The issue of salvation “by grace through faith” and “not of works” (Ephesians 2:8) has challenged people, who find themselves on either side of the fence. The issue, simply, arises from the nature of the apostle Paul’s writings which, as the apostle Peter admitted, contains “some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

Thus the divide between those who believe and teach that salvation is by grace alone — without works — and those who believe and teach that salvation is by grace — plus works.

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There’s a common understanding and belief that, for Christians, who we are in Christ is more important than what we do. That all that matters is that, in Christ, we are forgiven; what we do after that is less important, if not unnecessary. That any “works” we try to “add” would actually detract from the “finished work” of Christ at Calvary. [See: Law Added to Law Transgressed, Freed From Bondage,  God’s Spirit and Obedience and  Saved for Good Works.]

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Almost a year ago my wife and I had our first-ever opportunity to visit the Great Wall of China, in the outskirts of that great nation’s capital, Beijing. Like most everyone who’s been there, we came away with great awe at the marvel of the massive and extensive engineering work done by these ingenious people long, long before the time we call “the modern age.”

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“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NKJV)

Many well-intentioned people, over the last centuries, have braved adverse terrain and climate, hostile races, lack of funds — even at the peril of health and life — in order to fulfill “the Great Commission” as Jesus declared it in Matthew 28:18-20 and elsewhere in the New Testament.

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In Acts 3:11-26 we have a narrative about the apostle Peter’s encounter with the crowd of Jews who had seen an undeniable miracle in the healing of a congenitally lame man who, because of this physical condition, had been driven to beg for alms in the temple area.

Lest the astounded people would conclude that it was through Peter’s power and godliness that this lame beggar could now walk and leap and praise God, Peter explained who the real source of this miracle was: Jesus. “Jesus…you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses” (verses 13-15).

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Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ had prophesied: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). [See: Beware of False Prophets and Predestination.]

The future time in which this alarming prophecy was to take place is explained in verses 1-3. The disciples of Jesus had pointed out to Him the buildings of the temple in Jerusalem. [This temple, rebuilt by Zerubbabel after it had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:8-17; Ezra 3:8-6:15), is known as the “second temple.” Later this temple was refurbished and embellished by King Herod (as John 2:20 indicates and as Josephus writes in his Wars of the Jews, Book I, Chapter XXI, Section 1). This was the temple in Jesus’ day. The first or original temple, which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed, was that built during King Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 5-6).]

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“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Galatians 6:1-2, NKJV)

Many who read and profess to believe in the Bible take the above-quoted verse to mean that, for Christians, only “the law of Christ” needs to be observed — as against the “law of Moses” (the Old Testament).  In fact, for a long time it had been the practice of many evangelical organizations to issue in their mission fields only the New Testament (with perhaps the Old Testament books of The Psalms and The Proverbs added at the end of the New Testament copies).  [See: Moses and Jesus — Are They Contraries?].

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“My poor child, you didn’t have to keep the Sabbath anymore. Why, you’ve carried a burden which I had come to ease! You made it difficult not only for yourself; you hindered others from accepting My gospel because your Sabbath-keeping was a stumbling block to them.”

That’s how, more or less, some would imagine Jesus Christ, on Judgment Day, as saying to His follower who insists on keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, now that Jesus has already, supposedly, “fulfilled” it by being our “Sabbath” — our rest. 

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Most people who have read the Christian Bible believe that “the Feasts” mentioned in Leviticus 23 are the feasts of — and for — the Jews and the Israelites. These people consider these feasts  a part of obsolete rules meant only for Israelites but not for Gentile converts to the faith of Jesus of Nazareth. The seventh-day Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths or holy days, listed in this chapter of Leviticus, are summarily classed as “ceremonial” and are tossed out the window, as have been circumcision and the sacrificial system of Israel. [See: Freed From Bondage.]

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Many Bible students have looked at the apostle Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 3:17 (“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty“) and have taken this to mean liberty from having to obey God’s law — particularly the commandments, statutes and judgments which God gave to Israel through Moses.  “Free from the law!” (Romans 8:2), exult many who profess belief in Christ, thinking that they have been freed from these requirements.  But the sad reality — when we come to understand The Whole Counsel of God — is that these students have so concluded without really understanding what Paul meant by the “law” which Christians are freed from.

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