WHY KEEP THE LAW? by C. P. Bollman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1887

WHY KEEP THE LAW?

By C. P. Bollman

THEORETICALLY all Christians are agreed on the necessity of keeping the first three and the last six commandments of the decalogue; and all the so-called evangelical denominations teach that no one can be saved in willful and persistent violation of any one of these precepts; and yet very many of them call Seventh-day Adventists "legalists" and "Judaizers" because they claim for the fourth commandment just what they themselves claim for each of the others!

Sabbath-keepers do not believe and neither do they teach that any one can be saved merely by keeping the Sabbath. What they do hold is this: that it is the duty of every soul to keep all of God's commandments and that the fourth precept, the one that enjoins the keeping of the Sabbath, is one of those commandments. And believing this, they claim for it just the same that other religiousists do for the other precepts of the law; namely, that its violation is sin, and that all sin if it is ever forgiven must be repented of, if it comes to the knowledge of the person committing it.

It is not possible that anyone can be saved by keeping the law, for the law is not given as a means of salvation but as a standard of character. Beings who have not sinned need no salvation, for they were never lost; and those that have sinned can be saved only by being justified. But the law can justify only those who have always obeyed it perfectly; hence the law can never justify one who has broken it—and all have sinned. Hence it is just as true now as it was when Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans and Galatians, that faith alone can justify the transgressor. But it is also true that "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he [Christ] was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." 1 John 3: 4-6.

They who would make void the law through faith only show that they are not in harmony with Paul (Rom. 3:31), and that they are not in Christ, for whosoever abideth in him sinneth not (transgresseth not the law), for "sin is the transgression of the law;" and "he was manifested to take away our sins."

May the Lord help us to be among those who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.

C. P. BOLLMAN.