p. 7 | FAITH AND OBEDIENCE by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 4, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 36.

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE.

By W. N. G.

ONE of our exchanges has the following:—

The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. Now that faith is come, we are no longer under the tutor. It is too late to dig up any old institution from the wilderness of Sinai for any practical purpose in this Christian age.—Exchange.

The law was whose tutor?—Our tutor, to bring us to Christ; the tutor of every one who ever came to Christ. No one ever came to Christ by any other tutor. No one ever could be persuaded to come to Christ without knowing that he is a sinner; and “by ‘the law is the knowledge of sin.’” If any one imagines that he has come to Christ in another way, he is deceived, and has not come to Christ at all.

When did faith come? In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we read of the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and of the prophets. All these men, representatives of all ages of the race, were as verily brought to Christ as are those of to-day. They were no more under the tutor (the law) after they exercised faith in Christ than are those of our own time. It was just as true before the advent of Christ as afterward, that there was no condemnation to them which were in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. No one ever was under the condemnation of the law as long as he walked after the Spirit. The faith of Jesus Christ is always harmony with the law. It is the carnal mind that is “not subject to the law of ‘God, neither indeed can be.’” Rom. 8:7. “Do ‘we then make void the law through faith? God ‘forbid; yea, we establish the law.’” Ch. 3:31.

The law of God is not an “institution from the ‘wilderness of Sinai.’” The Word tells us that “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Ch. 4:15); that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4); that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23); and that “death reigned from Adam ‘to Moses’” (Ch. 5:14). To “fear God, and keep ‘His commandments’ always was and always will be ‘the whole duty of man.’” Eccl. 12:13. “All ‘Thy commandments are righteousness.’” Ps. 119:172. This was the righteousness of Christ, by which He abode in the Father’s love. John 15:10. This was the righteousness which He came to manifest unto the world. Ps. 40:7, 8. And only the righteousness of Christ will stand the test of the judgment, a righteousness which sinful man can attain only through faith in Jesus Christ.

But too many professors of faith are prone to put faith in contrast with obedience. But true faith is obedience; it is the obedience that proves the power of the faith. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, ‘offered up Isaac.’” Heb. 11:17. He could not have obeyed God, had it not been for his faith. So it is only by the power of the Spirit of Christ, through faith, that men are enabled to keep the commandments of God. W. N. G.