p. 163 | The Law of Christ by FRANCIS GOULD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 8, 1870

The Law of Christ.

By FRANCIS GOULD

There are certain relations which exist between us and God. There are certain acts and duties which we owe to God, which we are under obligations to perform; those duties are specified in the following language: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Luke 10: 27. We learn that we are to love God because he first loved us; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3: 16. We cannot show our love to God, neither will he accept it, unless we do the very things which he requires.

The next question that suggests itself is, What is the love of God? or how can we make our love to God manifest? Let Paul testify: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments; for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5: 2, 3. We read also of a certain young man who came to the Saviour and said unto him, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19: 16, 17. Then Paul says we are to keep God’s commandments; and still further the Saviour states that the commandments are the very conditions on which eternal life is suspended. Now the important question presents itself, What are the commandments of God? I answer, They are the ten words or ten moral precepts written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and are found recorded in the 20th chapter of Exodus. But there is a class of people who tell us that these ten commandments (which are the embodiment of love) are now done away, and that we now must obey the law of Christ. The Bible does not anywhere teach that Christ was a law-maker, or that he ever framed a code of laws to govern the children of men. This was not his work. His work was to make reconciliation between God, the Law-maker and giver, and man who had broken his law. Christ was a law-giver in a certain sense, but never gave one of his own make, or that originated in himself. Christ says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another.” John 13: 34. This new commandment came from God the Father. He gave it to his Son Jesus Christ, and through him it has been transmitted to us.

But, says one, that makes eleven. We have it nowhere recorded in the Bible that God ever gave but ten moral precepts. Moses, in rehearsing the law to the people, says, “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” Deut. 5: 22. This settles the question. The ten moral precepts were a complete and perfect code. He did not add the eleventh.

The great work of the Son of God was to magnify the law of his Father and make it honorable. All the principles that Christ gave and taught us were love principles. Moses received the law from the hand of God, and administered it to the people of that dispensation. When Christ came, the administration changed. He receives the same law, and writes it in the minds of all those who love and obey him. Says Christ, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. 5: 17. Christ sustains relations to God, similar as the moon does to the sun. The natural sun is the great source and fountain of light. The moon has no light in itself; but the sun shines upon it, and the moon shines upon the earth; and thus we say the moon shines. God is the source of all happiness and love, and is the great fountain of light. Christ has no light in himself, but receives light from the Father, and sheds it upon the world. In this sense, he says, “I am the light of the world.”

When people tell us that the commandments of God are done away, and that we must obey Christ’s commandments, or that he has power to change the law of God, they are in darkness, because the doctrine has no foundation in truth. We often meet with this objection: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Gal. 6: 2. This declaration goes to show that it is a fulfillment of that portion of God’s law which shows our duty, or our love one toward another, as found on the second table of stone.

Dear brethren and sisters, may we be found at last among those of whom it is said, “Blessed are they that do his [God’s] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22: 14. FRANCIS GOULD. Stowe, Vt.