The Law Not Abolished by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 24, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 12.

The Law Not Abolished.

By Editor

We are glad to note the good words of our contemporaries and their contributors. Below are excerpts from an article on “The Light and Law of the Cross,” by William W. McLane, Ph.D., D.D., of New Haven, Conn., in the Homiletic Review for October, 1908:

“God who forgives does not thereby abrogate His law, but affirms it. He does not remove all consequences of sin at once, but He places the sinner under such gracious and remedial influences as will restore him and give him both moral sanity and sanctity through loving obedience to law. Christ did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill both in His own person and in the person of all who believe and obey.

“Salvation by the cross sets men in the relation of forgiven sinners before God and in relation of obedient subjects to the divine law of love. Salvation by the cross fulfils all the conditions which are necessary to maintain the authority of the most holy God, to enforce His most righteous law, and to secure the moral perfection of the subjects of His kingdom. . . . God in Christ and in His cross fulfils His own law of love and most graciously compels forgiven man to fulfill the same law.”

And this is just what the New Testament teaches from beginning to end. Jesus Christ died, not that men might go on in sin, but that they might be won to loving obedience to the entire law of God. Read these four texts: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Gal. 6:15. “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7:19. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Gal. 5:6. “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.

Who can not see from these, in harmony with what Dr. McLane has said, that nothing avails save Christ, and in Him God’s law does not change, but men become new creatures, whose delight it is to obey God; that it is the new creation and the faith which works by love which avail; that it is the keeping of the commandments of God which is something; that the highest expression of love is the willing, loving obedience to all His commandments? Truly, “great peace have they that love Thy law; and they have no occasion of stumbling.” Ps. 119:165.