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Faith and the Law

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 31, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 22.

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Faith and the Law

By L. A. S.

In an argument to prove that Christians are not under obligation to keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, Zion’s Watch Tower says:—
Their faith in God [the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] constituted an obligation to do the divine will to the extent of their knowledge and ability; and the same is true of us; . . . to us love is the fulfilling of the law. . . . Such a love permits us to be and to do in harmony with the divine will to the extent of our ability; and the Lord, who is dealing with us according to our intentions and endeavors, and who is covering our unwilling weaknesses and imperfections, counts this service of the heart and intention as a perfect keeping of the divine law.
The Bible assures us that the law of God is not made void through faith. Rom. 3:31. He who has true faith does not seek to evade the claims of the law; and it must follow from this that he who does seek to make void the law, or any part of it, is not actuated by true faith. Of this class are those who argue against the binding claims of the fourth commandment.
True faith looks to Jesus Christ as the one who keeps the law of God, and keeps it perfectly, and trusts in his fulfilling of the law for salvation. The working of true, saving faith is expressed by Paul in the statement: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. But the doctrine which makes void the law says that our service of “weaknesses and imperfections” is counted “as a perfect keeping of the divine law.” What could be further from the truth?
No man of intelligence counts his failures as a perfect keeping of God’s law; and much less does God count them as such. God does not count a thing to be true unless it is true. Our doing “to the best of our ability,” which is full of “weaknesses and imperfections,” is verily not the keeping of the law which God requires, and for which Christianity provides. There must be, and is, a perfect keeping of the law, but it is Christ’s keeping of the law, in us. Christ is perfect; his keeping of the law is perfect. It has been so from the first, and must ever continue to be so.
And since it is Christ who keeps the law in us, we need find no fault with the requirements of the law, nor seek to be freed from any of them; for Christ will do all things that the law of God requires. True faith has no controversy with the law. And wherever there is a controversy with the law, a seeking to be freed from any of its requirements, or a rejoicing in the assumption that the law has been done away, either in whole or in part, the fact is conclusive evidencethat true faith is not operating in the mind of that individual. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
L. A. S.