THE SABBATH; IS THE LAW DEAD, OR AM I? by Wm. Penniman

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 26, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 9

“THE SABBATH; IS THE LAW DEAD, OR AM I?”

By Wm. Penniman

BY WM. PENNIMAN.

(Continued.)

Referring to the sermon on the mount, the author of the tract we are reviewing says: “It is said that it sets up and spiritualizes the law. If it does, the Sabbath is left out, as having no part in that spiritualization.” The law was set up amid the thunders of Sinai, ages before the sermon on the mount was delivered. Paul says (Rom. 7 : 14), “For we know that the law is spiritual.” In his memorable sermon Christ says, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” In the same sermon anger and hatred are condemned as a violation of the law, “Thou shalt not kill.” Lust in the heart is also condemned. Two commandments are therefore plainly spiritualized. Unconsciously, his own language spiritualizes the law, as in conclusion he says it refers to moral principles and obedience. It is true that the Sabbath is not mentioned in the sermon on the mount; but if two-tenths of the law are recognized as spiritual, then the whole must be. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law [nine-tenths], and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2 : 10. This shows that the moral law is to be taken as a whole. Christ said nothing about the command against stealing, nor that against taking the name of the Lord in vain; and since these commandments and some others are not mentioned in the sermon on the mount, does it follow that we are not to keep them?

The one we are reviewing, like many who undertake to overthrow the Sabbath, has more than one string to his bow. He started out with the determination to kill the person to the law; but not succeeding very well in this, he begins to send his arrows toward the law itself. After denying its spirituality, he accuses it of being weak and unprofitable; and being apprehensive of objections, he says: “Is therefore morality gone? No; but it is not maintained in Christianity by the law.” Here he quotes Rom. 8 : 3: “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.” His idea seems to be that sin is condemned in the flesh.

He also says: “If I walk after the Spirit, I am not under the law.” He next quotes that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, patience: against such there is no law.” The fruits of the Spirit are but the spiritual effects of keeping the law, and it can with no show of reason be urged that because one walks after the Spirit, he is not under the law in the sense of being obliged to keep it.

Of Rom. 8 : 3 Mr. Barnes says, “The weakness was in the flesh, and not in the law.” By reference to Rom. 7 : 12, it can be seen that the law had its office. “It was not sin; it gave a knowledge of sin. It was holy; it was just and good; it was spiritual.” Can a perfect law be said to be weak? But “the law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. 19 : 7. It was weak through the power of sin, and the evil desires of the unregenerate heart; hence it could not accomplish the great plan of salvation without the death of Christ. According to Mr. Barnes, the words “in the flesh” have reference to the humanity of Christ, and not to the sinful nature of man. He says: “The flesh being the seat and origin of transgression, the atoning sacrifice was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that thus he might meet sin, as it were, on its own ground, and destroy it.”

The “ten words” seem to have suggested the question, “Is the law dead, or am I?” as the following indicates: “I make a difference as to the ten words, of which I will speak. God spoke them out of the midst of the fire, and added no more. They were laid up in the ark. All this made a difference, but as terms of a covenant, they are clearly set aside with the rest.” The psalmist says: “They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. 111 : 8. The Sabbath itself was given for “a perpetual covenant.” Ex. 31 : 16. It was God’s memorial. The covenant was commanded to “a thousand generations.” Ps. 105 : 8. “Thy law is the truth.” Ps. 119 : 142. “The truth of the Lord endureth

forever.” Ps. 117 : 2. The law is righteousness, and God says his righteousness shall not be abolished. Isa. 51 : 6. The decalogue is not so easily “set aside.”

Another arrow: “I keep the law de facto by not being under it de jure, because the life and spirit of Christ make me love my neighbor, and he who does this fulfills the law.” The sense of the first part of this quotation seems to be: “I keep the law, from the fact that I am not under it by law; and the reason why I thus keep it is because I love my neighbor, and thus fulfill it.” This arrow does not have effect either on the law or the Sabbath, as Matt. 22 : 37–40 teaches that there are two great commandments of the law, one enjoining love to God, and the other requiring love to man. Therefore, to carry out the designs of the law, the Sabbath must be kept, as it is a part of the duty we owe to God.

Referring to the sermon on the mount, he again speaks as follows: “It [the law] is not spoken of as an obligation, but as certain of fulfillment.” If Christ did not speak of the law as obligatory upon his hearers, why did he say, “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.”

Our author makes one more effort to get rid of the law, or to get it out of the sermon on the mount, as follows: “The sermon was given to Jewish disciples; and Christ had not died out from under it, neither had they.” Christ had not died out from under it, when he taught the lawyer the first great commandment of the law, and that the second was like unto it. Neither had he thus died when the young man came to him to know what good thing he should do to inherit eternal life, and was told by the Saviour to keep the commandments if he would enter into life. As late as the year A. D. 60, Paul had not died out from under the law, as he refers to five of the “ten words” in Rom. 13 : 9. James had not in A. D. 60. James 2 : 11. John had not in A. D. 96, as he writes the words of Christ, “Blessed are they which do his [the Father’s] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22 : 14.

(Concluded next week.)