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Seventh-day
Adventism Refuted:
What is the Royal Law of
Liberty in the Book of James?
James 2:8-12 says,
“If you really fulfill the royal law
according to the Scripture, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself,”
you are doing
well. But if you show partiality, you are
committing sin and are convicted by the law
as transgressors. For whoever keeps the
whole law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it. For he who
said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said,
“Do not murder.” If you do not commit
adultery but do murder, you have become a
transgressor of the law.
So speak and so
act as those who are to be judged under the
law of liberty.”
There are two
different laws being discussed in this passage,
not one. The royal law of liberty, and the
Old Covenant Law.
The royal law in James 2:8-9 is God’s
law of love. It
is superior to all other laws. If you show
partiality, you are committing sin. James
was alluding to Leviticus 19:15, which
prohibits favoritism to either the poor or
the rich (see James 1:25; Lev. 19:18;
Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:28-31; Rom. 13:8-10).
In James 2:10, we are told
that a person who shows favoritism towards
someone else “is guilty of all” the law
because God does not allow for selective
obedience. We cannot choose to obey the
parts of the Law that we like and disregard
the rest. Some of the Pharisees were guilty
of this. They carefully observed some of the
requirements of the Law like
Sabbath-keeping, but ignored others, such as
honoring their parents (compare Mark 3:2 and
Luke 6:7 with Mark 7:1-13). Sin is a
violation of the perfect righteousness of
God who is the Lawgiver.
James was saying
that if you want to keep the Old Covenant
law then you have to keep the whole law
perfectly to be accepted by God. Any
violation in either thought or deed, of even
one commandment, separates that person
from God. [1]
Paul
was saying the
very same thing in Galatians 3:10-13, “For
all who rely on works of the law are under a
curse; for it is written, “Cursed be
everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the Book of the Law,
and do
them.” Now it is evident that no one is
justified before God by the law, for “The
righteous shall live by faith.”
But the law
is not of faith,
rather “The one who does
them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Despite what some people think, James and Paul were in complete agreement
regarding Law and grace!
They both quoted from Deuteronomy 27:26 to
show that failure to keep the law perfectly
brings divine judgment and condemnation on
the guilty party. Even one violation of the
law brings the person under the curse ( Deut. 27-28 ). James and Paul were
saying the same thing, no one can keep all
of the Law’s commands perfectly (Rom. 7:7-12).
Christians are judged by the
royal law of love
James 2:12-13 tells us that “believers
will be judged by the law of liberty, which
is the law of love.” Only those who practice love
and mercy will triumph at the judgment seat
(see James 2:5, 8 ). James’s statement,
“judgment is without mercy to one who has
shown no mercy” is comparable to Paul saying
those who do such things are under a curse.
We are saved by God’s gift of grace through faith
in Jesus Christ alone and not by
keeping the laws of the Old Covenant.
The purpose of the Law was to show
our inability to fulfill God’s righteous
standard.
Romans 3:20 says,
“For by works of the law no human being will
be justified in his sight, since through the
law comes knowledge of sin.”
Romans 5:20
says, “Now the law came in to increase the
trespass, but where sin increased, grace
abounded all the more,”
Romans 7:5-8
says, “For while we were living in the
flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the
law, were at work in our members to bear
fruit for death. But now we are released from the law,
having died to that which held us captive,
so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit and not in the old way of the written
code. What then shall we say? That the law
is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been
for the law, I would not have known sin. For
I would not have known what it is to covet
if the law had not said, “You shall not
covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity
through the commandment, produced in me all
kinds of covetousness. For apart from the
law, sin lies dead.”
Acts 13:38-39
says, “Let it be known to you therefore,
brothers, that through this man forgiveness
of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him
everyone who believes is freed from
everything from which you could not be freed
by the law of Moses.”
Galatians 3:19 says, “Why then the law?
It was added because of transgressions,
until the offspring should come to whom the
promise had been made, and it was put in
place through angels by an intermediary.”
And Galatians 3:24 says, “So then, the law
was our guardian until Christ came, in order
that we might be justified by faith.”
The Bible is very clear, if you try to live
by the Law, you must keep it perfectly or be condemned. The Law is a ministry
of death, engraved on stone tablets. Every time you
try to live by the Law you will fail.
2 Corinthians 3:3-11
says, “And you show that you are a letter
from Christ delivered by us, written not
with ink but with the Spirit of the living
God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets
of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have
through Christ toward God. Not that we are
sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as
coming from us, but our sufficiency is from
God, who has made us sufficient to be
ministers of a new covenant, not of the
letter but of the Spirit. For the letter
kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the
ministry of death, carved in letters on
stone, came with such glory that the
Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face
because of its glory, which was being
brought to an end, will not the ministry of
the Spirit have even more glory? For if
there was glory in the ministry of
condemnation, the ministry of righteousness
must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this
case, what once had glory has come to have
no glory at all, because of the glory that
surpasses it. For if what was being brought
to an end came with glory, much more will
what is permanent have glory.”
According to 2 Corinthians 3, the
Old Covenant Law of the Ten Commandments was
made obsolete by the New Covenant that
Christ made for us.
There can be no
doubt that Paul was talking about the Ten
Commandments in this passage. It is the law
of the Ten Commandments, written on stone
tablets, that “fades away” in light of the
“glory that surpasses it.” The New Covenant
makes many changes to the laws of the Old
Covenant. It is a totally “new” and
different covenant. We have a new legal
contract, based on a new law, the law of
Christ!
The Old Covenant Law had to
be done away with to establish the New
Covenant. (see Heb. 7:12, 18; 8:6-13; 9:1-4;
cf. Jer. 31:31-34)
Christ has set us free from the Law
to be justified by His grace.
Romans 3:21-25 says, “But now the
righteousness of God has been manifested
apart from the law, although the Law and the
Prophets bear witness to it — the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe. For there is no
distinction: for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified
by his grace as a gift, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God
put forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show
God’s righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
(cf. Gal. 5:1-4; Eph. 2:8-10; Rom. 3:24-26).
Christians are told
to live by a greater law, “the law of
Christ.”
Paul argues in the
book of Galatians that the law given at
Mount Sinai makes no claim on those who
believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile
(Gal. 2:15-21; 3:10-14; 3:23-26; Gal. 4:4-5; 4:21-5:6). Paul
then appeals to the Galatians to engage in
ethical behavior by walking in the Spirit
(Gal. 5:16), being led by the Spirit
(Gal. 5:18), and fulfilling “the law of
Christ” through bearing one another’s
burdens (Gal. 6:2). Paul said
Christians should refrain from demanding
their own personal rights out of love for
the weaker brother or sister. Paul said that
he adopted certain Jewish customs when he
was among the Jews, even though he was not
under the Old Covenant law of the Jews any
longer; and when he was
among Gentiles, he adopted some of their
customs, even though he was not without the
law of God, but rather “under the law of
Christ” (1 Cor. 9:19-23).
Jesus, James and Paul all taught the same
thing.
In
Mark 12:32-33, Jesus and the scribe agreed
that two commands were the most important
commands in the
entire Old Covenant. All of the Old
Covenant laws can be placed in the category
of “loving God” or “loving your neighbor.”
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one
than this, that someone lay down his life
for his friends.” (John 15:13)
And Paul said it like this, “Be indebted to
no one, except to one another in love. For
he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the
law. The commandments “Do not commit
adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,”
“Do not covet,” and any other commandments,
are summed up in this one decree: “Love your
neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to
its neighbor. Therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law.” (Rom. 13:8-10 BSB)
The law of Christ, then, is to love God
with all of your heart and to love your
neighbor as you love yourself. Serving other
people demonstrates your genuine love for
God. Serving is an act of love. To serve a
brother or sister out of love fulfills the
law of Christ.
What Paul called the law of Christ is
what James called the law of liberty. Christians live by it
because they want to out of love for Christ,
not because they feel obligated to. The
controlling force in their lives is not a
written code of laws, but a living person,
Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2; James 1:25; 2:12).
Just as Jesus
demonstrated his love for the Father by
keeping the Father’s commandments, so all
those who truly love Jesus will keep his
commandment to love (John 14:15, 21; 15:10; 1 Jn. 2:3, 4, 7; 5:3). When we do that we are practicing the
royal law of love (John 13:34; Rom. 13:8-10;
Gal. 5:14; 1 Jn. 5:2-3).
When people say that James was telling
us to keep the Ten Commandments they are
ignoring the context of the passage and the
rest of what the New Testament says. Christians live under the New
Covenant. It is a totally different covenant
from what the Jews had to live by. Love, not
law, should be what guides us.
References:
1. See: The
Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible: James 2:10.
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