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"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do
ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other by a free
woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the
flesh, but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which
things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants;
the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Agar.... But Jerusalem which is above is free
which is the mother of us all.... Now we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
of the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith
the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the
son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the
freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free" (Gal. 4:21-31).
Some of the Galatian brethren had
become "bewitched" (3:1) through false teaching,
and believed it necessary to be circumcised and to
"keep the law of Moses." They, like their modern
brethren, "observed days" (4:10), and became
"entangled with the yoke of bondage." To them is
directed this entire Epistle of solemn warnings and
powerful arguments against the doctrine that the law
system is in force in this dispensation. Because they gave
heed to some law teachers, who "perverted the gospel
of Christ" (1:7), and in obedience to their teaching
observed law "days," etc., the apostle addressed
them, "O foolish Galatians, . . . are ye so
foolish?"
In the foregoing scripture the
apostle uses a powerful argument to show the abrogation of
the law system. This he does by an allegory. The four
principal characters in this allegory are Hagar, Ishmael,
Sarah, and Isaac. These two women, Hagar and Sarah,
represent "two covenants." Hagar represents the
covenant made or given on "Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage." Sarah represents the covenant
from Jerusalem—"the truth which came by Jesus
Christ," which makes men free. The two sons of one
father (Abraham) represent the children of the two
covenants: Ishmael, the Jews; and Isaac, the
Christians—both Jews and Gentiles.
Mark this fact, that the covenant
from Sinai is denominated a bondwoman," and all who
cling to that covenant are her "children."
"Ye that desire to be under the law." This
applies to all Saturday keepers. "Do ye not hear the
law?" What law? Answer: The "covenant, the one
from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Hagar." The Sinaitic covenant was
"bondage," and the apostle warned them to
"be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage" (chap. 5:1). "What saith the scripture
? Cast out the bondwoman and her son." Language could
not be framed to teach more clearly the abrogation of the
old covenant. "So then, brethren, we are not children
of the bondwoman, but of the free." Not under the
Sinaitic covenant, but under the new covenant of grace in
Christ Jesus. "These two covenants do not mix or
blend together in the same heart, nor in the same
dispensation." To accept Christ in his fulness is to
cast out Hagar and her Sabbath.
"But now hath he obtained a
more excellent ministry by how much also he is the
mediator of a better covenant,. which was established upon
better promises. For if that i first covenant had been
faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out
of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my
covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my
laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and
I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every
man his brother, saying. Know the Lord: for all shall know
me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A
new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away"
(Heb. 8:6-13).
Here the two covenants are clearly
contrasted. The one from Sinai is termed "the first
covenant," "old covenant,"
"faulty" covenant, which "decayeth,"
"waxeth old," and "is ready to vanish
away." That ends the old covenant, the one from
Sinai, the ten commandments, as we have proved. But the
new testament is termed the "second covenant,"
"new covenant," "better covenant,"
"not according to" the first, "written in
our minds and hearts." There is no way to evade this
plain testimony.
Paul says that God made the first
with Israel—"in the day when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt."
"Now, what covenant did God make with Israel after
their exodus? Here is a perfect answer: 'And I have set
there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the
Lord, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them
out of the land of Egypt' (1 Kings 8:21). It was that
which Moses deposited in the ark; i. e., 'the tables of
the covenant' (Heb. 9:4). And turning back to 1 Kings 8,
we read in verse 9, 'There was nothing in the ark save the
two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when
the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when
they came out of the land of Egypt.'
"So, then, Jeremiah tells us
that the former covenant was that which God made with
Israel when he took them by the hand to lead them out of
Egypt, and that was the covenant which he wrote on tables
of stone and put in the ark. There is no possible evading
the truth here.
"After quoting the very
scriptures above cited, U. Smith, in his tract on The Two
Covenants says, 'They ask us, "What can be plainer?
There was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stone,
containing the Ten Commandments: yet Solomon says that in
the ark was the covenant which the Lord made with the
fathers of his people, when he brought them out of the
land of Egypt. Therefore those commandments were the
covenant." And having established this point, they
have but to quote Paul's testimony, that the old covenant
has waxed old, and vanished away, to reach the conclusion
so long and anxiously sought, that the Ten Commandments
have been abolished, carrying with them the obnoxious
seventhday Sabbath into their eternal tomb.
"Yes, we do humbly ask in the
name of all reason, What can be plainer than the positive,
unequivocal statements of the Bible, especially where it
is emphatically and repeatedly declared that the tables of
stone were included in the covenant made with the
Israelites at Sinai when they came out of Egypt? Indeed,
were we to disbelieve all these scriptures, how could we
credit the Bible at all ? Accepting the inspired record,
it is settled forever that the first covenant included the
Decalog, which is ready to vanish away.' 'Is nigh
disappearing.'—Young's Translation.
'Abolished.'—Thomson.
"Therefore all the disputers
of the gospel of Christ, and vain janglers for the law of
Moses, are clinging to an old decayed system that in God's
order vanished away [over] nineteen hundred years ago. And
all these modern folks are as zealous as their ancient
brethren—compassing. land and sea, not to convert men to
Christ, but to puts upon them the yoke of the law, which
they themselves cannot bear. Surely this is Nehushtan—a
piece of brass.
"God directed Moses to make a
brazen serpent in the wilderness. It was all right for its
object. But 765 years. after that we find idolatrous
Israel worshipping that serpent. But King Hezekiah, we are
told, 'removed the high places, and brake the images, and
cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the
children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called
it Nehushtan' (2 Kings 18:4).
"What is the difference
between the worship of that serpent, and the worship of
those who in many cases actually make a god out of that
Sabbath, which, though it was appointed of God for a
certain purpose and time as the brazen serpent also had
its use, has passed away in the order of his will?
"Doubtless, those ancient
worshipers reasoned just as the modern ones do: 'God is
immutable, unchangeable therefore his laws are
unchangeable. But "we know that God spake to
Moses," commanding the children of Israel to look up
to this serpent; therefore we will continue to look to it
forever.' "
" Then said he, Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may
establish the second. By the which will [Testament] we are
sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all' (Heb. 10:9, 10). Praise God! The
Spirit gives us these words as a present testimony. We are
sanctified.
"Two covenants are set in
comparison all the way through this Epistle, called the
'first covenant,' and the 'second.' The former is very
commonly called 'the law.' And here we reach the same end
of the first covenant to which we have been brought time
and again in the inspired Epistles Christ himself, and not
Constantine, nor the Pope of Rome, 'took away the first'
covenant, and established the second, his own perfect law.
And with this change ends the Mosaic Sabbath.
"There are two positions upon
which the 'teachers of the law' usually shift, in order to
dodge the Word of God; namely, one time they admit that
the law, the old covenant, is abolished, but it means only
the ceremonial part; and when driven from that, they
change their position, and say, 'We are only delivered
from the law by obeying it through grace; that is,
"from the curse of the law." ' But the Word of
God emphatically declares the passing away of the whole
legal economy. The word 'testament' is defined as a
'complete arrangement, or dispensation.' So when Christ
'took away the first, that he might establish the second,'
there was a complete dispensational change of the law, the
setting up of an entirely new divine order and government.
Christ is the 'Mediator of the new testament,' which has
superseded the entire old economy, which was given to the
Israelites on Mount Sinai.
"And one small phrase, in the
midst of this inspired treatise on the abrogation of the
old covenant, and the establishing of the new by Christ,
is sufficient to prove that the apostle meant by the first
covenant, of which he so frequently speaks, just what it
was called when first given; namely, these words: 'and the
tables of the covenant (Heb. 9:4). Here the Sabbath of the
Jews, and the heresy of the Ebionites must die, being
thrust through with the 'Sword of the Spirit.' The old
covenant, which was 'ready to vanish away' (8:13), is
familiarly spoken of in connection with the tables of the
covenant. Paul was well posted in the Old Testament, and
knew very well that God 'wrote upon the tables the words
of the covenant, the Ten Commandments' (Exod. 34:28), and
had given to Moses 'the two tables of stone, even the
tables of the covenant' (Deut. 9:11). And he surely must
have known that after speaking of the old covenant
vanishing away, and then of 'the tables of the covenant,'
in the same connection, all would naturally understand him
as teaching that the covenant written on stones was
abolished."—The Sabbath.
Again, the two covenants are
contrasted in Heb 12: 18-29, as follows:
1. "Ye are not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,
nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the
sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words," etc.;
namely, when God cam' down on Mount Sinai and delivered
the law. "That which was commanded," "that
which was spoken on earth," that which is
"shaken" and "removed."
2. "Ye are come unto Mount
Zion.... The heavenly Jerusalem . . . to the general
assembly and church of the first born" ( the law
which came out of Zion, the New Testament), "new
covenant," "which speaketh better things,"
which was spoken "from heaven" (see Heb. 1:1,
2), which "cannot be shaken" and
"remains."
I quote from Canright:
"Adventists are always
dwelling upon the terrible scenes at Sinai at the giving
of the law, and pointing others there; but Paul says, No,
do not go there; but to Mount Zion, to Jesus and the new
covenant.
"So Jeremiah predicted the
rejection of the covenant in the ark, and that instead of
it, men would seek to the name of the Lord at Jerusalem
where the gospel went forth. 'In those days, saith the
Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of
the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall
they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither
shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all nations shall be
gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord' (Jer. 3:16,
17)."
'Adventists are trying to revive
the very thing the Lord said should be forgotten,
"the ark of the covenant." Their study and
worship is centered around that just as of old with the
Jews. But their effort is vain. God has said it. Since the
cross, Jesus, and Jerusalem (the church) are where all
eyes are turned, while the ark and old covenant are
forgotten.'
"Forasmuch as ye are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to
Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think
anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the
ministration of death, written and engraver in stones, was
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall
not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For
if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more
cloth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if
that which is done away was glorious, much more that which
remaineth is glorious.
"Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses,
which put a vail over his face, that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished: but their minds were blinded: for unto this
day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of
the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ"
(2 Cor. 3:3-14). Here we have the two covenants contrasted
in unmistakable language. The first is defined as
"the old testament"; "the ministration of
death," which "was glorious"; the
letter," which "killeth"; "the
ministration of condemnation"' that which "was
written and engraver in stones," which is "done
away" and "abolished." The second he terms
"the new testament"; "the spirit,"
which "giveth life" (for comments, see Rom. 8:2;
John 6:63); the "ministration of the Spirit";
the "ministration of righteousness"; the
"glory that excelleth"; that which is
"written in the fleshly tables of the heart,"
and "remaineth."
"No other testament law
teacher is sent of God. In the present dispensation, He
only makes men 'ministers of the new testament.' It is
called the 'ministration of the Spirit'; therefore no one
can receive or teach it without the gift of the Holy
Spirit, excepting in the let which 'killeth.'
"In verse 7 the ten words are
called, 'The ministration of death, written and engraver
in stones.' And thou it was declared 'glorious,' it was
'done away.' 'For that which is done away was glorious
[the law writ on stones, see verse 7], much more that
which remain, is glorious' (vs. 11). 'That which remaineth
is the n testament, of which God made Paul an 'able
minister And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face,
that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly to
i end of that which is 'abolished.' The abolished law, are
told, was given through Moses, who at the time h his face
veiled. Now turn to Exod. 34:28-33, and y will see that it
was when he came down from the mountain with the covenant
in his hands that his face shone, a was veiled.
"In verse 14 the abolished law
is plainly declared be the 'old testament.' The old
testament and the old covenant are the same thing. And
though we have se that it is strictly defined as the Ten
Commandments, these being the statute basis of the entire
old book, t whole volume is sometimes called the old
diatheke—testament.
"On verse 13 we observe, If it
were possible for any one to have always performed all
moral duty, that person would stand in the highest glory
of the law—justified. To this summit of legal glory we
are raised by the first work of gospel grace. And then
with 'open face'—having left reading Moses—beholding
the glory of the Lord in the glass of his Word, 'we are
changed into the same image [the complete image of
Christ], from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.' We are changed from glory of justification, the
highest point of legal glory, to the glory of perfect
holiness, which is the summit of gospel grace. 'By the
which will we are sanctified.' Thus the second will places
us far beyond where the first w could, even if we had kept
it. And it is also the perfect and only law by which to
live in this mount of new testment holiness.
"We can scarcely conceive how
it were possible to employ words that more explicitly
assert the abolition of that covenant which was written in
the tables of stone. If we were to admit the division of
the law into two laws, as the Adventists contend, and were
held to prove that one of those laws was abolished, we
certainly should find more abundant proof to dispose of
that written on stone than of the ceremonial part. The
reason is obvious. The former constituting the real
covenant, the statutes of that nation, to which the latter
were appended, it was only necessary to remove the statute
basis, and, of course, all the rest goes with it....And
how very specific and unmistakable this language in 2 Cor.
3. All Bible readers know that nothing but the ten
commandments were written in the stone tables, and it is
affirmed that the very thing that had been 'written and
engraver in stones' is abolished, and done away. Compare
verses 7 and 11.
"With this and similar
scriptures the law teachers have no little trouble. They
find themselves even in open hostility to the truth. What
can they do? One says to us, 'It was not the law, but
"the ministration of death", i. e., the annexed
penalty of death for its violation.' But the inspired
testimony is that it was that which was written and
engraven in stone, which was only the ten prohibitory
laws, and not the penalties of death for their violation.
So Mr. Adventist is bound by the Word of God; and the
Scriptures cannot be broken. But let us look at that
theory. Two things are set in contrast in this lesson. The
first is called, 'the ministration of death,' 'the
ministration of condemnation,' 'the old testament' (vss.
7, 9, 14). The second is called, the 'ministration of the
Spirit,' 'the ministration of righteousness,' 'the new
testament' (vss. 8, 9, 5). The former was written in
stones, the latter is received by the Spirit, which is
shed abroad in our hearts. The former is 'abolished,' 'is
done away' (vss. 13, 11). The latter is 'that which
remaineth' (vs. 11). So the old testament is done away,
and the new testament, of which Christ is mediator,
remains in force.
"But the old had a degree of
glory notwithstanding it was 'the ministration of death.'
. . . The stone laws were glorious, 'so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses
for the glory of his countenance' (vs. 7). This was when
he came down with the tables of the law in his hands. And
it is also the 'ministration of death,' because death
followed its violation. To minister, is to give;
ministration, the act of giving. In Gal. 3:21 we are told
the law could not 'have given life.' But, on the contrary,
it could give death. Therefore in it was both glory and
the ministration of death. But its glory was 'done away,'
and also the thing itself that was glorious 'is
abolished.' "—The Sabbath.
With the abolition of the Sinaitic
covenant, the seventhday Sabbath was taken away; for it
lay in the heart of the abolished covenant.
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