Abraham--our paradigm for justification--who never kept the Sabbath or Law

Abraham--our paradigm for justification--who never kept the Sabbath or Law

It is vitally important that every Christian study the life of Abraham, because one of Paul’s greatest revelations was that he was the archetypal paradigm for mankind’s justification with God.

In contrast to everything Judaism believed, Paul came to understand that righteousness--and from that full justification--could only come by God’s grace, through faith, apart from any of mankind’s human efforts.

For Paul, Abraham was the proof of this.

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all…

--Rom. 4:16.

Not only was Abraham, the Patriarch of the Jews, declared righteous by God specifically because of his belief apart from keeping a list of commandments (Gen. 15:6), but that declaration of his righteousness and right standing with God came centuries before the Law had been given through Moses.

While there were many great men who served God after the Law was given--and while many, from a human standpoint, were righteous--only Abraham had the distinction of being declared righteous independent of keeping a Law, and actually had God impute a foreign righteousness to him, based on his faith.

Paul, who had fastidiously kept the commandments of the Law, yet was dead in sin and committing murder in the name of a God he did not really know, realized that the greatest men under the Law were still convicted by their shortcomings and even if called “righteous” in a general sense, still stood condemned, and still lived their lives out in constant failure to truly reach a state of absolute righteousness before God by keeping His legion of commandments.

In coming to this revelation, Paul had to come to grips that the Torah given through Moses--which had been pounded into the heads of the Jews for 1500 years--not only couldn’t save or justify men before God, but actually hindered mankind’s justification before God by imposing a standard of obedience that humankind could not achieve due to its fallen nature, which was actually empowered by the Law to rebel!

Some of his final conclusions about the Law were that:

It causes sin to have dominion over us (Rom. 6:14).

It wrought in Paul all manner of concupiscence (Rom. 7:8).

It revived sin in Paul (Rom. 7:10).

It wound up working death in Paul (Rom. 7:13).

It is strength of sin (1 Cor. 15:56).

Why then, if the Law seemed to cause so many problems, was it even given if no law is required to be reckoned just before God?

Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

--Gal. 3:19.

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

--Deut. 32: 20.

Paul saw that the Law had been given because the Jews of Moses’ time were not of the same spirit as their ancestor Abraham. They were faithless rebels, constantly needing a guide to keep them in line. Without such a guide, they were wanton sinners and eager idolaters because of their critical lack of faith, and so God (arguably) gave them laws that were “not good” to keep them in line (Ez. 20:25).

And even with the Law, their core nature never really changed, and throughout all generations of Israel the nation refused to even live by that Law:

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.

--Malachi 3:7.

Paul quickly saw in the history of Israel an utter failure for the nation to be in right standing with God in the way its Patriarch Abraham--about whom God had no complaint--was.

What was the difference?

The one man obtained that right standing through faith, while the nation sought it through obedience, yet failed to achieve it because they thought it would come by keeping commandments:

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

--Rom. 10: 3-4.

And so, in Romans and Galatians, Paul directs his readers to Abraham as the archetypal paradigm of justification with God.

In both cases, he goes out of his way to point out that Abraham kept no Law, and achieved full justification with God only through faith--and that by faith alone, we inherit the blessing of righteousness that Abraham had:

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

--Gal. 2:15-16.

He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

--Gal. 3: 5-12.

And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

--Gal. 3:17-18

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? 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.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

--Rom. 4:1-15

While these verses--among many others of Paul’s--should settle the issue, the truth is that many Christian movements simply cannot accept the Gospel Paul articulated. Many denominations--good and bad--teach that we must somehow keep some sort of Law to be pleasing to God, or as “proof” we have “real” faith.

Well...let us do as Paul directs, and look at Abraham.

First, let us ask: Did Abraham know or keep the Law?

No! It wasn’t given until 430 years later, according to Gal. 3:17, a fact that is critically important to note!

Did Abraham keep the Sabbath?

No! There isn’t one place in Scripture that says he did or that God told him to! And if Abraham did keep the Sabbath commands, then Paul would have noted that as playing a factor in his justification--or would have at least mentioned that did not play a factor, as he does when speaking of circumcision. Instead, Paul went out of his way to show that Abraham’s justification existed entirely distinct from the Law, which would have to mean outside its Sabbath commands.

Did Abraham keep any set of “commandments”?

No!

“But wait!” the Jew and Messianic will say. “The Old Testament says Abraham kept the Law and God’s commandments!”

Let’s look at that claim. The passage in question these groups appeal to is this:

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

--Genesis 26:3-5.

“Well, there you go--Abraham was keeping the Law, right?”

Actually, no. And to prove that, we will go to the Scriptures, test the claim against what the Bible actually shows, and see if that passage means what it appears to say, because if it does mean what many of you think it means, you have just made Paul a false teacher as I will go on to show.

But first, let’s see how Christian commentators of the past viewed verse 5.

A great variety of words is here used to express the Divine Will to which Abraham was obedient: my voice, my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws, which may intimate, that Abraham’s obedience was universal; he obeyed the original laws of nature, the revealed laws of divine worship, particularly that of circumcision, and all the extraordinary precepts God gave him, as that of quitting his country, and that (which some think is more especially referred to) the offering up of his son, which Isaac himself had reason enough to remember.

--John Wesley.

“My charge” he kept, observed, &c., the ordinances or appointments of God. These were always of two kinds:

1. Such as tended to promote moral improvement, the increase of piety, the improvement of the age, &c. 2. Such as were typical of the promised seed, and the salvation which was to come by him. For commandments, statutes, &c., the reader is particularly desired to refer to Leviticus xvi. 15, &c., where these things are all explained in the alphabetical order of the Hebrew words.

--Adam Clarke.

...My commandments, my statutes, and my laws; whether moral, ceremonial, or civil and judicial; all and everyone which God enjoined him, he was careful to observe. Here seems to be something wanting, for the words are not to be joined with the preceding, as if Abraham’s obedience was the cause of the above promises made to Isaac, or to himself: but this is mentioned rather as an example to Isaac, and to stir him up to do the like, as if it was said, because or seeing that Abraham thy father did so and so, do thou likewise.

--John Gill.

Having looked at the opinions of theologians of the past, the bottom line is that no one can say precisely what is meant here. Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews even claim it means Abraham was keeping all 613 commandments plus the rabbinic clarifications to them!

But for Christians, we go not by Jewish speculation, but by what the apostle Paul actually says on this issue, which is that no Law existed from Adam down to Moses!

For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

--Rom. 5:13-14.

--Gal. 3:17.

The Law starts with Moses, 430 years after Abraham!

“No! No!” the Adventist will now say. “The Torah may start with Moses, but certainly the Ten Commandments were established from the Garden of Eden, and Abraham was keeping those, especially the Sabbath command! That’s what the passage in Genesis means!”

No. Were that true, then there would have been a Law given before Moses, mankind would have been accountable to that Law, and Paul could not have said:

For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

--Rom. 5:14.

“No law” means no Law--not, “No Law but for the 10 Commandments!”

Also, Moses himself indicates the 10 Commandments starts with the Jews of his era:

The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb (Mt. Sinai).

The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of here alive this day.

--Deuteronomy 5:2-3. (See also Deut. 4:10-13.)

If Abraham was keeping the 10 Commandments Moses said was not given before the Exodus, then you have just refuted Paul’s teachings in Romans 4:13-15, and denied Moses’ words on top of that!

Now I know Messianics who do reject Paul and consider him to be a false teacher. But assuming you are a real Christian who follows the teachings of Paul as the Word of God--your choice is made for you: No Law existed between Adam to Moses, and if you teach that one did and that Abraham was keeping it, you are directly contradicting the teachings in Romans and Galatians.

Yet why do some Jews think Abraham kept the full Law?

Because of the language here that meant something in their culture:

Statutes--refers to oral explanations on how to keep the Law.

Commandments--are things you have to do, for which a reason may not clearly be given, like wearing tefillin.

Laws--”commandments” in the sense of laws (often moral) given with an explanation on why you have to do them.

Thus, many Jews (wrongly) conclude Abraham kept the full Torah.

But for we Christians, we go by what Paul said, and Paul said there was no explicit Law between Adam to Moses. And, had Abraham been keeping any sort of Law as a part of his justification with God--whether it’s the 10, the 613, or only the Sabbath--we have this problem:

For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

--Gal. 3:18.

So what was meant here?

I believe, as Wesley indicates, that Abraham had an intrinsic grasp of God's morality, and went on to obey what God asked of him, which included obeying a circumcision covenant, making an animal sacrifice, and being willing to sacrifice his son. Beyond that, I suspect God was prophetically speaking about Christ through Abraham, who alone kept God's commandments, statutes, and laws to God's true standard, and so the verse, in its ultimate sense, did not even refer to Abraham, per se.

But let’s say I’m wrong. Let’s say Abraham was keeping some set of commandments. What were those commandments, because I’d like to keep them and go to heaven with Abraham?

“Well, they were the Ten Commandments,” says the Adventist, “especially the Sabbath!”

“No,” says the Messianic, “while he certainly kept the Sabbath, Abraham was also keeping the six hundred and thirteen mitzvot, which always existed, but was simply written down in Moses’ time!”

“You’re both wrong,” says the Reform Jew. “He was keeping the seven Noachide commandments!”

“A pox on all of you!” says the ultra-Orthodox Jew. “The great Rashi shows that Avraham kept all the Torah of Moshe, and also the oral traditions of the rabbis that would follow him on how to keep it properly, because he discerned all these mysteries by contemplating the nature of G-d’s creation!”

Hmm. Whom should I believe? Maybe the Adventist is right. But if he is, which of the two written versions (Ex. 20:2-17 and Deut. 5:6-21) of the 10 Commandments is the correct one?

Which of the four (the Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant) ways of dividing up the 15 actual imperative statements of Exodus 20 into 10 commandments is really correct?

And then, what if the Adventist or 10 Commandments-touter is wrong, and Abraham really kept 613 commandments as the rabbis claim? Must I keep the full 613 as well? Am I lost if I keep the wrong set of commandments?

How can I figure out which of these varying opinions is the right one?

Well, let’s not speculate--but simply go to the Bible and list every command God is recorded to have ever given Abraham, and see what those commands were!

Gen. 12

1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Gen.13

17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Gen. 15

1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Gen. 17

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Gen. 21

12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Gen. 22

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

That’s it. Every “command” God ever gave Abraham.

Where is the mention of the Torah?

Where is the mention of the 10 Commandments?

Where is the mention of the Sabbath?

There is none! And if you think I’m leaving something out, go read all the chapters of Genesis dealing with Abraham, and you will find I’m not! There is no record of God’s giving Abraham any “Law” to obey.

To say that God did give a set of commandments to Abraham, who then kept them and was somehow justified or by that secured God’s approval, is to deny what the Scripture says about him, and requires us to:

1. Invent encounters with God that the Bible never mentions.

2. Make up orders given by God to Abraham that the Bible never mentions.

3. Presume Abraham then adopted a certain lifestyle, based on these unsubstantiated encounters and commands that the Bible never mentions.

4. Presume his obedience to this unlisted set of commandments placed Abraham in right standing with God, which the Bible not only never mentions, but actually contradicts in Romans 4.

So what you will find the Bible actually records are simply general orders, including to sacrifice his son, all of which Abraham obeyed.

Even James, the man the cultists go to in order to validate their heresies about justification through works, writes that Abraham was justified--not by keeping some Law and its commandments--but by offering up Isaac:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

--James 2:21.

The only possible issue that could be raised about obedience to a commandment playing a factor in God’s approval of Abraham would be his submitting to circumcision, but Paul deals with that and makes it clear circumcision played no role in being justified with God whatever:

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

--Rom. 4:9-13.

Thus, Abraham was not under the Law, nor was he keeping the Law!

Now--does that mean because Abraham wasn’t under the Law, that it was okay for him to sin?

No.

Did he go out and sin?

No. (Though he did technically break kosher eating rules in Gen. 18:8, and violated Lev.18:9 by being married to his sister, while his grandson violated the Torah by marrying two sisters.)

But these technical “transgressions” were not imputed to either Abraham or Jacob because, as Paul says:

... Sin is not imputed when there is no law.

--Rom. 5:14.

The truth is that Abraham was a righteous man (in the sense of being a moral man), so God had no need to give him laws against unrighteousness. But the fact he was righteous, in a temporal sense, doesn’t mean he “kept commandments” of a codified Law of some sort! He simply lived a good moral life as we too are called to do--independent of “keeping” laws and commandments!

Yet the Child of the Flesh can’t get that. He claims that if we say we’re not “under the Law,” and if we don’t “keep commandments,” we’re saying it’s okay to sin.

All that does is show the ignorance of heretics who miss what the New covenant actually is.

So then--how did Abraham achieve justification with God if he wasn’t “keeping God’s Law”?

Through faith.

“Oh, but faith without works is dead, so we need to keep God’s Law or we don’t have real faith,” says the Child of the Flesh.

When a Messianic, Cultist, or any false teacher says we must keep this Law or that, or do this or that to be in right standing with God or to prove we have “real” faith, we must immediately go back to Abraham, and check whether Abraham was doing, in practice, what that person says we must.

If we do that, we will see that everything the false teacher claims we’re required to do was not done as an act of conscious obedience to a Law by Abraham.

All the man did to be justified with God was to believe--not believe and go do this or that!

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

--Gal. 3:12.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

--Rom. 4:5.

“No! No!” the cultist will insist. “Abraham kept various commandments in the Law, even though the Law hadn’t been written down yet by Moses, and that’s because God taught those commandments to him orally. So we must keep those commandments--like the Sabbath--just as Abraham did, even if the Bible doesn’t explicitly say God taught them to him!”

Wrong.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

--2 Tim. 3:16.

We do not base critical issues of the faith on someone’s oral tradition or speculation--we go to the Scripture! When we do, we see that in that Scripture, Paul has directed us to Abraham as our paradigm for justification. And while it enrages some, Scripture shows the man Abraham never “kept God’s holy Law” to be in full right standing with the God who imputed righteousness to him because of his belief, and not his obedience to a set of commandments!

“Well…God has given us more revelation through the writings of Moses and the prophets than Abraham had, so now we know clearly what His commandments are, and even if Abraham didn’t know or keep them, we certainly must, or we are rejecting God!”

Wrong. Were that doctrine of devils true, Paul would have directed us to Moses, Isaiah or John the Baptist, upheld them as great men of faith who carefully observed God’s Law, and then called on us to emulate their sterling example of faith plus obedience to the Law as equaling true justification.

Instead, he bypasses all the great men under the Law and goes straight back to Abraham, whom he points out never kept the Law and was justified by faith only, through a foreign righteousness that had nothing to do with his own commandment-keeping. Again...