p. 12 | Objects Exploded by FRANCIS D. NICHOL

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U. S. A. · Jul 8, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 26.

Objects Exploded

By FRANCIS D. NICHOL

DECALOGUE

FRANCIS D. NICHOL

OBJECTION: By preaching the law you endeavor to deprive us of the glorious liberty of the gospel.

CHRIST declared: “Every one that committeth a sin is the bondservant of sin.” John 8:34, A. R. V. And what is sin? The Bible says: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. Therefore it is the man whose life is not in obedience to the law of God who is deprived of liberty. The righteous man willingly obeys God’s law, and finds happiness in such obedience. Law and liberty are not opposite words. You need not surrender one in order to have the other. True, there are men who stand up at street corners and declare that the only way to have real liberty is to abolish all laws. But as good citizens we do not take such talk very seriously. Instead, we know that laws well made and well kept provide the only sure foundation for liberty in any country. In fact, some one has aptly remarked that “obedience to law is liberty.” And this trite phrase is often found inscribed on public buildings in this liberty-loving land of ours.

In any country the ones who find in law a curtailing of their liberty are those whose habits of life are in opposition to the law. The man who is accustomed to steal or to murder finds that the law checks the freedom of his actions very greatly.

Of course, it is sometimes true that an unjust law is passed, which does strike at the liberty of good citizens. But that simply proves that the lawmakers in that particular instance have passed a bad law, and not that laws in general are all bad and should be abolished by a liberty-loving people.

The same applies to law in the kingdom of God. If as citizens of this world we find liberty in obedience to law, why, as citizens of the heavenly world, should anyone believe that all law must be abolished in order to have liberty? Is it because the laws of heaven are unjust and deprive us of the freedom that ought rightfully to be ours? It were blasphemy to utter the thought.

The law of God prohibits making or worshiping idols. No man who calls himself a Christian can feel deprived of liberty by such a prohibition. The law also commands us not to take God’s name in vain or to desecrate His holy Sabbath day. Does the child of God want to be freed from these statutes? Likewise the law commands respect for parents and prohibits killing, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting. Certainly no follower of Christ will feel that these precepts deprive him of liberty.

Indeed, the Bible definitely speaks of God’s holy law as “the law of liberty.” See James 2:10–12. True, if the law be preached to men apart from the gospel,—the saving power of God,—the result will be only a feeling of condemnation on the part of the hearers. They will simply be brought to a realization of how guilty they are. But when the high code of Heaven is presented in terms of God’s promise to give us of His divine Spirit to carry out the law’s holy requirements, then the hearers can find happiness and liberty in such preaching; for “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:17.