Where In The Bible Will I Find:

The Power And Law Of God?

God's power has been the same in all ages, but His law has not been the same. What God requires of man in one age He does not require the same in another. Genesis, the first book in the Bible, records the creation of all things; God created the heavens and earth, he created the animals and vegetation, then be created man with an intellect that man should "...have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Gen. 1:26).

God did not leave man without work and a law to govern him (Gen. 2:15-17; 3:23). For twenty-five hundred years, up to the Mosaic Law given at Mt. Sinai, God spoke directly to man, or through angels or prophets. This was known as the Patriarchal law or the Patriarchal dispensation. Then at Mt. Sinai, fifteen hundred years before Jesus appeared upon the earth, God gave a new law to His people known as the Law of Moses, or the Mosaic dispensation.

This law was in effect up to and through the earthly ministry of Christ. He was born of a Jewish family under this law, he not only kept this law but He kept it perfectly and taught others to keep it also. This was to be in effect until the end of the age, which was to be the end of the Mosaic dispensation. The end of this age came when Jesus died on the cross.

The Mosaic, Law was a good law, but it was not a perfect law, that is, it was not designed to save souls. Man has never been required to be subject to two laws at the same time; therefore, one law must be abolished before a new law becomes effective. The writer of the Hebrew letter explains, "For if that first covenant [law] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second ... He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second" (Heb. 8:7; 10:9).

The new law, the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), or the Christian dispensation became effective after the death of Christ on the cross. The writer James, speaking of this new law, calls it the "Royal law," or the "Perfect law of liberty" (James 2:8; 1:25). And so it is, for when man believes, accepts and obeys this law, the Lord saves him and adds him to His church (Acts 2:47).

God's power was, and is the same under all three dispensations but His law was not the same. Since the cross, we serve God under the "Perfect law," and therefore, we are not subject to any part of the Mosaic Law which contained the Ten Commandments including the Sabbath. To accept, or hold to any part of the old law, including the Sabbath, is to reject Christ and fall from grace (Gal. 5:4).