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THE LAW OF GOD

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 47.

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THE LAW OF GOD

By E. J. Hibbard

THE LAW AS A WHOLE.

What do we mean by the term “law”? We speak of the law of gravitation. But when we say “law of gravitation,” do we mean to say that the three written words composing that phrase are the law referred to?—O, no. We mean that force in nature which is in operation between all separate bodies, and which, under favorable circumstances, draws the smaller to the larger,—the force which draws the apple to the earth, severing it from the tree as soon as ripe. It is true that throughout the entire realm of so-called natural law, the living force, and not the written description of that force, is the law. And this is why it is suicidal for anything less than the law to attempt a permanent resistance of it.
The eagle may think his strength sufficient to resist the law of gravitation indefatigably; but if so he is deceived, for sooner or later the muscles tire, they lag, and finally succumb to the ever-present, never-tiring power which bids them surrender. If he contends too long, his life will pay the penalty.
The locomotive, on his track of steel, may speed his way for a time, with screams of defiance; but within a few short years he is as docile as a lamb. Overcome by that law which we call “friction,” his bones are at last strewn by the wayside, or consigned to the junk-shop. These simple illustrations from the natural may aid us to form right conclusions in our brief study of the spiritual.
We have all read in the Bible that “God is love.” We have also read that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” It is therefore evident that God Himself is the fulfilling of His law. We have read again that “God is a Spirit,” and that “the fruit of the Spirit is love,” against which “there is no law.” It is therefore again evident to all that God has no law against Himself.
It is “the carnal mind” which “is enmity against God; for it is ‘not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’” “The law is ‘spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.’” Apart from Satan and his angels, carnal (natural) man is the only thing in the entire universe of which we know, that has attempted a resistance to the God of heaven as He is manifested in His law of love. But resistance is transgression, transgression is sin; and “the wages of sin is death.”
Did you note the reason given why it is that the carnal mind is enmity against God? It was this: Because “it is not subject to the law of God.” Now there was a time when the natural man was spiritual: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, ‘and let them have dominion. . . . So God created man in His ‘own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female ‘created He them.’”
“In the image of God”—“after our likeness,” Jehovah said. Every impulse of such a man, mental, moral, physical, all in perfect unison with his Creator. “God is a Spirit.” That man and his wife must have been spiritual. “The law is spiritual.” The Creator, the created, the law, all in harmony.
For such a man, a written prohibition of all the sundry sins which we now know, was unnecessary. One prohibition only—and that merely to test his love, for love untested is weak: “And the Lord God ‘commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest ‘freely eat; but 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.’” “Love envieth not, . . . seeketh not its own.” How, then, can love consent to take that which is another’s—and that also which has been denied it?
But the woman was “beguiled” by the tempter. Adam’s love to her decided him to share her fate. The chord of love was broken; the law of love transgressed. “By one man sin entered into the ‘world, and death by sin.’” Now “sin is the transgression of the ‘law;” and, “Where no law is, there is no transgression;” nor yet is sin “imputed when there is no law.”
Recalling the fact that God is the fulfilling of the law, it is readily seen that anything contrary to the character of God is sin—transgression of the law. Therefore the first ungodlike thing that our first parents did was to partake of the forbidden fruit. However, notwithstanding the fact that there was at that time but one prohibitory command given, yet the law of God was just as broad in that day as at any subsequent time; and that because God’s character was as infinite then as now. “I am the Lord, I change not.”
To name in detail every separate virtue, and command it, or to name every sin which might be committed, and forbid it, would mean a statement of every separate virtue of the Infinite One, with its antipode. It seems reasonable, then, that spoken or written law must needs deal in principles more than in specific details.
The written law was not given until the days of Moses. “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses.” “Death” came “by ‘sin,” and “sin is the transgression of the law.” So death, sin, and law, yes, the law (for sin is not simply the transgression of law, but “sin is the transgression of the law”)—all these reigned from Adam to Moses. But death has not yet ceased; therefore sin is here, and so is the law.
When asked, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” the Son of God replied: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou ‘shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’” “The law and the prophets,” or, “Moses and the prophets,” is a term understood by all to include all the Holy Scriptures then written. Now love to God is not one thing and love to fellow-man another; for, “By this we know that we ‘love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.”
But did not Jesus give a new commandment, one which has been termed an “eleventh”? and did it not supersede all that were given before it? He said: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ‘ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one ‘another.’” “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Therefore, the so-called “eleventh” is but the fulfilling of the ten, and is also called by the Saviour the first commandment of the law, as we have so recently seen.
But the statement that we should love the Lord with all the heart was not first written in Matthew 22. It was written in Deut. 6: 4–6: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love ‘the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with ‘all thy might. And [in this condition] these words, which I command ‘thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.’”
As a result, then, of loving the Lord with all the heart, the commandments which were given them that day would be in the heart. Now anybody knows that that which love, real love, God’s love, would bring into the heart at one time, simply by its presence being there, it would bring at all times whatsoever.
What were the commandments given them that day? For it is expressly stated that “these words which I command thee this day” are the words which will be in the hearts of all who love the Lord with all the heart. This was the occasion: “And Moses called all Israel, ‘and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments ‘which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and ‘keep, and do them.’” Then, after a few preliminary statements, he follows with the blessed words which the Lord our God spoke with His own voice to sinful man. “These words,” says faithful Moses, “‘the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst ‘of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; ‘and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone.’” Then follows a statement of their terror at the glory, majesty, and power of that transcendent time; and then, the reply of Jehovah: “‘I ‘have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have ‘spoken unto thee; they have well said all that they have spoken. O ‘that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and ‘keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, ‘and with their children forever!’” And without any break at all in the theme, Moses says, “Now these are the commandments, the stat- ‘utes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to ‘teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess ‘it.’” Another exhortation or two, and then, in direct reference to what is under consideration, he says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our ‘God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine ‘heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And thesewords, which I command thee this day [the Ten Commandments ‘being those words], shall be in thine heart.”
“The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; ‘He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands ‘of saints; from His right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, ‘He loved the people.” He gave the holy law, the Ten Commandments, because He loved the people; the people receive, and keep, and do it, when they love God. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; ‘yea, Thy law is within My heart.”
The question may arise in some mind why it was that the law of God was not given in a written form until about twenty-five hundred years after the creation. The answer is not hard to find. It took time so to mar and corrupt the “image of God” in man’s mind and character, that he could not accurately and readily receive, and correctly transmit ideas and thoughts which had been spoken to him.
Have you ever wondered at the phonograph—its wonderful accuracy in receiving impressions of words and sounds of every kind? Have you ever thought of the possibility of the Creator having formed man in the beginning, that way? Have you thought of the camera, and of its accuracy in taking impressions of all things visible? and have you thought that man’s mind was equal also to that? Man was God’s masterpiece in the creation of the earth; for He gave him dominion over all. The Almighty is the greatest inventor, and man was His greatest invention.
We have already shown that the law of God existed every moment of the time between Adam and Moses; that it is the character of God Himself, and therefore co-existent with Him. Do you not think Him wise enough to know when to give it in the written form? We have also noticed that a naming of every separate transgression which it would be possible to commit would involve the naming of everything which is opposite to God’s way of doing. Shall we not, then, agree that He knew how many commands to give in order to cover the principles of righteousness?
Had man retained the perfect image of God, he would understand every duty in the one word “love.” As he departed farther, the word needed to be expanded to, “Love God, and love fellow-man.” Then, “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.” After that, the Ten Commandments. And these had to be still further drawn out in detail in order that sinful man could understand their definite application to his personal case. Thus it is, and thus it will ever be, that the farther man is removed from his Maker, the more numerous will need to be the commands and prohibitions; and the nearer he draws to God, the fewer the commands necessary.
All the commands ever given are comprehended in the ten; the ten are all comprehended in the two; and the two are both in the one, namely, “love.” And “God is love.” Let us worship Him.
E. J. Hibbard.