The Law as Judgment’s Standard
"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Rom. 2:13. The above statement is a logical and obvious conclusion from the fact stated just before: "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law." The law is the rule of judgment, from the fact that it is the rule of life. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment." Eccl. 12:13, 14. "For he that said [margin, "that law which said"], Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. . . . So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:11, 12. In the scriptures above quoted these facts are clearly shown: (1) That the law of God is the standard of man's conduct—his whole duty. (2) That it is the law of ten commandments, or the Decalogue, the law which contains the commandments noted. See also Rom. 7:7. (3) That this law will be the rule of the future judgment, as it is of present conduct. This in justice must be the case. A man who is accused of crime against the law of France is not condemned or judged by the laws of England or America. If it is found on examination that he has done nothing contrary to the law of France, he is acquitted, or pronounced just. And so also he who is not found guilty of transgressing God's law will, by the Judge pronouncing sentence according to the law, be declared just, or righteous. But it is also a declared fact of Scripture that "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight." Why?—Because "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. God's glory is his character. (See Ex. 33:18, 19; 34:6, 7.) His character, his righteousness, his goodness, is expressed in his holy law. "All thy commandments are righteousness." Ps. 119:172. "Ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law." Isa. 51:7. The Lord again declares, "My righteousness shall not be abolished," "My righteousness shall be forever." Isa. 51:6, 8. Therefore, as God's character is his glory, and as the law is the expression of that character, those who sin or come short of that glory must be condemned by the law; and this is clearly declared, "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4); "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." The glory of God is, therefore, synonymous with the righteousness of the law, and coming short of that glory is synonymous with sin, or the transgression of the law. As all, therefore, are sinners, all are condemned by the law, and therefore by the law can none be called just. Angels of God may be said to be just in God's sight, because they have never sinned. The law would declare them just. But not so with man. "What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law [Greek, en tō nomō, "within the law," "subject to the law"], that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." "We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." Rom. 3:19, 9. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." In the very nature of the case it is not possible, therefore, for fallen man of himself to keep the law. If, as soon as he realized his duty to do this, he should begin to try, his past life would condemn him. And then, again, the law does not demand mere negative service of not doing wrong, but it demands in all its fullness just that righteousness which is in God; it demands loving God with all the heart, might, mind, and strength. But this righteousness man of himself can never attain to, because this love he does not know, for "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. 8:7, 8. Man, therefore, is not righteous, nor can he obtain righteousness through the law. Why? The apostle tells it all in the expression, "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." The heart is at enmity with God. Man cannot do what he would. As expressed by Paul, "The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." He longed to do better, but he found another law in his members, warring against the awakened desires of his mind, bringing him into captivity to the law of sin in his members." This leads him to cry out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Here Christ reveals himself. When man finds that the only enemy he has is sin within him; that he has no power to help himself; that someone from without must deliver him, then Jesus is always near, mighty to save everyone who will trust him. He has wanted to save the soul from the beginning, but the soul has not been willing. It has counted God its enemy, when it was at enmity with God. God hates sin, and cannot be partner with it, but he loves man—loves him so much that he gave his only-begotten Son to reconcile man to himself. All that man needs is to come into harmony, or peace, with God. But as man has been a poor, wretched sinner, his sins must be taken away. As he has been in rebellion against God, he must submit to God's will. And as he can do none of these things for himself, he must lay hold of the only One who can do it, who has done it, for him. He must find his peace in Christ, who "is our peace." Peace with God means harmony, agreement, with God. And Christ is one with the Father. He "did no sin." He kept his "Father's commandments." He lived a life of perfect righteousness, and then laid down that life for us, that we might possess it in our mortal bodies. And all he asks is simple faith. Upon the sinner who believes, he bestows "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." But can the sinner do nothing of himself?—No, absolutely nothing, save to choose God's way, submit to God's way, and this is simple faith. The sinner is "without strength," sick from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot with the deadly leprosy of sin; but in Christ is all strength; in his word is all healing. And he gives it all freely by faith. By faith God's own righteousness is imputed for the sins of the past; by faith his Spirit, or life, is given to keep from sin (see Gal. 3:14), "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4).98"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” That faith will work by love (Gal. 5:6), and that love will keep all of God’s commandments (1 John 5:3). But the love is given by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), and “it is God which worketh in” us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).