THE PERVERTED LAW OF LIFE.
God’s law is the law of life, the channel through which life is imparted to all who are in harmony with God. It is a living law, bearing in all its requirements the life of God to enable every one to whom the law comes to perform its requirements. Therefore he who absolutely submits to God’s law receives through that law the life and power to do or refrain from doing the thing commanded or prohibited. The life of God operates through him for the doing of the law. When God forbade Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit, there was power in the command, if Adam had submitted to it, to refrain from partaking. When God said to Israel, “Go forward,” there was power in the word to carry them through the Red Sea. It will do no harm to again refresh our minds with testimony from the Word as to the law of life: “For the Word of God is quick [living], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. None but a living agency could do this; and this is the very work the law was set to perform in this world in its present condition. As in the living law of God is His life, so it carries with it His presence and power. Before that power naught can stand. “He doeth according to His will [His law] in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” Dan. 4:35. “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.” Ps. 135:6. And He does all this by His holy law, or Word, whether its bearer be angel or man. To him who is in harmony with the law, the power that is in it works life; for “in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” But he who opposes himself to the power of God in that law, invites against himself the power of God. So, while the law is life to the doer, it is death to the transgressor. “The commandment, which was ordained to life,” says Paul, speaking of himself as a sinner, “I found to be unto death.” The reason why the law works death in any one is not because of any defect in the law. It is in the law’s perversion. In the very nature of the case it must work death to the transgressor. In fact, all evil is perverted good. The straight line perverted becomes crooked. The perfect circle if bent is no longer a circle. So when the perfect law of God is perverted, it works out death. Here are the words of Inspiration upon this point:— “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin [transgression, or perversion, of the law, 1 John 4:3; Rom. 7:7], taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it [the law, or commandment] slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:10-14. Let us ask some questions, it may bring out more clearly the meaning of the text:— To what was the law ordained?—“To life.” What did the sinner find it to be?—“To death.” What caused the death, or slaying?—“Sin.” By what did sin slay?—“By it,” the commandment. What is sin?—“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. When a perversion of a law causes death, what does it prove that law to be?—“Holy, and just, and good.” Was it then the good that was made death?—No; it was “sin . . . working death.” What instrument did it use?—“That which is good,” God’s holy law. What, then, does the law show sin to be?—“Exceeding sinful.” What do we know of the law?—“The law is spiritual,” life-giving. Where then is the trouble?—“I am carnal, sold under sin.” What is the relation of the carnal mind to God and His law?—“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. What then is it to be carnally minded?—“Death.” Verse 6. All the power of God is in His law. It is the channel through which it flows. If the channel is perverted, the power flows on still. The power of the immense dynamo at the electric power-house flows through the overhead wire for the propulsion of cars. A miscreant cuts the wire. The current flows on. A broken end falls upon a crowd of people, shocking, burning, killing. What a difference in the result: one moment it was propelling people at their pleasure, hastening business, doing work of utility; the next, the same current, through the same wire, is maiming and killing! What is the cause of the difference? In the first instance, it was power acting in a normal way; in the second, it was power acting in an abnormal way, through a perverted channel. In its ordained way it was useful to life. In the perverted way, it was an instrument of death. The miscreant who cut the wire used the good thing, designed to serve humanity, to slay humanity. The law of gravitation pulls all the bodies on earth or in earth’s atmosphere toward a common center. It is most useful, beneficent, and necessary in preserving the equilibrium of things in general. But there have been instances when this good law was used for the destruction of human life, by casting persons from great heights, dashing them in pieces on rocks beneath. The law of gravitation is good; the evil lies in its perversion. So God’s law is good, the channel of His life and power, but perverted it means suffering and death to its perverter or transgressor. He who sets his carnal mind, his puny human will, across the normal channel of the working of God’s law invites against himself to his own destruction all the power of God. Awful thought! He is like the man who, taking the electric current, which would bear him home to wife and loved ones, turns it to his own destruction. He is like a person who, having a boat fitted to bear him safely over a river, would overturn it, and use its weight in holding him under the water till drowned. The electric current in the live wire is good; the boat is good; but their perversion is death. So God’s law is good and was ordained to life; its perversion is proved death to the sinner. Enmity to that law means the perverting of God’s eternal life the moment it enters where the law is perverted. It comes to man direct from God as eternal life; but as soon as it enters the atmosphere of sin or carnality or selfishness, it is perverted, cut off, and becomes death instead. It is in this sense that the Lord in speaking to the sinner uses the expression, “thy life,” “your life,” “all the days of thy life.” It is the life perverted by sin, the life flowing through a perverted law. To have the eternal life, it must be continually inflowing. It is not a segment of the great sphere of God’s life cut off. It is not a severed fragment. It is a direct living connection with God, even as the car is connected with the dynamo by the live wire and trolley. It is living connection with God even as the hand is connected with the brain by the nerve. Sever the nerve, and the hand is dead so far as feeling goes. Sever the artery which supplies the hand with blood from the heart, tie it up so that the connection is severed, and the hand withers. So will man separated from the life of God. But there is more to the story.