July 16, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE FUNCTION OF GRACE IN THE LAW THAT GOVERNS HIS KINGDOM
“Receive, I pray thee, the Law of His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart.”
Job 22:22, A.V.
“Everything in nature, from the mote in the sunbeam, to the worlds in high, is under law. And upon obedience to these laws the order and harmony the natural world depend.
“So there are great principles of righteousness to control the life of INTELLIGENT beings, upon CONFORMITY to these principles the WELL-BEING of the universe depends.
“Before this earth was called into being, God’s law existed. Angels are governed by its principles, and in order FOR EARTH TO BE IN HARMONY WITH HEAVEN, man must also obey the divine statutes. To man (Adam and Eve) Christ made known the precepts of the law ‘when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7). [In the Bible, particularly in Revelation, stars represent angels or messengers].”
The mission of Christ in earth was not to destroy the law, but by His [empowering, enabling] grace to bring man BACK to obedience to its precepts.
“His mission was ‘to magnify the law and make it honorable’ (Isa. 42:21). He was to show the SPIRITUAL [not merely legal] of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its ETERNAL obligation. The divine beauty of the character of Christ, of whom the noblest and most gentle among men [such as Enoch, Abraham, Moses, etc.] are but a faint reflection.
“Jesus, ‘the express image of the Father’s person,’ the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love in earth WAS A LIVING REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHARACTER OF THE LAW OF GOD.
“In His life it is made manifest that heaven-born love, Christ-like principles, underlies the laws of eternal rectitude.” E.G.White, God’s Amazing Grace, 102.
God eternal is the Author and Lawgiver of His Law, not Moses. Satan hates God and has been maligning His character by misrepresenting and mischaracterizing God’s law which is the transcript of the character of the Lawgiver and Creator. This is the crux of the great controversy between Christ and Satan!
On whose side are you? NMF