DO I TEACH THAT THE LAW IS ABOLISHED?

David Clayton
October 8, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpLBO4YMvg

I'm making this little video this afternoon, and I'm hoping it won't be too long. I'm not sure
how it will turn out, but I wanted to say a few words concerning my understanding of the
relationship that a Christian should have to the Law. And the reason why I'm doing this is
because the question keeps popping up over and over again as to what is really the difference
between my understanding on the Law, and what other people have been saying. I mean,
there has been a lot of criticism. People have been saying that I and those who believe like I
do were teaching antinomianism; that we're teaching that the Law is irrelevant; we're
teaching that the Law is done away with; and that we're teaching that people are free to do
anything they please.

I mean, some of this is based on just raw ignorance, you know; for want of a better word.
Some of it is deliberate misrepresentation and deception. I have to tell the truth and say like
it is. But it's possible that there may be some people who are honestly confused. And for their
sake, I want to just make this short video again; because there are there are many videos that
I have out on YouTube where I make my position very clear! And I suppose the people who
are uncertain about my position, where we stand, are the people who really have not taken
the time to watch the videos. But I understand. You know there are many videos, and
sometimes it's difficult to sort through all of them. So, I'm going to try to explain my position
very clearly, and hopefully without taking too much time in this video.

Now the first thing I want to say is: “Do I believe that the Law has been abolished?”

The answer is “No”. And I'm not being two-faced about this. I'm not saying something that I
don't believe. I don't believe the Law is abolished. The Apostle Paul, my favorite author, the
Apostle Paul says that “the Law is holy, and the Commandment holy, and just and
good.” I don't believe that something holy and just and good can be abolished or should be
abolished. Furthermore, my understanding of the Law -- and when I say the Law, I'm
referring in particular here know today to the Ten Commandment -- I understand the Law to
be actually an expression of the character of God. I'm not going to be extreme, and suggest
that the Law is “a transcript of God's character”. That phrase is used. And I understand
what people are trying to say. But if we're being precise about what we what we mean, I
certainly could never use that phrase, because a TRANSCRIPT means AN EXACT
REPLICA, an EXACT REPRESENTATION. And I don't, I absolutely don't believe that the
Ten Commandments are a transcript of what of God's character. I believe it's an
EXPRESSION. In other words, God expressed in the Law aspects of His nature and of His
character.
So, this being the case, I could never say the Law is not good. For me to say that the Law is
done away with is like saying that God's character has passed away. So, let's get that out of
the way. I do not believe, I don't teach, and I've never taught that the Law is abolished, done
away with, or that it is no longer … that it is obsolete.

However, what I do believe sounds close to that. And the careless, and the ignorant seem to
be incapable of grasping the difference in what I'm saying. Now, when I say what I'm saying,
it's not what I am saying … it's what the Bible is saying. The Bible has, and especially it's
there in the teachings of Paul, and also in the statements made by Christ. … But what I'm
going to do is simply go to some verses from the Bible. That's what I want to do. I just want
to go to these verses, examine them; and I'm going to try to draw the meaning out of these
verses. I'm going to ask you to go with me. I'm simply going to put the Bible on the screen,
and examine these verses. And if you are an open minded person, just look at what the verses
are saying. Okay? Not what David Clinton is saying; … what the verses are saying. Well, if
you're not capable of understanding, I'm sorry; because I can't do anything to help in that
case. But if you if you have the capacity to understand and comprehend what you read, I
don't believe anybody can successfully deny or reject what we're going to look at now.

I know there are people who will do it. But I think this will be the consequence of
dishonesty, deliberate closed mindedness; and people like this really have little hope of
getting into God's kingdom.

So, anyway, let's go to the Bible, and I'm going to begin with Romans chapter 7. Now, I
start with Romans chapter 7 because this is the first place. Well, it's not the first place, you
know. There's another passage that we're going to go to which really is the place where …
Maybe we should start with that other passage. Let me go there. That other passage is 2nd
Corinthians 3 and verse 6. And I'm going to start with this passage because this is a passage
that first of all opened my mind to the truth of what our relationship to the Law should be.

Now, I used to be like most of you who are listening. I used to believe that God's Law is still
to play a MAJOR ROLE in the experience of God's people. One night some Jehovah's
Witnesses came to study with me while I was a student. I was in college at the time. These
Jehovah's Witnesses came, and we had a study in which we got into subjects like the Mark
Of The Beast; and I told these Jehovah's Witnesses that one day there would be a Sunday
Law. … and people would be … the decision would have to be made as to whether people
would keep the Sabbath or Sunday; and that everything would revolve around man's
faithfulness in keeping the Law.

And these Jehovah's Witnesses took me to this passage in the Bible. And there's one thing
about my attitude to Bible study, and to discussion: where somebody makes a point, I want
to be honest in how I relate to that person. I don't want to try to mask what the person is
saying; or try to use deceptive means to get around the person's point. And the Jehovah's
Witnesses took me to this passage, and they said, “Read what it says here”. And I read
through the passage. … And maybe I should just read it now, so we can see exactly what it is
saying. But they had me read through this passage, and then they asked, “What does the
passage say?” I'm going to read from verse 6 to about verse 11. It says:
6 “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of
the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance; which glory was to be done away: 
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?”

And of course when they when we read verse 7 they asked me the question: “What is Paul
talking about here?”

And when I looked at it, I could not deny that, you know, it seems very clear that he was
talking about the Ten Commandments.

So, anyway, as we continue reading down, it says in verse 9:

9 “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration
of righteousness exceed in glory. 
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the
glory that excelleth.”

Now Verse 11 was a key verse, because it says:

11 “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is
glorious.”

If that which was DONE AWAY was GLORIOUS, MUCH MORE that which
REMAINETH is GLORIOUS! Now, I don't know if you were following as we read through
those verses, but if you go back and look you see that Paul is making a contrast here between
two things. He's talking about the Letter which kills and the Spirit that gives Life. LETTER
versus the SPIRIT. He talks about “the ministry of death written and engraven in stones”,
and then he talks about “the ministration of the Spirit” which is More Glorious. And he
talks about the ministry of condemnation which clearly is referring to the ministry of the
Letter That Kills. And then he goes on to say, “For if that which is done away was
glorious, much more that which remains is glorious”. So, he's saying that the First Thing,
… the one that was done away the First Thing was done away … and this First Thing was
GLORIOUS; but the Second One remains. And This One was Even More Glorious!

So, anyway, these Jehovah's Witnesses, you know, they asked me: “What is this talking
about?”

And as I said, I looked at the passage I look at it from all sides and I had to admit that yes it
it's talking about the Ten Commandments; and it SEEMS like it is saying that they were done
away.

But I said, “I can't accept that”; because “I can't believe that the commandments are done
away.”
And I remember that Jehovah's Witness Elder, he took his Bible, and he closed it and he said:
“Well, we have told you what the Bible says. We have shown you what the Bible says. But
you are coming to us, and you are using other sources to try to prove your point. So there's
nothing more we can do for you.”

And then he turned any deterrent and they left.

And I remember feeling defeated. I didn't have an answer. And I didn't know how to explain
this passage, and it seemed like these people were right. And so I went home and I prayed. I
went back to my room, and I prayed. And I spent several days going back over that passage,
again and again … until finally I saw where the passage is saying! And since I have
understood this … since I came to this understanding, it has COMPLETELY changed my
understanding of the relationship the Christian should have the Law! And that's why I guess I
want to begin with this passage; because if you can understand what this passage is saying,
everything else … all the references to the Law in the writings of -- especially of the Apostle
Paul -- become crystal clear! At one time Paul was very difficult for me to understand. Once
I got this key, everything became clear. Everything became easy to understand and the Bible
kind of opened up to my understanding.

So I'm challenging you. If you're an honest person, I'm challenging you to really look at this,
and stay with me as we go through. So, let us see what he's really saying here.

You see, there is A KEY WORD in the passage that I missed. While I was there with those
Jehovah's Witnesses, I missed this word. And sometimes, just by missing that one little word
you miss so much. And that is why in studying the Bible I have learned that words are
important. Individual words are important, because words are intended to convey a meaning.
And you can't bypass meanings and think that you are going to be able to … You can't
bypass individual words and pretend that they don't exist.

Now what Paul is talking about in this chapter of 2nd Corinthians is the covenants. The two
covenants. Alright?

So he says God has made us “able” or “capable” “ministers of the New Testament”, the New
Covenant. And in fact, you knows something … It might help to read it an easier version.

But anyway, I don't think I'm going to do that, because some people are so suspicious of
different versions. Maybe they won't accept it. But here it says God has “made us ministers
of the New Testament”. And if God has made us ministers of the New Testament or the New
Covenant, then obviously we're not ministers of the Old Covenant or the Old Testament.

That's the point he's making. God has made us ministers of the New Covenant.

And he says, “not of the letter, but of the Spirit”.

Now let's go back a few verses. Let's go to Verse verses 2 and 3.

Paul says to these Corinthians: “you are our epistle” our letter; “written in our hearts,
known and read of all men; forasmuch as you are manifestly declared. …” or “you are
clearly declared” “to be the Epistle of Christ”, “the letter of Christ” “ministered by
us”. We are the ones who have ministered to you. And you are “written not with ink”. This
letter that you are, is not written with ink. But you are written “with the Spirit of the
Living God”. You are not written on “tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the
heart”. That's the kind of letter that YOU are. You Corinthians! You God's people! That's
how you have been written. And it's in the same context he says God has made us ministers
of the New Covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit.

So Paul is saying my job, our job, is not to minister the LETTER, but to minister the SPIRIT.
… whatever that means. We are capable ministers, and what we carry is the SPIRIT, not the
LETTER.

Why? Because “the letter KILLS, but the Spirit gives life.”

Now what is the “letter”? You can think of a letter in several ways. A letter can be can be a
CHARACTER in the alphabet. A letter can be a DOCUMENT that you write, which in
which you used an information to another person. But whichever definition you want to give
it, a letter refers to what is written.

And this is what Paul is talking about. He's talking about the letter of the Law, which is the
Old Covenant. And he says “this kills!” but the Spirit gives life. And then he goes on to
clarify what he's saying -- because look at the next verse now.

“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones was glorious…”. He is
speaking here of the Ten Commandments. There's no question; no reasonable question. And
he refers to the Ten Commandments here as administration of death. It “was glorious, so
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of
his countenance; which glory was to be done away. How shall not the ministration of
the Spirit me rather glorious?” or “be even more glorious?”

So Paul is talking about two different kinds of MINISTRATIONS. And this is the KEY
WORD. Paul talks about the word “ministration” and this is the KEY. This is how you
understand this passage. Paul is not speaking about the Ten Commandments per se.
He's speaking of THE “MINISTRY” OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. See if you
can get that point. This is where the Jehovah's Witnesses misunderstood. And this is where I
didn't understand, and so I was confused.

If you go down to Verse 11 when he says “that which is done away”. … He's not saying
the Ten Commandments are done away, because – as I said – they are “holy and just and
good”. He's saying the “ministry” of the Ten Commandments is done away.

“Much more, that which remaineth is glorious”. What remains is the “ministry” of the
holy Spirit. Paul is talking about the kind of “ministry” that we, God's people, have; and the
way that God now ministers to His people. What he's talking about is the “ministry”; and he
uses this word “ministration”, which means a kind of “administration”, or a kind of
“government”.

I know that many of you who listen, you might be biased. You have your mind set against
listening to anything that David Clayton says. All right? You have been prejudiced. People
have told you things about me. But SURELY you can be honest with the Word of God.
SURELY you can look at what I'm saying. You can read it in another version. You can pray
and meditate about it. SURELY you can do that as a Christian. This is not MY IDEA. I'm
simply taking the Word of God, and reading it.

So, Paul speaks about this ministry of death – “written and engraven in stones”. And as I
said, the emphasis here is on the word “ministration”. It's a kind of ministry that is based on
what is written and which is OUTSIDE of a person. Paul says THIS KILLS; but the ministry
of the Spirit GIVES LIFE.

Now I'm going to make it very clear. I'm going to show you very clearly that what Paul is
referring to is the giving of the Commandments; the beginning of the ministry of the
Commandments, which was also the time of the giving of the Old Covenant. It was the same
thing. Now, he talks about the “ministry of death” – Verse 7 here. The “ministry of death,
written and engraven in stones”. It “was glorious, so that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance”. Now, what is
he referring to? Let's go to Exodus chapter 34, and we'll see exactly what he talking about.
In Exodus 34 it says that … I'll read from Verse 28 to 30.

28 “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he didn't either eat
bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the Covenant the
Ten Commandments.”

This is a covenant of Sinai. The WORDS of the Covenant are the Ten Commandments. In
other words, the Ten Commandments lay out the terms of the agreement.

29 “And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables
of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the Mount, that Moses wist not
…” [Moses did not know] “… that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”
30 “And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his
face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.”

Now this is exactly what Paul is talking about here, when he says in 2nd Corinthians 3. He
talks about the “ministration of death written and engraven in stones, being glorious, so
that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses because of the glory of
his face”; the glory of his countenance. And Paul makes it clear “which glory was to be
done away”! That glory on the face of Moses was temporary. It was PASSING! And yet,
although it was a passing glory, the children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses
because of it.

And then he says, “how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?” He's
saying the ministry of the Spirit is even more glorious than this. And what we need to
understand is that Paul is not talking about physical glory. Alright? What was on Moses face
was PHYSICAL GLORY. Moses face was TYPE or ILLUSTRATION. The glory of the
New Covenant is a greater glory, and it is a glory of Christ LIVING in the believer and
SHINING out of the believer! And so Paul says, “shall not the ministry of the Spirit be
RATHER”, be “MORE glorious?”

In Verse 9 he says “for if the ministry …” [I'm using “ministry” instead of “ministration”
because I just want to make sure we don't misunderstand.] “For if the ministry of
condemnation be glory” [or “be glorious”] “much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory”! “For even that which was made glorious” – that's the
First Covenant – “had no glory in this respect” … are to be in comparison with this NEW
GLORY! “It had no glory in comparison with the glory that excels.” This is what he's
saying when he's saying, “it had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that
excelleth.”

He goes on to say: “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which
remains is glorious”. So he's saying the First Covenant, that First Way in which God related
to his people, that FIRST METHOD OF MINISTRY is done away with. And the one that
remains is the MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT.

Now, let me just finish reading in the next couple of verses.

And by the way, when he says “the ministry of the Spirit”, what is he talking about?

Just to be sure that we don't misunderstand, let's go a little further down in the same chapter.
Let's go to Verse 17 so we don't mistake what it means. He says in Verse 17:

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,”

So when he talks about here the MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT, he's talking about the
MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST! He's talking about the MINISTRY. Look at what he says
in Verse 3: “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God; not in tables of
stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart”. He's talking about Christ living INSIDE.
That's the MINISTRY. That's the way God MINISTERS to his people today. Not by rules on
the OUTSIDE! But by Christ, the Living God, the Living Son of God, the living nature,
character of God dwelling INSIDE the believer.

So he says:

12 “Seeing them that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech:
13 and not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:”

What he's saying is that, “Look here. When it comes to this thing, I'm speaking plainly. I'm
not hiding what I have to say.” Moses had to hide a part of what he was presenting, because
he had to put a veil over his face. They could not see the GLORY associated with that Old
Covenant, because Moses hid it by covering his face. They could not looked at that end. But
he says, “We don't do this. We use great plainness of speech”.

And so he says, “But their minds were blinded: for until this day there remains the same
veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which vail is done away in
Christ.” So he's saying that they don't understand what is being said here. They are blinded,
and that blindness remains until today, because they don't understand the Old Covenant.
They don't understand the Old Testament. They are still locked in! The veil is still over their
faces that Moses had over his face. And he says the veil is done away in Christ; but look
what he says in Verse 13:

“… Moses put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look
to the end of that which is abolished.”

What he says is that THAT SYSTEM, THAT MINISTRY is abolished! Now he is not
saying the Law is abolished. Read my lips. He's not saying that the Law is done away.
You can't do away with God's character, even if it's just a limited expression. Any part
of his character is still good, and it still remains. It is still good not to kill. It's still good
not steal, or to tell lies, or to commit adultery, or to break the Sabbath. It is still good!

But what happens is that that system of controlling me, where there were rules on the outside
telling me what to do, God has ABOLISHED TO THAT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT! I
am no longer controlled by those RULES. God has taken that out of the way and he says, “I
have something better for you. That BETTER THING is that I'm going to put the Spirit of my
Son in your heart. And because I put my Spirit in your heart, I give you MY NATURE. So,
instead of Me giving you TEN PIECES of my nature, I'm giving you The Complete
Package!” WHY THEN would I still need the TEN PIECES if I have the Complete
Package?

Brothers and sisters, and enemies too, … can we understand what the Word of God is
saying? Can we understand the beauty of the gift that God has given us in His Son? I mean,
don't let prejudice blind your mind. READ what the passage is saying.

And I'm going to keep this video short. So I'm going to stop at this point.

But you know what? I'm going to make another one shortly; dealing with the SAME TRUTH
in different places and the New Testament. I'm going to show you how this is so CLEARLY
EXPRESSED over, and over, and over in the New Testament; so that there's no reasonable
way of misunderstanding what is being said.

So for those of you who are asking what is my position with regards to the Law. I hope you
will watch this video, because I think I've expressed it truthfully and clearly. Alright? God
bless you. And may the Spirit of God be with you as you listen and watch.
The subsequent lesson / video is: “Are Christians Dead To The Law?” posted on YouTube
on October 10, 2019, and the link is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyF1GLr3iy8