The Difference between the Law and the Gospel
By Cyrus Simmons
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. No. 4.
The Difference between the Law and the Gospel.
Besides being a rule for both thought and conduct, the law of God is a picture of Divinity. The likeness is so perfect that when the law is spiritually put in the mind and written in the heart, the recipient knows God. The Word says, “All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” Heb. 8:10, 11. This knowledge is a result of knowing the law, which is a revelation of God to man. “And they shall be all taught of God.” John 6:45. Neither the wisdom of men, nor science, as the Word is commonly understood, can reveal this knowledge; nor is it dependent upon intellectual strength. “For all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” Those who know not God, obey not the Gospel. Of this class the Lord speaks, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess. 1:7, 8. We must know the law to know God; we must know God to obey the Gospel; therefore we must know the law of God to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How truly the portraiture delineated by the Ten Commandments mirrors the likeness that God reveals of Himself! “The law is light.” Prov. 6:23. The Lord is called “the true Light.” John 1:7, 9. “The law is spiritual.” Rom. 7:14. “God is a Spirit.” John 4:24. The law “is good.” Rom. 7:16. “There is none good but one, that is, God.” Matt. 19:17. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. The law is perfect, “the perfect law of liberty.” James 1:25. God is perfect. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:48. The law is royal or kingly: “If ye fulfil the royal law,” etc. James 2:8. Jesus Christ is “the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” 1 Tim. 6:14, 15. The “law is the truth.” Ps. 119:142. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6. The law is faithful. “All Thy commandments are faithful.” Ps. 119:86. The Lord is faithful, “the faithful and true Witness.” Rev. 3:14. “The law is holy.” Rom. 7:12. God is holy. “Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” Lev. 19:2. The law is “just.” Rom. 7:12. Christ is just. “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just.” Acts 3:14. The law is righteousness. “All Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172. And so is God. “This is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.” Jer. 23:6. The Gospel is the good news of God. This good news tells of the birth of the Saviour. To the humble shepherds the angel said, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Then we are told why the “tidings” are “good” and “of great joy.” “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10, 11. The “good tidings of great joy” are to all people. The Saviour is born unto “you” and unto me. Isaiah, speaking of His nativity, says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Isa. 9:6. All heaven is interested in the salvation of this fallen world. We are a spectacle “to angels and to men.” 1 Cor. 4:9. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke 15:10. The great interest heaven takes in the salvation of this world was manifested when the celestial intelligences, a multitude of the heavenly hosts, accompanying the angel who made the announcement to the shepherds, illuminated the awe-inspiring scene with divine glory, and the vaulted skies resounded with praises to God, as with united voices they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:10, 11, 14. The Saviour is “the power” and “the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. 1:24. “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” Matt. 28:18. The Gospel means more than the power of God. “It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” To know or to believe that God has the power to save, will do the sinner no good unless he believes that God, thru faith, has put that power within his reach. The “good tidings of great joy” of the Gospel reveal the eternal truth that weak and fallen human nature can have and use the power of God so effectually as to be restored to the divine image. This possibility made all heaven rejoice; should not the Christian’s “joy be full”? Paul tells why he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: “For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16. The power of God is. It is not spoken of as being in the past, nor as being promised in the future; it is an ever-present and an ever-working energy, for the great I Am dwelleth within. Ex. 3:14; John 8:58. To have this power there must be a unity,—a union of God and man. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20. At what day?—When they and we shall receive the Holy Ghost. John 16:13–15. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Acts 1:8. Thru this spiritual representative Christ wants to dwell in us and give us, “the power of God unto salvation.” “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Cor. 13:5. The Saviour not only lives, but He works in the believing heart. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. By His own works, by His own power, He saves His people from their sins. This is the glorious Gospel of peace that heals the sin-sick soul. The law is a picture of the righteousness of God; the Gospel is the righteousness of God. The law tells what God wants us to do; the Gospel gives us the power to do it. The law points the way to heaven; the Gospel is the way to heaven. The law reveals the justice of God and condemns us to death; the Gospel reveals the mercy of God and gives life more abundantly. The law is the plans and specifications showing how our character-house should be built; the Gospel is the house constructed, or in process of construction. The law is our schoolmaster, convicting us of sin, and telling us that by it we are dead, and without the hope of a resurrection. We see our inability to meet its requirements, and we are driven to Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ dwelling in our individual hearts, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:4. By the witness of the selfsame law thru God’s righteousness in us, and by reason of the reconciliation He has made for us, death is abolished, and life and immortality are brought to light. 2 Tim. 1:10. We are told to comfort one another with the words that tell of Christ’s second coming, when “all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth,” and “death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Thess. 4:13–18; John 5:28, 29; 1 Cor. 15:54. The law says, among other precepts, “Remember the Sabbath4day, to keep it holy.” Ex. 20:8. Who can do this without the power of God? What does it mean to keep that day holy? Can we keep it holy if we are not holy ourselves? The Gospel puts that selfsame commandment in our minds and writes it in our hearts. We become the epistles of Christ. He dwells in us and makes us holy. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. It is God’s presence in the Sabbath day that makes it holy. Ex. 3:3–5; Joshua 5:15. To keep the day holy, we have to keep the presence of God in it. To be able to keep the presence of God in the Sabbath, we have to be holy ourselves. Only the power of God as revealed by the Gospel can enable us to keep the Sabbath acceptably to God. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6.