The Spirit and the Law.
By Editor
“If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Gal. 5:18. “Under the law” is under condemnation of law, guilty before God. This is shown by the fact that if a man who has been made free from sin through grace again yields to sin, he becomes a servant of sin. Rom. 6:14-16. When the sinner comes to God by faith, the blood of Christ washes away all past sin, and the Spirit of God regenerates the heart. The man is born of the Spirit, begotten through the word. But the law which condemned is of God; the Spirit which quickened is of God. Both are the same in nature. Man cannot obtain righteousness by doing, because he is weak, and has sinned; therefore God furnishes power by his Spirit. But the Spirit gives power to enable man to do what man of himself cannot do,—obey God’s law. Therefore “if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law,” because by the Spirit’s power ye obey the law. Rom. 8:3, 4. The term “under the law,” as used in Rom. 6:14, “For ye are not under the law, but under grace,” does not mean that man is not under obligation to obey the law. All are under obligation to obey the law, for otherwise the law could not condemn all as sinners. The apostle says, “We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” Rom. 3:9. Again: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law [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.” Verse 19. All, therefore, are within the jurisdiction of the law, obligated to obey it, or the law would not adjudge them guilty. This is absolute proof that the law which points out sin is obligatory upon all, and this is the Decalogue, or the law which says, “Thou shalt387not covet.” Rom. 7:7. The expression in Rom. 6:14 is not the same as that in Rom. 3:19. The former we have stated above. The latter is hupo nomon, under law. Such an one is under condemnation, “under sin,” the transgression of the law, in the bonds of iniquity. But he whom Christ has made free is justified by grace through faith. The righteousness of God is imputed to him, and he is freed from the bondage of sin; he is in Christ. The law no longer condemns, but witnesses to his justification. Rom. 3:21, 22. In Christ man is not its debtor; he owes all to the grace of the pardoning power. But owing all to God, who pardons, he will yield every power of his being, and every faculty of mind and soul, to do God’s service, to obey his will, to follow the teachings of the Spirit. See Rom. 6:11, 12, 17, 18; 8:4. In so doing he will by the faith that worketh by love (Gal. 5:6) keep all of God’s commandments, and count them not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Our Saviour declares in Matt. 24:12 that just before the end iniquity shall be multiplied, and the love of many shall wax cold. Certainly we have had the last few weeks plenty of evidence of abounding lawlessness. First, we had the disorders which have stirred the city of Denver and the State of Colorado to their very depths, and well-nigh precipitated a civil war. This was scarcely over before trouble broke out in South Carolina over the Dispensary law, between Governor Tillman and the State militia on the one side, and the liquor dealers and many of the people on the other, in which some were killed. And following immediately upon this are the scenes of disorder which have resulted in destruction of property and loss of life in the coke regions of Pennsylvania. Infuriated mobs of strikers have marched from plant to plant, committing the most atrocious outrages, and the last news at this writing says that as a result of it five men have been killed, and more than that mortally wounded. Even the women became so transformed by their thirst for blood that they beat to death one of their own friends before they recognized him. These things, with the almost instantaneous uprising of the industrial army in all parts of the United States, bodes no good to the country. The evil does not lie so much in these outbreaks themselves, but in the condition of things which breeds them. When a country like the United States, unequaled in resources, presents such a state of things as does this country to-day, it certainly shows a condition of the body politic which is anything but healthful. This we are not saying to the detriment or advantage of either of the two great political parties, for we have no reason to believe that it would be any different if the other party were in power. The root of the evil lies deeper than the surface, or political parties, it lies in the innate selfishness and greed of men, which no party platform can eradicate, and which can only be removed by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.