Behavior, well that is a big one in the Adventist denomination. If you were raised an Adventist, you were probably taught many things about how to behave. You might have felt there were just far too many rules applied to this religion.
I find it very sad when I search the internet and come across websites devoted to bashing Adventist beliefs and almost all of them are from former SDAs which makes it even sadder.
Perhaps I'm one of the lucky one's who had parents that always explained WHY we should behave different if we love God. Maybe some of these others, or maybe even you, didn't have that example from your parents, teachers, or pastors and it left a bad taste in your mouth about being an Adventist. Well, we all have the ultimate example in the life of Christ. We need to look to Him for our example of how to behave and to learn an understanding of why it does matter. If you read the Bible, never once will you find God telling you to behave "because He said so." Rather what you find over and over is that God says, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
This quarter, our lesson study is the book of Romans. Now Romans is just full of Paul talking about the law. A few weeks ago during our Sabbath School lesson discussion which was on Romans 7, I happened to start reading Psalms 119. If you haven't read Romans and this Psalm together, try it. David show fully shows his love for God and over and over says how wonderful the commandments are. My favorite verses are 10, 11, 31-35. Then over in verse 73 you find a wonderful reference to the 4th commandment when David acknowledges God as creator who gave him understanding to learn the commandments.
I started to really think about why if all throughout the Bible we find God reminding us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, so many Christians claim it's not necessary. Are those Christians right that grace is enough and the law is no longer required? Many of them say they are "New Testament" Christians so the law is null and void. Then why do we find so many of these reminders that loving God results in keeping His commandments in the NT? 1 John is one of the most wonderful books of love and completely includes obedience to the law with that love.
If the law if void and it is unnecessary to keep the law, why did Christ have to keep it in order for His sinless life to stand in our place for salvation? Christ Himself during His earthly life quoted the scriptures of the OT. Luke 4:8 shows that during Christ's 40 days in the wilderness, His response to the temptations was "It is written, 'You shall have no other gods before me.'". Here early in His earthly life, He turns to obedience of the law to overcome satan and He quotes the 1st commandment.
Christ lived the perfect life, in full obedience to God's law, that we might have eternal life. We must accept that gift by faith, there is nothing we can do of our own. It is the grace of God that allows Christ's life to be a replacement for our own, which is where the grace comes in. Just remember that obedience is not discounted because of grace but rather as we accept that gift and fall in love with the Godhead, it is because of our love that we naturally obey.
Let's take a look at the 10 commandments and see if they reflect a character of God that simply tells us "don't, don't, don't..." or if rather each one reflects a character of love.
Take a look at the last 6 commandments and think of them in simple terms of a relationship to another person. If you love someone, do you want to kill them? Of course not. If you love your spouse, do you want to cheat on them? Of course not. If you love your best friend, do you go around telling lies about them? Of course not. You get the idea. Now go to the first 4 commandments that refer to our relationship with God. If we love God and acknowledge Him as our creator and appreciate the life He has given us, do we go looking for another god to worship or make up our own poor imitation god? Of course not. And the 4th commandment is there in the middle of the Decalogue. A call to remember to keep the Sabbath holy. When we love someone, we look forward to special time together to draw closer. God has given us a weekly gift in the Sabbath that we might dwell in His arms and rest from the cares of the world.
There are some beautiful passages about how the law reflects the love of God's character in the Desire of Ages. The whole book is wonderful, but here are some pages that relate to this subject in particular: page 20-26, 69, 89 and 106.
The next time you find yourself wondering if all this behavior stuff is really necessary, stop and ask yourself "how much do I love God?" Do I love Him enough that my nature is compelled to draw closer to the Godhead in such a way that doing what He wants is second nature, I don't have to even think about it. Just as a husband or wife who is deeply in love with their spouse doesn't have to stop and think about whether or not to lie about that person or sleep with someone else, that is the simple result of the love. Behaving in the marriage is not what creates the love, it's the other way around. I think perhaps God created the two institutions of marriage and the Sabbath in the Garden of Eden so that through marriage, humans can have a simple example of how love for another human can show us how developing a strong relationship of love with the Godhead results in the natural obedience found in truly harmony with God's character.
Finally, keep this in mind. From the very beginning of sin's entrance into the universe, satan has done everything possible to make void God's law and make created beings believe it is impossible to keep. If we seek to know God and yet say the law is void, then don't we dismiss the very love that allowed Christ to selflessly come to earth and die on our behalf? see John 3:16. Adventists fully acknowledge the work satan has done with turning Christians from Sabbath to Sunday, from creation to evolution. I believe the false teaching of grace alone with no acknowledgement of the requirement of obedience to the law out of love, is another deceit that satan has accomplished well in the Christian community.
God doesn't ask the impossible of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment