“God's Law Is No Threat to Our Freedom” — another look at
the requirements of God's law, and especially the Ten Commandments — in the larger
setting of the great controversy over His character and government.
Jesus, Paul and Moses all agree that love is the fulfillment of God's law. But love and
trust — the things that God desires the most — cannot be commanded or produced
by force. Nor can they be made an obligation, something that we owe to God because He's
been so good to us. God wants more than this, and so should we! Our Heavenly Father values
nothing higher than the freedom of His family, and Jesus suffered and died to prove it.
But real freedom requires mutual love and trust that have been won and confirmed by
unquestionable evidence. This evidence is the truth that sets and keeps men free.
Then why does God seem to command our love in the Decalogue? The Ten Commandments
voiced on Sinai were another of God's emergency measures in the great controversy. But how
He longs for love, trust and willingness to listen that are entirely free from fear, force
or obligation.
This emphasis on freedom, love and trust does not minimize the requirements of God's
law. On the contrary, these are the very things the law was designed to preserve. As one
good friend of God has said, "The Ten Commandments were given so that there would be
no mistake as to the kind of people God could trust with all the privileges and freedom of
eternal life to come." Does this include the Sabbath? The Sabbath is the reminder of
the evidence of the truth, without which we never could be free.
Bible passages included:
John 14:15; 15:14. "If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments... You are My friends if you do what I command you." (RSV)
Isaiah 29:13. "The Lord said, 'These people claim to worship me,
but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is
nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.'" (GNB)
Matthew 11:28-30. "Come to me, all of you who toil and are
burdened, and I will let you rest. Let my yoke be put upon you, and learn from me, for I
am gentle and humble-minded, and your hearts will find rest, for the yoke I offer you is a
kindly one, and the load I ask you to bear is light." (Goodspeed)
1 Timothy 1:8, 9. "We know, of course, that the Law is good in
itself and has a legitimate function. Yet we also know that the Law is not really meant
for the good man, but for the man who has neither principles nor self-control..." (Phillips)
Galatians 5:13, 14, 18, 22, 23. "You, my brothers, were called to
be free... The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'... But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law... But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control." (NIV)
Deuteronomy 6:5. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength." (NIV)
Leviticus 19:17, 18. "Do not hate your brother in your heart...
But love your neighbor as yourself" (NIV)
1 Corinthians 13:4-6. "Love is patient and kind; love is not
jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it
is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the
right." (RSV)
Isaiah 58:13. "If you cease to tread the sabbath underfoot, and
keep my holy day free from your own affairs, if you call the sabbath a day of joy and the
Lord's holy day a day to be honoured, if you honour it by not plying your trade, not
seeking your own interest or attending to your own affairs, then you shall find your joy
in the Lord..." (NEB)
James 2:8, 12. "If you really keep the royal law found in
Scripture, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing right... Speak and act as those
who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom." (NIV)
Different reasons for obeying God. Which do you prefer?
- I do what I do because God has told me to, and He has the power to reward and destroy.
- I do what I do because God has told me to, and I love Him and want to please Him.
- I do what I do because I have found it to be right and sensible to do so, and I have
increasing admiration and reverence for the One who so advised and commanded me in the
days of my ignorance and immaturity. And being still somewhat ignorant and immature, I am
willing to trust and obey the One whose counsel has always proved to be so sensible, when
He commands me to do something beyond my present understanding.
A description of true obedience:
"The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation
merely - because he is required to do so — will never enter into the joy of
obedience. He does not obey... True obedience is the outworking of a principle within. It
springs from the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of all
righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer. This will lead us to do right because it is
right — because rightdoing is pleasing to God." Christ's Object Lessons,
97, 98.
©1984 Graham Maxwell
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