Commentary on "Preparing a People"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 6: Thursday, October 8, 2009

 

Overview

“Here is clear evidence that Old Testament religion was all of grace.”

“How have you experienced the blessings listed above in your own life? What things might you be doing that are making it difficult to see these things realized in your walk with God? What changes, no matter how painful, must you make?”

 

Problems

Where else but in an SDA quarterly could you find two equal and opposite statements, one right after the other? After making a ringing endorsement of grace, the author smashes it to pieces by asking glaringly legalistic questions.

This happens because neither the Law nor grace are understood. In fact, they regularly are treated as one and the same.

Notice again the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In this prayer the priests invoke God’s blessings on the people. Why? Here are God’s own words: “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:27).

All of the blessings invoked and God’s explanation of why it should be so are indicative of a relationship characterized by the God “out there” revealing Himself to His chosen people.

Here are some New Covenant contrasts.

“ ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

“…Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).

The are many, many more verses I could insert. Do you see the difference? The Old Covenant was about the God “out there” revealing Himself to His chosen people. The New Covenant is about the God “in here” Who reveals Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.

This God “in here” was made possible by the Christ Event, because it is only Jesus’ total victory over sin and death that enables this altogether new intimacy with God, intimacy that Israel could not experience. But not really new. We have had restored in us what Adam lost when he rejected God.

 

Summary

1. This is another clear indication that Adventism does not understand the differences between the Old and New Covenants.
2. The Old Covenant was characterized by a God “out there” Who miraculously revealed Himself to a chosen people.
3. The New Covenant is characterized by a God “in here” Who restores in us what we lost in Adam.

 

GO TO DAY 7

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised September 29, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 2

Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 2

Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Week 2

Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings