The Law of God Was Ordained to Life before Man Sinned.
By John Matteson
“Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am the Lord.” Lev. 18:5. “And many times didst Thou deliver them according to thy mercies; and testified against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments (which if a man do, he shall live in them).” Neh. 9:28, 29. “And I gave them My statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.” Eze. 20:11. “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. . . . And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” Rom. 7:7–10.
When was the law of God originally ordained to life? Not in Paul’s day, for he found it “to be unto death.” Nor even as far back as the day of Adam, after he left paradise, was this law ordained to life; for by the strength of it Adam died, and death has come upon all his posterity. 1 Cor. 15:56. The moral law could not be ordained to life by an all-wise God, after man had become a fallen being, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” God knew that the moral law would bring death upon the transgressor, and that all men would be transgressors, therefore he could not introduce the moral law as a life-giving remedy after man had sinned.
There remains consequently but one reasonable answer to the question, When was the law of God originally ordained to life? In the garden of Eden, before Adam sinned. And if Adam had continued to obey the law of God he would never have died. Gen. 2:17; 3:22.
God has in great mercy introduced another remedy for sin and death, the death and resurrection of his only begotten Son, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. Thus being brought again into favor with God, through Christ, the law is no more against us. Gal. 5:23. The law itself now being written in our hearts, Heb. 8:10, we “delight in the law of God.” Rom. 7:22. And gladly endeavoring to fulfill its precepts, Rom. 8:4, as our great Master has done before us, 1 Pet. 2:22, “leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps;” we do even now experience some of the life-giving power of the law, which still does work mightily, when our relation to the law is placed on the right foundation by the gospel. “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”