The authority of God, His will, His name, and His character of love and justice are revealed in His Law, which His right hand wrote on two tables of stone. Moses testified:

“From his right hand went a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33:2).

“He declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone” (Deuteronomy 4:13).

“These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, . . . and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me” (Deuteronomy 5:22).

The complete moral Law was written by the hand of God on two tables of stone. This moral Law, as found in Exodus 20:3–17, was the basis of the covenant of the Lord with Israel. Here the fourth commandment shows the reason why God’s people are commanded to keep the Sabbath: “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

This moral Law is kept in the sanctuary in heaven just as it was kept in the sanctuary on earth. In heaven that moral Law is in the “ark of his testament” in the “tabernacle of the testimony” (Revelation 11:19; 15:5). The “example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5) was also called by the same names. The Law was called the “testimony” (Exodus 27:21; 31:18), the ark of the covenant was called the “the ark of the testimony” (Exodus 25:16; 30:6), and the sanctuary was called the “tabernacle of testimony” (Numbers 1:50, 53). “The messenger of the covenant,” who was with Moses among the people of Israel in the desert, was Christ (Malachi 3:1; Acts 7:38; 1 Corinthians 10:4, 11). This Law is not a law of Moses; it is the Law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

The Law of Christ was originally written in the heart of Adam and Eve, because they were created in the image of their Creator (Genesis 1:27), acknowledging His authority. Therefore, under the provisions of the new covenant, especially in the time of the end, the Law of Christ is to be restored into the hearts of His followers. Christ says:

“This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

Christ came into the world, and He comes to live in us with the Law in His heart. Christ is not separated from the Law, and the Law cannot be separated from Christ. He says:

“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, Thy Law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:8).

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29).

He explains how He wants us to wear His yoke:

“Come ye near unto me, . . . Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:16–18).

When Jesus was in the world, He taught that the two principles of the Law—love for our Creator and love for our fellow men consist in keeping the Ten Commandments as they are explained, clarified, and exemplified in the Scriptures:

“Jesus said unto [a certain lawyer], Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37–40).

It is important to notice that neither Jesus nor the apostles ever said that keeping only part of the Law would meet the demands of heaven. Partial obedience is not accepted. Christ said with reference to our duty to fulfill all the requirements of the Law:

“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:18–20).

“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17).

James warns us: “Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

And Paul warns the Law-breaking Jews and refers to the Law-abiding converts from among the Gentiles: “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. . .).

“Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?

“For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?” (Romans 2:12, 13, 17–22).

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are [guilty sinners] under [the condemnation of] the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the [Godless] world may become guilty before God. . . . Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:19, 31).

“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

“What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (verses 3, 4).

“Christ is the end (Greek telos, purpose, intent) of the law for righteousness” (Romans 10:4).

So, through Christ, the ministration of death based on the Law written in stones was replaced by the ministration of righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:3, 6, 7, 9), as the contents of the Law, namely, the “epistle of Christ,” is written “with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the living heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Read Jeremiah 31:31–33; Hebrews 8:10.

The first commandment says that God is to be worshipped as the only God. Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 44:6.

The second commandment requires us to worship God directly and not through an image. “Worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

The third commandment forbids the use of the Almighty’s name in an irreverent way.

The fourth commandment demands that we worship God as the Creator of everything in heaven and earth, and demands that we remember and observe the memorial of His work.

Christ was continually being watched by those who wanted to find an accusation against Him (Luke 6:7) in connection with the fourth commandment, though He always taught correct Sabbath keeping (Matthew 12:12).

Were they able to accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath commandment? Matthew 26:59–61.

After the death of Christ, the disciples continued keeping the Sabbath. “They . . . rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). If they had given up that practice, they would not have continued having “favour with all the people” (Acts 2:47). The Jewish people would not tolerate such an offense against their religion.

The Pharisees and the Judaizers among the early Christians, who would not sanction any deviation from their religious customs, objected that Peter went into the home of “uncircumcised men” and even ate with them (Acts 11:3). And then, when they heard that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas were teaching that the Gentile converts needed not to be circumcised, this was too much for them. They raised serious objections against this innovation, but, at the same time, there was no disputation about Sabbath keeping among the apostles or among the non-Jewish Christians. The apostles warned the Gentile believers in Syria to abstain from three or four “necessary things.” The rest of the many necessary teachings they would receive in the synagogues “every sabbath day” (Acts 15:21; Matthew 23:2, 3), according to the instruction coming from Jesus. (Read Acts 9:2; 22:19; 26:11.) But neither the believing Jews nor the Gentiles were instructed to cease Sabbath keeping. Such a thing would be unthinkable among the Jews.

Another example of faithful Sabbath keeping among the early Christians is found in Acts 22:12. “Ananias, a devout man according to the law,” had “a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there.” Just imagine what would have happened to him if he had tried to give up Sabbath keeping. He would not have had “a good report of all the Jews” but would have been stoned. And the account that he was a “devout man according to the law” would not be true.

Likewise, the apostle Paul would have uttered a great lie when he said, I have not offended anything at all “against the law of the Jews” (Acts 25:8), and I “worship . . . the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14), if he had ceased to obey the fourth commandment of the Law of God.

In the early days of Christianity, Judaizers disturbed the churches in several places. Among the Colossians (chapter 2:16, 17), for example, they tried to impose their own ideas about the way the believers should celebrate the yearly holidays of the ceremonial law, called “your sabbaths” (Leviticus 23:15, 32), which could occur on any day of the week. So that the people of Israel would not confuse these yearly festivals with the requirements of the fourth commandment of the Law of God, they were instructed: “These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations [sabbaths], . . . beside the sabbaths of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:37, 38). Apparently the Galatians actually believed that they should keep these yearly festivals. This was the reason why Paul had to send them specific instructions (Galatians 4:10, 11). In those days the distinction between the ceremonial law and the moral Law of Ten Commandments, and the distinction between the yearly holidays (called “your sabbaths”) and the weekly Sabbaths (called “my sabbaths”) was very clear to them (Exodus 31:13; Leviticus 23:32). Today this distinction is not clear to many Christians. Many cannot see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment of the Law of God (Exodus 20:8–11) points to the past, to creation, while the yearly sabbaths of the ceremonial law pointed to the future. By overlooking this distinction, they virtually regard the works of creation as a “shadow of things to come” (Colossians 2:17).

From the beginning of the world, Satan has taught men to tamper with every commandment of the Law of God. And, especially in the time of the end, he is doing everything in his power to do away with the fourth commandment, which was chosen by God as a sign between Him and His people. God said:

“It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested” (Exodus 31:17).

“And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God” (Ezekiel 20:20).

“Keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. . . . And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:6–8).

This sign of identification was given to the children of Israel forever. That is right. Christians are the modern-day children of Israel (Romans 9:6–8). So there can be no doubt that it belongs to us.

In these days “an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” are to be sealed with the seal of the living God (Revelation 7:4).

As the powers of darkness have worked to cripple the Law of God by tampering especially with the Sabbath commandment, the servants of God have been called to do a work of restoration in the time of the end. God says with reference to His servants living in the last days of the Christian dispensation:

“Many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken (compare Isaiah 8:14 with 1 Peter 2:8). Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. . . . To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:15, 16, 20).

“They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58:12–14). (Compare with Isaiah 61:1, 4.)

Those who submit to the authority of God will be sealed with the seal of the living God. These are those who acknowledge His will, His name, and His character of love and righteousness as revealed in His Law. These are those who worship Him according to the requirements specified in the first four commandment of His Law. These are those who are well-settled in the truth.

“The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19).

The servants of God who will be sealed with the seal of God are described as follows:

“I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1).

“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” (Revelation 15:2).

“Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree that ‘all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond’ (Revelation 13:16), shall conform to the customs of the church by the observance of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of death. On the other hand, the law of God enjoining the Creator’s rest day demands obedience and threatens wrath against all who transgress its precepts. . . .

“But not one is made to suffer the wrath of God until the truth has been brought home to his mind and conscience, and has been rejected. There are many who have never had an opportunity to hear the special truths for this time. The obligation of the fourth commandment has never been set before them in its true light. He who reads every heart and tries every motive will leave none who desire a knowledge of the truth, to be deceived as to the issues of the controversy. The decree is not to be urged upon the people blindly. Everyone is to have sufficient light to make his decision intelligently.

“The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.”1