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Jesus, The Bible, and You Part 2
MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
May 4, 2022
GOD’S LAW REVEALS THE EXCLUSIVELY ALL-ENCOMPASSING, INFINITELY INEXHAUSTIBLE AND UNEQUALLED POWER OF THE GODHEAD
What kind of power is this? The power of love, the power of wisdom, the power of creation, the power of redemption embodied in the comprehensive plan of redemption as taught in the sanctuary and its services, the power of His sacrificial atonement and His atoning blood shed for the remission and cleansing of sins repented of and confessed to Christ, the power of His enabling grace that is “greater than sin wherever it abounds;” the power to “overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil” in the same way Christ overcame in His incarnated human nature as “the second Adam;” the power to see the invisible by intelligent and living faith; the power to discern and understand the “deep mysteries of God” by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in His holy Word; the power to “please God” in all that we think, say, and do while yet in the sinful fallen nature and mortal state, as Enoch (the seventh patriarch from Adam) did and was translated to heaven without tasting death; the power to “fight the battle of the Lord where champions are few; the power to “do all things” that God desires and expects of us “through Christ who strengthens us;” the power to become “living epistles seems and read by all men,” and “spectacles unto the world, men, and angels” as “new creatures” in Christ Jesus” having been amazingly “transformed by the renewing of the mind,” in the midst and in spite of overwhelming odds to the contrary; the power to think, speak, and act “in the image and likeness” of Christ’s life example through His amazing, empowering grace!
Character is power and the Law is a Transcript of Christ’s Character.
“Apostle Paul did not represent either the moral [Ten Commandments] or the ceremonial law as MINISTERS [pastors, theologians, and Bible teachers in the Christian mainstream] in our day venture to do so. Some cherish such antipathy to the law of God that they will go out of their way to denounce and stigmatize it! Thus they despise and pour contempt on the MAJESTY AND GLORY OF GOD.
“The moral law was NEVER a type of a shadow. If existed BEFORE man’s creation, and will endure as long as GOD’s THRONE REMAINS. God could NOT change or alter one precept of His law in order to save [fallen] man, for THE LAW IS THE FOUNDATION OF HIS GOVERNMENT. It is UNCHANGEABLE, UNALTERABLE, INFINITE, AND ETERNAL.
“In order for man to be saved, and for the HONOR of the law to be maintained, it was necessary for the Son of God to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. ‘He who knew NO sin BECAME sin for us.’ He died for us on Calvary. His death shows the wonderful LOVE of God for man, and the IMMUTABILITY of His law!
“We all, with open face beholding as in a glass (or mirror) the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the [Holy] Spirit of the Lord’ (2 Cor. 3:18). Christ is the sinner’s advocate. Those who accept HIS GOSPEL ‘behold Him with open face.’ [Meaning] They see the RELATION of His mission [on earth] to the law, and they acknowledge God’s wisdom and glory as revealed by the Savior.
THE GLORY OF CHRIST IS REVEALED IN THE LAW, which is the transcript of His character and His TRANSFORMING EFFICACY is felt upon the soul UNTIL man become changed to His likeness! They are made ‘PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, and grow more and more like their Savior, ADVANCING step by step in CONFORMITY to the will of God till they reach PERFECTION [of moral character].
“The Law and the Gospel are in perfect harmony. Each upholds the other. In all its MAJESTY the law confronts the CONSCIENCE, causing the sinner to feel his NEED of Christ as the PROPITIATION [atonement] for his sin. The GOSPEL recognizes the POWER and immutability of the law. ‘I had not known sin, but by the law,’ Paul declares (Rom. 7:7).
The SENSE OF SIN, URGED HOME [to the conscience] BY THE LAW, DRIVES THE SINNER TO THE SAVIOR.” (E. G. White, Vol. 1 Selected Messages, pp. 239-241. Emphasis mine).
Till next week’s MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF
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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
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