Enoch, Noah, Shem, Job, and Abraham were all declared righteous without the Law.
David was declared by God to be "a man after mine own heart" after David had sinned with Bathsheba. Under the new Covenant, we are told that God's grace through faith alone brings to us the righteousness of Jesus; and there is nothing we can do to add anything to what God has done. If after understanding that truth you choose to keep the Sabbath (as I do) That is fine as long as you understand that nobody's relationship with God, including your own, depends on it.
How do you know they did not know God's Law of love on which all the law and the prophets hang that fulfills God's Law?
God's people before God's Law was given in stone to show the knowledge of sin and righteousness (good and evil) were saved the same way that we are today (
Hebrews 11). God's Word does not say that those before God gave the 10 commandments on stone did not know God's Law does it?
Lets see what God's Word says........................
God’s Word defines sin as “the transgression of the law” (
1 John 3:4 ) or “lawlessness” (New King James Version , NIV). Therefore, “where there is no law there is no transgression” (
Romans 4:15). This is what the Bible clearly says! So do we find transgressions o f the Ten Commandments described as sinful before Mt. Sinai?
Clearly we do...................
For example,
Genesis 13:13 tells us that “the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.” Since sin is violating God’s law, the people of Sodom could not have been punished for being wicked and sinful if no law condemned what they were doing. We must conclude, therefore, that God had already made available the knowledge of what is sinful.
Here is a clear example.
Genesis 20:3-9 and
Genesis 39:7-9 describe adultery as “a great sin” and a “sin against God.” Adultery breaks the Seventh Commandment .
In
Genesis 3:6-17, God punishes Adam and Eve for their coveting and stealing—breaking the Tenth and Eighth Commandments . They also dishonored Him as their parent, violating the Fifth Commandment .
In
Genesis 4:9-12, God punishes Cain for murder and lying—violations of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments .
In
Exodus 16:4, several days to several weeks before God established His covenant with the Israelite's at Mt. Sinai, we find God giving them a test to see “whether they will walk in My law or not.” His test involved whether they would rest on the seventh-day Sabbath as He commanded in the Fourth Commandment of that law—with which they were at least partly familiar. The seventh day had been hallowed—set aside as holy by God—from the time of Adam and Eve and made for mankind
at creation (Genesis 2:1-3; Mark 2:27-28).
God’s reaction to their disobedience is revealing. He exclaims, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?” (Exodus 16:28). God clearly speaks of both His “commandments and … laws” as already existing and in force well before He listed the Ten Commandments verbally at Mt. Sinai, as described four chapters later! Therefore, the Ten Commandments were only codified —written in stone as part of a formal covenant—at Mt. Sinai. Scripture clearly shows that they existed and were in force well before then.
This is stated explicitly in
Genesis 26:5, where God tells Isaac that He blessed his father Abraham “because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” This event took place centuries before the covenant at Mt. Sinai, centuries before Moses and two generations before Judah, head of the tribe that much later would become known as the Jews, was born!
In
Leviticus 18:21-27, God calls the idolatrous practices of the people of the land of Canaan “abominations”—actions so filthy and degrading that God compared their expulsion to being “vomited out” of the land (Leviticus 18:28). What was their sin? Among other things, idolatry (the worship of false gods) and human sacrifice, which violated the First, Second and Sixth Commandments .
The Bible shows that the Ten Commandments did not originate with Moses or in his time. Nor were they in any way limited only to the Jews. They were in effect and known long before Moses or a people known as the Jews existed. They are the foundation of God’s laws that show us how to love God (defined by the first four Commandments) and how to love our fellow man (defined by the last six).
Did Abraham keep God's commandments...............
Genesis 26:5
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
The Hebrew words God uses here are especially important. As
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains regarding this verse: “The Lord then added a remarkable note: Abraham ‘kept my requirements [ mismarti ], my commands [ miswotay ], my decrees [ huqqotay ] and my laws [ wetorotay ]’ (v. 5).
“It is remarkable that this is precisely the way in which obedience to the Sinai Covenant is expressed in Deuteronomy 11:1: ‘Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements [ mismarto ], his decrees [ huqqotayw ], his laws [ mispatayw ] and his commands [ miswotayw ]’ . . .
“Thus Abraham is an example of one who shows the law written on his heart (
Jeremiah 31:33). He is the writer’s ultimate example of true obedience to the law, the one about whom the Lord could say, ‘Abraham obeyed me’ (v. 5). Thus, by showing Abraham to be an example of ‘keeping the law,’ the writer has shown the nature of the relationship between the law and faith. Abraham, a man who lived in faith, could be described as one who kept the law” (Vol. 2, 1990, pp. 186-187, emphasis added).
Were the ceremonial laws for sin offerings known before God gave the 10 commandments and Moses wrote the ceremonial laws for sin? Now it must be very clear, if God's people were practicing ceremonial offerings for sin they would have known God's Law (10 commandments) because sin is the transgression of God's Law and the knowledge of what sin is (
1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7, James 2:11). Otherwise why the need to offer up sin offering if they did not know what sin was?
Before God's 10 commandments and the ceremonial laws of Moses were given....
Genesis 4:2-7
2, And she again bare his brother Abel.2 And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3, And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4, And Abel, he also brought of the first-lings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5, But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6, And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7, If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou do not well, sin lies at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Genesis 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Exodus 10:25
But Moses said, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the LORD our God.
Abraham saved the same way everyone is and that is by faith that leads to obedience...
Romans 4:3
For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Hebrews 11:17
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
James 2:21
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
So it is quite clear that God's people before Mount Sinai had God's Law and the ceremonial laws for sin offerings pointing to Jesus.......
Now does our salvation depend on obedience. No we are saved by grace through Faith and not of ourselves it is a gift of God. If our faith does not have the fruit of faith which is obedience are we in a saved state before God or an unsaved state?
If our faith does not have love that produces the fruit of obedience, God's Word says it is a dead faith and not saving faith (
James 2:18; 20; 26 ). If we knowingly break any of God's 10 commandments we stand guilty before God of committing sin.
If we continue in unrepentant sin we are in danger of the judgement (Hebrews 10:26-27; Hebrews 6:4-8; 1 Corinthians 6:9: James 2:8-12)
The 4th commandment (
Exodus 20: 8-11) is one of the 10 commandments just the same as we have do not commit murder, stealing or lying (
James 2:8-12).
The 4th commandment has been replaced by the teachings and traditions of man that break God's Law. Jesus says if we follow the teachings and traditions of man that break the commandments of God we are not following God (
Matthew 15:3-9)
Who should we follow the teachings and traditions of man that brake the commandments of God, or the Word of God?
