DISTINCTIONS IN LAW by L. A. R.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 16, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 45.

DISTINCTIONS IN LAW

By L. A. R.

Three Sets of Laws in the Divine Plan — Distinctions Made in Giving Them What Has Been Abolished, and What Remains

God has three sets of laws.

First, there is the great law of love — love to God and love to man. Love to God is interpreted by the first four commandments, and love to man is interpreted by the last six of the commandments. These laws are for God’s moral government in the earth; and they are binding upon all, for the speaking of the law makes all the world guilty before God. Rom. 3: 19.

But man sinned, transgressed this law of love. Then there was instituted a remedial system, a sacrificial system; and it necessitated laws, rules, and regulations. These laws are summarized in Lev. 7: 37, 38. The law of the sin offering presupposes some previous law that has been transgressed, else there would be no sin, and no need of a law of sin offering.

PLAN OF THE THEOCRACY

Third, God instituted a theocracy, a nation under His direction. And a nation must necessarily have a government, laws that would involve every avenue of life. These were the national laws. The nation having ceased to exist, it cannot carry out its national laws, although they were based upon moral principles — in fact, based upon the principles of the Ten Commandment law. The penalties for transgression of that law that were meted out by that nation when it ruled, will not now be meted out until the Judgment day. They were all good laws, and beneficial; and by studying them, we can learn much as to God’s thought concerning governments. The principles of those laws still endure, though the nation that executed them has ceased to exist.

SEPARATE FROM ALL OTHER LAW

God gave the Ten Commandment law separate from all other laws. He uttered it with His own voice. He wrote it with His own finger. It was placed upon enduring stone. It was kept in a place separate from all the other laws, and when referred to, was referred to as distinctive from all other law. The following scriptures from Deuteronomy alone refer to the Ten Commandment law, distinctive from any that Moses said or wrote: Deut. 33: 2; 4: 30; 5: 22; 8: 20.

The expression “hearken to” or “obey” the voice of God has direct reference to the Ten Commandments, and it declares that the prosperity of Israel depends upon their keeping all of the Ten Commandments, particularly those that refer to their worship of God. Deut. 8: 19, 20 shows that idolatrous worship would be their ruin. Sabbath breaking was another one of the great national sins that brought the captivity of Israel.

The ark of the covenant was built especially to contain the law of God. Its name, “the ark of the covenant,” referred directly to the Ten Commandments, the basis of God’s covenant with any people.

THE CEREMONIAL LAW

The other law, the ceremonial law, containing certain provisions and penalties, was written by Moses, and delivered to the priests, the sons of Levi. Its reading was made compulsory, and it was to be obeyed “as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.” Deut. 31: 13. It was placed by the side of the ark. This law of Moses was not inside the ark, nor in the side of the ark, but by the side of it. Our Authorized Version does not give it correctly. It was where the priests could get it during the times when they must take it out and read it to the people.

It is very easy to see how different this law was considered from that law which God Himself proclaimed and wrote. That was placed inside the ark, and the mercy seat was placed upon it; and above that mercy seat, God’s glory shone, the Shekinah of His presence. In this we have a perfect picture of God’s throne, and the relation of His law to His government. It is the foundation of His rule. His law is underneath His throne. No man can get at that law to change it one whit, unless he goes by the Shekinah of God’s presence, causes God to abdicate His throne, lifts up the mercy seat, where justice and mercy meet, and withdraws the law from the place where God originally placed it.

I do not see how any one can go against such evidence as this, and say that all law God ever gave is alike, and to be treated alike; that if any part goes — circumcision, or any of the law — the Sabbath goes too. I can understand how one might want it to be this way; but that it is this way, there is not one thing in the Bible to show.

We have, however, direct word upon this question of the penalty of the law. In the third chapter of 2 Corinthians are given the following contrasts: that the law under the old covenant was written on stone; that the law of to-day — the same law, for there is no intimation of any change — is upon tables that are hearts of flesh. Verse 3.

THE TWO MINISTRATIONS OF THE LAW

In this connection, read also Heb. 10: 16. The ministration of the law was carried out to the letter, and meant death to the transgressor. The new covenant ministration is by the Spirit, and enables one to keep that law fully, so that he receives life. This is the statement also of Rom. 8: 3, 4: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Through Christ, the requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us. And so it is that Paul can say that we do not make void the law of God through faith; God forbid; nay, we establish the law. Rom. 3: 31.

Christ plainly shows the difference between the ministration of the mere letter of the law, and its spiritual application, after declaring that He does not come to destroy the law, or to change it one whit, and that if any one shall break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

He quotes from that Ten Commandment law, and says, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; . . . but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother,” breaks this commandment. So with the seventh commandment. Matt. 5: 21 and onward.

The Spirit applies the law to the very heart and mind, and thus reaches the secret things, the intents and purposes. Yet Paul declares, in 2 Cor. 3: 7, that the ministration of the old covenant was glorious. However glorious that ministration

of condemnation may have been, the ministration of righteousness exceeds in glory. So the ministration of the old covenant, the carrying out of penalties by man, which could apply only to the letter of the law, and not to the spirit, has passed away. We are now in the days of the ministration of the law by the Spirit of God. Man cannot execute the penalties of the law, for he cannot know another’s thoughts. He could only judge in so far as one transgressed the letter of the law — failed to conform outwardly to that law. This shows plainly enough that such a ministration was not a final ministration even in those days. It was merely that part of the work which God committed to man. The thoughts still remained to be judged by God.

MINISTRATION OF THE LETTER GONE

2 Cor. 3: 7, 11 tells us that the ministration of the letter, the ministration of death, has passed away. Now the law is ministered by the Spirit, and the executing of its penalties is reserved for the day of Judgment. See Matt. 5: 22, 29, 30. Read in this connection particularly Rom. 2: 12-16.

2 Cor. 3: 9 declares that the new covenant is a ministration of righteousness; and Rom. 8: 4 declares that this righteousness is the righteousness of the law (Authorized Version), or the requirement of the law (American Standard Version, margin), or the ordinance of the law — that is, the thing commanded in the law. And this righteousness which comes through Christ, and is given to us apart from the law, is nevertheless the righteousness of the law, the right doing of the law, and is witnessed by the law and the prophets. Rom. 3: 21, 22.

The seventh chapter of Romans shows that the law is not annulled thereby — that the law declares what is sin, and what is righteousness. The man who does not get righteousness through Christ, the law points out as a sinner; for like a looking-glass, it shows his defective life. See James 1: 22-25.

The man who receives the righteousness of Christ, does not fulfill the mind of the flesh, which is enmity against God, and rebels against the law of God (Rom. 8: 7); but he receives the Spirit of Christ, and is thus able to fulfill the requirements of the law. Verse 4.

L. A. R.