Hi mike,
Perhaps it has something to do with some of what the Scriptures seem to teach us. There was a time when the 'church' was beginning to grow that a group of Jews and some of the new believers got into a discussion about what the new believers needed to do to be right in God's sight. The Jews, of course, were claiming that the new believers needed to be circumcised. Paul, along with some of the apostles went to Jerusalem and there was a council called where the issue was discussed and the final outcome was that the new believers were merely instructed to not eat certain meat and to abstain from idols. That's it! Paul then later wrote that keeping the law wasn't going to save anyone and was never intended to save anyone. The law was merely given that we would be convicted of our sin and understand our individual need for a Savior. Then Jesus himself said that loving God and loving others would fulfill all of the law and the prophets.
Hello,
In Acts 15:1, the issue being discussed was whether Gentiles had to become circumcised in order to become saved, so please either quote from where God's Law requires all Gentile to do this or agree that the Law does not contain that requirement. If you agree, then please explain why a ruling against requiring Gentiles to do something that the Law doesn't require should be taken as a ruling against Gentiles doing what the Law requires. While all Jews were required to become circumcised, not even Jews were required to do so in order to become saved. If you agree that the Law was given to reveal what sin is and you agree that we are required to refrain from what God has revealed to be sin, then you should agree that we are required to obey all of God's commands, not just four of them. For example, Paul said that he would not have known that coveting was a sin if it weren't for the Law (Romans 7:7), but the four laws listed in Acts 15:19-21 don't contain that prohibition, so do you think that the four laws are it or that we are also required to refrain from coveting and from doing everything else that the Law reveals to be sin? Rather, as stated, those four laws were intended not to make things difficult for new believers coming to faith, with the understanding that they would continue to learn about what would be required of them by hearing Moses taught every Sabbath in the synagogues, so this was never intended as an exhaustive list of everything that would be required of mature believers.
So, I think it good to understand that our keeping the law, while it is certainly not a bad thing, is not going to save us and never was going to save Israel either.
I completely agree, but it does not follow that because we are not required to obey the Law for a purpose for which it was never given that therefore we aren't required to obey the Law for the many purposes for which it was given. The one and only way that there has ever been to become saved is by grace through faith and by the same grace through the same faith we are therefore required to be careful to obey all of God's commands.
Secondly, I believe that there needs to be some understanding of just why God raised up a nation of people from the loins of Abraham. He gave them quite a few laws to follow, but even when He gave them the law, He never claimed that keeping it would gain anyone eternal salvation. We read in the books of the law that God made several promises to Israel concerning their keeping the law. All of those promises spoke of how God would see to it that they would have a good life here on the earth. Their crops would flourish, their women would be fertile and they would all have good health and their enemies would flee before them. Absolutely not one single word that keeping the law would gain them anything beyond their earthly deaths.
Again, I agree that the law was never given as instructions for how to gain eternal salvation. God did not require the Israelites to obey His Law before he would save them out of bondage in Egypt, but rather he saved them by faith first, then gave them instructions for how they should therefore live, so the Law is God's instructions for how those who have been saved are required to act. Israel was intended to be a light to the nations, to teach them about God and how to walk in His ways in accordance with His Law, and to thereby grow in a relationship with Him (Isaiah 2:2-3, Isaiah 49:6, Deuteronomy 4:5-8). Prosperity is the byproduct of the goal of the Law, not the goal itself because the goal of the Law is a relationship with Christ righteousness for everyone who has faith (Romans 10:4). There are many other verse that speak about the Mosaic Law as God's instructions for how to walk in His ways, such as Joshua 22:5, 1 Kings 2:1-3, and Psalms 103:1-8, so the goal is to teach us how to reflect the attributes of God and to thereby grow in a relationship with Him based on faith and love.
Finally, we see that Jesus explained that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was God's way of telling Israel that there was more to life than working themselves to death. That the human creature that God had created in man needed rest from time to time.
So the Sabbath is a precious gift made for us and given to us by God. It's about setting aside time to spend with Him and to grow in a relationship with Him as a community of believers. Should we spurn this priceless gift?
So, if your conscience prompts you to keep a Sabbath day, then I would encourage you to do that. But, if you believe that by keeping the law you will gain eternal life, then I'd encourage you to spend more time understanding what Jesus has done for you. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Love others as yourself and things will go well with you. For in so doing you will have kept all of the law and the prophets.
God bless you,
In Christ, ted
We should obey God's commands regardless of whether or conscience prompts us to. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus summarized the Law as being God's instructions for how He wants us to love Him and our neighbor, so love fulfills the Law because that is essentially what it is about how to do. However, it would be a mistake for someone to say that we should need to love so we can therefore disregard all of God's instructions for how He wants us to love.