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The Law and the Gospel

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California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Mar 11, 1875

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 18.

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The Law and the Gospel.

By J. W.

THE position taken last week was that in carrying out the great unit plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, which covers the entire period of human probation, there is perfect harmony between the law of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The divine law, however, dates back before the gospel. It existed before the fall, or there could not have been any such thing as the fall. It existed as early as there were created intelligences subject to the government of the Creator; and it extends to the future, running parallel with the eternity of God's moral government. Angels fell, therefore were on probation. They, being on probation, were consequently amenable to law. In the absence of law they could not be on probation, therefore could not fall. The same may be said of Adam and Eve in Eden.
The ten commandments, as worded in the Sacred Scriptures, are adapted to fallen beings. As thus worded, they are not adapted to the condition of holy angels, nor to man in his holy estate in Eden. The two grand principles of God's moral government existed before the fall, in the form of law. These are given in the Old Testament, Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18, and are quoted by Christ in the New, Matt. 22:37-40, as the two great commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
These two commandments require supreme love to the Creator, and love to fellow-creatures equal to that bestowed upon one's self. Angels could do no more than these require. Adam, before the fall, could do no more. We can do no more. The two great commandments embrace all that is required by the ten precepts of the moral code. No precept and no principle of the book of God extends beyond these.
Soon after the fall, we see the two principles of God's moral government guarded by ten precepts, worded to meet man's fallen condition. Love to God is taught in the first four commandments, and love to our fellow-man is taught in the last six. The prophets of the Lord, the Son of God, and the apostles of Jesus, have all spoken in harmony with the ten precepts of the law of God. The whole duty of man, says Solomon, is to fear God and keep his commandments.
The ten precepts of the decalogue, so worded as to be adapted to man's fallen condition, were enforced as early as the circumstances demanded them. The first three were applicable to Adam immediately after the fall. And although the Sabbath of the fourth precept was instituted at the close of the first week of time, before the fall, and we have evidence that Adam was directed to observe it as a memorial of creation, yet that portion of the precept adapted to the fallen state, relative to the man-servant, the maid-servant, and the stranger, could not exist till a later period, when such relations existed. The fifth commandment could not be enforced until applicable to Adam's children. The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, were enforced as early as the parties existed to whom they could properly apply.
There is nothing in the moral condition of man in his fallen state, nor in the nature of the ten commandments themselves, to restrict them to any one dispensation more than another. Man's moral wretchedness is the same, only more deplorable as he advances from the gates of Paradise toward the close of probation. And the law of God, adapted to his fallen state, is applicable and necessary throughout the entire period of his fallen condition, from Paradise lost to Paradise regained. The reign of sin and that of death run parallel from Adam until sin and sinners shall cease to be. And parallel with these, stretching through all dispensations, there has been the knowledge of the principles of the ten commandments, consequently, a knowledge of sin.
The means of the knowledge of sin has been the law of God. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. 3:20. "I had not known sin, but by the law." Chap. 7:7. As proof that this knowledge did exist immediately after the fall, see Gen. 4:7, 23, 24; 6:5. Noah was righteous before God. Chap. 7:1. He was a preacher of righteousness. 2 Pet. 2:5. By his preaching right-doing, reproving the sins of the people of his time, he condemned the world. Heb. 11:7. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were great sinners, excepting one man. Abraham interceded, saying, Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Gen. 18:20, 23, 25; 19:7. The blessing of God came upon Abraham, because he kept his commandments. Gen. 26:5. Those who refused obedience experienced the wrath of God for their transgressions. The cities of the plain were condemned for their unlawful deeds. 2 Pet. 2:6-8.
As an illustration of this subject, we briefly notice the murder of righteous Abel. Cain killed his brother, and as a sinner received the mark of God's displeasure. Sin, says the apostle, is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4. Cain broke the sixth commandment, hence that precept existed in the time of Cain. Otherwise he did not sin; for where no law is, there is no transgression. Rom. 4:15.
The foregoing positions relative to the law of God would not meet with opposition were it not for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The proper observance of the Bible Sabbath is not only crossing, but inconvenient with many, and not favorable to the successful prosecution of their worldly plans. The fearful and unbelieving dodge its claims, brand it as a Jewish institution, and frequently assert that it was unknown to men until the Sabbath law was proclaimed from Sinai. Sacred history, however, proves this statement incorrect. The facts connected with the giving of the manna show that the Israelites understood the obligations of the Sabbath, and that some of the people violated them, and were reproved by the Lord, thirty days before they saw Mount Sinai. See Ex. 16-19. The record of setting apart the Sabbath to a holy use is given in Gen. 2:1-3, as an event that occurred at the close of the first week of time. And the fourth precept of the divine law, in giving the grand reason for observing the Sabbath, cites what God did on that first week.
The Sabbath was made for man, the entire race, Mark 2:27, by three acts on the part of the Creator. First, he created in six days, and rested from his work of creating on the seventh day. Secondly, he put his blessing upon the day of his rest, which was the last day of the first week of time. Thirdly, he sanctified, or set apart to a sacred use, the day in which he had rested. Hence these words from the divine precept: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." Then follows the reason. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." The entire period from creation to the utterance of the moral code at Sinai, a period of twenty-five hundred years, is doubly spanned, first by the sacred record of the institution of the Sabbath at the close of the first week, which looks forward to its observance on the last day of each succeeding week, and, secondly by the law of the Sabbath, which points back to the important facts of the first week of time upon which the institution is based. Here is sufficient evidence that the Sabbath should have been observed during this period. And the absence of distinct mention of Sabbath observance in the brief record of the long period covered by the book of Genesis is no evidence that it was not observed by those who were faithful and obedient from Adam to Moses. God gives the reason why his blessing should come upon the father of the faithful without measure, in these words: "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Gen. 26:5.
We call attention to three grand events which have taken place in connection with the sad history of fallen man, either one of which is sufficient to establish the perpetuity of the law of God.
First, the fall, with all its terrible consequences. If the law of God was of such a nature that it could be changed in a single particular at any time, why was it not changed when there were but two fallen beings, just before Adam and Eve left Eden. If the plan of God's moral government could be changed, it would then have been changed, so as to set these two sinners free in holy Eden, and save the tide of human wretchedness which has followed. But, no; it could not be changed. The curse must fall upon man, and upon the earth for man's sake. And the blight and mildew of sin must follow everywhere, and moral darkness, like a pall of death, must spread everywhere over a world groaning beneath the weight of transgression. Why? Because God's law that had been transgressed could not be changed. This is the result of sin and the terrible fall. And this has all come about because of the transgression of that law which is as changeless as the throne of Heaven. Every fading flower and falling leaf, since man left Eden, has proclaimed the law of God changeless.
If that law could ever be changed in any particular, it would have been altered when there were but two fallen beings. It would then have been changed in such a way as to free them from the sentence of death, raise them from their degradation, and save the race from continued sin, crime, and woe. But for six thousand years the tide has been swelling, and creation has been adding groan to groan. Who can compute the amount of moral wretchedness and agony in consequence of the violation of God's immutable law? The fall, then, with all its accumulated wretchedness, proclaims the divine law changeless.
Secondly, the announcement of the ten commandments from Sinai with imposing display. It was not left for Moses to proclaim this law. It was not left to the angel Gabriel to assemble the tribes of Israel, and utter these ten holy precepts in their hearing. The Lord himself descends in awful grandeur, and proclaims them in the hearing of all the people.
And do you infer that that was the origin of the law of God? And do you affirm that he has since abolished that code? When did he do this? Where did he do it? Has any prophet foretold that such an event should take place? And has any apostle recorded that it has taken place? Certainly not. It is only by confounding the handwriting of ordinances with the moral code that was spoken from Sinai, and engraven in the tables of stone by the finger of God, that men infer that the divine law is abrogated.
Congress enacts laws which are published throughout the Union. The people understand them. Some of these laws are afterward repealed or changed. Is this done in secret, and the people permitted to know nothing about it? No; the same law-making body makes the changes, and the people are apprised of the fact. And has not God manifested as much wisdom and benevolence in the management of the affairs of his moral government in which man has so great an interest—affairs which affect his eternal welfare? He came down upon Sinai, and proclaimed his law under such circumstances as to impress the people with its grandeur, dignity, and perpetuity. Who can suppose that he would change it or abolish it, and say nothing about it?
Thirdly, the crucifixion establishes the law of God. If that law was of such a nature that it could be abolished, or any of its precepts changed, why not have this done, and set man free, instead of God's dear Son laying aside his glory, taking our nature, living the sad life he lived here upon the earth, suffering in Gethsemane, and finally expiring upon the cross? Oh! why should the divine Son of God do and suffer all this to save man, if that law which held him a sinner could be changed so that he could be set free? But no change could be made in the divine law. Man had fallen, and was shut up in the prison-house of sin. And his sins were of such a nature that the death of a sinless angel, a being amenable to law, and consequently less in value than law, was not sufficient. No sacrifice was adequate but the sacrifice of One who was higher than law, and not amenable to it. He only who engaged with the Father in the formation of man, could constitute a sufficient sacrifice to open the door of hope by which the sons and daughters of Adam might find pardon, and be saved.
"Come, O my soul, to Calvary," and there behold love and agony mingled in the death of the Son of God. Behold him groaning in Gethsemane. His divine soul was in agony as the sins of men were rolled upon him. "My soul," said he, "is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." The weight of man's sin in transgressing God's immutable law was such as to press from his pores as it were great drops of blood. He then bears his cross to Calvary. The nails are driven into his hands and feet. The cross is erected. There the bleeding Lamb hangs six terrible hours. The death of the cross was most agonizing. But there was in his case the additional weight of the sins of the whole world. In his last expiring agony he cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and bows his head in death.
The sun, the brightest luminary in heaven, can no longer view the scene, and is vailed as with sackcloth. The vail of the temple, the noblest work of man, is rent in twain. Christ, the noblest being in the universe, save one, is dying in agony. Creation feels the shock, and, groaning and heaving, throws open the graves of many of the saints, who come out of their graves after his resurrection. The law must stand as firm as the throne of Heaven, although the earth may shake, and the whole creation tremble, as the Son of God dies for the sins of men.
J. W.