p. 16 (80) | Why Men Hate the Law

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1901

Why Men Hate the Law.

We do not hate that which is a part of us, that which we make a part of our heart’s affection. The reason which the apostle gives for hating God’s law is this, “Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be; and they that are in the flesh can not please God.” Rom. 8:7, 8, R.V. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal [of the flesh], sold under sin.” Chap. 7:14. Men therefore hate God’s law because they are “under the law,” under its condemnation. The man who longs for holiness will yield to what condemns him, and forsake the sin. But the man who loves the sin will hate what condemns him. One man will seek to break the divine mirror which shows him his defects, his filth; the other will wash away the filth in the blood, the life, the righteousness, of Jesus Christ, and in the strength of Christ walk in what is to the justified one “the perfect law of liberty,” the precepts of which in the Gospel light are promises.