Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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@ralliannWhat do you think about @ralliann's point that according to Exodus 31:16, it was specifically a covenant with Israel
If God has given instructions to Israel for how to have a relationship with Him, and if it is our goal to have a relationship with God, then we should also follow those instructions, and it would be missing the point to focus on who those instructions were given to rather than on what they teach us about who they were given by. For example, God's righteousness is eternally the same yesterday, today, and forever, so any instructions that God has ever given for how to express His righteousness are eternally valid regardless of which covenant we are under, but as part of the New Covenant, those who do not practice obedience to those instructions are not children of God (1 John 3:10). Furthermore, in Jeremiah 31:33, the New Covenant involves following the Torah, which is inclusive of God's command to keep the Sabbath holy. So when we do what is righteous or holy or express other aspects of God's nature through our obedience to the Torah, we are experiencing the nature of who God is, or in other words we are growing in a relationship with Him through gaining experiential knowledge of Him. While we are under the New Covenant and not the Mosaic Covenant, we are nevertheless still under the same God with the same nature and therefore the same instructions for how to express His nature. Non-believers who aren't under the New Covenant are still obligated to repent from doing what God's law has revealed to be sin, so there is nothing about not being under the Mosaic Covenant that means that we aren't obligated to repent from doing what God's law has revealed to be sin.
—a covenant which, according to Deuteronomy 5:2-4 was not made with Israel's fathers?
If God has made a covenant with us that he didn't make with the ancient Israelites, and the covenant that God made with us includes at least some of the same laws that were previously given in the covenant that He made with the ancient Israelites, then the fact that God made a covenant with the ancient Israelites that he hadn't made with their fathers does not establish that any of its laws were not previously given, and in fact there is much evidence of many of God's laws being followed prior to when they were given at Sinai.
For example, in Genesis 4:7, God told Cain that sin was crouching at the door and that he must master it, which implies that he already knew what sin is and that he must have been given laws in that regard. Furthermore, the penalty for committing murder is death, yet Cain was not given the death penalty, therefore he was not found guilty of murder, but rather his concern for being avenged and with him being given protection shows that he was treated in accordance with what God would command in Deuteronomy 19 for how to treat someone guilty of accidental manslaughter.
Likewise, in Genesis 7:2, Noah was told what to do with clean and unclean animals without being told how to tell the difference, and in 8:20, he knew to offer a clean animal, so he must have already been given laws in that regard. In Psalms 119:29-30, David wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, and he chose the way of faithfulness, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith. In Hebrews 11:7, Noah was listed as an example of faith, and in Genesis 6:8-9, Noah found grace in the eyes of God and he was a righteous man, so it was no on accident that what he happened to be doing what righteous, but rather God graciously taught him to obey His laws for how to do what is righteous and he was righteous because he obeyed through faith.
In Genesis 39:9, Joseph knew that it was a sin against God to commit adultery, so it would be wrong to assume that any particular law was not previously given just because it was included as part of a covenant that God made with the Israelites that He hadn't made with their fathers.
@Carl EmersonAlso, what do you think of @Carl Emerson (and @ralliann)'s argument from Hebrews 4:1-11? Does this suggest that our Sabbath rest is different from Israel's?
In Ezekiel 20:13, they did not enter into God's rest because they disobeyed God's commandments, and in specifically mentions that they profaned God's Sabbaths. In Hebrews 3-4, it is also speaking about them not entering into God's rest because they disobeyed God's commandments, so there is nothing about Hebrews 4:1-11 that should be taken as justification for not obeying God's commandments. In Hebrews 4:9, there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and in 4:11, we should strive to enter into that rest so that no one may fall away by the same sort of disobedience. In Matthew 11:28-30 and Jeremiah 6:16-19, God's law is described as the good way where we will find rest for our souls.
There are more ways to do what is in accordance or against God's righteousness than are specifically listed by God's law, but God's law is spiritual in that it has always been intended to teach us deeper spiritual principles of which the listed laws are just examples, and which are aspects of God's nature and fruits of the Spirit. For example, God's righteous laws teach us about the spiritual principle of righteousness, so if we correctly understand that spiritual principle, then it will lead us to take physical actions that are examples of that principle in accordance with what God's laws instructs even in situations where God's law does not give a specific instruction. On the other hand, correctly understand a spiritual principle will never lead us away from taking actions that are examples of that principle, so having a correct understanding of the spiritual principle behind the Sabbath is expressed through continuing to keep the 7th day holy in obedience to God's command in accordance with the example that Jesus set for us to follow. If we did on every day what God wants us to do on the Sabbath, then we would do no work, but God also wants us to work. In Exodus 20:6, God wanted His people to love Him and obey His commandments, so keeping the Sabbath holy in obedience to Exodus 20:8-11 is directly connected to how we are to express our love for Jesus.
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