LOVE IN GOD'S LAW by Geo. E. Crawford

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 12, 1902

LOVE IN GOD'S LAW.

By Geo. E. Crawford

THERE is a belief prevalent among the mass of the people of the world to-day that God demands of us more than we can fulfil; thus saying, in other words, that God is unjust in His demands.

This sentiment is nothing new, for it originated with Satan in heaven. His strongest argument in the temptation of Eve was that God was unjust in withholding the forbidden fruit, when He knew it was to be desired to make one wise. Satan said, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Eve allowed herself to believe that theory, to her own sorrow, just as many are doing to-day. She did not realize that there was no wisdom in the knowledge of evil; for all wisdom lies with God, and God does not know evil. “Unto the pure all things are pure.” Titus 1:15. Even an innocent child knows no evil until it has been taught what evil is.

Satan’s strongest hold is in mixing evil with good. If it was unmixed evil, man would always discern it, and it would be to him like taking a dose of poison knowingly. But a man may take a very little poison with his food and not notice it, and the amount may be increased gradually until he can take a full dose without its killing him immediately. Nevertheless, it has its effect. So it has been with that first knowledge of evil. Gradually there has come upon the world a flood of misery and woe that is appalling, and to all candid thinkers it is apparent that it is on the increase. The Word of God plainly teaches us that iniquity shall increase more and more until the Lord cuts short His work in righteousness.

It is evident, then, that God knew best when He commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If we study the subject carefully, we can see God’s love and mercy in all His commands.

When a mother tells her child to stay away from the water, it is because she loves it, and does not want it to be drowned. But after awhile she looks for the child, and finds it struggling in the current, and she cries out, “My child will surely drown.” And it will drown unless it receives help; but is it because

the mother said it would? Is it not a natural consequence of the child’s disobedience?

God said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Was it simply because God said they would die that they did die? or was it a natural consequence of their disobedience? “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15.

Says one, “Why should there be a law? If there was no law, we would not transgress.” True, there would be no transgression if there was no law; but answer this question candidly, What would be the result of removing from men every restraint which the law holds them under? The relations existing among men give rise to principles of government that all are in duty bound to acknowledge. There are principles of government growing out of existing relations between the Creator and the created, and among the created beings themselves, that must remain as long as there are created beings.

A code of laws will necessarily show the character of the law-maker. “God is love” (1 John 4:8); therefore the law must be love. God is holy (1 Peter 1:16); therefore the law must be holy (Rom. 7:12). At first the law was implanted in the heart, and that was the only way in which it was given until the time of Moses. Rom. 5:13, 14 shows conclusively that there was a law before the time of Moses, and a candid study of the Scriptures will show that the same principles of government were recognized as are embodied in the Ten Commandments. God created man upright, and in His own image, and gave him principles of government which, if obeyed, would give him eternal life.

Christ said to the young man, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” To know God is “life eternal.” John 17:3. We become acquainted with God through His Word and His created works; and Christ said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

It has ever been God’s purpose that this earth should be inhabited by intelligent beings, who would render Him willing obedience; and the reason such a condition does not exist now is that man, acting out his God-given right of choosing between good and evil (life and death), chose death in preference to life, or the keeping of God’s commandments. God might have destroyed Satan and sin at the first outset; but Satan had accused God of injustice; so in His love and justice, God allowed Satan’s plans to develop, so that every created being of intelligence might become fully persuaded in his own mind, whose rule is the more just, that of God or that of Satan.

Satan has been carrying on his nefarious work here in the earth for nearly six thousand years, and the results are plainly visible to all. But at the same time, God has been carrying on His work of love and mercy in delivering men from the rule of Satan; and He is preparing a people who will render Him willing obedience, and dwell in the earth made new when sin has forever been removed. These two forces will continue to work until every one will have taken his stand on the side of life (the keeping of the commandments of God), or the side of sin and death (the transgression of God’s law); so that there will be no excuse; and “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

May it be the blessed privilege of each reader to be among those who are found keeping God’s commandments.

GEO. E. CRAWFORD.