The Law Still Lives by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 17, 1866

The Law Still Lives

By R. F. Cottrell

THIS is the chapter that is supposed to teach that the law of God is dead, even the moral law, the law that says, “Thou shalt not covet.” Verse 7. We admit that this is the law referred to in this chapter, but find no evidence here that this law has been slain. On the contrary the apostle affirms that it slew him. Verse 11. Dead men kill nobody—a man that is literally dead, literally slays no one. So the fact that the law slew Paul after the new dispensation was fully commenced, instead of proving it a “dead letter,” is proof positive that the law still lives.

This chapter is a continuation of the subject of life and death, burial and resurrection, introduced in the preceding chapter. In chapter vi, a figurative death, burial and resurrection are introduced, founded, of course, upon the literal fact that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is through Christ only that we are to escape literal condemnation to death, which is the wages of sin; and this is affected by dying beforehand—becoming “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He varies the figure, at one time saying “we that are dead to sin,” at another, “our old man is crucified”—in one expression he represents the Christian as being “dead with Christ,” in another he represents the “body of sin” as being “destroyed.” The person becomes dead to sin, by living no longer in it; sin is dead when it has lost its power and dominion over the person.

With this just view of the figurative language of the apostle, let us follow him into the seventh chapter. “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” That is, until he die to sin, or until sin in him be dead, the law has dominion over him, or holds him under its condemning power. Then comes the illustration, beautifully appropriate: “For the woman that hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

Our law-abolishing friends understand the husband in this illustration to mean the law of God; and that it was necessary for the law of God to die, in order that the person might be married to Christ. According to this view, the “holy, just and good” law of God was the only obstacle in the way of our union with Christ. Hence the husband, the law, must die. The illustration should then read, The woman that hath a husband is bound to her husband so long as her husband liveth; or, to throw off the figure, men were bound by the law to the law so long as the law lived; but the law died at the death of Christ—Christ's death slew the law by nailing it to his cross. If this view is correct, no one could be married to Christ before the crucifixion, because the first husband, the law, was still living—they would be guilty of adultery, if they claimed Christ as their own, while the law, the first husband, was still living. And as none can be saved out of Christ, all living before the crucifixion must be damned. But since the law is dead, all may be married to Christ—no danger of committing spiritual adultery now, the apostle James to the contrary notwithstanding. James iv, 4. And if the law, the only thing that held the sinner in condemnation is dead, men can now be saved without repentance; for sin is nothing else but the “transgression of the law.”

But all may see who will, that there are four distinct objects in the apostle's illustration. 1. The woman. 2. The law. 3. The first husband. 4. The second husband. The law and the first husband are distinctly two things. Which of them must die? It is not necessary that both the law of marriage and the first husband should die, in order to a second marriage; only the husband need die, the law is necessary to a second legal marriage. If the law of marriage were dead, the woman might have two husbands at the same time without committing adultery. The law then does not die. The woman is “loosed from the law,”

not because the law is no more, but because her husband is dead.

What then is the application of the figure? 1. The woman represents mankind. 2. The law represents the law of God. 3. The “old man,” or “sin,” is the first husband. 4. Christ is the second husband. Genuine repentance is the death of the first husband. The law holds us under the “dominion” of sin, a cruel tyrant of a husband, until we die to sin, to live no longer therein, or, until our “old man” be crucified and the “body of sin” be dead. Then we may be “married to another,” a very kind husband, “even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God;” a holy progeny, even obedience to that law which is “holy, just and good,” or, in other words, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” Chapter viii, 4. “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, [the first husband,] and become servants to God, [by obedience to his law,] ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Chapter vi, 20–22.

Baptism is the marriage “ceremony,” by which we are united “to him that is raised from the dead.” “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” Chapter vi, 4, 5. But it is illegal, and worse than useless to perform this ceremony, until the first husband be dead. The apostle warns us in the very next verse, to be sure of this. “Knowing this,” says he, “that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that HENCEFORTH WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN.”

As “sin is the transgression of the law,” here is the strongest evidence that the law has not been abolished—that it did not die that we might be married to Christ. None say that it did, but those that are living in sin, that is, those who transgress, at least, one of its precepts. No Christian will justify the violation of any one of the ten commandments, except the fourth, the Sabbath precept. None would attempt to prove the decalogue dead, but to excuse themselves for disregarding the Sabbath. But the seventh of Romans says nothing about that particular commandment. It speaks of the law that says, “Thou shalt not covet,” as a whole. If one precept is dead, so are the other nine. But no one believes this. Why then will they risk their eternal all upon some sophistical arguments and self-evident fallacies? Oh, the deceitfulness of sin! It cheats men out of their right reason. It is a cruel, tyrannical husband, and none should profess to be married to Christ till it is dead. They should serve sin no more. R. F. COTTRELL.