The Law and the Entrance of Sin
By A. C. Gilbert
Sin Originated in Heaven—Its Transfer to Earth—The Controversy Involves God’s Government and Law Sin originated in heaven. Where once all was joy, peace, and perfection, sin intruded, with its baneful influence, and brought sadness, discord, and imperfection into the society of heaven’s sinless inhabitants. The originator of evil was Lucifer, the most exalted of angels—the light-bearer, the day-star. Isa. 14: 12-14; Eze. 28: 12-19. The first field of conflict was heaven. Here it was that the forces of righteousness engaged the forces of evil, thrusting them out of heaven. See Rev. 12: 7-9. By his deceiving man, whom God created perfect, the earth was made the second field of controversy, and it has ever since remained the scene of the bitter struggle between good and evil. Here have been and are being worked out the distinguishing features of the characters of God and Satan,—the leaders on the two sides of the conflict,—and their respective followers. It is being revealed that God is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6: 15), and that “the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” Ps. 145: 17. It is also being shown that he who was the day-star, and perfect in all his ways (Eze. 28: 15), has become a “devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Rev. 12: 9); and that “he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” John 8: 44. The point of controversy is the supreme authority of God, and the moral obligation of all creatures to His sovereign law. The principles of the moral law are supreme love to God, and equal rights of all men. Matt. 22: 36-40. The first and second commandments make plain the supremacy of God, and that there is no God besides Him. Ex. 20: 3-6; Isa. 44: 8; 46: 9. These facts were recognized by the first man, Adam. Gen. 2: 16, 17; 3: 3. This recognition was an admission of the first and great commandment, or principle, in which are comprised the first four of the Ten Commandments. Matt. 22: 36-38. Cain, the first murderer, violated the second great commandment, or principle, in which are comprised the remaining six of the Ten Commandments. Matt. 22: 39, 40; Gen. 4: 5-8. Cain realized the serious fact that he had transgressed the moral law, and he admitted the justice of a punishment—“my punishment.” Gen. 4: 13; 1 John 3: 12. Adam and Eve sinned. Cain sinned. Many others back there sinned. The moral standard defined the nature of their inconsistent course, and called it sin. “Sin is the transgression of the [moral] law.” 1 John 3: 4. The moral standard not only defined sin for man at the outset of his sinful career, but it kept on doing so throughout the antediluvian period. It disclosed the actions that were in harmony, and those that were out of harmony, with the character of God. It approved the good, and condemned the bad. See Gen. 5: 24; 6: 5, 9, 11. And this same rule of moral conduct was the standard for man during the days intervening from the Flood to the time of the only recorded visible proclamation of the moral law of Ten Commandments at Sinai. There was not the slightest difficulty for individuals and nations, during that period, to know whether their actions would be classed as works of sin, which is “the transgression of the law,” or as deeds of righteousness, in harmony with the law, which is “holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7: 12. Abraham Kept the Commandments
It is said of Abraham by God Himself, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Gen. 26: 5. Abraham received these principles into his own life, and taught them to the “souls they had gotten,” because he knew there was no other character measure provided, no other set of laws ordained by God by which the character-building can be built, than the Ten Commandments, termed the moral law, and which every “friend of God” (James 2: 23) will obey. See John 14: 15, 21. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were grievous sinners before the Lord, and hearkened not to the saving messages that were sent them, but went farther and farther away from the glory and character of God, till at last they brought upon themselves the punishment of death as a logical sequence of continued violation of both physical and moral laws. See Gen. 13: 13; Luke 17: 28, 29. The filling up of the “cup of iniquity” of the Amorites, and the terrible retribution that fell upon them, is a solemn lesson to those who neglect to obey God and love Him supremely, and their neighbors as themselves, upon which two principles “hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22: 37-40. Joseph’s integrity toward God, as recorded in the book of Genesis (Gen. 39: 9), stands out as a beautiful illustration of loyalty to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments Before Sinai
The Ten Commandments, and obedience to them, were not unfamiliar facts to the Israelites before they reached Mount Sinai. Ex. 16: 9, 28. Their having been down in Egypt for over two hundred years serving as slaves in rigorous bondage, caused them to lose, to a large extent, the pure knowledge they formerly had of the true God and their obligations to Him. Therefore “Israel was to receive the most wonderful revelation ever made by God to man. Here [at Sinai] the Lord gathered His people, that He might impress upon them the sacredness of His requirements by declaring with His own voice His holy law.” Here He was to outline with A B C simplicity the broad, deep principles of love to God and love to man, as detailed in the Ten Commandments recorded in Ex. 20: 3-17, and later illustrated and applied by the ritual of the ceremonial law. The perfect standard that guided and regulated in the development of man’s moral nature in the days of old, has never been abrogated.231The very nature of the whole controversy with sin requires the recognition of the same moral rule, for the following reasons: (1) God has not changed His character and purpose since the entrance of sin into the universe. (2) Satan has not changed his character and purpose since he introduced sin. (3) The sinful nature of man is still the same, and requires the same righteous standard to be set before him, to tell him what sin is, that was placed before him in the days of his innocence, and approved his perfect obedience. Change in Character, Not in the Law
Since Satan failed in his attempt to overthrow the sovereign law and government of heaven, the conditions of citizenship in the kingdom of God, which were challenged by Lucifer, are still in force. And every person who expects admittance into that kingdom, must, during this solemn present, undergo such a change of character as will conform to the rules, or laws, or principles, of that heavenly government. It is a change of character, and not a change of the law, that insures to every soul an eternal life of joy with God. Man must come into line with the requirements of God. He must understand and feel the working of that mighty power of love for the Lord Jesus which led patriarchs, prophets, and apostles to say with the apostle Paul, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom. 7: 22); and also to know that “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.” Rev. 22: 14.