p. 4 | God Forbid! by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 7, 1878

God Forbid!

By James White

THESE two words occur in the following texts: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!" Rom. 6:12.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid!" Rom 7:7.

"Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid!" Rom. 7:13.

"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea we establish the law." Rom. 3:31.

Several things are here worthy of special notice:-

1. This expression occurs but four times in all the Bible, and these are all in Paul's epistles to the Romans.

2. The words are used each time with reference to the law of God.

3. The meaning of the words. They seem to be a sort of ejaculatory prayer; and the question seeming to contain its own answer, hence the ejaculation. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Preposterous! God forbid! Sin is the transgression of the law. Shall we continue to transgress the law of God that grace may abound to us through him who died to redeem us from the condemnation of that law?

The words of Paul in answer are most cutting. Said Christ: "I and my Father are one." In no way can we insult the Son more than to give license to violate the law for the transgression of which it was necessary that he should suffer the agonies of the cross.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin but by the law." The law of God is his great mirror, into which the sinner may look and behold the moral imperfections of his character. Instead of being sin it is the looking glass which discovers sin.

"Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid! But sin that it might appear sin worked death in me." Here the apostle declares the law to be good. It was not death to him; but it made sin to appear, and worked death in the old man, that he might be made alive in Christ.

"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: Yea, we establish the law." To make void is to empty, put away. What a question! Do we ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ make void, empty, abolish and set aside the law of the Father by the gospel of the Son? Preposterous! God forbid! Yea, the gospel of Christ establishes the moral code. By the law is the knowledge of sin. And where there is no law there is no transgression. If the law be abolished, sin does not exist, and we no longer need Christ. So those who put away the law virtually put away Christ.

The apostle brings in his verdict respecting the law in these words. Wherefore the law is holy, just and good. It had wrought a good work in him. No one questions Paul's conversion. In that conversion he gives the law a large place. It was that which showed him that he was a sinner. It convicted him that he was a transgressor of that holy law and exposed to the wrath of its divine Author. It wrought in him thorough conviction. It slew him. And when dead he was buried with his Lord in baptism.

"But why say so much about the law? Why not say more about the gospel? It is the gospel that convicts men, not the law." We answer that gospel means good news. The gospel of Christ is the good news that Christ will redeem his people from sin, death and the grave. Who ever heard of good men killing a man?

We preach the gospel in order to convert men. Convert them from what? From sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Before we can turn a sinner from his sins, we must first show him what sin is. Then the very first thing the gospel minister should do is to hold up before the sinner God's great looking glass, and bid the sinner to see his sins by the aid of the moral law. By that he sees the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He yields to the claims of that law. He is truly convicted. He is dead. He is now in the condition to be led to Christ for pardon and salvation. This is Pauline theology. The great apostle at Miletus called for the elders of the church, and testified that he had kept nothing that was profitable unto them. He had faithfully testified to all, Jews and Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He taught repentance toward God, because men had violated his law, and faith toward Christ, because faith in his atoning blood is the only remedy for sin.

The apostle has linked the divine law and the gospel of the divine Son in the saving message to be borne to dying men. The blind Jew keeps back the gospel and makes a fatal mistake. The equally blind Christian keeps back the law, and makes a mistake equally great. The people of God, waiting for the coming of the Son of man under the last message of mercy keep neither. While the Jew is blind in one eye the Christian is blind in the other eye. But these who in the patience of their souls are waiting for redemption which is nigh, see with both eyes. It is said of them in the language of inspiration, "Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." These are homeward bound. With the gates of the golden city of God open before them, they are cheered to make their course onward by this benediction of the Son of God, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and enter in through the gates into the city." J. W.