Can you cross the bridge of the Ten Commandments?

 

A parable of the bridge-climbing child

Once upon a time, there was a very sweet little child. His greatest wish was to cross a bridge over a stream, over which he had put a few planks, so that he could balance on them and reach the other side. But the plank was narrow, and it moved, and the child wobbled on it for a while and then plunged into the water. Because the bottom of the stream was very muddy, the child's clothes got muddy. He went home dirty and filthy.

At home, his mother made him promise to take care of himself and his clothes and not to go to the creek to play anymore. Then she washed his clothes, dried them and put them on the child so he could play again.

But the child just went back to the stream, because he had to cross that bridge, he would not rest until he crossed it. Of course he fell in again, his clothes got just as muddy. Then he went home cheerfully, and told his mother that he had almost crossed it, and that he was only a little short of crossing it.

Her mum washed her clothes again and sent her out to play, telling her that she really shouldn't go in the stream now, because if she fell in again she would be angry with her.

How could she not, the child just went back to the creek and thought, I'll be more careful now and I'm sure I won't fall in. But he barely took a few steps before he fell in again and got his clothes all dirty.

At home, his mum got really angry and went out to the stream and pushed the boards into the water. She washed the child's clothes and then told him he couldn't go out to play for three days because of what he had done and he wouldn't listen.

As the third day passed, the child decided he would cross that creek anyway, come hell or high water. He got more planks, put them across the stream again and tried again. Of course, the plank slipped out from under him again, and he fell into the water.

Muddy-dirty with great difficulty he rolled home, but at home he began to boast that he was very close to a successful crossing, that his mother would be proud of him for trying again. And it wasn't her fault if she failed.

His mum was very upset and hammered him hard about how disobedient and bad the child was, not obeying and even bragging about the stunt he could pull. And the child said back to her - "you are a laundress anyway, it doesn't matter what kind of clothes you wash, you have the washing in your blood".

His mother then slapped him across the face for his impertinent and vicious response, in a show of disobedience. And the child grimaced and threatened to tell the world what a bad mother she had, who forbade her from doing anything and wouldn't let her have her way.

A real life example of the story

You'd think a story like this would only happen in a fairy tale, but it's not true, because it exists in real life. About 20 million professing Christians, Seventh-day Adventists and a few million other believers, profess that there is a bridge called the Ten Commandments that they can and do cross. But it's not just their duty, it's the duty of every person in the whole world. Because the Ten Commandments are an eternal moral law for humanity, a law like gravity in the universe.

The Ten Commandments were given to mankind as a guide by God, to be an eternal moral standard for him to follow, so that if he follows it, he will do really well.

Except that the Bible says that because man is a creature of essentially depraved nature, the law requires him to behave in a way that is contrary to the desires of his heart, and therefore

instead of abolishing it, it incites and stimulates sin. The law prescribes things that must not be done, and the utterance of these things incites sinful desires. So we read:

Romans 7:9-11 I once lived without the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin came to life in me, and I died, and the commandment that promised life became my death. For sin took advantage of the opportunity given by the commandment, deceived me, and killed me by it.

The Apostle Paul describes a situation before the time of Moses, when there was no written law given by God, mankind had to live by the law of conscience. Then when the Jews received the law of the commandments in the book of commandments through Moses, all 613 laws, it included, among other things, DO NOT DESIRE /like the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden/, which Eve found desirable, as she was forbidden to eat from it.

This law then, while directing people towards good, to live a life pleasing to God, also condemned them, cursed them, declared them disobedient sinners. Why was this necessary? Because the purpose of the law was to make a man aware of his sinful condition /that his clothes were dirty/, from which he could not get rid of himself. This is what we read:

Romans 3:19-20; 11:32 Now we know that what the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silent, and the whole world may come under the judgment of God. For by the works of the law no one is justified before it, for the law is only for the recognition of sin... For God has put all under disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

We can see that the law was not given to justify men, but on the contrary, to make men aware that they are sinners /under disobedience/ and as such are subject to God's judgment for their sins. The law did not justify them, nor did it give them power.

[The question arises, which law has not adjusted them? Answer: neither the Ten Commandments nor the other laws of Moses justified anyone. . Another question:

Hebrews 10:1 As in the law there is a shadow of the good things to come, not the image of things themselves,

In which law? In the same way that the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses /613/ together are the law in which the shadow of the good things to come is found.

Therefore, I would advise everyone not to tamper too much with the paragraphs of the law by arbitrarily picking them apart, because then you will make your own Christian career completely redundant by even entering the race!]

So there is already a huge difference in the Adventist reading of the purpose of the law, for they profess that it was given by God specifically /from the time of the Garden of Eden/ to be an eternal moral compass. Whereas its real purpose was to make man realise his sinfulness and lead him to Christ /as a child's muddy clothes to his mother to be washed for him/.

With these words John the Baptist introduced Christ to Israel:

"Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

By likening Christ to the sacrificial lamb, the people of Israel were led to see in Christ the One foretold by all the sacrificial provisions of the law.

This purpose of the law is summed up by the apostle Paul in his words in Galatians:

"But the Scripture hath made all under sin, that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were under the law, being kept under the law, being kept unto faith which shall be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Gal 3:22-24)

What saves a man from sin is the blood of Christ, in which, if a man believes /and lives according to the biblical requirements/, he can be cleansed by it. Figuratively speaking, his clothes will be washed. We read:

Acts 22:16 What delay now? Get up, be baptized, and in the name of the Lord wash away your sins.

1Kor 6:11 Now some of you were like this, but you have been washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Revelation 7:14 These are they who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes, and whitened their garments in the blood of the Lamb.

In order that man might no longer muddy himself, the symbolic bridge /the law with the ten commandments in it/ was removed by Christ in His death /as the mother threw the boards into the brook/, so that it would not again give a basis for sinning. So we read:

Ephesians 2:14-16 For he is our peace, who hath made the two one, and hath cast down the dividing wall, the enmity in his flesh. He has abolished the law of the commandments, so that by making peace he might create the two into one new man in himself. He reconciled them both to God in one flesh through the cross, killing the enmity between them;

Col 2:13-14 And you, being dead in trespasses and uncircumcision of the flesh, he has made alive with him, and has forgiven us all our sins. He has blotted out the record of his decrees against us, has put us out of the way, and has sent us to the cross.

In other words, the law that condemned man to the death of the curse for disobedience was annulled by Christ, and thus opened the way for people from non-Jewish nations to form a spiritual brotherhood with believers of Jewish descent in the church of Christ.

Thus we read:

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Ephesians 2:18-19 For by him we both have a free access in one Spirit to the Father.

Wherefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God

Henceforth, what binds Christians is no longer the written letter of the law itself /which condemned to death/, but what was behind the law, divine grace, which provides another means for obedient living.

Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible for the law, being made powerless because of the flesh, God did when, because of sin, he sent his Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

Romans 13:8-10 Owe nothing to anyone, but only to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For this: Thou shalt not commit fornication, nor kill, nor steal, nor covet - and if there is any other commandment - is summed up in this verse, Love your neighbour as yourself. Love does no wrong to your neighbor. So the fulfillment of the law is love.

Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in this one word: Love your neighbour as yourself.

So, because of the inertia of the human flesh, the Ten Commandments in the context of the entire Law of Moses were powerless to lead to obedience, God gave the Christian royal law of love, so that the righteousness /requirement/ of the law might be fulfilled in believers.

So, because of the inertia of the human body, the Ten Commandments in the context of the entire Law of Moses were powerless to lead to obedience, God gave the Christian royal law of love to fulfill the righteousness of the law /its requirement/ in believers.

Gal 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

1Co 9:21 To those without the law, to those without the law, though I am not without the law of God, but am under the law of Christ, that I might gain those without the law.

Jas 2:8; 2:12 But if you keep the royal law according to the Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing what is right... Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty

Clearly, it is this bridge of the law that must be crossed, not the bridge of the Ten Commandments!

Romans 4:15 For the law provokes wrath: but where there is no law, there is no action against the law.

Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. There is no law against such things.

If a man lives according to the royal law of love, which is written in his heart by the holy Spirit of God, he need not keep the paragraphs of the law of Moses to prove his faith in Christ, for his obedience to the commandments of Christ, which is the result of love, clearly justifies him as a believer who has obtained grace in Christ.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

1John 5:2-3 We know that we love the children of God by loving God and keeping his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not hard.

We have washed our token robes, we practice a loving way of life, and by following Christ's exemplary way of life we can have hope of obtaining eternal life.

Back under the law?

But not so, say Adventists, for the Ten Commandments are to be kept, they have not been abolished as an eternal moral law, but by keeping them we show our obedience that we belong to God. God gives us the strength to fulfil it, as Christ fulfilled it.

Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but rather to fulfill.

Except that this refers to the claims and prophecies, not to the imitation of Christ.

Luk 124:44 This is what I told you while I was still with you, that all that was written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Well, here's a huge twist in the story, because they are doing exactly what the child in the parable did, putting the planks back on the stream he wanted to cross again. But he fell in again and got his clothes all dirty. He said that his mother was washing it, because she was always doing the laundry, and all she did all day was clean the clothes, because that was her job.

But let no one confuse Christ with a laundress, for it is very easy to fall from the state of grace /wearing clean clothes/ that we have received through Christ, if one wants to cross the bridge again, from which one has fallen several times and has soiled one's clothes. For what do we read in Paul's writing?

Galatians 5:1-8 Therefore stand fast in the freedom to which Christ has set us free, and do not allow yourselves to be caught again in the yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ is of no use to you. Again, therefore, I testify to everyone who is circumcised that he is bound to keep the whole law. You who seek to be justified by the law have fallen away from Christ and have fallen from grace. For by the Spirit we wait by faith for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working by love. You have run well, who is it that prevents you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

Adventists claim that they do not want to be justified by the Ten Commandments, only to prove their righteousness by how obedient they are. Meanwhile, they are absolutely disobedient because they are unable to keep the law without error, which is not possible for any man of depraved nature, even if he has the holy spirit of God, exposed to the possibility of sinning/breaking the law. How do we know this? Read the relevant part of the Bible:

James 3:2 For we all sin in many ways. If anyone does not sin in speech, he is a perfect man, able to restrain his whole body.

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin in us, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, the righteous Jesus Christ.

This means that although man has set his affections on the tree and tries to live by the law of love, his basic nature is sinful and he must constantly fight against it, and no man, including Adventists, is exempt from this!

James 4:5; 5:14-15 Or do you think it is in vain that the Scripture says, "The spirit that dwells in us lusts after envy"? ... Is there any sick among you? Call the elders of the church to him, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And prayer in faith will save the sick, and the Lord will help him. And if he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

As the illustration shows, if the Adventist goes back under the law /or does not come out from under it/ because he believes his obedience is justified by his keeping the Ten Commandments, which will seal him as one of God's people, and thus make his keeping them a condition of salvation /on which his salvation depends, whether he obeys the Ten Commandments or not is made dependent upon it/, then he must thereby keep without fault not only the Ten Commandments but the whole Law of Moses, which contains 613 commandments, even the commandment of imputation, as we read:

Jas 2:8-12 But if you are a picker of persons, you have sinned, and the law will condemn you as transgressors. For if a man keep the whole law, but sin against one, he shall be guilty of the whole. For he who said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," said also, "Thou shalt not kill." And if thou commit not fornication, but kill, thou art a transgressor. Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

And if he breaks the commandment Thou shalt not covet, he breaks every other commandment, and if he breaks the law, the law will curse him as one who disobeys the law!

Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed is he who does not keep the words of this law to do them! And all the people shall say, Amen!

Gal 3:10 For those who trust in the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not keep all that is written in the book of the law, to do it. Now that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the righteous man lives by faith. Now the law is not by faith, but he that doeth them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree.

The Adventist is cursed if he does not keep the whole law of Moses! And if he artificially carves the Ten Commandments out of the Law of Moses, so that he thinks it does not belong to him, because it was in force from the time of the Garden of Eden, he is still cursed by the Law if he does not keep it. And since man is prone to sin, this also precludes him from keeping it without fault.

It is a cheap credulity that the blood of Christ will wash him if he sins against the Ten Commandments, for Christ is not a washerwoman to wash the clothes that have been soiled over and over again without ceasing.

Such is Catholicism that the redemption of Christ is a continual event and is not yet finished, therefore the redemption for sins continually committed is also a continual event. Therefore, they then confuse the practice of sin with temporary/incidental sinning, which is absolutely not the same thing.

The transgression of Adventism is a continual transgression, like a child's continual falling in the water and getting his clothes all dirty. Once it has been washed, let no man journey to find that his constant self-infliction is equally wiped away by the blood of Christ. Paul justifies this:

Galatians 4:9-11 But now that you have come to know God, and even that God has come to know you, how is it that you return again to the weak and feeble elements, which you are again seeking to serve? You keep the days and the months and the times and the years.

I fear for you that I have labored in vain around you.

This cannot be avoided by saying that the Ten Commandments were not part of the Law of Moses, because they were valid before Moses, and were given for the purpose of showing man the pure moral way.

We have seen before that it demanded conduct contrary to the desires of the fallen human heart, and because of this condemnation it necessitated the Saviour to whom it led the Jews condemned by the law.

Those who were condemned by the Law were the ones who received it, so clearly the people of Israel, the Gentiles were not condemned by God for breaking the Law that they had not received in writing. Instead they received it in their conscience, which is why the wicked world before Moses was condemned.

Neh 9:13-14 Then you came down to Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them right decrees, righteous laws, good ordinances and commandments. You also made known to them the holy day of your rest, and gave them commandments, statutes and laws by your servant Moses.

Psalm 147:19-20 He communicates his words to Jacob, his laws and his statutes to Israel. He does not do so to any nation; neither does he make his decrees known to them. Praise the Lord.

Amos 3:2 I have chosen you only for myself from among all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

What Adventists, and all who stand for the Ten Commandments and the 24-hour mandatory Sabbath observance, can do is to keep without fail not only the Ten Commandments, but all the Laws of Moses, because

Jak 2:1 For if a man keep the whole law, and transgress one thing, he shall be guilty of the whole.

There remains therefore only one way for them, the way of salvation by the law, if they keep it without fault, for then they will be justified by the salvation that comes from keeping the law:

Gal 3:12 Now the law is not by faith, but he who does them will live by them.

Romans 4:4 To him that worketh, the wages are not counted for grace, but according to the debt due.

Will they succeed in this way to salvation? Hardly, they will only deserve damnation:

Gal 3:10; Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

All are cursed without exception. Except they that have washed and whitened their robes in the blood of the lamb. Provided he does not crawl back to his condemned state under the law, all messed up and all over himself. Saying, Jesus will wash it, the Jesus who is like the washerwoman, just washing without stopping.

If this were true, that cleansing by washing is as continuous as an assembly line, then maybe, but it is not! Proof of this is that one can fall from the grace provided by Christ's one-time sacrifice.

Just not for those who measure the credibility of their faith by keeping the law. It is very untrustworthy indeed! It is credible to those who keep and abide in the law of Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. There is no law against such things.

Has anyone ever read that the fruit of the Spirit is keeping the Ten Commandments, even superficially, erroneously, apparently? I have not read it. Then the salvation of such is also in direct proportion to this, superficial, defective, apparent.

On the contrary, it is the pledge of salvation, which in turn must be taken very seriously:

Galatians 4:24-25 These are another example: for they [the] [women] are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, born to slavery, this is Hagar, But the high Jerusalem is free, this is the mother of us all.

Gal 5:1 Therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, stand fast, and be not bound again with the yoke of bondage.

++++++++++

If you have Adventist friends, send them the link.

Jude 1:20-23 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, be strong in the love of God, looking for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. And have mercy on some, discerning them. But save others with fear, snatching them out of the fire, and abhorring even the garment which the flesh has defiled.