The Law and Its Scope

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1904

The Law and Its Scope.

"Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law." Rom. 7:7. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. All, therefore, are amenable to God's law, and subject to its demands. There is no escape from this conclusion.

"Under the Law."

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. 14:23. "But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law." Gal. 3:23. Those without faith are in sin, and therefore under the law. Again, "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. 8:9. "If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Gal. 5:18. Therefore those who are under the law have not the Spirit and are not Christ's. The same truth is taught in Gal. 4:4, 5: "God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become righteousness in Him. Only those subject to death through sin need redemption; and therefore again we are taught that to be "under the law [hupo nomon]" is to be in a sinful condition, condemned by the law. The law shuts the sinner up in prison. It condemns him to death. He is beneath the law.

"Under the law" in Rom. 3:19 comes from a different Greek term, en tō nomō, literally, "within the law," within its demands, amenable to it. "We know that whatsoever the law says, to those in the law it speaks, that every mouth may be stopped, and under judgment be all the world to God." (Hind's Interlinear Translation.) It is the duty of all the world, therefore, to obey God, to observe His law; but as all have sinned, all are condemned by the law, and hence are "under the law," as well as amenable to the law. The distinction is very clear. It is the duty of every intelligent, responsible creature in God's universe to obey God's law; all are within its jurisdiction. But it is not necessary that every creature should be "under the law," nor is this true. Jesus of Nazareth was not, only as He became so by being man's substitute. The holy angels are not. They have acknowledged their duty to be faithful to God, and hence are not condemned by the law.