God’s Law and the Seal of God

Notes from Stephen Bohr’s “Exonerating God”

• The purpose of the plan of Salvation is to exonerate and vindicate God’s character by answering Satan’s charges against him.  The charges are that God’s law is unnecessary for our survival, restrictive for our personal growth and development, and impossible or too difficult to follow.  Only when He can safely destroy sin without creating further misunderstanding and inspiring further disobedience will we will be safe from sin.  This world is a courthouse showing testimony of the lives lived after choosing to follow sin.  Only a thorough examination of the consequence of sin will inoculate the rest of the universe.
• The Law is a reflection of who God is, the best possible written description of God’s character.  Without understanding the full meaning of God’s character, we have absolute no hope to know or follow Him.  Satan’s purpose is to keep us distracted with irrelevancies, skew our understanding to only a rote stereotypical level, and believe falsehoods about God’s character.  If our knowledge is incomplete or faulty, it will destroy us. (Hosea 4:6)
• Sin is a mental change away from Gods character, and when anyone chooses to do this they start on a downward spiral towards death unless intervention is made.
• God intervenes constantly, first with Adam and Eve and down to all of us throughout history, taking sin on to Him to prevent what would be nearly instantaneous death.  The Bible is a commentary of His works and actions.
• God has spared us the direct consequences of our actions, so we foolishly cling onto what we think are minor sins, believing they are irrelevant and have no consequence.  Satan focuses our attention upon this observation of “the lack of consequences” slowly in our lives until we think all sins we commit have no consequences.
• When the Spirit of the Lord is withdrawn in the last days from all but God’s people, the nature of sin will fully be seen as “the winds of strife”
• Jesus died on this earth to show the extreme suffering that God is doing constantly to transfer the sins unto Him as demonstrated in the sanctuary service, and His death is the result.
• Satan implies God hides truth from us to make us seek sources away from God for knowledge and growth. (Gen 3:2-6)
• Postmodernism: Satan implies that we can know good and evil without God.    Gen 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The law of God is external to mankind and the only thing that can save us is close dependence on God to teach us His law.  We see the results of our own inadequacies when good intentions lead to disastrous results.
• Everything revolves around God’s law. Satan accusations and God’s solution equally focus on it.  The Old Testament spends more time identifying God’s law to those ignorant of it, the New Testament spends more time describing how to keep God’s law when you are aware of it.
• Satan’s sin consisted of telling false tales about God’s law and character and what He requires from us, which is change of our sinful character into a mirror of God’s character.
• Satan constantly slanders Gods character, trying to say that the law restricts us or is not possible to follow.
• Satan so superior to us we have no hope of success when we try to confront him or argue with him. To outwit him without God whispering to us the truth is impossible.

• An increasingly developing connection with God increasingly protects us from the results of sin.  Following God creates maturity and wisdom.  All other pathways are empty and meaningless. (The message of Ecclesiastes)
• David was envious of the wicked until saw their end (Psa 73)
• Exo 34 – covenant – “A written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action.”  If we keep Him in the next.  All the focus in our lives should be on first understanding and God as the central focus of our lives, he will bless us on this world, and stay with assuming God’s character, done only through His power.  If we rely on our own understanding and glorify our own wisdom and whatever God we choose, God will not follow His covenant and will not bless us but will sustain us at a minimal level and give us every opportunity to discover Him.
• Sacrifice shocks the system, makes us recoil from sin’s result of death and turn to God.  The sacrifice of a lamb is a symbol that shows us what God does for us if we are willing to let Him.  The message is designed to shift us away from sin and back towards life, remember the abhorrence of the results that God is removing from us every time we turn to him, and the death that occurs is the death of Jesus.

Hosea 4:6 (New King James Version)

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

Eze 28:15 ¹⁵ You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,

Till iniquity was found in you.
¹⁶ “ By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.

“Trading” is the Hebrew word for falsehood or deceit. Telling tales as the Hebrew word is used in Leviticus 19.  Slander used in Eze 22:9  The first sin was slander of God’s character creating a false reality because no accusation can possibly be made against with God.  The condition of sin is SOLELY deciding that a wrong action is right at least for someone.  God teaches that all sin is stupid, ignorant, and destructive.  God cannot tolerate and endlessly forgive sin.  If He did so He would endlessly propagate suffering and death, so He chooses tolerate it for as long as possible, but will act when His intervention and destruction of sinners will get others a better opportunity to reject it.

Isa 14:12   ¹² “ How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer,^[b] son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
¹⁶ “ Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:

‘ Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

Desire and selfishness without love creates sins.  Lucifer used his position and knowledge to destroy.  He never does anything for other’s interests and never releases those who are prisoners of a sinful state, letting the consequences of their sin destroy them.

1Jo 3:4-9  ⁴ Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. ⁶ Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸ He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

Sin, the lack of following God’s law, or the lack of possessing His characteristics (3 identical concepts) is the deciding characteristic of those who are saved or not.

Joh 8:42-47  ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. ⁴⁶ Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? ⁴⁷ He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

The key difference between Satan and God’s followers is the understanding of truth.  Satan’s followers are unable to understand truth because their understanding has been changed and corrupted to think what is false is true.  Not even God can break through this blindness unless they choose to listen carefully and accept a message that convicts them of sin.  Teaching conviction of sin is the key identification of God’s followers.

To love others is a fulfillment of the law. The tests in the garden of Eden is one way to express God’s law. If Adam and Eve respected God enough they would obey him. The 10 commandments are another summary of God’s law. The best way of summarizing God’s law is through love, which Paul notes fulfills all of the expressly named commandments:

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Purpose of commandments is protecting relationships. Commandments cannot be broken unless you interact with others. First 4 keep us connected to God. Be faithful, respect God’ s name, and dedicate to spend time with Him.

It is impossible to break any of the 10 Commandments and not cause some form of separation. Sin causes separation:

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.

Selfishness is the opposite of love. Love is the act of fulfilling the law. Conversely we cannot love and break any commandment.

Stars in the Bible represent angels. 1/3 of all the stars in heaven or angels were cast to earth because they decided to follow Satan:

Revelation 12:4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth…

Revelation 12:7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,

The total number of angels is countless, note that there is no Greek word for millions so some expression of thousands is the largest that can be expressed:

Revelation 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands

The earth also suffered and changed because of the sin of Adam and Eve. The character of nature was forever changed and thorns, thistles, and animal violence appeared as a result of sin:

Genesis 3:18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.

Sin causes an essential change in human beings is well. The core of the personality shifts from others to self. The earliest example of this was demonstrated in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain’s works are evil, and because of the sin in his own heart, he started to hate his brother in his heart. Hate came because of sin, not because of anything Abel did or did not do:

1 John 3:12-15 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Anyone who harbors sin eventually follows the same path. Every intent in the thought of heart became evil – this is the root. The result or the fruit of sin is violence:

Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

We all start off on the wrong foot. Our every imagination starts off as evil in our youth:

Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

Esau hated Jacob in his heart. This hate resulted in taking action of taking 400 men to kill his brother:

Genesis 27:41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Genesis 32:6-7 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies.

We’re all initially born selfish. Babies are the most selfish creatures that can possibly exist. “I want” is the focus of their entire lives. We all start sinful:

Psalm 51:5 behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

The heart is both deceitful and wicked, therefore cannot be trusted to judge what is right and wrong:

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
. Who can know it?”

People who trust in themselves are declared by the Bible to be foolish:

Proverbs 28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.

Jesus warned his disciples many times on this exact same theme of self-delusion:

The disciples who thought they knew themselves, would never deny or abandon Christ:

Matthew 26:31-35 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
‘ I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
And so said all the disciples.

Treasure is where the heart is. All of our actions are the result of our character. Condemnation of money or worldly things of value is because we overvalue, assess, and become fixated upon things that in the long run are worthless. Keep in mind all of the condemnation for other gods – they are empty, meaningless superstitions. The harm is that they displace the real God. Empty meaningless things, fantasies that we follow today would probably receive the same condemnation from God’s prophets.

Those who are evil can’t speak good. The condition of the heart must reflect in words and actions:

Matthew 12:34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

The source of all evil is the heart or our mind or our thoughts. The anti-list of commandments:

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Jesus states strongly that thoughts, not actions, are sins. Lust does not lead to sin. Lust is sin. Hate is murder.

Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The government making restrictions upon actions is a useless activity because it does not change the source of the problem. The actions will occur anyway if people’s hearts are focused on certain thoughts.

We cannot know what people think but we can know people by fruit or actions. Other methods of judging people by their own proclamations, status, wealth, etc. are useless. Good people must perform good actions. Evil people must act evil. Problem is we all start with a wicked and corrupt heart:

Matthew 7:16-20 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

The law dispels our ignorance of evil. It makes known sin. It is the mirror to show us our problems and tell us why we suffer. Without law we are both evil and self-deluded:

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

The law discerns thoughts and intents. It focuses our attention on our deficiencies and tells us why we need a cardiologist:

Hebrews 4:12-16 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. 14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Bread must have invisible yeast inside before it will rise in the oven. People cannot change from the outside. Even if we desire to do good we are unable to do so by ourselves:

Romans 7:18-19 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
The first step necessary is to recognize sin:

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

And learn and accept that the result of our sin is death:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ redeemed us from curse of the law because He expressed simultaneously His love for us contrasted with the ugliness of our sin. The cross reveals like nothing else the revolting nature of sin (the curse). An evil person suffers as a result of their sin but sin causes suffering to all – including to God and the innocent:

Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)

When love is expressed to us and is real to us it changes us. Selfishness is changed into love and admiration:

Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Assurance of forgiveness, eradication of guilt:

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

God says that He will give you a new heart, removing a heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh, making it possible for you to do good:

Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Keeping God’s commandments is not too difficult to do:

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

The purpose of the sacrifice of the lamb in the Garden of Eden was to teach by demonstration the character and nature of sin. God works through demonstration, showing us the abhorrent nature of sin. An unchanged heart will look on abuse, murder, death, suffering, and pain with an abstract attitude. God sees suffering and He cannot help but heal.

The same law will be written in the mind and behavior will be natural:

Jeremiah 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

old covenant/first step for children = law written on tables of stone
new covenant/understanding adults = law understood and obeyed naturally because God has taught us that it is necessary and right.

When you understand how expensive sin is, how much it hurts God, how much it hurts others, how much it hurts yourself, then it is a delight and privilege and joy not to hurt others

God wants us to follow his commandments:

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Psalm 40:8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.

God does not reform our heart; he does not perform repairs, bypasses, only heart replacement surgery. His goal is to take those who are cold and those who are lukewarm and change them completely to Christians, those wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see God.

This implies that the impure are blind to God

Study of Scripture and righteousness expels wickedness and violence. This must be continuous process:

Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
. That I might not sin against You.

God’s word has cleansed them:

John 15:1-3 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Psalm 51:1-2
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
. And cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Knowledge of God’s character and of one’s true nature is essential. This is only revealed through a constant study of the Bible. The final deceptions are so persuasive that they would deceive even God’s elect people if that were possible:

Matthew 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Rev 13:16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads

– The opposite of the seal of God, the mark of the beast may be obtained by action only without belief (the hand signifying action), or it may be obtained by full belief (mark on the mind and forehead) Eve was deceived by this serpent but Adam chose to go along in the action of committing sin without being deceived.

Rev 7:2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”

– The seal is in the forehead only as opposed to the mark of the beast. God must be worshiped by a changed life in a changed heart. The beast can be worshiped by outward actions only, therefore no ceremony or action can be the whole seal of God.

Rev 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

– Those who are saved possesses the seal of God, and they are identified as those who keep the commandments and trust God, know God, and have the same type of faith as Jesus.

Rev 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.

– The seal here is described as the name of God written on the mind, or the character of God is described as God’s law

Deu 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Deu 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
Deu 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Deu 6:8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

– Where the law of God is to be written, in your thoughts, as “frontlets between your eyes” – also known as the forehead

Mat 19:16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
Mat 19:17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Mat 19:18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, ” ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER,’ ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,’ ‘YOU SHALL NOT STEAL,’ ‘YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS,’
Mat 19:19 ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER,’ and, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ ”

– To be saved you keep the law of God with a relationship with Jesus

Eze 9:1 Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.”
Eze 9:2 And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Eze 9:3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side;
Eze 9:4 and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

– God puts a mark on those who are faithful to him. This mark is a mark of protection at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem just like God put the seal described in the book of revelation on His people. In both places and Angel puts the seal on God’s people, God’s people are not sealing themselves.

– Those who know right from wrong “sighing and crying from the abominations taking place” are those who are sealed. Those who do not think there is right from wrong are not saved. The absolute which right and wrong can be measured is only the law of God.

Col 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
Col 2:17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Col 2:18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

– The Jews faithfully kept the Passover and kept the Sabbath and were condemned as children of the devil by Jesus. Outward action such as keeping the Passover or observing the Sabbath in themselves without a changed heart and changed thinking and allegiance given to God will not save you.

– The Passover pointed to Christ’s death on the cross, the substance to which the shadow pointed to. Without Christ’s death which Passover called us to remember in the ceremony of the Lord’s supper, the ritual would be empty and useless

Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

– The Sabbath and Passover are only individual parts of God’s law. Keeping only one part of God’s law and ignoring the rest is useless.

Isa 8:16 Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.

– The law and the testimony of God is the seal of God

Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Heb 10:15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
Heb 10:16 “THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR HEARTS, AND IN THEIR MINDS I WILL WRITE THEM,”

The Holy Spirit witnesses that God will write his law on our minds.

Dan 7:24 The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings.
Dan 7:25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.

– The anti-Christ thinks he changes times and laws, but these laws are eternal

Exo 12:14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
Exo 12:17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
Isa 24:5 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant.

– Everlasting and eternal laws and covenants

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

– If we are Christs we are Abrahams seed, also known as children of Israel

Mat 24:23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.
Mat 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Mat 24:25 See, I have told you beforehand.
Mat 24:26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
Mat 24:27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

– The next coming of God will be seen by everyone

Isa 64:5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.
Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

– Only Jesus can change our hearts and save us, by writing God’s law in our hearts save us. Any action we do to be righteous is as filthy rags.

Mat 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Eze 20:8 But they rebelled against Me and would not obey Me. They did not all cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said, ‘I will pour out My fury on them and fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.’
Psa 20:5 We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.
Gal 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Destroy the law is the opposite of fulfill the law. As seen in these examples, “fulfilling” is the action of acting according to the principle. Fulfilling His anger is acting on His anger. Fulfilling your petitions is acting on your petitions. Acting righteously and loving your neighbor is acting on the law of God. Christ says in Matthew 5 that he came to follow and obey the law, the truly the opposite of going against it or abolishing it or destroying it.