The Sabbath

and the Lord's Day

The Abolition of the Law

"THE LAW" IS ABOLISHED, ENDING AT THE CROSS

the date, then, when the law expired. There was no necessity to destroy it in order to make it null and void; for its limit ended when it was fulfilled in Christ, and of necessity it became dead. This shows the utter fallacy of the Seventh day Adventists' position. Christ fulfilled the law, and it passed away after having served its purpose.

  "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances" (Eph. 2 :15). The law was a partition wall between the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ broke down this wall, by abolishing "the law of commandments," around which clustered all the ordinances and ceremonies of the Old Testament. This was done "that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby" (vs. 16). The date of the abolition of the law is placed at the cross. "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days" (Col. 2:14 16). That which was nailed to the cross included the Sabbath. The whole system ended at the cross. Since that, "if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (vs. 4). This applies forcibly to all Saturday keepers.

  "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should brine forth fruit unto God [76]

  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:1 4, 6). Here is a plain lesson. Who can misunderstand it? Paul uses the law of matrimony to teach the abolition of the Mosaic system. That first husband was "the law"; the wife was the church—Israel. But the first husband died; viz., the law was abolished. It was "nailed to the cross," then buried. In recent years the Sabbatarians hunted its grave, and dug it up. All they found was the skeleton. This they stood up, but it fell down. So they have invented many props by which they expect to keep it standing. But by the eternal truth their props must fall and their idolized, decayed system of abolished "shadows"— the law—be buried in the same grave in which Jesus laid it nineteen hundred years ago.

  Ye are become "dead to the law," and are now married to Christ. He is the second husband. Sabbatarians are married to the law, while ours is alive forevermore. They cling to a ghostly shadow, while we enjoy the substance. They are under the "ministration of death," while we cling to the "law of life." They wear the "yoke of bondage," while we rejoice in the "law of liberty." Their glory is "done away," while ours "remains." While Moses is read "the vail is on their hearts," but with us this vail is "done away in Christ." They cling to the law, while we cleave to the gospel. They grope in the smoke of Sinai, while we stand in the light of Zion. O Adventist friend, forsake your system, and accept the truth, which will make you free. [77]

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