Faith and Obedience to God’s Law

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 10.

Faith and Obedience to God’s Law

Because there is no justification from sin except by faith in Christ, it does not follow, as some suppose, that those who are justified are free from obligation to obey the law of God. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4); and in discussing the relation of the renewed soul to that law, the transgression of which is sin, the apostle says: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. 6:1, 2. And again he tells us that because of man’s inability to keep the law without divine help, God, sending “his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4.

It is only by true faith that any man can render acceptable service to God, and by works is such faith made perfect, or shown to be genuine. James 2:21, 22.