Another Law by C. P. BOLLMAN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1915

Another Law

By C. P. BOLLMAN

C. P. BOLLMAN

The majority of us are familiar with the subject of “the two laws”—the moral and the ceremonial. But in Rom. 7:23 the apostle speaks of “another law,” not the law of God spoken from Sinai by its author and by him written upon tables of stone; not the ceremonial law, given to Moses and by him written in a book; but a law directly opposed to the divine law and ever warring against it. What then is this law? The apostle Paul found it in his members, and even so it is in our members. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we know both what it is and how we may be set free from it.

In the seventh chapter of Romans the apostle recounts the experiences through which the sinner passes in coming to Christ for salvation. He is not excusing sin, but describing the bondage of sin, and pointing the way to freedom from sin. Reverting to his own experience, which is not different from that of others, the apostle says:—

“I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

And at this point, overwhelmed by the realization that sin is written, so to speak, in his very members, woven into the warp and woof of his whole being, the sinner, feeling his way toward Christ, but having not yet cast his soul fully upon him, cries out in anguish of heart, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” or, in other words, from the cruel dominion of that other “law,” “warring against the law” of the mind, and leading the soul into captivity to sin and death.

But there is hope, there is help, help speedy and efficient. Says the psalmist: “Then thou spakest in vision to thy saints, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” Ps. 89:19, A. R. V.

And so the apostle, recounting his own blessed experience in finding the Saviour, as well as pointing the way to every seeking soul, triumphantly exclaims, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit;” that is, who live no longer according to the rule which the apostle calls “another law,” “the law of sin and death,” but according to the law of God.

It seems scarcely necessary to add that that other law, “the law of sin and death,” is the carnal nature, “the old man,” “the carnal mind,” which “is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

But whence comes all this evil? Did God create the evil heart, “the carnal mind,” “the old man”?—Not as such. He “made man upright,” but with the power of choice. He set before him an open door; man could choose the service of God and eternal life, or he could choose the service of Satan and eternal death. In a sense, God gives every man that which he chooses—God’s own law of life, and love, and liberty; or the law of man’s own evil heart. “Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God; . . . I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. . . . Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. . . . Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end they might know that I am the Lord.” Eze. 20:5-26.

God never gave man anything that was not for his good, except in the sense of allowing him to have the thing he chose of his own free will. In Prov. 8:36 personified wisdom is represented as saying, “All they that hate me love death;” that is, they choose death by rejecting true wisdom. For a little temporary pleasure, for mere sensuous enjoyments, men barter away eternal life and unending spiritual felicity. Not that they mean to do this, but in the very nature of things that is the result; hence they are said to make that choice. In like manner God is said to give that which necessarily results from violation of the laws which he has ordained.

The moral law, which defines and points out sin, is a law of liberty to those who obey it. It is a law of death to those who violate it. The ceremonial law was the gospel in type to the true worshiper; while to the mere formalist it no doubt became a snare and a false hope, even as do baptism and the Lord’s Supper to those who put their trust in them while neglecting the weightier matters of the law, “judgment, mercy, and faith.”

What the soul wants and must have is full and eternal freedom from sin; this the gospel, and the gospel only, gives. This, and this alone, is true liberty. To this end was our Saviour’s incarnation; to this end was his perfect life, his unselfish ministry, his cruel death, his triumphal resurrection; and by these we are made free if we only believe and obey.

To all who will to serve him, God gives his own character, writing his law upon their hearts. But to such as refuse his law of righteousness he gives the law that is not good, the statutes by which they shall not live. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.”