Lesson 8 *May 17-23
The Law of God and the Law of Christ
Sabbath AfternoonRead for This Week's Study: Matt. 19:16-22; John 13:34-35; Gal. 6:1-5; Acts 17:31; John 5:30.
Memory Text:" "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" " (John 15:10, NKJV).
In most nations a hierarchy of laws exists. At the top are laws that come from the national government and that bind all who reside in the country. Then there are laws on the provincial level that pertain to the inhabitants of certain territories. Finally, local laws govern the smallest districts. Although each division within a country is permitted to make laws that are relevant to its constituents, none can make a law that contradicts the law of the nation. And though circumstances may dictate that a certain law be applied in different ways, the application cannot deviate from the spirit of the law.
As the Supreme Head of the universe, the Creator God has established laws for all of His creatures. When Jesus Christ voluntarily transformed Himself into human flesh, He gave Himself to a life of obedience to His Father (Phil. 2:5-11) and to His Commandments. Thus, everything that Jesus taught, the perspective that He put on the law, even the "new" commandment that He gave, was always in full harmony with the law of God.
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 24.
Sunday May 18
The Law and the Prophets
Some believe that the Ten Commandments, delivered through Moses at Sinai, were relevant only to the Israelites before the Cross and are not binding in the New Covenant era of grace. Others teach that Christians are free from the old law, but only those of Jewish heritage, and not Christians, are still expected to adhere to it. As we have seen, though the Bible does teach that the works of the law can save no one, no passage gives a person license to violate God's law. If any did, it would be a license to sin, and the Bible would blatantly contradict itself on a crucial topic.
In this context we remember that God revealed the terms of His covenant to Israel on tablets of stone that contained the law. However, the Bible contains many other commandments that cover details not found in the Decalogue. In seeking a comprehensive understanding of God's will, the rabbis counted 613 scriptural laws, which they anchored in the Ten Commandments. Jesus appears to go beyond the rabbis when He announces that He has not come to " "abolish the law or the prophets" " (Matt. 5:17, NRSV; emphasis supplied). While summarized in the Ten Commandments, the law of God contains every divine command spoken directly to or through His prophets.
Compare Matthew 19:16-22 and 22:34-40. What do these verses tell us about Jesus and the Ten Commandments?
Although there are hundreds of commandments that God has revealed in His Word, the Ten Commandments provide solid principles that can be applied to all other laws. Hence, Jesus mentioned five of the Ten Commandments when speaking to the rich young ruler. There is an even more potent summary of God's law in the commandments found in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, which is to love God and to love one's neighbor. Jesus declares, " "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" " (Matt. 22:40, NKJV). Ultimately, Jesus and His Father are united in purpose as they urge the people of God's creation to love as they have been loved, and obedience to the law is foundational to how that love is to be expressed.
What in your life shows your love for God and for your neighbor?
Monday May 19
The "Rules" of Love (John 15:10)
Scripture provides a number of examples of Jesus' fidelity to the law of God. For instance, although His words in Luke 2:49 imply that at a young age He understood His identity, when His earthly mother expressed the hurt she felt that resulted from His straying from the family, He humbly accompanied His parents home and "was obedient to them" (Luke 2:51, NIV). On another occasion, Jesus refused to bow to Satan when tempted in the wilderness because worship was reserved for God alone (Luke 4:8 ). And there are several illustrations of His Sabbath keeping (for example, Luke 4:16). Paul wrote that Jesus' entire life was based on obedience to God's will (Phil. 2:5-11), and Hebrews says that, although tempted, He never sinned (Heb. 4:15). Thus, He could say as He approached His final hours, " "I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" " (John 15:10, NKJV).
Read John 13:34-35. What did Jesus mean by saying that this was a "new" commandment?
Jesus understood that there is a relationship between commandment keeping and love. Though we're not used to talking about "rules" of love, one could say that, in a real sense, the Ten Commandments are those rules. They show us how God wants us to express our love for Him and others.
God is love (1 John 4:16), and so in presenting His commandment to His disciples (John 13:34-35), Jesus is simply amplifying the law of love that originated in His Father (John 3:16). Now, though, more than just loving each other as ourselves, we are to love as Jesus loved us.
"At the time when these words were spoken, the disciples could not understand them; but after they had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, after His crucifixion and resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer conception of the love of God and of the nature of that love which they must have for one another."-Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 547.
With today's lesson in mind, read 1 John 3:16. How can we have this kind of love in our own lives? How can we die the kind of death to self that is needed in order for us to express such love?