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The Holman Bible
Dictionary defines the word “remnant” as,
“something left over, especially the
righteous people of God after divine
judgment.”
And the Baker Illustrated
Bible Dictionary says, “The concept of a
remnant or a “remnant theology” runs
throughout Scripture. Although appearing in
a wide variety of texts and contexts, the
central idea of the remnant concept or
remnant theology is that in the midst of
seemingly total apostasy and the
consequential terrible judgment and/or
destruction, God always has a small,
faithful group that he delivers and works
through to bring blessing.”
The remnant in the Old Testament were those
true believers who survived and remained
true to God at all times. God always
preserves a remnant.
The concept of a remnant is present
in:
• Noah and his family being
delivered through the flood (Genesis 6-9);
• Lot and his daughters being delivered out
of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19);
•
Joseph’s family being delivered out of
famine (Genesis 45);
• The faithful
Hebrews who did not bow their knee to Baal
(1 Kings 19);
• The Israelites who went
into captivity (Ezekiel 12);
• The
Israelites who would survive the destruction
caused by Assyria (Isaiah 4; 12);
• The few
Jews who would rebuild the nation after
Israel suffered judgment (Amos 9);
•
Christ’s other sheep, the believing Gentiles
(Acts 15:17; Amos 9:12; Romans 11:17;
Ephesians 3:6).
Israel and
the remnant:
God wants every
person to know Him personally as their
loving, Heavenly Father. God’s purpose has
always been to establish a people for
Himself who know Him as the one true God and
follow Him with all their hearts and minds.
The Old Covenant promise to make Israel the
people of God was conditional on their
obedience to the covenant.
Exodus 19:5-6
says, “Now therefore, if you will
indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my treasured possession among
all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and
you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and
a holy nation. These are the words that you
shall speak to the people of Israel.” (see:
1 Pet. 2:9-10).
Israel
promised to be obedient to God and keep His
covenant.
Exodus 19:7-8
says, “So Moses came and called the elders
of the people and set before them all these
words that the LORD had commanded him. All
the people answered together and said, “All
that the LORD has spoken we will do.”
The Old Testament prophets often talked
about a remnant of faithful believers. The
prophets were called by God to announce His
judgment upon Israel when they rebelled
against Him and His covenant (2 Kings 17:13;
Neh. 9:30; Jer. 18:11; 35:15). Even though
most of Israel was unfaithful, God promised
to preserve a remnant from among His people
(Isaiah 65:9-19).
Another one of the
main functions of a prophet was to build up
and encourage God’s remnant (1 Kings 19:18;
Isa. 1:9; 8:16-19; 10:20-23; 28:5; Jer. 15:19-21),
and prepare them for the coming
of the promised Messiah (Mic. 5:2-3; 5:7-8;
Zech. 8:11-12; Mal. 3:16-18; Matt. 1:18-21;
Luke 1:5-7; 2:25-38).
Israel
was supposed to be a living example and
witness to the whole world.
One by one, the nations of the world would
see the infinite superiority of worship and
service to Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God
of Israel and unite with them in their
service to God (Deut. 4:6-9; 7:12-15; 28:1-13;
Isa. 49:3-7; 61:9; 62:1-2; Isa. 2:2-3; 11:10; 14:1; 19:18-22;
Isa. 45:14; 55:5; 56:3-8; 60:1-12; Jer. 3:17; 16:19; 33:9;
Zech. 2:11; 8:20-23).
Israel
forfeited possession of the land of Canaan
due to apostasy.
God
repeatedly extended his grace to Israel
through His prophets, but they continually
resisted and rejected him (2 Kings 17:7-23;
2 Chron. 36:16; Jer. 25:3-11; 26:1-9). The
nation spent 70 years of captivity in
Babylon because they had continually
violated the covenant and received the
curses promised for disobeying the covenant
(Deut. 28:63-65; Joshua 24; Judges 2:1-3;
Jer. 32:21-23). God’s desire was for them to
learn from adversity what they could have
learned through times of blessings and
prosperity (Jer. 25:5-7; Jer. 46:28; Ezek. 20:35-38).
After their captivity, Israel
returned to their home land and God warned
them about future judgments to come if they
continued in their unfaithfulness.
God’s faithful remnant who lived under the
Old Covenant understood that the covenant
God made with Israel was conditional (Exod. 19:5-6;
Lev. 26; Deut. 28:1-6; 28:15-19; 28-30;
Jer. 12:14-17; 18:7-11; 26:1-6; Dan. 9:24-27).
If Israel as a nation rejected God
and He brought judgment upon them they knew
they would still be safe. Even if Israel
persisted in their rejection of God and He
brought the Old Covenant to an end, they
knew they would be secure. They could know
they were safe and secure because they were
obedient and lived by faith in the promises
of God, not by trusting in their good works
to earn their salvation
(Jer. 31:31-34; cf. Rom. 9:30-33).
God brought the Old Covenant to an end when
Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Just
before his death, Jesus declared the coming
destruction of the nation with all of its
temple services (Jer. 12:14-17; 18; 26:1-6;
Dan. 9:26-27; Matt. 23:37-39; 21:42-44;
Luke 13:34-35; 1 Kings 9:7; Jer. 22:5;
1 Pet. 2:9).
Sadly, most of Israel had
rebelled against God and rejected their
Messiah (Rom. 9:1-5; 10:11-21). But there
was a remnant of believing
Jews who accepted Jesus as their Messiah
and went on to form the Christian Church,
the New Covenant people of God (Luke 24:44-49;
John 20:20-22; Acts 1:13-15; 2:1-4).
The Church was predominantly
Jewish when it first began; they were God’s
faithful remnant of believing Jews. The
Gentiles who believed in Jesus were grafted
into the true olive tree of believing Israel
(the inheritors of the promises of the
Abrahamic covenant), and became part of the
church of Christ (Gen. 12:1, 2; 17:7, 8;
Hosea 14:6; Acts 13:43; 15:15-21; 17:2-4; 18:8;
Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6-8; 11:11-31).
Jesus said His mission on earth
was to share the good news of salvation with
the nation of Israel.
Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the time had
fully come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under law, to redeem those under
law, that we might receive the full rights
of sons.”
Matthew 15:24 says, “He
answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel.”
And Romans 15:8
says, “For I tell you that Christ
became a servant to the circumcised to show
God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the
promises given to the patriarchs.”
Jesus said that His mission was to reach the
“lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24;
Luke 24:47; John 4:22; c.f. Gal. 4:4-5).
He would at times minister to
non-Jews, but at this point in God’s
redemptive plan Jesus was focused on
reaching his fellow Jews and caring for
their spiritual needs. Later Christ’s
apostles would carry out his command to take
the message of the gospel to the rest of the
fallen world (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 22:21; 26:17, 18, 23;
cf. Luke 24:47; John 10:16).
Jesus made it clear that He
was the fulfillment of all of Israel’s Messianic hopes
and desires (Luke 24:44-45; cf. John 5:39;
Matt. 5:17-18). Everything Israel had longed
to see was coming true in the life of Jesus
of Nazareth. Their redemption was close at
hand. How they responded to Jesus’ message
of salvation would determine their eternal
destinies.
Because Jesus was without
sin, He was able to meet all of the
requirements of the Law to be the perfect
sacrifice for our sins. His death made it
possible for humanity to be made right with
God again (John 8:46; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Jn. 3:5;
1 Pet. 2:22).
Jesus is
the only way to salvation.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.”
John 3:36 says,
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life; whoever does not obey the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God remains
on him.”
John 14:6 says, “Jesus said
to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.”
Romans 6:23 says, “For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
And Acts 4:12 says, “And there
is salvation in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given among men by
which we must be saved.”
The
New Covenant includes both Jews and Gentiles
who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior.
Romans 2:28-29
says, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one
outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and
physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and
circumcision is a matter of the heart, by
the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is
not from man but from God.”
Galatians 3:28-29
says, “There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. And if you are
Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring,
heirs according to promise.”
And
Galatians 6:15 says, “For neither
circumcision counts for anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
Our ethnicity doesn’t matter! Our gender and
skin color don’t matter either. The only
thing that does matter is how we respond to
the gospel. We can only be justified and
redeemed when we make Jesus Christ the Lord
and Savior of our lives.
Why
did Israel as a nation fail to keep God’s
covenant?
Romans 9:30-33
says, “What shall we say, then? That
Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness
have attained it, that is, a righteousness
that is by faith; but that Israel who
pursued a law that would lead to
righteousness did not succeed in reaching
that law. Why? Because they did not pursue
it by faith, but as if it were based on
works. They have stumbled over the stumbling
stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am
laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a
rock of offense; and whoever believes in him
will not be put to shame.”
Jesus was the stone that Israel stumbled
over (1 Peter 2:6-8).
We can
only be saved by putting our faith in what
Jesus Christ has done for us, not by keeping
the Law, or doing good things to earn our
salvation. Doing good things is not bad.
Living a moral life should be the goal for
God’s people in every age. The problem
Israel had was they believed that the Law
was a means to an end. They believed they
had to keep the law to be saved. They were
trying to do something that no one could do,
keep the law well enough to earn the right
to go to heaven.
God still promised
that a remnant of believing Jews would come from the nation of Israel.
Romans 11:1-5 says, “I ask, then, has
God rejected his people? By no means! For I
myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has not rejected his people whom he
foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture
says of Elijah, how he appeals to God
against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your
prophets, they have demolished your altars,
and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept
for myself seven thousand men who have not
bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the
present time there is a remnant, chosen by
grace.”
God has always had a
remnant of true believers in every age.
A remnant is a fragment that’s left
over, or a very small part of the whole. The
remnant that are saved is that small group
of people who truly live their lives for
Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
They are the salt of the earth and a light
in the darkness (Rom. 7-8; Matt. 5:13-16).
Seventh-day Adventists claim to
be God’s remnant church today based on their
interpretation of Revelation 12:17.
Seventh-day Adventists usually quote
Revelation 12:17 from the King James Version
of the Bible to defend their “Remnant
Theology” which says, “And the dragon was
wroth with the woman, and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.”
To
understand the meaning of this verse, we
have to understand what the Apostle John
meant when he used the word, “commandments.”
John said many times in his writings
that we should keep the commandments (John 12; 14; 15;
1 Jn. 2:3, 4; 3:22, 23, 24; 1 Jn. 4:21; 5:2, 3; 2 Jn. 1:4-6;
Rev. 12:17; 14:12; cf. Rev. 22:14), but what
“commandments” does John want us to keep?
The word, “commandments” has different
meanings depending on the context, and the
author. John used different Greek words for
“law” and “commandments” consistently in all
of his writings. When John is speaking about
the Old Covenant Law he uses the Greek word
“nomos” exclusively (John 1:17, 45; 7:19).
John used the Greek word “entolē”
in Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 14:12 to
refer to the commandments of God that
Christ’s followers are expected to keep.
Some of the other New Testament authors do
occasionally use entolē to refer to
the Old Covenant Law but John never does!
John always used entolē to mean a
“moral and religious precept, regulation or
command.” John never said that we have to
keep the Ten Commandments from the Old
Covenant Law to be saved under the New
Covenant.
John was telling his
readers to be faithful to Christ and keep
the moral precepts and commands of God under
the terms of the New Covenant, not the old.
[1]
Seventh-day Adventists don’t
understand that the New Covenant law has
replaced the Old Covenant Law.
John 1:17 says, “For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 8:13 says, “In
speaking of a new covenant, he makes the
first one obsolete. And what is becoming
obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish
away.”
And Hebrews 9:15 says
“Therefore he is the mediator of a new
covenant, so that those who are called may
receive the promised eternal inheritance,
since a death has occurred that redeems them
from the transgressions committed under the
first covenant.” (cf. Heb. 12:24).
The Old and New Covenants are not
the same.
• The Ten
Commandments are the foundational laws for
the rest of the laws of the Old Covenant
(Exod. 34:27-28; Deut. 4:13; 5:2-3; 9:9).
• All of the 613 laws of the Old Covenant
were made obsolete by the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6-13; 9:1-4;
2 Cor. 3:3-11; Col. 2:16-17;
Eph. 2:11-18).
• The New Covenant has its
own legal code called the law of Christ
(Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 12:28-31;
1 Jn. 4:7-8; Rom. 8:1-4; 13:8-10).
• You
cannot live under two competing covenants at
the same time (Rom. 7:1-7 Gal. 4:21-31).
The only laws Christians are expected to
keep are the laws given in the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is the promise that God
will forgive all of our sins and give us
eternal life when we put our trust in Jesus
Christ alone for our salvation. The Old
Covenant has served its purpose, and it has
been replaced by a new and “better covenant” (Heb. 7:22; 8:6-13).
Christians need to understand that
they have been set free from trying to keep
the Old Covenant Law to live God-honoring
lives by walking in His Spirit. When we do
that—we are fulfilling the law of Christ,
which is the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ (Mark 12:28-31; Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor.
9:21; Rom. 8:1-11).
Seventh-day
Adventists really don’t understand what the Old
Covenant was, or what the New Covenant that
Jesus Christ gave us is. They tell people to
keep some of the laws from the Old Covenant
just like the Judaizers did in Paul’s day
(Rom. 2-8; Gal. 2-6; Eph. 1-2; Col. 2; Heb. 4-10;
James 2). They mix laws from the Bible
without any regard for their context, the
covenant they are in, or the actual meaning
of the words used in the original languages.
They don’t understand that the only law
Christians are expected to keep is the New
Covenant, law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
To understand the
Old and New Covenants, we need to first
understand what the word “covenant” means.
In basic terms, a covenant is a formal
legal agreement. It may be an agreement
between two people, a treaty between
nations, or between God and a human
individual or nation. A covenant is more
personal than a contract, it involves
loyalty and allegiance, not just a financial
exchange.
The Mosaic Covenant was one
of several ethical codes of conduct that God
has given to his people throughout human
history. God gave commands, or codes of
conduct to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:26-30; 2:15-17; 3),
to Noah (Gen. 6-9), and to
Abraham (Gen. 12:1; 17:10-14; 26:5). The
Mosaic code contained all 613 laws of the
Old Covenant from Exodus through
Deuteronomy. Today we live under the New
Covenant, law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; Rom. 8:2).
The New Covenant contains hundreds of
specific commands recorded for us in the New
Testament.
Each covenant is like a
new legal contract. A contract must have all
of its requirements defined in the contract.
Each covenant can use elements from previous
covenants, reapply them, or omit them
completely and give new laws. The laws from
the Mosaic Covenant were done away with
entirely as a legal code. They have been
replaced by the New Covenant, law of Christ
(Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; cf. Mark 12:28-31; 1 Jn. 4:7-8; 5:3).
[2]
The temporary nature of the Old Covenant
brought nothing to fulfillment (Gal. 3:23-24;
Matt. 5:17). The New Covenant is
better than the Old Covenant because our
redemption is completely secure, and it
makes having a personal and intimate
relationship with the God who created us
possible (Heb. 3:6).
Hebrews 7:12
says, “For when there is a change in the
priesthood, there is necessarily a change in
the law as well.” The Levitical priesthood
was set aside since it was unable to
accomplish God’s saving purpose because of
its “weakness and uselessness” (Heb. 7:18).
Only Jesus’ work on the cross could bring
God’s people to perfection (Heb. 7:11; 9:9; 10:1).
Unlike the Levitical priesthood,
Jesus’ priesthood was final because the
sacrifice he made on our behalf was perfect.
Jesus, as our new High Priest has
accomplished “eternal salvation for all who
obey him” (Heb. 5:9).
Hebrews 7:22
says, “This makes Jesus the guarantor of a
better covenant.”
The Law of Moses
was never meant for the Gentiles (Rom. 2:14-15; 9:3-5;
1 Cor. 9:20-21). The Old
Covenant Law was given to reveal man’s
sinful nature and lead us to Christ, not to
justify us before God (Gal. 3:19-22; Rom. 3:19-20; 5:20; 7:5-7; 8:7;
1 Tim. 1:8-11; Heb. 7:11-19). Trying to keep the Old
Covenant law can only produce death in those
who fail to keep it perfectly (Rom. 5:20-21; 7:5).
The Mosaic law was given to
watch over us until we could be made new in
Christ (Rom. 7:1-12; Gal. 3:23-25).
Christians have never been under the
authority, or condemnation, of the Old
Covenant Law. We are under God’s grace
(Rom. 6:14; 8:1-11; Gal. 5:18; Eph. 2:8-10). We
are called to live a new life of liberty,
and told to have Christ’s divine love in our
hearts as our greatest motivation (Gal. 5:1, 13, 14).
The people who make up the
“remnant” are those true Christians who are
faithful to Christ in every age.
Seventh-day
Adventists believe Christians have to keep
the Sabbath in the last days to be saved,
but they are wrong about the Sabbath being
required for the New Covenant Church. The
Sabbath was for Israel alone because it
served as a ceremonial sign for the Mosaic
Covenant (Exod. 31:16-17; Ezek. 20:12, 20).
It was never made an obligation for the
Christian Church (Acts 15:1-20; Col. 2:14-17;
Gal. 4:10-11; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18;
2 Cor. 3:3-11). In fact, there is
no command to keep any day of the week holy
in the New Covenant. As Christians, we live
by the terms and obligations of the New
Covenant, not the Old Covenant Law.
Seventh-day Adventists are wrong about who
the remnant is as well. God’s
remnant today are those people who rest in what
Christ has already accomplished for us
through the cross.
God wants
us to trust Him, and rest in Him,
spiritually. The author of Hebrews calls the
rest Christ wants us to enter into a “sabbatismós”
(Sabbath) rest.
Hebrews 4:9-11 says,
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for
the people of God, for whoever has entered
God’s rest has also rested from his works as
God did from his. Let us therefore strive to
enter that rest, so that no one may fall by
the same sort of disobedience.”
The
Complete Word Study Dictionary says, “the
noun sabbatismós, a Sabbath
keeping, is used in Hebrews 4:9 to indicate
the perpetual Sabbath rest to be enjoyed
uninterruptedly by believers in their
fellowship with the Father and the Son in
contrast to the weekly Sabbath under the
Law. It is a divine rest into which the
believers enter in their relationship with
God here on earth and in eternity.”
[3]
The rest God wants us to enter
is the rest of faith in the Son of God.
The rest in Hebrews 4 is not the weekly,
seventh day Sabbath from the Old Covenant.
God’s “sabbatismós” rest is a
perpetual rest believers enjoy without
interruption in their fellowship with the
Father and the Son, in contrast to the
weekly Sabbath rest given to Israel under
the Law.
“God wants us to enter his
rest. For the Israelites of Moses’ time,
this rest was the earthly rest to be found
in the Promised Land. For Christians, it is
peace with God now and eternal life on a new
earth later. We do not need to wait for the
next life to enjoy God’s rest and peace; we
may have it daily now! Our daily rest in the
Lord will not end with death but will become
an eternal rest in the place that Christ is
preparing for us (John 14:1-4).”
[4]
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.” (NIV)
Jesus invites
everyone who is wearied and weighed down by
sin to experience true rest for their souls
by following Him. His yoke is much easier to
bare than the legalism and the
self-righteous works that the scribes and
Pharisees preached (Mark 7:2-8; Acts 15:10).
If you put your trust in Jesus Christ alone
and keep His commands, He will give you rest
from the heavy burden of sin and the
impossible demands of trying to keep the Old
Covenant law.
No single organization,
or church has the right to call themselves
the remnant church. God’s remnant is the
true body of Christ. Christians should do
their best to live a good life for God
because they already know they are going to
be with Christ for eternity. God’s true
remnant understands that they are saved by
grace through faith in the Son of God, and
nothing more. They do their best to live for
God because they love Him. They are the ones
who serve God with all their hearts, and
minds, and rest in Jesus Christ, the author
and perfecter of their faith (see: Matt. 16:15-19;
Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12-14; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:21; 4:4-13; Heb. 12:2).
You can know for certain that you are
part of God’s remnant church.
1 John 5:11-13 says, “And this is the
testimony, that God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the
Son has life; whoever does not have the Son
of God does not have life. I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life.”
If you have been
born-again, you can know for certain that
Christ has redeemed you along with the rest
of the remnant throughout the ages. If you
have put your trust in Jesus Christ alone
for your salvation, you can know for certain
that the Holy Spirit has sealed you and
given you God’s guarantee of eternal life
(John 3:36; 5:24; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:22).
References:
1. see:
The Apostle John was not saying we need to
keep the Ten Commandments in any of His
writings.
2. see:
Basic Theology by Charles Caldwell Ryrie:
see: “The End of the Law”.
3. The Complete
Word Study Dictionary: σαββατισμός /
sabbatismós.
4. The Life Application
Study Bible: Hebrews 4:9.
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