MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR’S NAT’S DESK:
April 27, 2022
THE LAW GIVES WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
David declared (emphasis mine: “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through Thy commandments hast made me WISER than my enemies: for they [the commandments] are ever with me. I have MORE UNDERSTANDING than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I UNDERSTAND MORE than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.”’Ps. 119: 97-100. “Thy word is a LIGHT unto my feet and a LAMP unto my path,” verse 105.
The apostle James, defined the divine law as “the perfect law of liberty” the “royal law,”’because it is the law of Christ the King of kings, Lord of lords, and God of gods.” In the gospel plan, God exalts, magnifies, and declares His law as “the LAW OF LIBERTY” (and freedom) for all sinners who are truly repentant and fully converted, have it “written in the two tables of the heart and mind” under the terms of the New Covenant (Heb. 8: 10-12; 10:16,17; Eze. 11-19,20; 36:26, 27).
As they do the will of God as defined in His law they are freed from the condemnation and guilt of transgressing the law of God (not man) that exclusively defines SIN as “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3-4). And “the wages of sin is DEATH” (Rom. 6:23). Empowered by grace unto willing, intelligent and joyful obedience to the precept and principles of the law, they are liberated from carnal bondage to the thralldom of sin, strange obsession with the “mystery of iniquity,” and the “WISDOM that descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish”(James 3:15).that invariably results in willing slavery to the master enslaver. tyrant, and deceiver, Satan, whom Christ further described as “the murderer from the beginning and the father of lies (John 8:44).
“Adam and Eve, at their creation, had a KNOWLEDGE of the law of God; they were ACQUAINTED with it’s claims upon them; ITS PRECEPTS WERE WRITTEN UPON THEIR HEARTS. When men fell by transgression the law was NOT changed, but a REMEDIAL SYSTEM was established to bring him back to OBEDIENCE.
The promise of a Savior was given [Gen.3:15] and SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS POINTING FORWARD TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST as the great sin offering were established. But had the LAW of God never been transgressed, there would have been NO DEATH, and NO NEED OF A SAVIOR.
“Adam TAUGHT his descendants the law of God, and it was handed down from father to son for successive generations. But notwithstanding the gracious provision for man’s redemption, there were FEW that accepted it and rendered obedience. By TRANSGRESSION [of God’s law of love] the world became SO VILE that it was NECESSARY to cleanse it by the FLOOD from its corruption.
The law was PRESERVED by Noah and his family, and Noah TAUGHT his descendants the Ten Commandments. As men again departed from God, the Lord chose Abraham, of whom He declared, ‘Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, MY COMMANDMENTS, MY STATUTES, AND MY LAWS.’ Gen.26:5. To him was given the RITE OF CiRCUMCISION, which was a SIGN [seal or mark] that those who received it were devoted to the service of God,—a PLEDGE that they would remain SEPARATE from idolatry, and would OBEY THE LAW OF GOD.” E. G. White, Patriarchs & Prophets, p. 363.
As long as the patriarchs faithfully preserved God’s law by obedience and instructed their descendants to do the same, the KNOWLEDGE of God, His righteous character and His plan of redemption became their WISDOM, which was far greater than the combined wisdom of the wisest men of their respective generations. The same is true, but in a cumulative degree and sense, for the faithful remnant of the final generation!
Till next week’s MWM, God willing. Bless all. NMF