Rules and Regulations

By Oscar M. Baker

Not to this and not do that, isn’t a way to be a Christian. But men have all these rules and regulations. Well, God has some rules and regulations – how about the Ten Commandments. We find that Paul, in the dispensation of the Mystery, repeating all those as for today with the exception of one. In Colossians 2:16 there is one of them mentioned that we have no business of observing today, that’s sabbaths, they were a part of Israel’s covenant. And these folks that make a lot of sabbaths never realize, as far as the Bible is concerned, that man never knew about sabbaths until it was revealed to Moses, and he revealed it to the People of Israel. His book wasn’t written until then, and unless there was some special knowledge given to man, revealed to him back in those early times, he knew nothing about it, and there’s no record that they did know.

So we Gentiles, members of the Body of Christ, are not to observe sabbaths for they have no part in the dispensation of the Mystery, but the rest of the Ten Commandments do, and here’s the reason. The first 5 of those commandments have to do with our association with God. “The Lord thy God” is used in everyone of the first 5 including even honoring thy father and mother, even including the sabbath – all those had in them, “the Lord thy God”. And so we’re to LOVE, as the Lord said, “the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

The last 5 Commandments have to do with our association with our fellow man. And that is summed up in loving our neighbor as ourselves, and if we do that we don’t have to pay any attention to those specific Commandments. There is no need of having the particular words themselves if we love God. If we love God, that’s sufficient – we’ll do the things that are in the law naturally.

A lot of people don’t know what Romans 2:14 means. Paul is writing to Jewish and Gentile believers. And if we’re careful in our study of Romans to keep that in mind all the way through, we’ll stay out of the pitfalls that nearly all of the expositors have gotten into. Romans 2:14, paraphrased, “For when the Gentile believers in the synagogues which have not the law do by the new nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves.”. And isn’t that true, even today? When a person receives this new nature, the everlasting life of John 3:16, when he receives that, immediately he starts to do the things that are contained in God’s law as revealed in His fullness.

[Excerpts from Truth For Today tape 8-9-75, “Dispensational Truth, #1”.]