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God’s Law Changeless and Eternal, October 10
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from
the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5:17, 18
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If Satan’s work had succeeded in heaven the law of God would have
been changed, but this could not be, for His law was a transcript of His
character and as unchangeable as His character. If any change was possible
in the law of God it would have been made then and there and saved the
rebellion in heaven. But as it was not altered to meet the request of Satan,
he ... lost his high and holy position in the heavenly courts.
After his fall he worked upon the minds of Adam and Eve and seduced
them from their loyalty.... Now if the law of God could have been changed
and altered to meet man in his fallen condition, then Adam would have been
pardoned and retained his home in Eden; but the penalty of transgression
was death, and Christ became man’s substitute and surety. Then was the
time, could the law of God have been changed, to have made this change
and retained Christ in the heavenly courts, that the immense sacrifice made
to save a fallen race might have been avoided. But no, the law of God was
changeless in its character and therefore Christ gave Himself a sacrifice
in behalf of fallen man, and Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his
posterity upon probation.
Had the law of God been changed in one precept since the expulsion of
Satan from heaven, he would have gained on earth after his fall that which
he could not gain in heaven before his fall. He would have received all that
he asked for. We know that he did not.... The law ... remains unalterable
as the throne of God, and the salvation of every soul is determined by
obedience or disobedience.... Jesus, by the law of sympathetic love, bore
our sins, took our punishment, and drank the cup of the wrath of God
apportioned to the transgressor.... He bore the cross of self-denial and
self-sacrifice for us, that we might have life, eternal life. Will we bear the
cross for Jesus
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Letter 110 1896
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