Commentary on "Victory Over Sin"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - Under the Law?

 

Overview

“Romans 6:14 is one of the key statements in the book of Romans. And it’s one we often hear, usually quoted in the context of someone telling us Adventists that the seventh-day Sabbath has been abrogated.” (Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide; July, Aug, Sept, 2010, Page 82)

 

Observations

Here is what Romans 6:14 means. If you live under grace, sin will not be your master. If you live under Law, sin will be your master. Period.

How is the 4th Commandment working for Adventists? Are any of them keeping it? I believe this portion of the lesson demonstrates that Sabbath has become an idol for Adventism. Therefore, this breaks the 1st and 2nd commandments and nullifies their argument.

In my day, we went to the hospital cafeteria on Sabbath in order not to break the law regarding working on the Sabbath, and thereby completely trashed the part that says your employees are supposed to have a day of rest, too.

Are Adventist hospitals still performing elective surgeries on Sabbath? Are the surgical residents still required to perform those surgeries as part of their training?

How many abortions are performed in Adventist hospitals and clinics? I suppose the church would counter that they never perform an abortion on Sabbath. Perhaps that’s true, but murder is murder. Again, failure on any point of the Law nullifies the arguments regarding all other points.

I still remember the conversations I had with my friends. “If it wasn’t Sabbath, I’d ask you the score of the USC-UCLA football game.” “If it wasn’t Sabbath, I’d tell you that USC is ahead by 3 points in the 2nd quarter.”

Here is what the Law says. “Thou shalt not sin.” The first commandment kills us by pointing out our tendency to define anything and everything as god instead of the one true God. The tenth commandment kills us by saying, “Not only are you not allowed to sin, you’re not even allowed to want to sin.” And Commandments 2-9 are no better. (Both Jesus and Paul used the 10th commandment to bury us, but that’s for Romans 7.)

The entire point of the Ten Commandments is to condemn us, absolutely and without question. Who do we think we are to claim to keep them!? What hubris!

Paul is not talking about the “Jewish economy as it was practiced in his day”. He is talking about Law, God’s Law.

Don’t buy the “straw man” argument regarding the abrogation of the Sabbath. The 4th commandment clearly defines Saturday as the Sabbath. And with such a clear definition to work with we should see quite easily that trying to live under that law is guaranteed to result in failure. Adventists don’t rest on the Sabbath. How can they? By definition, the Law cannot be kept by lost humans.

Yet, the Law is for the lost, not the saved. If you want to keep the Law and make the claim of your fitness for life based upon it, then you are lost.

Those of us who are saved are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Law did its work to prove our unworthiness and drive us to Jesus (Galatians 3:24-29). Jesus did His work by fulfilling the Law completely, taking away sin at the cross (see Ephesians 2:14-16) and bringing us eternal life in His resurrection. There simply is no more Law for us.

But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted (1 Timothy 1:8-11, NASB, emphasis added).

This is why Paul tells us that sin is not our master if we’re under grace.

What is grace? Here’s my definition: Grace is the empowering presence of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, enabling me to be who He has called me to be and to do those works He has prepared for me to do.

The Biblical support for this definition can be found in Philippians 2:13 (“…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”), Philippians 1:6 (“…For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”) and Ephesians 2:10 (“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”).

Note that grace is all of God. It is His initiative into our lives. We do not “cooperate” with Him in this. We accept it or reject it.

This is why salvation cannot be defined solely in terms of forgiveness. We certainly needed forgiveness, but eternal life (the indwelling Holy Spirit) is the only thing powerful enough to overcome the death that we inherited in Adam.

Jesus was so adamant regarding this issue that He redefined Law. That’s right, Jesus Himself changed the Law.

When asked by the lawyer (see Matthew 22:34ff) about the greatest commandment, Jesus gave a perfect Mosaic Covenant answer by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. In short, He confirmed the Mosaic Covenant with the Law at its center. The condensed version of these texts is: “Love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

Upper Room changed everything

However, in the Upper Room Jesus changed everything. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34, NASB). Earlier, we see this exchange: “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29, NASB).

John confirmed this in his first letter.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:21-24, NASB)

Note that it is the Spirit, grace, who makes this real. There is no mention of the Old Covenant, the Big Ten, Moses, or any other person. It is Jesus alone, ministered to us by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus fulfilled the Law by living in perfect dependence on the Father. All of its shadows point to Him. Therefore, once I have taken an honest look into the Law and seen that I am hopelessly lost, I am finally ready to come to Him for life. This is victory. Nothing else comes close.

Again, if you have the Spirit you have life. If you don’t have the Spirit, you are dead. If you have the Spirit (grace), sin is not your master. If you don’t have the Spirit, you are left with Law, and sin is your master.

I must respond to two more points. The Teacher’s portion of Tuesday’s lesson makes this analogy.

An officer arrests me (puts me under the law) when I exceed the speed limit. If I were not speeding, he would not “put me under the law.” Conversely, the fact that I am not speeding does not mean there are no speed limits. The fact that by God’s grace I am no longer under sin’s power does not mean there are no Ten Commandments. Paul never says there is no law; he simply asserts that we are not under it because, by divine power, we need not sin. Sin puts us under the law; when we stop breaking the law, we are no longer “under it.” (Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide; July, Aug, Sept, 2010, Page 85)

The actual truth is, as soon as I accepted my driver’s license from the state I was put under law. Getting a ticket, or even arrested, is only the precursor to suffering the just penalty of the law—fine or imprisonment. If I was not under law, then I could not be arrested for speeding.

An example of this is Diplomatic Immunity. If I am a foreign diplomat posted to the United States I am not subject to the laws of the United States. I may be asked to leave, but I cannot be arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced under the laws of this country.

The last sentence in the quotation above is the direct repudiation of Romans 6:14. Sin does not put us under Law. Law puts us under sin. Paul put it similarly in 1 Corinthians 15:56-56 (NASB):

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To suggest that when we stop sinning we are no longer under Law is foolish. Show me someone who has stopped sinning. There is no such person, and there never will be, especially if you require that the person is beholden to the Law. It is impossible to be both under the Law and not under the Law at the same time.

Finally, we have this statement in the last paragraph of Tuesday’s lesson:

We should not define ‘under the law’ too restrictively. The person who supposedly lives ‘under grace’ but disobeys God’s law will not find grace but condemnation (Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide; July, Aug, Sept, 2010, Page 82).

This statement purposely denies Romans 8:1ff (NASB):

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

What is “the law of sin and death”? Paul answers that in 2 Corinthians 3:7 (NASB):

But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones…” (Please read the entire passage.)

The only ministry to which he could be referring is the Ten Commandments.

The only way to get out from under condemnation is to walk away from the Law. The only place to walk is Jesus, because in Him there is no condemnation.

Such are the lies that must be perpetrated by people who are blinded by the veil of the Law (the rest of the passage in 2 Corinthians 3). Not only are they themselves hopelessly condemned, but they insist on dragging millions of people down with them.

 

Summary

1. The Adventist position on Romans 6:14 is completely wrong. Paul knew exactly the point he was trying to make, and it wasn’t “you can stop worrying about all those rules the Pharisees made up.”
2. Let the Law be the Law. Allow it to kill you and drive you to Jesus, and then be done with it.
3. The indwelling Holy Spirit will turn a condemning, negatively stated set of rules and their regulations into a positive, life-giving and life-altering joy. You will move from victory to victory rather than constantly trying to gain a victory you’ll never achieve in your own strength.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

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