The Perpetuity of the Law of God
By C. H. Spurgeon
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5: 18. I gather from our text two things upon which I shall speak at this time. The first is that the law of God is perpetual: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” The meaning is that even in the least point it must abide till all be fulfilled. Secondly, we perceive that the law must be fulfilled: Not “one jot or one tittle shall . . . pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” He who came to bring in the gospel dispensation, here asserts that he has not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. First: the law of God must be perpetual. There is no abrogation of it, nor amendment of it. It is not to be toned down, or adjusted, to our fallen condition; but every one of the Lord’s righteous judgments abideth forever. I would urge three reasons which will establish this teaching. In the first place, our Lord Jesus declares that he did not come to abolish it. His words are most express: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” And Paul tells us with regard to the gospel, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3: 31. The gospel is the means of the firm establishment and vindication of the law of God. Jesus did not come to change the law, but he came to explain it, and that very fact shows that it remains; for there is no need to explain that which is abrogated. Upon one particular point in which there happened to be a little ceremonialism involved, namely, the keeping of the Sabbath, our Lord enlarged, and showed that the Jewish idea was not the true one. The Pharisees forbade even the doing of works of necessity and mercy, such as rubbing ears of corn to satisfy hunger, and healing the sick. Our Lord Jesus showed that it was not at all according to the mind of God to forbid these things. In straining over the letter, and carrying an outward observance to excess, they had missed the spirit of the Sabbath law, which suggested works of piety such as truly hallow the day. He showed that— was not mere inaction, and he said: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” He pointed to the priests who labored hard at offering sacrifices, and said of them: “The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless.” They were doing divine service, and were within the law. To meet the popular error he took care to do some of his grandest miracles upon the Sabbath day; and though this excited great wrath against him, as though he were a law-breaker, yet he did it on purpose that they might see that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, and that it was meant to be a day for doing that which honors God and blesses men. O that men knew how to keep the spiritual Sabbath by a ceasing from all servile work, and from all work done for self! is the true Sabbath, and the service of God is the most acceptable hallowing of the day. O that the day were wholly spent in serving God and doing good! The sum of our Lord’s teaching was that works of necessity, works of mercy, and works of piety are lawful on the Sabbath. He did explain the law in that point and in others, yet that explanation did not alter the command, but only removed the rust of tradition which had settled upon it. By thus explaining the law he confirmed it; he could not have meant to abolish it, or he would not have needed to expound it. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in addition to explaining the law and pointing out its spiritual character, also unveiled— for when one asked him, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” he said, “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.” In other words, he has told us, “All the law is fulfilled in this— There is the pith and marrow of it. Does any man say to me, “You see, then, instead of the ten commandments, we have received the two commandments, and these are much easier”? I answer that this reading of the law is not in the least easier. Such a remark implies a want of thought and experience. Those two precepts comprehend the ten at their fullest extent, and can not be regarded as the erasure of a jot or tittle of them. Whatever difficulties surround the ten commands are equally found in the two, which are their sum and substance. If you love God with all your heart, you must keep the first table; and if you love your neighbor as yourself, you must keep the second table. If any suppose that the law of love is an adaptation of the moral law to man’s fallen condition, he greatly errs. I can only say that the supposed adaptation is no more adapted to us than the original law. If there could be conceived to be any difference in difficulty, it might be easier to keep the ten than the two; for if we go no deeper than the letter, the two are more exacting, since they deal with the— Heart, and Soul, and Mind
The ten commands mean all that the two express; but if we forget this, and look only at the wording of them, I say it is harder for a man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength, and his neighbor as himself, than it would be merely to abstain from killing, stealing, and false witness. Christ has not, therefore, abrogated or at all moderated the law to meet our helplessness; he has left it in all its sublime perfection, as it always must be left, and he has pointed out how deep are its foundations, how elevated are its heights, how measureless are its length and breadth. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, God’s commands can not be altered; we are saved by another method. To show that he never meant to abrogate the law, our Lord Jesus has embodied all its commands in his own life. In his own person there was a nature which was perfectly conformed to the law of God; and as was his nature, such was his life. He could say, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” and again, “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” . . . He was so perfect and pure, so infinitely good, and so complete in his agreement and communion with the Father, that he in all things carried out the Father’s will. The Father said of him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Point out, if you possibly can, any way in which Christ has violated the law, or left it unfulfilled. There was never an unclean thought or rebellious desire in his soul; he had nothing to regret or to retract. He was thrice tempted in the wilderness, and the enemy had the impertinence even to suggest idolatry, but he instantly overthrew the adversary. The prince of this world came to him, but he found nothing in him. “My dear Redeemer, and my Lord,
I read my duty in thy Word;
But in thy life the law appears
Drawn out in living characters.” Once more: that the Master did not come to alter the law is clear, because after having embodied it in his life, he willingly gave himself up to bear its penalty, though he had never broken it, bearing the penalty for us, even as it is written, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” If the law had demanded more of us than it ought to have done, would the Lord Jesus have rendered to it the penalty which resulted from its too severe demands?—I am sure he would not. But because the law asked only what it ought to ask—namely,— and exacted of the transgressor only what it ought to exact, namely, death as the penalty for sin,—death under divine10wrath,—therefore the Saviour went to the tree, and there bore our sins, and purged them once for all. He was crushed beneath the load of our guilt, and cried, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” and at last when he had borne— “All that incarnate God could bear,
With strength enough, but none to spare.” he bowed his head, and said, “It is finished.” Our Lord Jesus Christ gave a greater vindication to the law by dying, because it had been broken, than all the lost can ever give by their miseries. He has borne all that was due from his people, and the law is defrauded of nothing. By his death he has vindicated the honor of God’s moral government, and made it just for him to be merciful. When— The Lawgiver Himself Submits to the Law,
when the Sovereign himself bears the extreme penalty of that law, then is the justice of God set upon such a glorious high throne that all admiring worlds must wonder at it. If therefore it is clearly proved that Jesus was obedient to the law, even to the extent of death, he certainly did not come to abolish or abrogate it; and if he did not remove it, who can do so? If he declares that he came to establish it, who shall overthrow it? The Law Perpetual by Nature
But, secondly, the law of God must be perpetual from its very nature; for does it not strike you the moment you think of it that right must always be right, truth must always be true, and purity must always be purity? Before the ten commandments were published at Sinai, there was still that same law of right and wrong laid upon men by the necessity of their being God’s creatures. before a single command had been committed to words. When Adam was in the garden, it was always right that he should love his Maker, and it would always have been wrong that he should have been at cross-purposes with his God; and it does not matter what happens in this world, or what changes take place in the universe, it never can be right to lie, or to commit adultery, or murder, or theft, or to worship an idol god. I will not say that the principles of right and wrong are as absolutely self-existent as God, but I do say that I can not grasp the idea of God himself as existing apart from his being always holy and always true; so that the very idea of right and wrong seems to me to be necessarily permanent, and can not possibly be shifted. You can not bring right down to a lower level; it must be where it always is; right is right eternally, and can not be wrong. You can not lift up wrong and make it somewhat right; it must be wrong while the world standeth. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the smallest letter or accent of the moral law can possibly change. In spirit the law is eternal. The law of God is no more than God might most righteously ask of us. If God were about to give us a more tolerant law, it would be an admission on his part that he asked too much at first. Can that be supposed? Was there, after all, some justification for the statement of the wicked and slothful servant when he said, “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man”?—It can not be. For God to alter his law would be an admission that he made a mistake at first, that he put poor, imperfect men (we are often hearing that said) under too rigorous a régime, and therefore he is now prepared to abate his claims, and make them more reasonable. A Specious but False Doctrine
It has been said that man’s moral inability to keep the perfect law exempts him from the duty of doing so. This is very specious, but it is utterly false. Man’s inability is not of the kind which removes responsibility; it is moral, not physical. Never fall into the error that moral inability will be an excuse for sin. What! when a man becomes such a liar that he can not speak the truth, is he thereby exempted from the duty of truthfulness? If your servant owes you a day’s labor, is he free from the duty because he has made himself so drunk that he can not serve you? Is a man freed from a debt by the fact that he has squandered the money, and therefore can not pay it? Is a lustful man free to indulge his passions because he can not understand the beauty of chastity? This is dangerous doctrine. The law is a just one, and man is bound by it, though sin has rendered him incapable of doing so. I should like to ask any brother who thinks that God has put us under an altered rule: Which particular part of the law is it that God has relaxed? do you feel free to break? Which law is it that God has exempted you from? That law of worshiping him only? Do you propose to have another god? Do you intend to make graven images? The fact is that when we come to detail, we can not afford to lose a single link of this wonderful golden chain, which is perfect in every part as well as perfect as a whole. The law is— and you can neither add to it nor take from it. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” If, then, no part of it can be taken down, it must stand, and stand forever. A third reason I will give why the law must be perpetual is that to suppose it altered is most dangerous. To take away from the law its perpetuity is, first of all, to take away from it its power to convince of sin. Is it so that I, being an imperfect creature, am not expected to keep a perfect law? Then it follows that I do not sin when I break the law; and if all that is required of me is that I am to do according to the best of my knowledge and ability, then I have— A Very Convenient Rule Indeed,
and most men will take care to adjust it so as to give themselves as much latitude as possible. By removing the law you have done away with sin; for sin is the transgression of the law, and where there is no law, there is no transgression. When you have done away with sin, you may as well have done away with the Saviour and with salvation; for they are by no means needful. When you have reduced sin to a minimum, what need is there of that great and glorious salvation which Jesus Christ has come to bring into the world? Brethren, we must have none of this: it is evidently a way of mischief. By lowering the law you weaken its power in the hands of God as a convincer of sin. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” which shows us our spots, and that is a most useful thing, though nothing but the gospel can wash them away. It is only a pure and perfect law that the Holy Spirit can use in order to show to us our depravity and sinfulness. Lower the law, and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner, rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. You have also taken away from the law its power to shut us up to the faith of Christ. What Is the Law of God For?
For us to keep in order to be saved by it?—Not at all. It is sent in order to show us that we can not be saved by works, and to shut us up to be saved by grace. But if you make out that the law is altered, so that a man can keep it, you have left him his old legal hope, and he is sure to cling to it. You need a perfect law that shuts man right up to— Hopelessness Apart from Jesus,
puts him into an iron cage, and locks him up, and offers him no escape but by faith in Jesus; then he begins to cry, “Lord, save me by grace, for I perceive that I can not be saved by my own works.” This is how Paul describes it to the Galatians: “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed. Wherefore the law was— to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary when you have set aside the law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. No; it must stand, and stand in all its terrors, to drive men away from self-righteousness, and constrain them to fly to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy11law. Therefore the law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place. To alter the law is to leave us without any law at all. A sliding-scale of duty is— fatal to the principles of law. If each man is to be accepted because he does his best, we are all doing our best. Is there anybody that is not? If we take their words for it, all our fellow men are doing as well as they can, considering their imperfect natures. Self-righteousness builds itself a nest even in the worst character. This is the man’s talk: “Really, if you knew me, you would say I have been a good fellow to do as well as I have. Consider what a poor, fallen creature I am; what strong passions were born in me; what temptations to vice beset me, and you will not blame me much. After all, I dare say God is as satisfied with me as with many who are a great deal better, because I had so few advantages.” Yes, you have shifted the standard, and every man will now do that which is right in his own eyes, and claim to be doing his best. If you shift the standard pound weight or the bushel measure, you will certainly never get full weight or measurement again. There will be— to go by, and each man will do his best with his own pounds and bushels. If the standard be tampered with, you have taken away the foundation upon which trade is conducted; and it is the same in soul matters—abolish the best rule that ever can be, even God’s own law, and there is no rule left worthy of the name. What a fine opening this leaves for vainglory! No wonder that men talk of perfect sanctification if the law has been lowered. There is nothing at all remarkable in our getting up to the rule if it is conveniently lowered for us. I believe I shall be perfectly sanctified when I keep God’s law without omission or transgression, but not till then. If any man says that he is perfectly sanctified because he has come up to a modified law of his own, I am glad to know what he means; for I have no longer any discussion with him. I see nothing wonderful in his attainment. Sin is any want of conformity to the law of God, and until we are perfectly conformed to that law in all its spiritual length and breadth, it is idle for us to talk about perfect sanctification. No man is perfectly clean till he accepts absolute purity as the standard by which he is to be judged. So long as there is in us any coming short of the perfect law, we are not perfect. What a humbling truth this is! The law shall not pass away, but it must be fulfilled. This truth must be maintained; for if it goes, our tacklings are loosed, we can not well strengthen the mast; the ship goes all to pieces; she becomes— The gospel itself would be destroyed could you destroy the law. To tamper with the law is to trifle with the gospel. “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.”—C. H. Spurgeon.