The Law in the Heart

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1908

The Law in the Heart

IN order that we may have a clear comprehension of the provisions of the gospel, it is necessary to remember some simple facts. Man was created in the image of God, endowed with a mind which allied him to his Creator. He was distinguished from all other members of the animal creation by the ability to recognize God, and the capacity for that fellowship with God which made it possible for him to reveal the character of God. To him was also granted that freedom of will which enabled him to exercise the high privilege of choice, and which rendered his service a constant tribute of praise and worship.

All this was changed when man chose to disobey God. Then the image of God was marred. Then the fellowship between man and God was broken. Then the power of obedience was lost; but through the provisions of the gospel the image is to be restored, the fellowship is to be renewed, and the power for obedience is to be furnished.

In the face of the great fact of the fall and the whole history of sin, such is the deceitfulness of the human heart that often men are led to indulge the idea that they can themselves bridge the chasm which separates them from God, and that by their own efforts they can yield that obedience to the requirements of God which is the evidence of a transformed nature. This lesson of the helplessness of humanity, the absolute need of a power from without to change the heart, and the entire dependence upon a constant supply of assisting grace in order to render acceptable obedience unto God, is one which all must learn, and it has been many times repeated.

Without a due sense of the real nature of sin, and without a proper realization of the weakness of human nature, it is easy to promise conformity to the divine will. This was the experience of the children of Israel at Sinai. During their long sojourn in Egypt and their constant association with idolaters, they had lost their perception of the spiritual character of God’s law and a realization of their own inability to obey it, and they therefore did not hesitate, even after the law had been spoken by the voice of God, to declare, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” But there was no power either in themselves or in their covenant to deliver them from the self-life, and to save them from falling into the sin so prevalent in Egypt. Accordingly, only a short time after entering into this solemn covenant, they “made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.” The utter uselessness of a covenant resting wholly in the power of the flesh was thus fully demonstrated, and the great lesson of dependence upon divine aid was inculcated.

After having been depraved by sin, a work must be accomplished for man before he is capable of rendering obedience to that law which is spiritual, and which takes hold upon the very thoughts of the heart. The provision for this needed work was made in the promise of the new covenant to write the law in the heart. That there was a radical difference between this covenant and the one made at Sinai, is plainly shown by the word of the Lord, who declares that it is “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” The essential difference is in this particular: In the old covenant, the law was spoken to the people, and written upon tables of stone, and to this law, merely as a code, they promised obedience. In the new covenant, God does that which places man upon vantage-ground. This is expressed in the promise, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” This would not compel obedience apart from man’s will and choice, but would render it possible for him to do the will of God by a constant exercise of faith in harmony with his choice. Thus the new covenant “was simply an arrangement for bringing men again into harmony with the divine will, placing them where they could obey God’s law.” This feature of the new covenant was entirely lacking from the old covenant.

The real meaning of the new covenant promise has been stated in these words: “The promise of the new covenant is to convert the external law into an inner life, to put it so in the heart that it shall be its inmost life, so that, as naturally as the heart wills and lives and acts on earth, it shall will and live and do what God demands.” This is but the interpretation of the inspired instruction: “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Of the fulfilment of this promise in his own experience, the apostle to the Gentiles wrote: “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The same law which was the basis of the old covenant is the basis of the new covenant. Obedience to this law brings the same results in all ages; but there is a vast difference between an obedience promised but not rendered, and an obedience made possible by the fulfilment of God’s promise and his assisting grace received through faith.