape - Pure love untainted by selfish motive. Therefore, when we are under grace, and have received the atonement, then and only then can we have this agape love, and when we have this agape love, we will keep the commandments of God!
Again, please notice what Jesus really said in John 14:15, "If ye AGAPE me, keep my commandments." Again in John 14:21 "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that AGAPES me: and he that AGAPES Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him."
The one who fails to keep them in agape love (pure, unselfish motives) is not a born-again Christian. He or she may say they are, but they are not! This agrees perfectly with what John wrote in 1 John 2:4-6. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the AGAPE (that's the word here!) of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Only the born again believer who has been changed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant could walk as Jesus walked, and the context in the verse plainly refers to walking in obedience to God's commandments.
While no one can be justified by the works of the law, the fault is not in the law, but in the individual. Get Christ in the heart by faith, and then the righteousness of the law will be there also. As the psalmist says, 'I delight to do thy will O my God; they law is within my heart.' The one who would throw away the law because it will not call evil good, would also reject God because he will 'by no means clear the guilty." But God will remove the guilt, and will thus make the sinner righteous, that is, in harmony with the law.
In John 15, verse 10, it is written: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; (AGAPE) even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Jesus said that abiding in His love (the word agape) means that you will keep God's commandments. The abiding in Christ mentioned here by the Savior cannot mean anything other than being "in Christ."
In 1 Corinthians 7:19, it is written: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God is what matters." (NKJV) Paul, the greatest gospel teacher of all time says here that whether a person is circumcised or not doesn't really mean anything, but it does matter whether we keep God's commandments or not. The reason it matters is because keeping God's commandments shows that we are in Christ. Let me explain please.
Let's carefully examine two very similar statements of Paul. In Galatians 5:6, Paul wrote: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but faith working through love." This verse is very similar to 1 Corinthians. 7:19. A third similar verse is Galatians 6:15. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation."
The first part of all three of these verses relates to the Old Covenant idea of obey God and live, disobey or die, or righteousness by works. The second part of all three of these verses relates to those who are in Christ. Those that are in Christ will have a faith that works. Those that are in Christ will be a new creation. Those that are in Christ will keep God's commandments motivated by agape love! And in 1 Corinthians 7:19, Paul adds that keeping the commandments MATTER! It matters because it shows, as Jesus said, the one who really is a Christian and filled with agape love! God views the one who OBEYS or KEEPS his commandments by FAITH as the one who really agapes Him because His Son is in the heart!
In 1 John, chapter 3, verse 22, it says "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." This verse plainly says that those who obey God, for the right reasons, and with the right motives will be blessed. It also says that keeping God's commandments pleases God!
This same principle was evident in Abraham, the father of the faithful. Abraham was given the free promise that he received by faith, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Genesis 15:6. Later God "tested" Abraham with a commandment to slay his son (Obey). Abraham's test of obedience came after the free promise, and after he was declared righteous by faith. As James said his works evidenced his faith. James 5:20-23.
Later, when Yahweh was repeating the same promise to Isaac that He made to his father Abraham, the He explained why Abraham was able to receive the promise. In Genesis 26, verse 5, it is written: "because Abraham obeyed My voice, kept My charge, and My commandments, My statutes and My laws."
I think it is fair to assume that Abraham obeyed the commandments motivated by agape love for Yahweh.
"Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the 'friend of God.'" James 2:23. And Paul says, "They which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Galatians 3:7. But Abraham's faith was made manifest by his works."'Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect." James 2:21, 22.
There are many that fail to understand the relation of faith and works. They say, "Only believe in Christ, and you are safe. You have nothing to do with keeping the law." But genuine faith will be manifest in obedience. Said Christ to the unbelieving Jews, 'If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.' John 8:39. And concerning the father of the faithful the Lord declares,"Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Genesis 26:5. Says the apostle James, "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." James 2:17. And John, who dwells so fully upon love, tells us, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.' 1 John 5:3."
In 1 John 3:24, it says: "And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." Here John plainly teaches that the one IN CHRIST will also have Jesus in Him, and that will be evidenced by the fact that he or she will keep the commandments of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 John 5:2, it is written: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." The special unique Greek word AGAPE is the word-translated love here. Obeying God out of agape love for Him can only happen when Jesus is in the heart. This verse tells us that we will know that we have real love for others when we love God and love to keep His commandments!
Revelation 12:17 is a verse that should be very familiar to all Seventh-day Adventists. But look at it again. You might have missed something! "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." The devil is angry with those who obey God's commandments. Now let's think a little. If they are obeying the commandments out of fear, or in order to save themselves, or to get merit, the devil wouldn't be angry with them! He would be happy because every pagan religion has at its core the idea of earning salvation. He wouldn't be angry with those keeping the commandments out of the principle of the Old Covenant. No! He is angry because they are keeping the commandments of God because they are filled with agape love! They have been to the cross, and now they love God, and they keep His commandments because Christ dwells in their hearts through faith, and they are rooted and grounded in love! This gets the devil crazy with anger! These people love God and they are keeping His commandments because they love Him!
I believe that the devil down through the centuries has tried as Peter said to get some pervert the gospel, to "twist" Paul's writings so that people will end up being destroyed! It is so important to understand that AGAPE love in the heart will show itself in obedience to all of God's commandments!
When I was a teenager, I rebelled against my parents, especially my father. I would have fistfights with him and outright refuse to obey Him. When I wanted something from him, I would obey him like people who are under the old covenant and obey God for selfish reasons. I wasn't on good terms with my father. In fact, I hardly knew him! I never apologized to him as I got older and never really appreciated him, as I should have. The years passed, and I got married, and had children, and started working and my dad became sick, and he started to look old. I began to think about what he had done for us kids, and for me, and of all the times I must have made him cry, and my heart was touched. Seeing him sick and weak made me so terribly sorry for what I had done. Love for my father that had been repressed for years began to surface, and I can remember going up to my dad and hugging him for the first time in my life!
When I began to appreciate what my father had done for me, I loved my father, and I wanted to do things for him. When we visited, before he would ask I wanted to do, to help, and there was no question of me doing something for him if he asked, or doing something that would please him. I loved my father, and I wanted to obey him. It gave me great joy to obey him! I loved my earthly father, but not my heavenly one. In fact, he was only a distant acquaintance.
But as the years of my life rolled by, I began to think about my relationship with my heavenly Father. When a friend of mine committed suicide, I really began to think about the meaning of life, and how I was living. At the time I was drinking heavily. One night, July 13, 1977, at about 2 in the morning I was reading Isaiah 53. "Who has believed our report?" In verse 6 it said "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." I realized how I had treated God, and what I had done, and great guilt came over me, and a strong urge to repent of my sins. I did ask the Lord to forgive me, and He did! Then came a great peace like I had never felt before and it came when I realized that Christ had already paid for my sins! The Lord had already laid on Him my iniquity, in fact, the iniquity of us all. Now I wanted to do something to show God that I loved Him. I wanted to listen to His word. It was my pleasure to obey Him! When I studied later on about the Sabbath, paying tithes, and not eating unclean foods, how Christians dressed, it was my delight to obey God! I never felt it was something I was doing to be saved! I had been redeemed. I loved God because He first loved me! And that feeling, praise God, has never left me!
That is how God wants us to obey Him, always out of love, and that kind of love can only be in us when Jesus is in the heart, and He can only get in the heart when we receive by faith the atonement he has already made on the cross. But don't buy the error that when you receive the atonement you will discard God's law! This is the mistake the leaders of the Worldwide Church of God made, and I pray it will not be repeated in any of the members of God's remnant church! Under grace the law of God will become part of you because God will write it in your heart!
Yes, In the New Covenant, under grace, the law will be there in your heart, and it will be in your mind! In Hebrews, chapter 10, verse16, it says: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says Yahweh (He is quoting from Jeremiah 31:33-34) I will put My laws into their heart, and I their mind will I write them." Under grace in the New Covenant, the believer does not keep the law to be saved, or for merit, or out of fear! Instead, his heart is filled with agape love, and he delights to do God's will because the law is in his heart! This is the same way Jesus obeyed His Father. This is why the angels obey God's commandments.
Lucifer rebelled against obedience in heaven, and today he fights an insidious battle against those who love God and want to keep His commandments. And there must be something special about the remnant - the last part of God's church, because the book of Revelation says he is filled with wrath against them.
I can only conclude that they will be the ones, who truly receive the outpouring of the latter rain, and they are filled with agape love, and they will vindicate the character of God, and His law.
They will answer the devils argument that no one can obey the law of God, and that God made laws that no one could obey. The obedience of the saints through faith answers this argument for all time!
In Revelation, chapter 14, verse 12, it says, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Notice that the saints have patience. That is one of the fruits of the gospel, the fruits of the spirit! They keep the commandments! This verse is found right after the warning about the beast and his mark. This indicates by the way that the mark of the beast must involve disobedience to God's law! These that the Lord points to with His blessing must be keeping God's law out of agape love! Surely He would not point to them and say, "Here are they that keep the commandments if they were doing it from selfish motives to work their way to heaven! No He says it with Godly joy because here are His separated ones - His sanctified ones, and they are keeping the commandments of God because they are under the principle of agape love!
In Revelation chapter 22, verse 14, it is written: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. This is a wonderful verse, and an important Bible verse. Here God says that those who keep His commandments are blessed, and like Abraham they can obtain the promise given by grace because they are converted, they not only received the atonement by faith, they are keeping the commandments of God because Christ lives in them. They are living under the everlasting covenant, and they have gotten the victory over the beast, and his mark, and his errors. They are living, as we will live for all eternity with God's law in their hearts, and obeyed by agape love! And they will enter through the gates into the heavenly Canaan.
By God's grace we will be in that number when the saints go marching in! But we need to first have accepted the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember that His perfect obedience has fulfilled the requirements of the law for salvation for you. When He was crucified, it was for you, and if you believe the gospel you were crucified in Him, and when He was resurrected, you came up with Him to walk in newness of life! And that new life, that new creature will have the law of God written in the heart, and they will walk as Jesus walked! They will love the Lord, and love to keep His holy laws! Praise God!
A note about the Seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Why is God worthy of worship? Is it because He saved us? No! That is an added reason for loving Him because "He first loved us." But the Lord was worthy of worship before man was made! He was worthy of worship before this earth was made? The reason the Bible gives for Him being worthy of honor, glory, and praise is found in Revelation 4:11.
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The seventh-day Sabbath is a memorial of God being the Creator. He is as much Creator as He is love! The seventh day Sabbath is intrinsically linked with God and like Him is eternal. The only way we can do away with the Sabbath is to do away with the Creator!
The seventh-day Sabbath was made before sin entered the world, before there was an old or new covenant. In principal, it is as old as God Himself for it is a symbol of God's Creatorship! Nothing Jesus did abrogated the fact that "in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth." Hence, the Sabbath, given for that reason, and to commemorate that fact, stands eternal. Nothing Jesus did, nothing Paul or the other apostles wrote can be used to abrogate it's value as a memorial to the Creator. To worship the Creator is to keep the Sabbath motivated by AGAPE love! Revelation's 14:7's call to "worship Him that made the heavens and the earth" is a clarion call to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath- the memorial of that fact!
