This same individual wrote:
"As one who has faith in Christ alone for my salvation (unlike those who rely on their lawkeeping), I am not under the Law (Galatians 3:23-25). Even EGW said that the law being discussed in Galatians 3 is the ten commandments (Selected Messages, Book 1, page 3, paragraph 1)."
You say you have "faith in Christ alone" for your salvation. That's fine. But do you REALLY KNOW what that means? Are you sure? You say you are not under the Law and give Galatians 3:23-25, I assume, as your proof texts. Let's see what these texts of Scripture say:
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which soon afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Galatians 3:23-25.
The Bible says in vs. 24 that the law was our schoolmaster which was given to bring us to Christ. What does that mean?
"...Israel was kept 'under the law' (v. 23) until God's provision for salvation by faith should be 'revealed' with the coming of Christ" (SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, p. 961).
In verse 23, the terms "schoolmaster" is translated from the Greek, paidagogus, which means "tutor," or "guardian of children." Therefore, "the law served as the guardian, supervisor, or custodian of the chosen people in OT times, and, like the paidagogus [schoolmaster], was charged with their moral training" (Ibid.)
Verses 25 and 26 tell us that, now that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (under the law), for we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And that is true. Now that salvation has been revealed by way of THE LIVING EXAMPLE of Jesus Christ to demonstrate how we are saved, we are no longer under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14). In Romans 6:14, Paul's point is that "Christians are not under law as a way of salvation, but under grace. Law cannot save a sinner, nor can law put an end to sin and its dominion. Law reveals sin (ch. 3:20).... Law cannot forgive sin, nor can law provide any power to overcome it..." ().
SIN CAN BE OVERCOME AND FORGIVEN ONLY THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!!! Not in our futile attempt at lawkeeping. BUT WAIT A MINUTE:
"Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.
This is why the writer and others need to be very careful when they talk about salvation through Jesus Christ "alone." Romans 3:31 makes it VERY CLEAR that we DO NOT do away with God's Law through faith in Christ. Faith in Jesus IS NOT a license to now live as one pleases without regard for God's Law. Jesus came to MAGNIFY God Law and to make It honorable (Isa. 42:21). To magnify means to bring it out, or MAKE IT CLEARER. And that is precisely what He did by way of the life He lived on this earth. HE IS OUR LIVING EXAMPLE as to how we should live, if we expect to be saved.
I hope no one misses this very vital point: Jesus said in His Word that He has kept His Father's Commandments (John 15:10). If Jesus kept God's Commandments, and true Christians are followers of Christ, IT IS THEREFORE IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to be saved who does not do likewise.
The law being discussed in Galatians 3 does include the Decalogue, but the writer made an error in his assumption (and in his reference). This is what Ellen G. White has to say with regard to the relationship of righteousness by faith and the Law of God:
"Holding up Christ as our only source of strength, presenting His matchless love in having the guilt of the sins of men charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity. Rather, it places it where the correct light shines upon and glorifies it. This is done only through the light reflected from the cross of Calvary. The law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation, only as it is presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour. This can be only spiritually discerned. It kindles in the heart of the beholder ardent faith, hope, and joy that Christ is his righteousness. This joy is only for those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God." (3SM 176-7).
M.A.