LET GOD BE TRUE

CHAPTER XIV

"NOT UNDER THE LAW,
BUT UNDER GRACE"

ONE of the foremost students of Theocratic law, the apostle Paul, wrote to the Christians at Rome: "Ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14) To the Hebrew Christians in general he wrote: "A previous command is set aside on account of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and there is introduced a better Hope, by means of which we can draw near to God." — Hebrews 7:18,19, Moffatt.

² To make certain whose law it was that was set aside or abolished, Paul wrote to the uncircumcised Gentile Christians at Ephesus, saying: "So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands. At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God's promise; with no hope and no God in all the world. But now through your union with Christ Jesus

you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near. For he is himself our peace. He has united the two divisions, and broken down the barrier that kept us apart, and through his human nature put an end to the feud between us [Jews and Gentiles], and ABOLISHED THE LAW with its rules and regulations, in order to make peace and create out of the two parties one new man by uniting them with himself, and to kill the feud [or the enmity] between them with his cross and in one body reconcile them both to God with it." (Ephesians 2:11-16, Goodspeed) This proves it was Jehovah's law that was annulled or abolished. — See also Colossians 2:13-17, to show further that no mere man blotted out the law of God here concerned.

³ The law that was nailed to the tree of Christ's death was the Mosaic law. It is called "the law of Moses", not because he originated it; for Moses did not do so. But it was because he was the go-between in handing over the law from God to the nation of Israel. (Exodus 34:27,28; John 1:17) The "law" being Theocratic and being given under glorious, awe-inspiring conditions at Mount Horeb, it would seem to be perpetual, everlasting, beyond recall, as eternal as its Lawgiver. So it causes many to be amazed when informed that such law was abolished and brought to an end by Jehovah, and that no creatures on earth, not

even the Jews, are any longer under it. Some religionists, fearing that such abolition of all the law covenant must produce bad moral effects, put up a strange argument. They claim two laws were given to the Jews, (1) God's law, written by Him, and (2) Moses' law, written by him. They claim the one was the moral law and the other was the ceremonial law; and that the ceremonial law was abolished, but not the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. They claim that in saying to Christians, "Ye are not under the law, but under grace," Paul meant the ceremonial law, not the Ten Commandments including the sabbath law.

⁴ Such religionists quote Jesus' words: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 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: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19) The heaven and earth here mentioned which will pass are Satan's invisible and visible organization. Jesus' words do not say that the Mosaic law could not be abolished before such Satanic "heavens and earth" are destroyed at Armageddon. Neither

was Jesus saying that the literal heavens and earth will pass away at the end of the world only after everybody alive on earth is keeping the Ten Commandments down to every jot and tittle.

⁵ Someone, however, may say, Surely by the term law Jesus meant the Ten Commandments, because in his sermon on the mount he referred to the Sixth Commandment against killing and Seventh Commandment against adultery, namely, two references. (Matthew 5: 21,27) That is true; but in the complete sermon on the mount Jesus made more references to other parts of Moses' law than to the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. He called attention to the matter of bringing gifts for the altar, to granting an immoral wife a divorce certificate, to foreswearing oneself, to "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", and to loving one's neighbor as oneself. To prove this, compare Matthew 5: 23, 24,31,33, 38, 43 with Deuteronomy 16:16, 17; 24:1; Numbers 30:2; Exodus 21:23-25; Deuteronomy 19: 21; and Leviticus 19:18. Hence by the term law Jesus meant not merely the Ten Commandments but all the rest of the law of Moses; and the Ten Commandments did not hold a place detached from the law covenant.

⁶ Therefore, instead of declaring that the law covenant, including the Decalogue, was as eternal as the literal heavens and earth, Jesus was saying this: That the law was typical and that

its types and shadows of good things to come would all find fulfillment in antitypical realities. They would be fulfilled down to the last jot and tittle before the full end would come upon the Devil's world by the destruction of its demonic "heaven" and its political, commercial, and religious "earth". Long before such wicked heavens and earth passed away, the types and shadows of the "law" would begin fulfilling, and that would mean that the law had been abolished with its types, in order to make way for the bringing in of the antitypes or realities by Christ Jesus. We are now at the end of the world and can see that the law's fulfillment began nineteen centuries ago. At that time the law was abolished by being nailed to the tree on which Jesus died as the antitypical "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world".  — John 1: 29, 36.

⁷ Jesus gave the sermon on the mount in the second year of his preaching ministry. The "law" was then still binding upon the Jews. Jesus came, not to destroy the law, but to bring about its fulfillment, starting off the antitypical realities. The scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, by means of traditions that transgressed God's commandments and made them of no effect, were the men that were destroying the law and teaching men to break the commandments. Yet those men pretended to be the greatest observers of the law and to be righteous thereby. They

claimed to be the "children of the kingdom", that is, to be in line for Messiah's kingdom. In view of their lawbreaking, hypocritical course, Jesus warned his hearers: "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20) Such righteousness must be, not by keeping the law, but by a faith in Christ. — Philippians 3:5-9.

⁸ Hence, while the law covenant was still in force over Israel, Jesus kept and taught the law and sought its fulfillment. His statement above quoted means that to be little or "least in the kingdom of heaven" as a teacher of law-breaking means not to be in the kingdom at all. No Jew should think that while the law was thus in force the way into the kingdom of heaven was by breaking and teaching others to break the law covenant. The law foreshadowed the Christian realities that were to come, and so, unless a person was in harmony with that law, he could not enter the heavenly kingdom. So, if he broke the law in the smallest regard and taught others to do the same, he would not be in the Kingdom at all, because he would be practicing and teaching lawlessness toward God. Thus seen, Jesus' statement to those Jews under the law in no wise meant that those of the "kingdom of heaven" class are still under the "law" since Jesus' death on the tree. They are not under that law, and their greatness or

their littleness is not to be measured by their degree of keeping that Mosaic law, Pharisee-fashion. — Acts 15: 5.

HOW PERPETUAL

⁹ Sabbatarians who claim that the "law" was in two parts say that only the ceremonial law was abolished but that the moral law set out in the Ten Commandments was to be perpetual and forever. They refer us to Exodus 31:16,17, regarding the Fourth of the Ten Commandments, namely: "The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." However, the use of the terms perpetual and for ever as regards the weekly sabbath cannot be interpreted to mean that the Fourth Commandment as well as the other nine was to continue to apply forever and hence mast apply to Christ's disciples. Those Ten Commandments had not always been in existence toward men, not even toward the Jews. The mediator of the law covenant with Israel, Moses, says so plainly, at Deuteronomy 5:1-21. The Ten Commandments had their beginning, not with the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob's twelve sons, but with the Israelites who were alive and present

at Mount Horeb when Moses mediated the law covenant with them. Hence if the Ten Commandments did not exist before then with regard to those forefathers, then it should arouse no fear and dismay in us if those Ten Commandments have been abolished since Christ's death.

¹⁰ The law covenant cannot be taken apart, so that a part of it could be abolished, such as the ceremonial part, and a part of it remain, such as the so-called "moral" part. James 2:10,11 makes this point clear, saying: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." So then, applying this point to the question of the perpetualness of the Ten Commandments and all the rest of the Mosaic law, what do we see? This: that if the Fourth Commandment as to the sabbath day was "for a perpetual covenant" with Israel and for a sign "for ever", then all Ten Commandments and all the Mosaic law were also for a perpetual covenant to endure as long as the Fourth Commandment. Conversely, if the rest of the covenant was abolished, then the Fourth Commandment went out with it also.

¹¹ Just how long, then, do the words perpetual and for ever, as used in Exodus 31:16,17

quoted above, mean? Not to eternity, so as to be beyond abolishment. In the Hebrew the word for perpetual is ohláhm and for for ever is l'ohláhm, and these Hebrew words are used with regard to the Jewish priesthood, the priesthood that descended from Moses' brother Aaron. Exodus 40:15 says: "Their anointing shall surely be an everlasting [ohláhm] priesthood throughout their generations." Leviticus 6:18, 22 says: "All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever [ohláhm] in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: . . . And the priest of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it: it is a statute for ever [ohláhm] unto the LORD." (See also Leviticus 25:46 for l'ohláhm as for ever.) The above laws concerning priesthood had a physical or carnal basis; that is, they required that the priests and their high priest must be descendants of Aaron according to the flesh.

¹² From the Bible's use of the words perpetual, everlasting, and for ever in connection with the Aaronic priesthood and their official duties a person might imagine that these would exist and continue in force to all eternity. Yet today the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood has disappeared and operates no more. Moreover, the apostle Paul explains that Jehovah God, who first established the Aaronic or Levitical

priesthood, abolished it and no longer recognized it after Christ's death and resurrection. Christ Jesus was made God's High Priest, not according to a "carnal commandment" or a law that recognized the flesh of Aaron the Levite, but according to a new law of God and by the sworn oath of God. Jesus' priesthood is therefore superior to Aaron's. It is according to the order or rank of Melchizedek, who was the priest-king of Salem long before the Aaronic priesthood. So Paul explains, at Hebrews 7:11-24; and we note that, at verse twelve, he says: "For when there is a change in the priesthood, a change necessarily takes place in the Law as well." (Goodspeed) Hence, when Christ offered up and presented to God his human sacrifice as God's High Priest, that former law and its Aaronic priesthood were abolished.

¹³ That means, too, that the old law covenant, of which the priesthood arrangement was a part, was abolished. Hence it means that the Ten Commandments were abolished too as a component part of that law covenant. The use of the Hebrew word ohláhm, translated perpetual, everlasting, and for ever, in connection with the Fourth Commandment, respecting the weekly sabbath, does not argue against the abolishing of the Ten Commandments any more than it argues against the abolition of the Levitical priesthood. Ohláhm (from ahlám, meaning to wrap up, hide, or conceal) simply

means indefinite or uncertain time, whether it be eternity or a limited space of time whose limit is concealed from man and unknown beforehand to man. What makes Christ's priesthood unending is his having immortality and hence the "power of an endless life". — Hebrews 7:16,24,25.

RIGHTEOUS ACTIVE FORCE IMPARTED BY GOD'S GRACE

¹⁴ We should not think, however, that the law covenant with its Ten Commandments was set aside without anything to take its place in the lives and conduct of God's consecrated people. Jesus Christ, by acting as God's High Priest in offering up his human sacrifice for sins, became the Mediator of a new covenant, a "better covenant" as compared with the old Mosaic law covenant. That old covenant with its Ten Commandments written on stone tablets did not make the Jewish nation perfect or righteous. However, under the new covenant the Christians are made righteous or justified through the Mediator Christ Jesus. His sacrifice upon which this new covenant is based really cancels or takes away sins in God's sight. The glory with which the Ten Commandments engraved on stone tablets were given did not guarantee that the covenant would not pass away at some then-unknown, indefinite time. The very glory attending that covenant was a passing glory.

¹⁵ However, the new covenant has a better Mediator, a better sacrifice, and a power for righteousness which is stronger than the Ten Commandments engraved in letters of stone. It has a glory that never fades. Its power for righteousness is God's spirit or active force. That active force makes alive, whereas the handwriting of the old law covenant showed up the Israelites as covenant-breakers, sinners, and it assigned them to death. The consecrated Christians who are under this new covenant are made its ministers or servants. They receive their qualifications for this service, not from some religious theological seminary, but from Jehovah God and by Christ. The apostle Paul shows that the law covenant with stone-engraved Ten Commandments written by God's finger was abolished and was replaced by the new covenant with its life-giving spirit, saying:

¹⁶ "My qualifications come from God, and he has further qualified me to be the minister of a new covenant — a covenant not of written law but of spirit; for the written law kills but the spirit makes alive. Now if the administration of death which was engraved in letters of stone was invested with glory — so much so, that the children of Israel could not gaze at the face of Moses on account of the dazzling glory that was fading from his face; surely the administration of the spirit must be invested with still

greater glory. If there was glory in the administration that condemned, then the administration that acquits [the ministration of righteousness] abounds far more in glory (indeed, in view of the transcendent glory, what was glorious has thus no glory at all); if what faded had its glory, then what lasts will be invested with far greater glory."

¹⁷ Then Paul shows that the power for righteousness under the new covenant is not the abolished Ten Commandments, but is God's spirit, which transforms true Christians to a Godly likeness. Paul goes on to say: "('The Lord' means the Spirit, and wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is open freedom.) But we all mirror the glory of the Lord with face unveiled, and so we are being transformed into the same likeness as himself, passing from one glory to. another — for this comes of the Lord the Spirit." — 2 Corinthians 3: 5-18, Moffatt.

¹⁸ From that standpoint we can appreciate the force of Paul's further statement: "But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law." (Galatians 5:18) The Christians are the ones being led by the spirit or active force of God in harmony with his holy Word. This fact proves that they are not under the old law covenant with its Ten Commandments, but are under the new covenant, by God's grace or favor. Under it they are being transformed by the

spirit which God's grace imparts in connection with the new covenant. They bring forth the fruits of God's spirit in their lives. (Galatians 5:13-23) There are no Ten Commandments against producing such fruitage of God's spirit. His spirit in his consecrated people is powerful enough to produce this legal fruitage of righteousness without the Ten Commandments.

¹⁹ Although not under the "law", but under God's grace, the faithful Christians still study the law covenant, and properly so. Why? Because the features of that ancient law "are a shadow of things to come" and these coming things pertain to Christ and his ministry and kingdom. Christians recognize the law as "having a shadow of good things to come", and they see Christ Jesus as "being come an high priest of good things to come". (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1; 9:11) The types and shadows of the law are an important part of God's Word of truth, and they must be studied by Christians as correctly outlining beforehand the purposes of God respecting his Christ. Paul's entire book of Hebrews is inspired proof of this fact. Therefore Christians have a right to quote portions from the old law covenant and its Ten Commandments just as much as Paul had the right to quote from the Ten Commandments as a supporting proof of what he wrote. For examples of such quotations see Ephesians 6:1-3 and Romans 13: 8-10.

²⁰ God's commandments to Christians are given in the writings of Paul and other disciples of Christ; for example, the commandment against idolatry at 1 Corinthians 10:14; Galatians 5: 20; Colossians 3:5; and 1 John 5: 21. But since the Second Commandment of the Decalogue was a shadow or preliminary pattern of this anti-idolatry requirement upon Christians, they have the right to quote the Second Commandment as supporting or corroborative proof for refusing to render idolatrous honors to men and emblems. By backing up what the apostle wrote with quotations from the Ten Commandments Paul was not arguing that Christians are under the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law. Paul was simply using those Commandments as supporting proof, that is to say, corroborative proof, of the rightness of the admonitions he was giving the Christians to conduct themselves pleasingly to God. The law covenant from which he quoted was a "shadow of good things to come", and it set the right pattern for Christian conduct in the relationship that Christians hold to God under his new covenant by Christ Jesus the Mediator. Hence the apostle Paul's statement remains uncontradicted: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." — Ephesians 2: 8, 9.