Excellency of the Law by Scott

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 9, 1868

Excellency of the Law.

By Scott

The words spoken are generally called, “The ten commandments;” and they are justly considered as the grand outlines of the holy law of God, commonly called the moral law, to distinguish it from the other injunctions of the Mosaic dispensation. As the full and exact knowledge of this law is peculiarly important, in order to our clearly understanding the whole system of revealed religion, I shall introduce the exposition of it, by some observations on its nature, obligations, and uses. A distinction between moral precepts, and instituted appointments, is evident. Some things are in themselves so indifferent, that the same authority which enjoined them, might, without impropriety, have prohibited them; but it is absurd to suppose that God could have forbidden us to love him and one another, or to speak truth and do justice. Some traces of the moral law are discoverable by our natural reason, and the whole perfectly accords to it. It has its foundation in the nature of God and of man; in the relations men bear to him, to each other, and in the duties which result from those relations; and on this account it is immutable and universally obligatory. Though given, on this particular occasion, to Israel, it demands obedience from all mankind; and the whole world will be judged according to this law, and to the opportunity which they have had of becoming acquainted with it, whether by reason and tradition alone, or by the light of the written word.

The law is also spiritual: that is, it takes cognizance of our spirits, of our most secret thoughts, desires, intentions, and dispositions; and demands a holy regulation of the judgment, will, and affections. It principally requires love, without which the best external obedience is condemned as mere hypocrisy. This is peculiar to the law of God, who alone can search the heart; and no other law ever attempted to enforce the obedience of the heart; but, in common with other laws, it demands perfect, unfailing, uninterrupted, and perpetual obedience; for no law can tolerate the transgression of itself. From the entrance to the close of life, God requires of us exact conformity to every precept. He that keepeth the whole law, and offendeth in one point, is guilty of all, (James ii, 8–13.) and the least deviation, whether by omission or commission, excess or defect, is sin; and every sin deserves wrath and needs forgiveness. (1 John iii, 4.) The ten commandments are the holy law, which is commented on in all the preceptive parts of Scripture; and the substance of its requirements is given, still more concisely, in the two great commandments, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength;’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ We are authorized, by the example of Christ, to interpret every one of these commands in the strictest, most spiritual, and extensive sense, of which it is capable. Even repentance, faith in a Mediator, and all evangelical graces and duties, are exercises of this entire love to God, and are required of sinners placed under a dispensation of mercy; though originally the law had no direct connection with redemption, but lay at the foundation of another covenant. We may therefore waive the controversy concerning the rule of duty, whether this be the ten commandments, or the whole word of God; for the one, properly understood, will be found as broad as the other; seeing we cannot love God with all our hearts, unless we love every discovery which he is pleased to make of his glory; believe every testimony and embrace every promise which he gives; seek his favor in the use of all the means that he appoints; and employ ourselves in diffusing the knowledge of his glorious excellencies and wonderful works, according to our ability and opportunity, and the station we occupy in society.

The Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled the extensive requirements of this holy law; yet, in his peculiar circumstances, it actually required all that love for the Father, and for his brethren, and all those expressions of it, which, subsequent to his incarnation, that he might be our Mediator, he manifested in his life and death. But no apostle or prophet ever reached, in one single instance, that degree of love and purity which it demands. The uses of this holy law, in connection with the gospel of Christ, and in subserviency to the covenant of grace, are many and important. ‘By the law is the knowledge of sin;’ and were it more fully understood, (in the extent and excellency of its spiritual requirements, and the justice of its awful sanctions,) sinners would be at once convinced of their guilt and danger; become acquainted with their wants, and prepared to understand and value the inestimable blessings of the gospel; and they would perceive their need of regeneration, and of that repentance, that life of faith in the Son of God, and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, which in general are disregarded, nay frequently ridiculed. Believers may thence learn their obligations, and receiving the law as the rule of their grateful obedience and the standard of holiness, daily self-examination according to it serves to keep them humble, dependent, diligent, and watchful. It also directs them in acquiring an exact judgment and correct spiritual taste, in respect of every part of the Christian temper; and, in many other ways, it promotes their establishment, fruitfulness, and consolation.

Besides these uses, the law served to restrain the Israelites from gross transgression, by its strictness and terrors; and it still, in a measure, answers the same purpose even to wicked men, and, where known, serves to keep the world in some degree of order. It also discovers the holy character of God, the nature of his government of the world, and the rule and measure of the future judgment, that ‘day of wrath and perdition of ungodly men.’ On the other hand, the bad effects resulting from ignorance or mistakes concerning the holy law of God, are manifold and deplorable. The dreams of a purgatory, either before or after the day of judgment; the flattering illusions of the merit of human obedience; the palliating excuses made for sin; the objections to the sovereignty of divine grace, and to God’s method of justifying sinners; and all antinomian perversions of those precious truths of revelation, seem principally to arise from this source. Ignorance of the extensive requirements of the divine law supports careless presumption and Pharisaical self-confidence; ignorance of its excellency excites murmurs and objections against the severity of its awful sanction. The same ignorance has led some to frame, in imagination, a new law, which has been substituted in the place of the holy law of God, since by sin man became unable to obey it; and the same ignorance has occasioned innumerable objections to the doctrine, and mistakes about the nature, of regeneration; and indeed it has prevented many real Christians from glorifying God in the manner they otherwise might have done. In short, were the law of God well understood, the person and office of the Saviour must appear most suitable and precious; and the genuine beauty of Christianity, as re-instating a lost sinner in his Maker’s favor, and recovering him to his image, in a way honorable to all the perfections of the Deity, would shine forth with unclouded lustre.

We may consider the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, either as a publication to mankind of the law of their reason and nature; or as given to Israel, for the rule and foundation of their national covenant. For want of adverting to this obvious distinction, it has been incautiously asserted, that the law itself was given only to the redeemed; which sentiment not only supposes the rest of Jehovah’s universal kingdom without a law, but vacates redemption itself; for ‘where there is no law, there is no transgression,’ no condemnation, no occasion for redemption. On the other hand, it has often asserted, or assumed, that the believer has in no sense anything to do with the law; nay, it is sometimes even ranked among the enemies, from which Christ came to deliver us: ‘Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.’ But since Christ has fulfilled its righteousness and borne its curse, all who hear the gospel are under a dispensation of mercy, and have forgiveness proposed to them; and all true believers are actually pardoned and justified, and are required, and inwardly disposed, to render a sincere, unreserved, habitual obedience to the law, though not able to obey it perfectly.—Scott.