This question is typical of a number that have come to our office recently. There seems to be sincere confusion on this particular point expressed in numerous ways. One Baptist pastor from Michigan wrote, "While there are many commendable things in your publication, I can not conscientiously accept it as long as Seventh-day Adventists continue to adhere to the mixture of law and grace . . ." A friendly Lutheran pastor from California wrote, "It was interesting to read the article by Raoul Dederen, 'What Does God's Grace Do?' It seems rather strange that a church so legalistic as to worship on Saturday should have any thing to say about God's grace."
Are we legalists—people who ignore the central gospel truth of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? Undoubtedly the single most common misunderstanding about Seventh-day Adventists is the assumption that we teach salvation by the works of the law. Others have believed that we mix law and grace, depending partially on each for salvation.
We would be the first to admit that Seventh-day Adventists themselves have had a part to play in these misunderstandings. Too often Adventist publications and preaching have sounded legalistic because of the emphasis given to the importance of obeying God's law. When the Adventist Church arose in the mid-nineteenth century, most Christians shared a common belief in the unquestioned authority of God's law. It was natural for Adventists to place great stress on this mutual ground in presenting what they believed to be a recovery of a long-neglected truth—the seventh-day Sabbath. Yet the fact is that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has always firmly believed in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Actually, the relationship between law and grace can be clarified quickly if we answer a single question: Is the law of God (meaning the Ten Commandments) a standard of right and wrong, or is it a method of salvation? If the law is used as a method for salvation, then we fully agree with one of our readers who wrote that law and grace are as far apart as the east is from the west. But if the law is used as a standard of right and wrong, then law and grace fit together beautifully and as closely as the forefinger and thumb. A correct understanding of the relationship between law and grace will show that both are as important to spiritual life as are the heart and brain to physical life. Both are absolutely indispensable.
This brings us to consider whether God's plan for saving man was different during Old Testament times from what it was in New Testament times. In Job, one of the earliest books in Scripture, the question is asked, "How then can man be justified with God?" (chap. 25:4). From Genesis to Revelation one finds a unity of thought declaring that there can be no other provision for justification except Jesus Christ and His shed blood. The Old Testament system of sacrificial types simply pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice. Just prior to His death Jesus declared, " 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins' " (Matt. 26:28, R.S.V.). God did not institute a plan of salvation by works before the cross and then switch to a program of salvation by faith after the cross. (We trust our readers are carefully studying the articles on the sanctuary, written by Desmond Ford.) The entire sanctuary system taught the blood atonement of a coming Messiah. From the first lamb offered by Adam and Eve to the last animal slain before Christ cried out on the cross, "It is finished," the theme of the sacrificial arrangement was "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Heb. 9:22, R.S.V.). '"It is the blood that makes atonement' " (Lev. 17:11, R.S.V.) was the Lord's instruction to Moses. The relation ship between law and grace is so broad and deep that we cannot fully treat it here, but we will attempt to set forth briefly what we believe the Scriptures teach concerning this important subject.
God's plan for dealing with sin became operative as soon as transgression occurred in Eden. The explanation of that plan began immediately, as well, and progressed through the years from the simple altars of the patriarchs to the time when God gave a fuller picture in the sacrificial ritual provided for the children of Israel. Every part of the sanctuary building and services was deeply significant. Daily, the ministration of the tabernacle taught the people the great truths concerning Christ's death.
The correct relationship between law and grace was illustrated in the ark of the covenant, placed in the Holy of Holies of the Old Testament sanctuary. Inside the ark was enshrined the law of God, written by His own finger, while covering the sacred chest was the mercy seat. The two golden cherubim at each end of the mercy seat had their faces turned toward each other looking downward, signifying their respect for the holy law and the mercy seat.
Thus in the heart of the sanctuary "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 85:10). What a beautiful illustration of the relation ship between law and grace! Thus the Scriptures clearly indicate that salvation in the Old Testament was of grace through faith in a Saviour. True, many then, as now, perverted God's gracious plan into a system of earning salvation by works, but they did so contrary to the will of God. (See Isaiah 1:10-20.) Any claim that God changed His method of salvation after the cross is definitely unscriptural. One might well ask, "If man could be saved before the cross by works, why did God then change His plan to one of grace after the cross—a plan that required the suffering and death of His own Son?" Not a single scripture can be cited to show that be tween the time of Adam and John the Baptist an individual was saved by works. Whether Abraham or Amos, Paul or Peter, the sinner's right to the kingdom is based on faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Undoubtedly those living in Old Testament times did not have the great advantage of studying the atonement from a historical stance, as we do. But, though sometimes dimly perceived, God's method of salvation was still the same. Paul's declaration that God "hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4) refers to all people living before and after the cross. The precious "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8) shed His blood for every person who has lived, from the days of the first Adam until the day when the second Adam shall appear in the clouds of heaven. God is a consistent God. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb. 13:8, R.S.V.).
One major difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is in God's method of teaching the plan of salvation. Teachers may use different methods of explaining that two plus two equals four, but the answer always remains the same. So God used a "kindergarten" method of symbols and sacrifices in explaining His plan of salvation to those who had not the privilege of seeing the reality of Calvary. Naturally, this method of teaching by types and shadows ended at the cross. Since that time, God's instruction in the ways of salvation has been more direct, but His plan is still the same.
The system of ceremonies and laws dealing with the sacrifices met its fulfillment in Christ and His death. But we cannot and dare not confuse these temporary laws with the eternal moral law of Ten Commandments. The entire life of Christ on earth exalted this eternal law of His Father. It existed before the creation of earth or man, and will continue to exist as long as God Himself. Far from being a temporary shadow of things to come, the ten-commandment law is so permanent that God could not possibly alter a single sentence in order to save man. That law is the foundation of His government—His unchangeable, eternal, infinite constitution, by which the universe is governed.
How could the plan of salvation be changed? Sin and its penalty have not changed. Stealing is sin, whether a person stole in 1978 B.C. or in A.D. 1978. Interestingly, charges of legalism almost always come in reference to the fourth commandment—Sabbathkeeping. Almost never is one accused of legalism for obedience to the commandments forbid ding stealing, adultery, lying, or idol worship, in spite of the fact that one can just as easily be a legalist in these areas as in Sabbathkeeping. It should be obvious, as well, that just as one may be obedient to the commandment forbidding adultery with out being a legalist, so may one be obedient to the commandment requiring Sabbath observance without being a legalist. The real question, therefore, must be: Is the fourth commandment an integral, binding part of the eternal ten-commandment law of God? If it is, obedience is not necessarily legalism, but dis obedience is unmistakably sin.
In Old Testament times sin was tied to the violation of God's commandments. Nehemiah clearly states, "We have sinned against thee. . . . We have acted very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances" (Neh. 1:6, 7, R.S.V.). Jeremiah 44:23 connects sin with disobedience to God's law. A clear statement of what sin is can be found in the book of Leviticus: " 'If any one sins, doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done . . .' " (chap. 5:17, R.S.V.).
Coming to the New Testament, we find the definition of sin unmistakably clear. "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). "For by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (chap. 7:7). "For where no law is, there is no transgression" (chap. 4:15). "But sin is not imputed when there is no law" (chap. 5:13). "The strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56). The point is that sin cannot be defined except in terms of the law. And the violation of the law cannot be defined except as sin.
Sin, the breaking of the law, began with Adam and Eve in Eden. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Paul emphasizes the point in another passage when he claims that "all have sinned" (chap. 3:23), and because of this, "death passed upon all men," for "the wages of sin is death" (chaps. 5:12; 6:23).
The death penalty is not arbitrary. For God to remain true to His character, which, in a definite sense, is expressed in the law, He has no choice other than to invoke the death penalty upon those who rebel against His will. Otherwise His law, the entire foundational constitution of His government, would be threatened, His authority would be challenged, and ultimately the entire universe would be in as chaotic a condition as our present world. God has no choice—in order to maintain peace, liberty, and harmony throughout the universe—other than to take back His life from those whom He has created who rebel and refuse to obey His law.
Keep this point clearly in mind when you read, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith with out the deeds of the law" (chap. 3:20, 28). The reason no person can be justified by works of the law is that the penalty for transgressing the law is death, not works. A man who is sent to prison for ten years walks out a free man after serving his sentence. He has paid the penalty and now stands justified in the presence of the law. This is justification by works. But if a man has committed a crime that requires the death penalty, would he be justified by serving 10 years, 20 years, or even 50 years? No amount of works would justify him; only death would satisfy the penalty. For this reason the Christian can never be made right with God on the basis of anything that he can do.
To try to justify ourselves by our works is even worse than impossible; it tremendously reduces in our minds the enormity of sin. If there is any work that I can perform to pay for the violation of any of God's commandments, then the removal of the penalty becomes a mere human effort. The real magnitude of sin be comes apparent only in the light of its penalty—death. But even greater than my death demanded by the law to deal with my sin is the staggering fact of Jesus' death to save me. That the sinless Lamb of God would willingly come to suffer the unspeakable agonies of my guilt and voluntarily bear my sin-caused death defies comprehension, and demonstrates, as nothing else possibly can, the malignity of sin and the enduring holiness of God's law. All this is seen in the radiance streaming from the cross.
No wonder, when Paul concludes in Romans 3:28 that "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," he goes on to ask the question, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (verse 31). Paul's statement gives us deep insight into the relationship of law and grace.
Seventh-day Adventists tenaciously hold to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, while at the same time pointing out the subtle error that the cross has abolished God's law, freeing the Christian from its claims. As the apostle Paul affirms, nothing could be further from the truth.
Calvary is an eternal argument that God's law is as unchangeable as His character as unchangeable as His throne as unchangeable as His love. When our Saviour pleaded with the Father in Gethsemane to spare Him from drinking the cup of death, the only answer He received was the immutability of the sacred law. Death is the penalty for transgression. If salvation was to become reality, Christ must die, not for Himself, but for the transgressors of that law, including me. The fact that no other way could be found even by God Himself to satisfy the claims of the law is supreme proof of its eternal, unchangeable character. Would God have given His Son to die in order to redeem sinners from the penalty of the law if any other way could have been found? If God could have altered His law or its penalty, surely He would have done so! How then can we behold the sacrifice upon the cross and at the same time ridicule the law He died to uphold? The cross, rightly comprehended, leads us to a true under standing of the terribleness of sin, which is the transgression of that law. The cross causes us as sinners to cry out for faith to lay hold of the merits of Christ and to cease from breaking that law.
The thought that Christ's death brought about the end of obedience to the law is blasphemy. This is why Paul cries out, "Does faith in Christ do away with the law —God forbid, yea it establishes the law."
As Seventh-day Adventist ministers and Christians, we daily pray for power to overcome greed, thoughts of immorality, selfishness, and sin of every hue—not primarily for the harmony with Heaven this brings to us, but because of the knowledge of what our sins cost Heaven to forgive. To be canceled, our sins demand either our death or the death of our Creator.
How can Christians downgrade the law of God? Look at the center cross of the three on Mount Calvary. See the agony suffered by One who knew no sin. See Him whose tender skin as a baby was pricked with the straw in the manger now enduring the stabs of sharp thorns piercing His brow. See rough spikes, made to hold one board tightly to another, now holding human flesh against a cross, piercing His hands and feet. Watch a soldier thrust a metal spear into His side. Why? Why? Why did Christ suffer all this?
The Saviour was willing because in no other way could sin be eradicated, and sin is the one thing in all the universe that God hates. We see glimpses of the misery caused by sin, but God sees it in all its enormity. Imagine His great heart of love twisted in pain at the sight of a world filled with His children who must endure the unrelenting onslaught of sin's crippling, emaciating destruction. Watch with Him the effects of sin the widow weeping over her murdered husband, the heartaches of the lonely and forgotten, the physical and emotional scarring of the battered child, the starving mil lions, the drunkard careening his car into the bodies of innocent families. We can capture a fragment, but God has to view it all in the blinding noonday of omniscience.
Because it was unthinkable to God to allow sin to continue unchecked, and because the only way to destroy it was to accept its consequences personally, Jesus willingly went to the cross. The law demanded death for the transgressor as the only appropriate, adequate penalty. To demand less would reduce the importance of the law and permit sin to reign eternally.
It is not a question, really, of law or grace. Rather it is a question of law and grace. God's grace is based upon His law; His law forms the foundation upon which His grace is built.
Let us rejoice with all of heaven in God's free grace, which releases us from having to pay the penalty of our transgressions of His law. And let us with all of heaven rejoice that having been saved by His grace, we may freely follow His law by that same grace.
—J.R.S. and B.R.H.
