The Two Laws by R. M. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 24, 1874

The Two Laws.

By R. M. Kilgore

“BUT ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law.” Mal. 2: 8.

The prophet here gives a fitting reproof to those who make no distinction between the law which God spoke with his own voice from the summit of Sinai in the hearing of Israel, and that law which was given in addition, consisting of types and ceremonies, because of the transgression of the former.

To take the ground that there is but one law spoken of in the Bible is to furnish the skeptic with a mighty weapon to wield in his warfare against the divine authority of that sacred volume. If but one system of law has existed, and is referred to where the phrase, “the law,” occurs, then, certainly, the cavils of the objector cannot be disproved, and in the contest he comes off victorious. But to maintain that there are two laws, one, the transgression of which, brought death into the world, Rom. 5: 12, the other, which owes its origin to sin, and which could have had no existence if man had not become a transgressor, is to wrest from the hands of the caviler his objection, and to make a beautiful harmony in the word of God respecting this question, over which so many stumble.

But why is this position taken? Simply to avoid the claims of the fourth commandment of that moral code, which requires the observance of the seventh day for the Sabbath. This is termed “Jewish,” therefore, its obligation ceased with all the types and ordinances peculiar to that dispensation and that people. But this cannot be true, for God rested upon it, blessed and sanctified it (set apart to a holy use), at the close of creation week, twenty-three hundred years before there was a Jew, a descendant of Judah. Gen. 2: 23; 29: 35. It was set apart in the garden of Eden, not as a type, or shadow, pointing forward to things to come, for no sin then existed, hence no need of a type; but as a memorial, or keepsake, for man, to keep in mind God’s creative work, therefore, it always points backward and never forward, Ps. 111: 4; 135: 13; Ex. 20: 11, and is called “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” “My holy day,” and the “Lord’s day.” Ex. 20: 10; Isa. 58: 13; Rev. 1: 10; Mark 2: 28.

That there were Sabbaths peculiar to that people and dispensation, which were typical, and shadows of things to come, is readily admitted. These were connected and associated with “new moons,” “meats and drinks,” “feasts” and “holy days,” and were called “sabbaths,” “her sabbaths,” and “your sabbaths,” which were to expire by limitation, and to cease with all the typical service. Lev. 23: 24, 32, 39; 1 Chron. 23: 31; 2 Chron. 2: 4; Neh. 10: 33; Isa. 1: 13, 14; Lam. 2: 6; Hosea 2: 11; Rom. 14: 1–6; Col. 2: 16, 17. These “sabbaths,” feasts, and holy convocations were proclaimed “beside the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Lev. 23: 38. Here is made a clear distinction between these Sabbaths.

In the bosom of that code, which grew out of the immutable relations which man sustains toward God and toward his fellow-man, was incorporated a commandment respecting the sacred observance of his holy rest-day. By the transgression of this law, death came upon all men, and a necessity at once existed that another system of laws, consisting of types and shadows, should be added, pointing forward to the great sacrifice which should take away the sin of the world; by whose obedience shall many be made righteous. Rom. 5: 19.

Between these two codes there is the clearest distinction, and the following comparison is subjoined, that it may be seen at a glance:—

The Moral Law	The Ceremonial Law
1. Was spoken by God. Deut. 14: 12.	Was spoken by Moses. Deut. 1: 6.
2. Was written by God on tables of stone. Ex. 24: 12.	Was written by Moses in a book. Deut. 31: 24.
3. Was “right,” “true,” and “good.” Neh. 9: 13.	Was “not good.” Eze. 20: 25.
4. Was a law, “which if a man do, he shall even live in” it. Eze. 20: 11, 13, 21.	Was a law “whereby they should not live.” Eze. 20: 25.
5. Was a “perfect law.” Ps. 19: 7.	“Made nothing perfect.” Heb. 7: 19.
6. God declares that it should stand forever and ever. Ps. 111: 7, 8.	The apostle declares, “there is made of necessity a change.” Heb. 7: 12.
7. Christ did not “come to destroy.” Matt. 5: 17.	He “abolished it.” Eph. 2: 15.
8. He came to magnify and make honorable. Isa. 42: 21.	He took it out of the way at his death. Col. 2: 14.
9. Every “jot” and “tittle” of this shall stand “till heaven and earth pass” away. Matt. 5: 18.	Was only “added till,” and passed away when the seed came. Gal. 3: 19.
10. Of this Christ said: “Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven.” Matt. 5: 19.	Of the other the apostle said: “We gave no such commandment” that ye should “keep the law.” Acts 15: 24.
11. Was a “law of liberty.” Jas. 2: 12.	Was a “yoke of bondage.” Gal. 5: 1.
12. Paul delighted in. Rom. 7: 22.	Neither he nor the fathers could bear. Acts 15: 10.
13. Is established through faith in Christ. Rom. 3: 31.	“Was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” Gal. 3: 24, 25.
14. “Is spiritual.” Rom. 7: 14.	Is “the law of a carnal commandment.” Heb. 7: 16.
15. Is “holy,” “just,” and “good.” Rom. 7: 12.	Is “enmity against us” and “contrary to us.” Eph. 2: 15; Col. 2: 14.
16. Was written with the finger of God, and is called the “royal law.” Ex. 31: 18; Jas. 2: 8.	Was the “handwriting of ordinances.” Col. 2: 14.
17. Is written on the hearts of the Gentiles; and to it all mankind are amenable. Rom. 2: 12–15; 3: 19.	Served as a “middle wall of partition between” the Jews and the Gentiles. Eph. 2: 14.
18. Was proclaimed by Jehovah himself, “and he added no more.” Deut. 5: 22.	“Was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” Gal. 3: 19.
19. All the commandments of one law, David says, “are righteousness, and are founded forever.” Ps. 119: 152, 172.	But the other law, Paul says, “stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Heb. 9: 10.
20. Contains the commandments of God which it is the whole duty of man to keep, Eccl. 12: 13, which are brought to view in the third message, Rev. 14: 12, which the remnant of the seed of the woman were keeping when the dragon made war upon them, Rev. 12: 17, and which will insure to those who observe them access to the tree of life. Rev. 22: 14.	Is “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” Eph. 2: 15; “a shadow of good things to come,” Heb. 10: 1, and was disannulled “for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.” Heb. 7: 18.

“Surely these two codes should not be confounded. The one was magnified, made honorable, established, and is holy, just, spiritual, good, royal; the other was carnal, shadowy, burdensome, and was abolished, broken down, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross, changed, and disannulled, on account of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.”

“Those who rightly divide the word of truth will never confound these essentially different codes, nor will they apply to God’s royal law the language employed respecting the handwriting of ordinances.”

R. M. KILGORE.