p. 4 | THE LAW OF GOD by E. J. Hibbard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1902

THE LAW OF GOD

By E. J. Hibbard

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.

THOU shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

“Covetousness . . . is idolatry.” And “this ye know, that no . . . covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

In every commandment, and especially so in the first, we have seen that the God-life is its only fulfilment. To have no other gods besides the Lord, means to have the Lord in all His fulness. Now covetousness, in its quintessence, is the entire absence of God. It is therefore evident that covetousness, which is selfishness in operation, is the root cause for the violation of any precept of Jehovah. No covetous person can, in deed and in truth, keep one of God’s commandments. How can he? He is an idolater. God is supplanted; and therefore there is in him no character which can possibly keep the commandments of God.

“Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” If he has not seen it before, the tenth commandment opens the eyes of the natural man to the fact that the law of God deals with the thoughts and intents of the heart. Solomon understood this when he wrote: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man; for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.” He knew that God’s holy law covered “every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Therefore the keeping of it, said he, “is the whole duty of man.” And the apostle Paul had no greater light when he wrote: “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to My Gospel.” The Gospel which Paul preached revealed no other law as the standard of judgment, than the one which Solomon preached. They both saw that it covered the secrets of men, even every secret thing.

Covetousness is not only the secret desire for any and every evil thing, but unlawful desires for things not our own. It is that which always precedes the overt act. It keeps men, as well as children, from honoring their parents. It leads to murder; is the basis of adultery in the overt act; it spurs men on to steal; and, in order to do any of these things, or to clear one’s self when it is done, it leads to, and forms the basis of, every false testimony against our neighbor. The Pharisees, in the days of Christ, were “covetous.” The clergy of Rome, through all the ages since the apostasy which gave that church its birth, have been filled with covetousness. Many of the Protestant pulpits are represented in no better way. We all know this to be true. Is it therefore any wonder that in these latter days the supposed shepherds of the flock are proclaiming “God’s law is abolished”?

But one word more about covetousness: Is it altogether confined to the desire for that which is another’s? The following incident will show: “And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Is there any point in the parable? Was that man covetous with his own goods, or rather, with the Lord’s goods, over which he had been made steward? May God help each of us to learn the lesson!

“I had not known sin but by the law.”

“I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” It is the law, then, the whole law, and not simply one commandment, which says, “Thou shalt not covet.” Those words are found only in the tenth. How do the other nine say it? The question has already been answered in the fact that covetousness is the antithesis of godliness. “God is love.” “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Covetousness is the transgression of the law, because “sin is the transgression of the law;” for covetousness is the root of all sin. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” And why?—Because “it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

It would appear, then, that anything not subject to the law of God is enmity against God Himself, would it not? Have we not seen, in every commandment, that God Himself is the fulfilling of it? and that only the absence of God is the transgression thereof? Is this law abolished by Christ?

“I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free”—from the law of God? O no; a thousand times, no—“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” What is the attitude of the “law of sin” toward “the law of God”? It is “warring against” it. Once delivered from that which is “warring against” the law of God, will I not cease to war against it? Will I transgress it in thought and act? Will I war against it through pulpit or press? I think not. Does not every such action betray the fact that I am controlled and actuated by “the law of sin”? Does it not reveal the “carnal mind”?

Why am I delivered from “the law of sin”? Why has Christ “condemned sin in the flesh”?—“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “Sin is the transgression of the law.” “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.” Does He save from the keeping of the law, then, or from the transgression of it?

“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [bondservant, R. V.] of sin.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Christ is the only Saviour. Every redeemed soul knows that. And there is another thing which every redeemed person knows; which is, that “saved from sin” does not mean “saved from righteousness.” “All His commandments are righteousness.” Now Israel had the “law of righteousness;” for it is expressly so stated: “Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? [That means, why? For what reason?] Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.”

Then the law which Israel followed after was all right, was it not? It is the law of righteousness. Why did they not attain to it? “They sought it not by faith.” “Christ is the author and finisher of faith.” They sought it not through Christ. “They stumbled at that stumbling-stone.” They attempted to obey God without a Saviour. But, altho they failed, and did not attain to the law of righteousness, was not their attempt to do so more commendable than an attempt to pervert the only Saviour from sin into a licenser of sin? But this supposition is not essential to the enlightenment of any truly converted person. His every impulse harmonizes with the holy law of God.

To the believer in Jesus, every commandment is a promise. But outside of Christ, every commandment is condemnation and death. Why did not Israel attain?—“Because they sought IT not by faith.”

Here is the way the law of God reads to every man in Christ Jesus (Young’s translation):—

Thou hast no other gods before Me.

II.

Thou dost not make to thyself a graven image, or any likeness which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth. Thou dost not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on the third generation, and on the fourth, of those hating Me, and doing kindness to thousands of those loving Me and keeping My commands.

III.

Thou dost not take up the name of Jehovah thy God for a vain thing, for Jehovah acquitteth not him who taketh up His name for a vain thing.

IV.

Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it; six days thou dost labor and hast done all thy work, and the seventh day is the Sabbath to Jehovah thy God: thou dost not do any work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and thy cattle, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates,—for six days hath Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and RESTETH in the seventh day; therefore HATH Jehovah blessed the Sabbath-day, and DOTH sanctify it.

Honor thy father and thy mother, so that thy days are prolonged on the ground which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee.

VI.

Thou dost not murder.

VII.

Thou dost not commit adultery.

VIII.

Thou dost not steal.

IX.

Thou dost not swear against thy neighbor a false testimony.

Thou dost not desire the house of thy neighbor, thou dost not desire the wife of thy neighbor, or his man-servant, or his handmaid, or his ox, or his ass, or anything which is thy neighbor’s.

Redeemed. In harmony with God and His holy law. “Praise ye the Lord.”

E. J. HIBBARD.