A List of Requirements
One day while in college I was perusing my school bulletin. I saw that beside the description for some classes it had the word prerequisite. Then it listed other class numbers. I figured that it meant that I should take the listed classes before I take the class in question. So, it seemed it was telling me what I had to do before taking the class in question. But, that is not the definition of the word prerequisite. Of course, the prefix pre- means before. Requisite means requirement. A requirement is something – as a condition or quality – needed. I understood that what the bulletin was telling me is that I needed the knowledge and or skill set that I got from the previous classes to take the one. But, requirements are not always about something I can achieve or acquire.
Typically we talk about requirements in terms of fulfilling not doing. To fulfill means to satisfy. To satisfy is to meet the requirements. If I wanted to join the army, I would have to be a certain weight in relation to my height. So, to join the army, I would have to meet that requirement. But, if I wanted to be a horse jockey, I would have to be small: short and thin. Now, let's say I am overweight, I could lose the weight. Let's say I am more than 6 feet tall (1.8 meters) then I probably cannot be a jockey. The average weight for a jockey is around 115 lb (52 kg). The average height is about 5 feet and 3 inches (1.6 meters). In this case, I cannot meet the requirement, not because of something I cannot acquire or achieve; I cannot meet the requirement because of something I am not.
Out of the twenty pilots selected to fly Vostok 1 (the first spaceship to orbit the earth), the final choices for the first launch were Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov. Why? Because of their performance in training, as well as their physical characteristics — space was at a premium in the small Vostok cockpit, and both men were rather short. Gagarin, the ultimate choice, was 1.57 meters (5 ft 2 in) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit. Gagarin's met the size requirement. Not something he could acquire or achieve, but something he was by genetic inheritance.
When it comes to the Law and the Commandments, Paul as well as Jesus, seem to refer to them as requirements. Time and time again they speak of them as something to be fulfilled. Here are some examples,
Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
So, to Paul, there is a difference between the doing of the Law and the fulfilling of the law. Paul intentionally uses each phrase to make an important distinction between two different ways of defining Christian behavior in relation to the law. For example, it is significant that when Paul refers positively to Christian observance of the law, he never describes it as "doing the law." He reserves that phrase to refer solely to the misguided behavior of those who are living under the law and are trying to earn God's approval by "doing" what the law commands.
Paul's view is not to imply that those who have found salvation in Christ do not obey. Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul says they "fulfill" the law. He means that true Christian behavior is much more than the outward obedience of just "doing" the law; it "fulfills" the law. Paul uses the word fulfill because it goes far beyond just "doing." This type of obedience is rooted in Jesus (see Matt. 5:17). It is not an abandonment of the law, nor is a reduction of the law only to love, but it is the way through which the believer could experience the real intent and meaning of the whole law!
Ellen White also sees the Law as a requirement. And, she is clear on how we can fulfill that requirement. She says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:3-5). Righteousness is obedience to the law. The law demands righteousness, and this the sinner owes to the law; but he is incapable of rendering it. The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith is accounted righteousness; and the pardoned soul goes on from grace to grace, from light to a greater light. He can say with rejoicing, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7). {1SM 367.1}
The inheritance is given to the heirs. The heirs are sons and daughters of God. Paul says in Galatians 3,
Galatians 3: 26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3: 27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Galatians 3: 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3: 29And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Those who live by faith attain the righteousness required to become children who become heirs of God. It is not something they can achieve or acquire on our own. It is not something they receive by genetic inheritance. It is something God gives to them by grace, and they receive it by faith.
| RR |
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