End of the Law by R. F. Cottrell

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

End of the Law.

By R. F. Cottrell

THERE are some so desirous that a certain part of the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, should not be binding upon them, that they will seize anything that will favor their prejudice, and seem willing to destroy the whole law, if by that means they can find an excuse for violating one of its precepts.

In Rom. x, 4, they find the declaration, that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." They catch the words, "end of the law," with an eagerness that shows that they certainly would be very glad to have the law out of existence, at least that part that condemns them, and if this can be accomplished, they are willing the testimony shall say that the whole moral law has indeed come to an end, and is blotted out forever. If this text proves any part of the law to have ceased to exist, it proves the same of the whole, for no part is singled out, but it speaks of the law as a whole.

The end of the law, they will have it, is its total cessation, or the last of it. They would, by no means, hold that faith has also come to an end; though they have equally as good testimony to prove it. Says Peter, "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Now if the law is ended, being superseded by faith in Christ, faith is also ended; and superseded by salvation. "The end of the commandment is charity." The object and design of the commandment is to lead us to charity, or love. Is not the commandment binding which teaches us to love—that leads us to charity? If this commandment is no longer binding, then love or charity is no longer required; for if the commandment which was given for the purpose of leading us to love, is abolished, then love is abolished, as it is no part of our duty.

Had not the law been transgressed, man would have lived by the law. "The commandment was ordained unto life"—it is death for no other reason than that it has been transgressed. "The wages of sin is death." Sin turns the commandment into death. "The law was ordained unto life," but it cannot give us life, because we have transgressed it. Christ gives life to the sinner—the thing the law would do, but that it is "weak through the flesh"—sinful flesh. But Christ offers pardon, and through pardon, life. Thus the object and design of the law is found in Christ. He is the end or object of the law, giving righteousness and life to the sinner—to every one that believeth. Does this make an end of the law? or does it secure the design of the law to give righteousness and life to man?

But if the end of the law is its abolition, it is abolished only as it respects the believer. "Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth." Those that do not believe then are still bound to keep the law—they are bound to moral duties that the believer is not bound to. Then if the unbeliever fulfills his obligations to moral duty, he will be a better man than the believer can be; because he (the believer) is not bound to the moral duties of the law of God. The law has come to an end as it respects him. This puts me in mind of an anecdote I have heard, of a singular sort of a man, who said he had "sometimes thought that sinners were the best Christians." He had found non-professors more ready to oblige him than professors. And so they ought to be, according to the theory that Christ has abolished the law to the believer only. And this is the case, if the text under consideration teaches the cessation of the law of which it speaks.

Thus it is evident that the text teaches no such thing. It is a position that any sane man would be ashamed of in the judgment. Then be ashamed of it now, and turn from it.

R. F. COTTRELL.