FOURTH QUARTER 2021
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #7
NOVEMBER 13, 2021
“LAW AND GRACE” by Pastor Jerry Finneman

 

The object of the book of Deuteronomy is salvation by the gospel of God’s grace, not by law. Salvation – justification, righteousness, life by the faith of Christ is the key to this book. Deuteronomy is the history of God’s deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage, both physically and spiritually. Their physical deliverance from geographical Egypt preceded their spiritual deliverance. The case may be made that corporately they never did appreciate deliverance from spiritual bondage, which is sin (Hebrews 11:24-26). The same case may be made for Christians. Spiritual Egypt is sin. God longs to deliver us from spiritual Egypt, from Babylon, which is simply the world of sin.

 

The purpose of the book of Deuteronomy reveals that salvation by law of any kind, is excluded, just as Paul wrote to the Galatians who had been seduced by wolves in sheep’s clothing who presented another gospel:  “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21).

 

The book of Deuteronomy is the history of the relationship of law and grace. Most Christians do not understand this relationship. Some insist that before Christ lived and died, Jews were saved by God’s plan of obedience to the law. Implied in this is the charge against God that His method of salvation was a failure. So, according to this theory, He changed the method of salvation by doing away with the law and then instituting grace at Calvary. We still hear the hue and cry, “I am not under the law of the Old Testament, but I am under grace.”

 

Let’s consider this false assertion. If there is no law, there is no sin, because sin is defined as transgression of the law. If there is no sin, it follows there is no need for grace! And further, if there is no sin, there is no need for judgment.

 

I listened to a former Adventist as he related to me that he was “a New Testament Christian” and thus had no need of the Old Testament and its Jewish law and Sabbath. However, he forgot the words of Jesus — “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). If a person is not an Old Testament Christian, he cannot be a New Testament Christian. One must be an Old Testament Christian in order to be a New Testament Christian.

 

Adventists believe in at least four times as much grace as many other Christians. How so? Those who think that grace did not come into existence until the time of the cross believe in about 2,000 years of grace. SDAs believe grace was in the garden of Eden, waiting to take Adam by the hand as soon as he sinned. Measured by time that is 4,000 years longer, or four times more, than most others believe.

 

The first aspect of grace is defined as the unmerited favor of God. This was not introduced until man sinned. Angels who have never fallen have no need of grace. Notice: God “does not give [angels] grace; they have never needed it, for they have never sinned.” (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 519).

 

A second aspect of grace is found in Titus 2:11-13 where it is presented as an educator which teaches us to say, “No to ungodliness” and “Yes” to “godly lives” in preparation for the “blessed hope” — 11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

 

This passage clearly presents God’s grace as the means by which we can live within the constraints of God’s law. This, however, does not mean we are saved by law keeping. Our memory text from Paul for this week declares: “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Galatians 2:21).

 

Commenting on this verse Jones declared, “it is everlastingly true throughout the universe that ‘If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.’ Galatians 2:21. Forever and everywhere it is true that ‘Their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord’ [Isaiah 54:17]. And the law witnesses to the righteousness which all obtain from God without the law, but by Jesus Christ.” (A.T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message” #18, The General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 27, 1893).

 

Neither Jones nor Waggoner were against the law. They upheld it. Waggoner wrote: that none “should ever suppose that the doctrine of justification by faith is going to lower the law of God. Justification carries the law on the face of it. The only danger is in not getting it. It establishes the law in the heart” (General Conference Daily Bulletin, Vol. 4 (1891), “Bible Study. Letter to the Romans. No. 1,” p. 85.

 

We are never saved by keeping the law;

Neither are we saved from keeping it.

We are saved by grace in order to keep God’s holy law.

 

Since sin continues to exist there is law. Since there is law, there is judgment. Today law, sin, judgment and grace remain. When sin is destroyed, then judgment ceases. The destruction of sin will be accomplished when its author is annihilated. “Evil will cease only when Satan ceases to exist. With the agencies which he has employed to annoy and grieve the people of God, Satan will at last be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Then sin will be no more.” (20MR 338).

 

God’s judgment is concerned with the spiritual conflict that underlies human history and comes to the surface in dramatic forms in particular events of crucial significance to the kingdom of God. Involved in the judgment is the honor of God, the relationship of law and grace along with charges posed by the carnal minds of men and devils against God and His people.

 

Waggoner wrote, “God is now accused by Satan of injustice and indifference, and even of cruelty. Thousands have echoed the charge. But the judgment will declare the righteousness of God. His character, as well as that of man, is on trial. In the judgment every act, both of God and man, that has been done since creation will be seen by all in all its bearings. And when everything is seen in that perfect light, God will be acquitted of all wrongdoing, even by His enemies” (English Present Truth, August 16, 1894; Signs of the Times, January 9, 1896).

 

The judgment is God’s process of verification of justice and mercy for the benefit, especially of the unfallen inhabitants of the universe. There is both a positive and a negative outcome regarding those being judged. First the negative. The last phase of the judgment is concerned with the rejectors of God’s law and is conducted on the basis of their works of wickedness defined by God’s moral law (Revelation 20:13).

 

Sunday’s lesson reveals the original sin which was committed by Lucifer, the anointing cherub (Ezekiel 28:15-16).

 

Sunday’s lesson also makes a correct and insightful distinction between “natural law” and “moral law.” Natural law deals with the principle of cause and effect. An example of this is as in the case of venereal disease which follows from cause to effect. Moral law is concerned with this principle also, but goes much further. In moral law there are the realities of responsibility and accountability. This phase of the judgment brings to the forefront responsibility and accountability – answerability – for what has been done in the flesh. Responsibility, accountability and answerability have further consequences that go beyond the natural law of cause and effect. These are the lessor and greater degrees of punishment involving duration and intensity.

 

The devil’s sins are greater than the sum of those of the lost. Because of this, his punishment will be more intense and will last longer than the rest of those who are lost eternally – “His punishment is to be far greater than that of those whom he has deceived” (The Great Controversy, 673).

 

The punishment of duration and intensity applies to all the lost. “Those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression — ‘the wages of sin.’ They suffer punishment varying in duration and intensity, ‘according to their works,’ but finally ending in the second death.” (The Great Controversy, 544).

 

Before this occurs, lost mankind and devils, will confess their rebellion against God. “Every knee shall bow” down before God (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10); “Every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Finally, “the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped” (Psalm 63:11).

 

Waggoner wrote, “Man has his choice, either to reign with God in life, or to ally himself with Satan in death; and in the Judgment every lost sinner will acknowledge that God is clear of his blood, since He has made ample provision for the salvation of all” (English Present Truth, August 6, 1903).

 

Earlier he wrote, “God has wrought out salvation for every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn it, and throw it away. The Judgment will reveal the fact that full and complete salvation was given to every man, and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession. Thus, every mouth will be stopped.” (Glad Tidings (1900) 22-23).

 

There is a positive aspect of the judgment, as well as the negative. The positive aspect is by grace in behalf of the believer. In the pre-advent phase of judgment God’s superabounding grace is present. It is manifested in behalf of those who believe from the heart and confess with the mouth the goodness of God and the matchless charms of Christ and His righteousness.

 

This positive aspect is because God enters this phase of the judgment and acts graciously on behalf of His people. This is when the “Ancient of Days” in the glory of His goodness and justice comes to their defense – when judgment is “made in favor of the saints of the Most High.” This is the time when “the saints [will] possess the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22). “The court shall be seated, and they shall take away [the devil’s and his right hand “man of sin’s] dominion, to consume and destroy it forever” (verse 26). Then follows God’s gracious gifts of “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High”(verse 27).

 

In closing I want to leave you with a quote taken from D.L. Moody regarding law and grace, the theme of the book of Deuteronomy:

 

“The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.” D. L. Moody, quoted in “Children’s Ministry” Magazine, May/June, 1999, p. 86.

 

~Pastor Jerry Finneman