Seventh-Day Adventists claim Christians have to follow the Old Testament law, but we firmly believe this is not the case for Christians. In the church age, our current times, we are no longer bound by the law. One of their mistakes is they take every instance of the words “commandment” and “obey” in the Bible as referring to the Old Testament law. That is not true.
1 John 3:4: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Commandment and law in the Old Testament refer to the physical, and for Christians, it refers to the spiritual because we are free from the flesh. Jews are a physical nation. Christians are a spiritual nation. The Jews had to do many physical works to maintain their salvation, but we have salvation through faith. The Holy Spirit overrides the Old Testament law.
Evidence that the Spirit cancels the law
Galatians 5:1,4,13,18: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”
Christ made Christians free from bondage, which is the law. Christians are called to liberty and freedom (Spirit). If one follows the Spirit, it overrides the law.
Romans 7:6: “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.”
The Spirit cancels Christians from the law. They now live by the Spirit instead of the law. With this comes boundless freedom.
Let’s look at a few more verses that clearly show our freedom from the law:
Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
The law of the Spirit cancels the physical works of the law. However, we still observe the spiritual works of the law, e.g. worshipping God only, etc.
2 Corinthians 3:7-15: “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.”
The ministration of death is the ten commandments since it’s graven in stone. It is considered to be glorious; there’s nothing evil about the commandments. However, this glory was predicted to be done away because there is a ministration of righteousness that is more glorious. That is the Holy Spirit.
What Moses had was abolished (verse 13). Verse 14 says that their (Seventh-day Adventist) minds are so blinded that they cannot see the veil in front of their eyes. A Christian must be able to see that they have been saved by Christ and the Old testament is abolished.
The Spirit, not the law, guides us! Christ has fulfilled the requirements of the law on our behalf, thus giving us new life. This is the core message of our faith.