Redeemed from the Law

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 30, 1876

Redeemed from the Law.

“CURSED is every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” Gal. 3:10.

TO OBTAIN life by the law requires a perfect, personal, continuous obedience from the first dawn of reason to the last moment in probationary time. “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them,” Rom. 10:5; and Jesus said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:37–40.

The character of God is such that he could require nothing less than is here enjoined. Man, as made in the beginning, could give the law the perfection it demanded, but since the fall of Adam none of his fallen race have been able to do it. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” and “that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident” from the general tenor of Scripture.

WHEREFORE THEN SERVETH THE LAW?

It gives us “a knowledge of sin,” Rom. 3:20. It shows what God has a right to demand of his creatures in harmony with his character. It is like a mirror into which one looks and sees his defilement, but which can never remove it.

WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?

When Winslow, the Boston forger, was arrested in London, a few weeks ago, it is reported that he said with tears in his eyes: “I ask Massachusetts to remember my services in the army and navy.” Massachusetts may do so, but what has faithfulness in one department to do with gross unfaithfulness in another? If, on trial, he is found guilty of the crime laid to his charge, and the penalty of the violated law is imprisonment for many years, or for life, the law in the case must take its course. So with the murderer; he may have been honorable in many of his business transactions, and kind in his family relations, but if the law demands blood for blood—the life of the murderer for that of his victim—he cannot escape death.

The man who has broken God’s law is in a similar condition. If it be true that “cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” it avails not that one has been kind, amiable, and upright in some respects—that he has not gone to the excess of riot, the depths of sin and degradation into which some others have plunged. All have broken the law to some extent, and all are under the curse. Deliverance from that curse can only come through one who is human as well as divine—one who has power to magnify the law which we have broken, and make it honorable by giving it the perfection it demands—one on whom the law has no claim, but who volunteers to act for us, and Heaven accepts his offer. Such an one we have in “the man Christ Jesus.”

GOOD NEWS.

“When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal. 4:4, 5. “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin”—that is, shut up all under sin, as in a vast prison-house—“that the promise by faith of Christ might be given to them that believe.” “Christ hath redeemed us [who believe] from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Gal. 3:13, 22. The gospel, then, is mercy sounding at the doors of the prison; it is an offer of pardon to all who will accept it—not that the law has abated one iota of its demands, but because its claims have been met by “the Lord our righteousness.” He “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” “By his stripes we are healed.” God can now “be just,” and yet be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:26. “Do we then make void the law through faith? By no means; yea, we establish the law.” “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rome 5:1.—Messiah’s Herald.