p. 344 | An Infinite Contrast by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 10, 1913

An Infinite Contrast

By C. M. S.

When God said: “Harken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law,” he called the attention of the world to his people, and called the attention of his people to the sure result of maintaining a right relation to the law of God. That result is righteousness.

The new covenant promise to the child of God is: “I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Heb. 8:10. It is the earnest desire of every sincere Christian that the God of Israel shall be his God, and that God shall recognize him as being one of his people. This scripture makes it very plain that they who are to have Jehovah for their God must love his law; that they who are to be recognized by Jehovah as his people will have his law written in their hearts. There are many who, in order to get rid of the Sabbath, claim that the law was abolished in Christ and by him. Such an attitude on the part of Christ toward the law, would put him in direct antagonism to that scripture. Instead of that, we hear him saying: “Lo, I am come; in the roll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40:8. Again we hear Christ bearing this testimony to his own purpose in coming to this world: “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.” Matt. 5:17, 18.

He who contends, therefore, that Jesus Christ came to take anything away from the law, sets up his testimony against the testimony of Jesus himself. He who claims that Christ came to abolish the law contradicts our Lord’s most positive declaration.

Nevertheless, the Scripture does predict that some one would attempt to change God’s law; and it does not leave us in doubt as to the character of that personage and his attitude toward God himself. It is very natural and very logical that he who opposes God’s law should oppose God himself, as God’s law is the expression of his will and of his character. Concerning that power, or personage, we read:— “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.” Dan. 7:25.

Note the attitude of this power toward God, toward the saints of God, and toward the law of God. He is against them all. He blasphemes God, puts to death the saints, and attempts to reconstruct the law of God so that it may express his own will instead of God’s will. In other words, he would abolish God’s law and put his own in its place.

But this power which would abolish God’s law is to be itself abolished in the consummation of the controversy. Concerning that power the same inspired writer continues:— “But the judgment shall be set, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Verse 26.

While that power was speaking words against the Most High, wearing out the saints of the Most High, and attempting to change the very law of God, God was arranging for its final extinction, and for the triumph and the reward of those whom that power had worn out and trampled upon through the ages.

“And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Verse 27.

In these two verses is shown the culmination of the controversy between God and his people on the one hand and Satan and his agents on the other. The power that was against God, against his people, and against his law goes down to utter ruin and extinction; while the people whom that power had oppressed and put to death for their loyalty to God and his law are given “the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven.” By standing loyal to God and his law, they had become the victims of that power which sought to exalt itself above God and to abolish his law. But for standing thus loyal, God chooses to exalt them even to a partnership in his everlasting kingdom, and he says of them, as he points them out to his universe: “Here are they that keep the commandments

of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. They have not sought to abolish God’s law, but to keep it, to exalt it. They were willing it should be impressed upon their minds and written in their hearts; and because of that attitude toward the government of God as expressed in his law, God has chosen to exalt them highly, to give them places in his household made vacant by those who were disloyal to him and opposed to his law.

In view of this fact, should it not be a matter of the deepest concern to every professed follower of Christ whether or not he is maintaining the proper attitude toward the law of God? If he has considered God’s law abolished and has taught men so, he has been ranging himself on the side of the great enemy of God, and must find his place among those enemies when God separates those who serve him from those who serve him not. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19.

The adversary of God and man having sought to abolish the law of God, the professed Christian who declares the law abolished, declares in that very declaration the success of Satan and the dissolution of God’s kingdom; for, with the law of God abolished, the government of God goes down with a crash. There is no neutral ground. If we are with God, we stand for his government, and his government is based upon his law and can stand only as long as his law stands. If we fret under it, consider it a yoke of bondage, wish it were abolished, and teach that it has been, we stand upon the side of the adversary, and persisting in that attitude, we must go with him to his reward.

There is an infinite contrast between the attitude of the true child of God who bows in humble submission to God’s will as expressed in his law, and the attitude of the professed child of God who holds the law of God abolished and considers himself at liberty to disobey one or all its precepts. The one rejoices that “the law is abolished;” the other declares: “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” The one ranges himself on the side of the adversary, the other on the side of God. The one meets the reward of the adversary, and goes out into the darkness of eternal death; the other hears the “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and enters into the eternal joys of the redeemed in the everlasting kingdom of our Father. “Give ear, O my people, to my law.” Ps. 78:1. C. M. S.