Abraham to Have the Whole World — His Spiritual Children to Be Heirs with Him
By R. S. OWEN
This is the sixth of a series of interesting studies by Elder Owen, on the experiences of Abraham as recorded in Genesis 15. Each study is independent, hence a person need not necessarily have read the preceding articles in order to understand and enjoy this one. Editor.
“WHO are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” Rom. 9: 4.
The fact that there were two promises made to Abraham, is quite apparent when we give the Scriptures a careful consideration. First, there was the promise that he should inherit the land; and the apostle Paul tells us that this promise made Abraham heir of the world. Rom. 4: 13. But this promise has not been carried out; for although God has made him heir, the promise can be fulfilled only by giving him possession. But this promise was to Abraham and to his seed, and we are told that they who are of faith are the children of Abraham. If we are Christ’s, then are we Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Then the promise of the possession of the whole136world is to Abraham and his spiritual seed, or his children by faith.
But in Gen. 15: 13-16, God foretold the bondage and affliction of Abraham’s descendants, or natural seed, in Egypt; and after stating that Abraham would die in peace—that is, would die before this period of bondage should begin—He then tells him that his seed would come out of Egypt, and serve God in the land of Canaan. And verse 18 states that God made a covenant with Abraham that same day, to give to his seed the land of Canaan, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. Then follow the names of the nations in possession of that land, but which were to be dispossessed. Thus we find that the children of Israel did not take possession of the land of Canaan by virtue of any covenant or new arrangement made with them at Mount Sinai, but by virtue of the covenant made with their father Abraham.
In harmony with this idea, we read: “Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; and foundest his heart faithful before Thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed Thy words: for Thou art righteous.” Neh. 9: 7, 8. Here, then, is a covenant in the fulfillment of which Abraham was to have no part, and which was fulfilled in the possession of Canaan by the twelve tribes of Israel; for in the closing years of David, and during the reign of Solomon, the territorial limits reached the river of Egypt on the south, and the great Euphrates on the north.
The fact of the two promises, one fulfilled, and the other still future, is clearly indicated in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where mention is made of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Of them God says that “these all died in faith, not having received the promises [plural], but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Heb. 11: 13. But beginning with verse 31, we have an enumeration of some of those who were accounted faithful among the children of Israel, after God had given them possession of the land; and this recital closes with these words: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise [singular]: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
The promise here mentioned is the promise of the possession of the whole earth. Its fulfillment is yet future, but it will be fulfilled to Abraham and all his seed when that redeemed company, numberless as the stars, take possession of the glorious renewed earth.
God’s purpose in giving the descendants of Abraham the possession of Canaan, was that they might spread a knowledge of the truth to all the nations of earth. To this end, He gave them territory extending to the river of Egypt on the south, and to the great Euphrates on the north. Thus He placed them in the highway of nations, where it would be impossible for them to avoid the contact, in the moving of nations from east to west and from north to south; just like the twelve stones they had by faith set up in the middle of the bed of the Jordan, and which must be kept in their position amidst the rushing, whirling waters of the river, by the power of God. So by that same power, and by that only, would they be kept in their possession, while the armies of the nations would sweep from south to north and from east to west back and forth across their territory. Just as the stones kept in the Jordan would be a constant witness of the power of God, from generation to generation, so Israel would be a witness to all the conquering nations of earth, in each generation to come.
Another witness to all, would be found in the marvelous way in which God would supply their needs in the land of Canaan. The natural productiveness of that land did not compare with the valley of the Nile in the south, or with the Mesopotamian territory at the north. But under the blessing of God, in the possession of Israel, its waste and desolate places were to blossom as the rose; and its harvests, abundant with His blessing, scant or total failures without it, were to teach the Israelites a continual lesson of reliance on God, while their marvelous prosperity would be a sign to all the nations.
We have a glimpse of what faithfulness would have brought to that nation; for under the reign of Solomon, the fame of the riches and glory of the nation and the wisdom of its king spread far and near, and the queen of Sheba, when she had seen and heard, exclaimed, “The half was not told me.” But alas, through a lack of faithfulness to the trust reposed in them, they lost their possession of Canaan; and in captivity and affliction they finally bore that witness for God which they might have borne in freedom and prosperity.
But the fulfillment of the great promise will be permanent; for of it God has said: I will appoint My people a place, and they shall move no more; neither shall they be afflicted any more; neither shall the enemy exact upon them any more; for with long life will I satisfy them, and show them My salvation. 2 Sam. 7: 10; Ps. 91: 16.
THE DRAGON VOICE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
By M. C. Wilcox
The Persecuting Work to Develop in This Nation—It Will Also Spring Up Under the Papacy in the Old World
This is the sixth of several articles by Elder Wilcox on the prophecy that deals with the United States government. Last week and this, he studies the “dragon voice” that is yet to be heard in persecutions. This may seem strange to many of our readers; but please study the subject closely, and mark the evidence which shows the tendency in that direction. This strong trend toward teachings and practices which must result in religious tyranny and persecution will be more apparent in succeeding numbers. Editor.
OUR last study presented some of the influences operating to make this erstwhile “land of the free and home of the brave” a persecuting nation. Read the prophecy:
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death stroke was healed. And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead; and that no man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name.” Rev. 13: 11-17, A. R. V.
In the development of its dragon phase, the prophecy sets before us these particulars:
1. It exercises the authority of the first beast in the presence of that beast. Verse 12.
2. It causes the earth and those who dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
3. It deceives the earth dwellers by its wonder-working power, even to bringing fire from heaven in the sight of men. Verses 13, 14.
4. It demands from the people that they should make an image to the restored first beast. Verse 14.
5. It has power to give life to the image of the beast, and cause the image to speak and demand worship under death penalties.
6. It enforces the mark of the beast.
Let us develop these particulars.
1. The two-horned beast we have demonstrated to be the United States of America. It may come to include, through federation, all the republics in the western hemisphere. In such a federation, this nation would without question be the dominating influence, hence the power of the prophecy.
The word rendered “power” in our Common Version is not dunamis, meaning strength, energy; but the original is exousia, authority. A government exercises its authority within its territory. Its jurisdiction is geographically limited by its political boundary lines. The two-horned beast exercises its authority in its own territory, before, or in the sight of, in the presence of, the first beast, after the healing of the death stroke of that beast. In other words, the first beast is exercising its own authority in its own territory, under the healed head, when the two-horned13beast does its persecuting work, and exercises its authority before the beast.
THE POWERS THAT PERSECUTE
The first beast power, as we have learned, represents a union of church and state. A church, an ecclesiastical power, cannot of itself legally persecute, however much it may desire. It has not the authority. A civil power not legally connected with religion or the church, will not persecute. It has no desire or incentive so to do. Adherents of all religions are equal before its bar. A wild beast in prophecy represents a union of these two elements, proper and efficient when separate, but pregnant with evil when united. Under seven distinct forms, or dynasties, this beast power, used by Satan, has antagonized the work and people of God, from Babylon to the last and crowning apostasy under the head wounded and healed. The first of these beast forms was Babylon; then Medo-Persia; then Grecia; then Rome pagan; then Rome papal; then apostate church-and-state Protestantism and orthodoxy of the Old World, following the overthrow of the papal supremacy in 1798. The healing of the deadly wound, which lies a little before us, constitutes the seventh.
This restoration of the papal phase is revealed in Revelation 17. After disclosing to the prophet the beast and the apostasy of the forty and two months (Rev. 13: 5) of prophetic time—
This destruction was wrought by bombs dropped from a Zeppelin airship in its raid on England. The terror produced in a locality subject to such raids might possibly be imagined, but could not be described. Can there be any doubt that the prophet Jeremiah was viewing in vision just such conditions as these when he exclaimed, “My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war”? Jer. 4: 19.
1,260 years, ending in 1798—one of the angels of the last plagues says for the people of God of this generation: “The beast that thou sawest” (Rev. 13:5-8; 17:3, 4), during the Dark Ages period, “was, and is not [as a persecuting power; that head is lying prone under its death stroke]; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition [the last phase of persecuting government]. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall come.” Rev. 17:8.
THE PAPACY REINSTATED IN THE OLD WORLD
That development and reinstatement of the papacy lies just before us. There is a strong probability that it may develop out of the present European struggle. Out of the ruined or well-nigh ruined states of Europe there will come a patched-up peace with the papacy at the head more fully than the Middle Ages ever saw it. The papacy is working for it. Men are looking to her to do it. Logic, based on her belief and claims, demands that she should. She believes it will mean peace and prosperity for the world, and she will make the war-wrecked nations believe it and yield to her plans and policies. A confederation to be found in that territory will be of “one mind” to “give their power and authority unto the beast.” Rev. 17:13, 17.
It is after the restoration of the papal phase of the beast power that the two-horned beast exercises the same authority in his own territory that the restored beast does in Europe; for the two-horned beast acts in the presence of the beast that had a wound by the sword and lived. It is the papacy supported by apostate Protestant governments in the Old World; it is apostate Protestant governments supported by the papacy in the New.
WILL HELP THE RESTORED PAPACY
2. The power of the two-horned beast will be used in his own territory for the exaltation of the restored papal beast. He will use his power and influence, not for a phase of the beast that is supposed to have died forever in 1798, but for the phase manifest in the last days, after the healing of the death stroke. In that restoration, the fashion may be different, more modern than that of the Middle Ages, but it will in principle be the same; for it is in the same territory, among the same peoples, controlled by the same ambitious religious power that sought to rule the world, and did, to a great extent, during the Middle Ages.
When the beast is once more constituted under that phase by a united Europe, it will be the embodiment of the same evil principles, at the head of which will be the Vatican. All the world will wonder after and worship the abnormal creature. Rev. 13:3, 8. The two-horned beast will stand with all the others. Turning from the principles of the Lamb, it will swing to the principles of the dragon. Instead of being ruled by the truly Christian principles of the equality of man and freedom of choice in matters religious, it will turn to the principles of the devil, of the exaltation and inequality of man and the coercion of conscience. It will show the highest homage and admiration a government can possibly manifest; it will demand that the people shall make an image to the beast that had the death stroke by the sword and lived.
How it will do this, by what influences such mighty change shall be wrought in this erstwhile land of the free, will be studied in our next.
M. C. W.
WITH HEATHEN TRIBES IN INDIA
Enthusiastic and Determined Workers—The Supernatural Power That Holds Them
Elder A. G. Daniells, the president of our General Conference, who is making extended missionary visits in different parts of the world, is now in India. He is spending several months among the workers in that field. A private letter just received contains too much valuable and inspiring information to be simply answered and passed to our files in the ordinary way. We know that our readers will appreciate the privilege of enjoying it with us. Aside from a few sentences that pertain to business matters, etc., his letter is as follows:
“Since landing at Colombo five weeks ago, I have traveled five thousand miles, and have visited our mission stations all the way from Tinnevelli, at the southern point of India, up to Simla, in the Himalaya Mountain range, and to the Punjab in the northwestern part of the country. Now we are in the midst of our institute and biennial council, and we are kept busy from early morning until late at night. I am gathering good material, in the way of both subject matter and illustrations, for reports which I hope to write as soon as I can get a breathing spell.
“I may say that my visit to India is one of the most enjoyable occasions of the kind I have had in many years. It is the first time I have come in direct contact with active heathenism or idolatry. Here I see the people worshiping trees, stones, images, cattle, water, and almost every material thing about them. It seems terrible to me, and creates an earnest desire in my heart to see our work carried forward with greater zeal and power in this great mission field.”
A HUNDRED DETERMINED WORKERS
“Although our task here is a stupendous one, yet it is not wholly dark. We see many omens of encouragement. I wish you could be in our institute and conference, and meet our missionaries, and hear their reports. There are a hundred gathered here from the various parts of India and Burma, and I wish to say that you cannot find a finer band of workers anywhere in the world than we have here. They are intelligent and consecrated, and love their field. None of them, as far as I have heard, want to return to the States permanently or for pleasure. Some of them have suffered physically, and must return for a time at least; but they all seem to love the field, and would be glad to devote the remainder of their lives to the work here.
“Somehow there is an attraction here that I can hardly understand. I think it must be the great work there is to be done. The Lord seems to put it into the hearts of His people, as they face hard tasks and great ones, to get up close to these tasks, and stand by their posts of duty. I love these workers, and, personally, I could settle down here and spend the remainder of my useful days and be very happy.
“There are great openings in India which we, as a people, ought to enter without delay. We are short of means and men; but if our people in America could see these conditions exactly as they are, and feel as I am sure Jesus feels, a million dollars would immediately be provided for placing workers here to step into these opening providences of God.
“Somehow I feel impressed that our people must be aroused to do far greater things than they now are doing. We, of course, appreciate the splendid spirit of sacrifice they are showing; and yet, with the end so near, and millions unwarned and unsaved, it does seem as though far greater sacrifices should be made by those who are enjoying so much from the hand of the Lord. I think when I get back I shall have some new texts in behalf of foreign missions.”
GOD’S WORD ENDURES
By G. B. T.
SPEAKING concerning the immutability of His word, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24:35.
Earthly things do pass away, but the word of God endures. Kingdoms, proud and stately, have gone down. Great cities, with their busy marts, have passed away. So effectually have they disappeared that they cannot be located on the map.
But God’s word endures. It has been cursed and burned, but it is still here. It is by the word of God that the heavens hold together. It was by the word of God that the heavens were made. Men talk learnedly of gravitation and cohesion, but these are only scientific terms with which to hide their ignorance. All things are held together by the word of God.
A writer comments on this text thus: “Yon sun may burn to a blackened cinder; yon ocean may be emptied from its bed; yon stars may fall like autumn leaves; yon mountain may meet in the blaze of a judgment’s conflagration; all nature may be destroyed and made new again; but above the wreck of worlds and systems, the last syllable Jesus has ever spoken shall stand forever.”
G. B. T.
REASONS FOR THE EUROPEAN WAR
Many pages have been written by people who are seeking to offer some reason or some excuse for the European war. These articles are always colored, of course, by the sentiments and the patriotism of the individual who writes.
There seems to be a kind of satisfaction to humanity in arriving at the reason of things. It is all right to know the reasons when we can, but so far as war is concerned, there is nothing reasonable about it. It is the most unreasonable thing that you can think of. But even if we succeed in learning the actual causes of the war, pointing them out will not stop it.
The principles of the Prince of peace in the heart of the individual is the only thing that can effectually do away with war. Studying the underlying causes of this war should not be allowed to take the place of the study of the prophecies that foretell what the outcome will finally be. Of paramount importance are the prophecies that have foretold the spirit of war that will characterize this age.
Question Corner
By Milton C. Wilcox
Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX
Mountain View, California
NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.
91—Three Days and Three Nights
Will you please explain Matt. 12:40? We are told that the Lord did not lie in the grave three days and three nights. Now I do not doubt the Scriptures, but my neighbors do, and I should like to have an explanation; and in this connection read Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; and John 20:1.
W. H. H.
The subject can be treated quite at length, but we have not space for it here. If one wishes to get a much fuller exposition of it, let him read the book “Questions and Answers,” question 26, pages 28-34.
First of all, Matt. 12:40 does not demand that Jesus should be in the grave three days and three nights. That scripture said He should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now what is the heart of the earth? There is absolutely nothing in Scripture to prove that it was the grave. Then to what does it refer? May it not refer to the powers of earth? The heart of the earth under Satan at that time was the Roman power. Over and over again the enemies of Jesus sought to take Him, but we read that His time was not yet come, and consequently He was not delivered into their hands. On the other hand, we read that of the night when He was betrayed He Himself expressly said, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched not forth your hands against Me; but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. And they seized Him.” Luke 22:53, 54.
It was concerning this hour that He prayed: “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.” Again: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” John 12:27, 31.
That was on what we would call Thursday or sixth day night, belonging to the next day, or Friday, when Jesus was delivered into the hands of the authorities. We have, then, Friday night and Friday, the Sabbath night and Sabbath, and Sunday night, with some of the early part of that day—three days.
Secondly, what would be called in the Scriptures “three days and three nights” simply means three days. In order to prove that it must involve seventy-two hours, we would have to prove that Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster just seventy-two hours; but the scripture says, “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jonah’s record broke up the three days and three nights, that covered the whole thing. It met what is demanded. This is in perfect harmony with the use of such terms in the Scripture elsewhere. Read the record of Samson and the periods of time connected with the record as found in Judges 14:12, 15, 17.
Note also what is said in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, in the very close of what the disciples themselves say: “We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel, and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.” So the three days included not simply the time that Our Lord was in the grave, but the time that He was persecuted and beaten—in the hands of His enemies, given up, in God’s wisdom, to them—and that part of the first day which followed His resurrection.
Now regarding the texts: There is no disagreement certainly between John 20:1; Luke 24:1; and Mark 16:1. They all mention the morning of that first day when the disciples came to the sepulchre. The only one that seems to disagree with that is Matthew; but Matthew does not contradict the others, and it should be understood that the time was the same that is recorded by the other evangelists. Greenfield, in his Greek Testament, gives a different reading of Matt. 27:66 and Matt. 28:1. We would like to say to our correspondent, that in the early copies, there were no divisions of chapters or verses, or words even. They all ran together solid, just the same as “afterthreedaysIregain.” Matt. 27:66 belongs with the twenty-eighth chapter. Read it this way, and we have perfect harmony with Mark and Luke: “So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the Sabbath. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” That is the way the text could read, and it is the suggestion that Greenfield makes in his Greek Testament.
92—The Sabbath and the First Day
The Christian Church people believe that the seventh day was and is the Sabbath which God gave to Adam. They also believe that the day Jesus arose from the dead is more important and is therefore to be observed. As the old laws were for the people before Jesus came to earth as our Saviour, we have nothing to do with the Old Bible or Testament. Please tell me why we are not to honor and keep the day of Jesus’ resurrection; for that day meant eternal life to us, so it seems it ought to be observed. Is there a command where it says we shall not observe it?
R. H.
First of all, human belief or disbelief does not affect in any way God’s word. The great truth of God’s word remains, whether we believe it or not. Let us settle that great fact in our Christian experience first of all.
Secondly, God is not a changeable being like man. He gave His law to His people in the very beginning, even before sin entered, so that man might be like Him. As He created man in His own image, He designed that man should be in His own image morally; consequently He gave the moral law, or the Ten Commandments. And He Himself said: “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14.
Note that the duty which was demanded of man then—the whole duty—was embraced in the law, and in that law, that expression of duty, mankind would be judged at last. That judgment has not yet taken place. Would we have God judging one class of people in one age by one law, and another class of people in another age by another law? That law, that duty, was the expression of God’s character. But we read in Malachi, “For I, Jehovah, change not.” Mal. 3:6. We read in James 1:17, “With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
In the second chapter of James, verses 8-12, we have the same law and the same duty, “the royal law according to the Scripture,” therefore the Old Testament Scriptures, because there were no other Scriptures in James’s day.
Thirdly, it is a “royal law,” or the law of the great King.
Fourthly, it is the law which says, “Thou shalt not kill,” and, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; therefore the Decalogue.
Fifthly, it is the law by which we are to be judged. It is therefore the same law that is mentioned in Eccl. 12:13, 14—the one unchangeable law of God, of which Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. 5:17. And then He tells us that “whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments; and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least [or as Campbell’s translation—a Christian translation—says, “of no account”] in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19.
Again Jesus said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.
Therefore God’s law stands.
There were laws, of course, that passed away—the laws regulating sacrifices, offerings, ceremonies, etc. Those laws pointed forward to Christ, His death, His priesthood. When our Lord came, the shadow ended, and the substance was here. Those laws expired by limitation. Laws regulating the nationality of the Jews, passed away when the na- tion itself passed away. But the great eternal law of God, spoken by Him, written by His own finger on tables of stone, manifested in the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, remains and will forever remain, because God does not change.
Regarding the first day of the week, we have no commandment for it whatever. Granted that our Lord rose on that day, which He doubtless did—but which is disputed by many—that is no reason why we should observe the day. He did not take the whole day to arise. He arose just before daylight—seemingly, from the record, in a moment of time. The early disciples did not keep the day. We have no commandment whatever that it should be kept. Every act of Jesus had to do with the salvation of mankind. There is no more eternal life for us in His resurrection than there is in His death, or in His blameless life. Our resurrection was pledged by every righteous act of Jesus, for He was raised from the dead because He was righteous. But God has given us no commandment concerning any day as a memorial of that great event. On the other hand, He has given us an ordinance which shows forth the resurrection of Jesus, and that is baptism. See Rom. 6:3, 4.
The baptism of the believer is the marriage ceremony that unites him to Christ; and the newness of life in which he walks every day, is a constant memorial, every day of the week, and every hour of the day, of the power of the resurrection in Jesus. The inquiry of the Christian should not be, “Is there a command against a thing?” but, “Is there a command for it?” Jesus said, “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Luke 6:46. Again, “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:14. Again, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.
The great test of our love to God is not the doing of something He has not commanded, but it is the doing of just what He has commanded. Those who endeavor to substitute their own way for God’s way, place their own institutions in the place of God’s institutions, and try to supply, by an uncommanded service, a substitute for obedience to God’s commands, and may well merit what the Lord Himself has said by His prophet: “When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand?” Isa. 1:12. Any substitute that we may bring, will never meet God’s simple requirement of obedience. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. 15:22.
One other thought in this connection, and that is, for what did Jesus die? The answer is, of course—for there can be no other answer—He died to save us from our sins. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21. “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” Titus 2:14. Now, He does not save us in sin, but from sin; not in iniquity, but from iniquity. But what is sin?—“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7. The only law which says, “Thou shalt not covet,” is the Ten-Commandment law.
Jesus came, then, to save us from the transgression of God’s eternal law. And in order that He may do that, He not only forgives the sin, or the transgression of the law, but He writes that law in our hearts. Heb. 8:8-10. It is well to note also that this expression in Hebrews is not of New Testament origin. It is quoted from Jeremiah, and the law that God writes in our hearts is the law that Jeremiah knew six hundred years before Christ.
Why, then, should we keep God’s law?
First of all, because it was given by the great God of heaven, and is as unchangeable as Himself.
Secondly, because Jesus died to save us from its transgression.
Thirdly, He Himself left an example of perfect obedience to that law.
