Bible Question:
i am looking for scripture references to two questions 1-we are not to add nor subtract from the word of God. 2-are the ten commandments valid today, are we to obey them all,and what did Jesus have to say in regards to them |
Bible Answer: Please read Acts 15:1-11, paying special attention to verses 5, and 11. To put it in short, certain men came from Judaea, and were telling the gentiles that they were to be circumcised AND to follow the law, in order to be saved. Sounds familiar? Like many churches today, they dealt with a false doctrine that attempted to replace God's grace with works, as the means to salvation. Well in verse 2 you read how they had no small dissension and disputation with those. The end was that we are saved by grace, and not by works, because we cannot save ourselves. Grace means undeserved favor. The bible tells us that the law was a "tutor" in order to lead us to Christ. In Galatians 3:22-25 we see this great truth. It says: 22But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. You might want to also look at Hebrews 8:7-13. Here the author of Hebrews mentions how a much better covenant than the law was created, and how the law was written into the hearts of every believer because of Christ. How this new covenant was so much better than the old, and that if the old was faultless, there would be no need for a new one. Since its inception, no one has been able to follow the law, and it was put there as a shadow of something much better, in order to show the guilt of man, and how no flesh in justified by any works. The law was there to condemn men, and point to the only answer for man's sin: Jesus Christ. He is the reason for our salvation, and he fulfilled the law when we could not, in order to bridge the gap between God and man. He satisfied both the law, and God's judgment, thus making peace. As Christ said, "It is Finished!" |