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Truth: The Law of God

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 25, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 36, No. 19.

Read the full edition

Truth: The Law of God

By Roswell F. Cottrell

Truth.

“God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John. 4:24.
What is truth? The law of God. “Thy law is the truth.” Ps. 119:142. “All thy commandments are truth.” What law is the truth? The law that God spake from Mount Sinai; the ten commandments. “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from Heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws.” Margin, “laws of truth.” Neh. 9:13. “Which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?” Rom. 2:20-22.
According to both the Old Testament and the New, the law of God, the ten commandments, is the truth. All these commandments are truth. Did Christ abolish the truth? Did he change the truth?
These same commandments of God are righteousness as well as truth. “All thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172. Were they to be abolished? “My salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, [Who are they?] the people in whose hearts is my law.” Isa. 51:6, 7.
“All unrighteousness is sin.” 1 John. 5:17. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” Chap. 3:4. Therefore all righteousness is obedience to the law. “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.” Deut. 6:25. Speaking of the perpetuity of these commandments, Jesus says, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,” &c.
What was Christ’s work in respect to the truth? His language on coming into the world was, (See Heb. 10:5-7,) “Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.” Ps. 40:7-10. He bore his testimony for righteousness and truth in the great congregation in his sermon on the mount. Matt. 5:17-20. “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John. 18:37.
Truth is embodied in the law of God; therefore it is something to be done—something to be obeyed.
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John. 3:20, 21. “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, [sin, transgression of the law,] indignation and wrath.” Rom. 2:8.
Obedience to the truth purifies, sanctifies, and makes free. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth.” 1 Pet. 1:22. “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” John. 17:17. God’s “ten words” are all truth. See Ex. 34:28, margin. “The truth shall make you free.” John. 8:32. “And I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts.” Ps. 119:45.
Who oppose and resist the truth? 1. The devil. “He was a MURDERER from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.” John. 8:44. He was once in the truth and left it.
2. Idolaters. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Rom. 1:25. Idolaters, by having “other gods,” and thus violating the great truth taught in the first commandment, viz., that there is but one living and true God, change the truth of God into a lie. The fourth commandment also tells the truth—that God, after laboring six days in the work of creation, rested on the seventh, and that for this reason he blessed and hallowed the day on which he rested. Now if we trample under foot this hallowed rest-day, and observe in its stead another day, a day upon which he did not rest, and which he neither blessed nor sanctified, do we not change the truth of God into a lie?
3. The papacy. “It cast down the truth to the ground.” Dan. 8:12. It thought “to change times and laws.” Chap. 7:25. The work of casting down the truth, and of changing the law of the Most High, which is the truth, is identical.
4. Apostates of the last days. After delineating the character of these, the apostle says, “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.” 2 Tim. 3:8. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Chap. 4:3, 4. Read Isa. 59, noting verses 3, 4, and 13-15.
We shall be judged by the truth. “For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. 96:13. “As many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” Rom. 2:12-16.
The truth will shield God’s people in the time of trouble. “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” See Ps. 91:1-10. It shall open to them the city of God. “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” Isa. 26:2. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14.
How shall we know the truth? Do the will of God. “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” John. 7:16, 17. “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Chap. 8:31, 32. “I have more understanding than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.” Ps. 119:98-100. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.” Ps. 111:10. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John. 2:3, 4.
What is the “present truth?” That God is sending forth a special message to restore to his people the truth which the papacy “cast down to the ground,” and which has so long been trampled under foot.” “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:9-12.
R. F. COTTRELL.