Lesson 1 for April 5, 2014

Jesus and the Apostles lived in the 1st Century. Several kinds of laws governed the Jewish society in that time:

1. Human laws: I. Roman Law. II. Rabbinic Law. 2. Divine laws: I. Civic Law. II. Ceremonial Law. III. The Moral Law.

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. (1 Peter 2:13-14)

Both Jesus and the Apostles taught that we should obey the human civil laws (Roman Law in their case). Now, we shouldnt obey if it is in conflict with the divine Law. The Roman Empire made a very strong legal system. Most of current civilized legal systems are based on the Roman Law. The Roman Law may help us in understanding some of the stories in the New Testament. For example, the crucifixion (Mt. 27:26), Paul appealing to Caesar (Acts 25:11) or Pauls Roman citizenship (Acts 22:25)

not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. (Titus 1:14)

The Jewish people promised to keep the 613 main laws they found in the Pentateuch during the intertestamental period.

They also added innumerable rules (rabbinical laws) which were written to the Mishnh and the Midrash. The Pharisees accused Jesus of transgressing the Law when He healed on Sabbath day (John 9). But they were actually accusing Him of transgressing some of those rabbinical rules.

Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. (Malachi 4:4)

The law of Moses or the Torah comprises the first five books in the Biblethe Pentateuch. The civil laws of Israel were part of the Torah. Those laws ruled the taxes in the Temple, divorce, circumcision, the field system, protection for poor people, witnesses The Roman Empire allowed the Jews to keep using their own rules, always under the Roman Law. Therefore, the Sanhedrin could often pronounce sentence according to the civil laws in the Torah.

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscienceconcerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. (Hebrews 9:9-10)

The Ceremonial Law involves everything related to the Sanctuary and Israels religious festivals. God instituted this Law to teach His plan of Salvation. All rites and ceremonies represented the ministry of Jesus Christ. The Ceremonial Law was fulfilled in Christ, so those rules are not mandatory for the believer anymore. Nevertheless, we can better understand Jesus redeeming work by studying that Law.

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (James 2:10-11)

The Ten Commandments are the eternal Moral Law. That is the basis of all laws. Therefore, we must obey every law only if it is in accord with the Ten Commandments. Jesus told us to keep the Commandments (Mt. 19:16-19). The apostles also did (Rom. 13:8-10) Everyone must comply with the Moral Law, even if he or she is not submitted to the Roman, Rabbinic, Civil or Ceremonial Law.

He did not even then trust His precepts to the memory of a people who were prone to forget His requirements, but wrote them upon tables of stone. He would remove from Israel all possibility of mingling heathen traditions with His holy precepts, or of confounding His requirements with human ordinances or customs. But He did not stop with giving them the precepts of the Decalogue. The people had shown themselves so easily led astray that He would leave no door of temptation unguarded. Moses was commanded to write, as God should bid him, judgments and laws giving minute instruction as to what was required. These directions relating to the duty of the people to God, to one another, and to the stranger were only the principles of the Ten Commandments amplified and given in a specific manner, that none need err. They were designed to guard the sacredness of the ten precepts engraved on the tables of stone.
EGW (Patriarchs and Prophets, cp. 32, pg. 364)