The Perpetuity of the Law of God
By C. H. Spurgeon
The Law Must Be Fulfilled
I COME to show, secondly, that the law must be fulfilled. I hope there are some in this place who are saying, “We can not fulfill it.” That is exactly where I want to bring you. Salvation by the works of the law must be felt to be impossible by every man who would be saved. We must learn that salvation is of grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, and not by our own doings or feelings; but this is a doctrine no one will receive till he has learned the precious truth that salvation by the works of the law can never come to any man of woman born. Yet the law must be fulfilled. Many will say with Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” I answer,— The Law Is Fulfilled in Christ,
and by faith we receive the fruit thereof. First, as I have already said, the law is fulfilled in the matchless sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If a man has broken a law, what does the law do with him?—It says: “I must be honored. You have broken my command which was sanctioned by the penalty of death. Inasmuch as you did not honor me by obedience, but dishonored me by transgression, you must die.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great covenant representative of his people, their second Adam, stood forward on the behalf of all9who are in him, and presented himself as a victim to divine justice. Since his people were guilty of death, he, as their covenant head, came under death, in their place and stead. It was a glorious thing that such representative death was possible, and it was only so because of the original constitution of the race as springing from a common father, and placed under a single head. Inasmuch as our fall was by one Adam, it was possible for us to be— “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” It became possible for God, upon the principle of representation, to allow of substitution. Our first fall was not by our personal fault, but through the failure of our representative; and now in comes our second and grander representative, the Son of God, and he sets us free, not by our honoring the law, but by his doing so. He came under the law by his birth, and being found as a man loaded with the guilt of all his people, he was visited with its penalty. The law lifts its bloody ax, and it smites our glorious Head that we may go free. It is the Son of God that honors the law by dying, the just for the unjust. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” There is death demanded, and in Christ death is presented. Life for Life Is Rendered
—an infinitely precious life instead of the poor lives of men. Jesus has died, and so the law has been fulfilled by the endurance of its penalty; and being fulfilled, its power to condemn and punish the believer has passed away. Secondly, the law has been fulfilled again for us by Christ in his life. I have already gone over this, but I want to establish you in it. Jesus Christ, as our head and representative, came into the world for the double purpose of bearing the penalty and at the same time keeping the law. One of his main designs in coming to earth was to bring in— “Everlasting Righteousness”
“As by the disobedience of one many were made sinners, so by the righteousness of one shall many be made righteous.” The law requires a perfect life, and he that believeth in Jesus Christ presents to the law a perfect life, which he has made his own by faith. It is not his own life, but Christ is made of God unto us righteousness, even to us who are one with him. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” That which Jesus did is counted as though we did it, and because he was righteous— and counts us righteous upon the principle of substitution and representation. O how blessed it is to put on this robe and to wear it, and so to stand before the Most High in a better righteousness than ever his law demanded; for that demanded the perfect righteousness of a creature, but we put on the absolute righteousness of the Creator himself, and what can the law ask more? It is written, “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.” “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Aye, but that is not all. The law has to be— Fulfilled in Us Personally
in a spiritual and gospel sense. “Well,” say you, “but how can that be?” I reply in the words of our apostle: “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,” Christ has done and is doing by the Holy Spirit, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Regeneration is a work by which the law is fulfilled; for when a man is born again, there is placed in him a new nature, which loves the law of God, and is perfectly conformed thereto. The new nature which God implants in every believer at the time he is born again is incapable of sin: it can not sin; for it is born of God. is the offspring of the eternal Father; and the Spirit of God dwells in it, and with it, and strengthens it. It is light, it is purity, it is, according to the Scripture, the living and incorruptible seed “which liveth and abideth forever.” If incorruptible, it is sinless; for sin is corruption, and corrupts everything that it touches. The apostle Paul, when describing his inward conflicts, showed that he himself, his real and best self, did keep the law; for he says, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God.” Rom. 7:25. He consented to the law that it was good, which showed that he was on the side of the law; and though sin that dwelt in his members led him into transgression, yet his new nature did not allow it, but hated and loathed it, and cried out against it as one in bondage. The new-born soul delights in the law of the Lord, and there is within it a quenchless life which aspires after absolute perfection, and will never rest till it pays to God perfect obedience, and comes to be like God himself. This which is begun in regeneration is continued, and grows till it ultimately arrives at absolute perfection. That will be seen in the world to come; and O, what a fulfillment of the law will be there! The law will admit no man to heaven till he is— Perfectly Conformed to It,
but every believer shall be in that perfect condition. Our nature shall be refined from all its dross, and be as pure as gold. It will be our delight in heaven to be holy. There will be nothing about us then to kick against a single commandment. We shall there know in our own hearts the glory and excellency of the divine will, and our will shall run in the same channel. We shall not imagine that the precepts are rigorous; they will be our own will as truly as they are God’s will. Nothing which God has commanded, however much of self-denial it requires now, will require any self-denial from us then. Holiness will be our element, our delight. Our nature will be entirely conformed to the nature and mind of God, as to holiness and goodness, and then the law will be fulfilled in us, and we shall stand before God, having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and at the same time being ourselves— Without Spot, or Wrinkle,
or any such thing. Then shall the law of the Lord have eternal honor from our immortal being. O, how shall we rejoice in it! We delight in it after the inward man now, but then we shall delight in it as to our risen bodies, which shall be changed to be instruments of righteousness unto God forever and ever. No appetite of those risen bodies, no want and no necessity of them, shall then lead the soul astray; but our whole body, soul, and spirit shall be perfectly conformed unto the divine mind. Let us long and pant for this. We shall never attain it except by believing in Jesus. Perfect holiness will never be reached by the works of the law; for works can not change the nature; but by faith in Jesus, and the blessed work of his Holy Spirit, we shall have it, and then I believe it will be among our songs of glory that heaven and earth pass away, but the word of God and the law of God shall stand fast forever and ever. Amen.—C. H. Spurgeon.