p. 11 | THOUGHTS ON GOD'S LAW by A. H. Darrow

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 1, 1905

THOUGHTS ON GOD'S LAW.

By A. H. Darrow

BY A. H. DARROW.

THERE is only one definition of the common Biblical expression, "the law of God," that will stand the test of criticism from every quarter, and that is the definition which every one naturally, and almost instinctively, applies to the same expression when used in reference to "the law" of our own or any other country; viz., the whole body or code of legally-enacted and unrepealed laws. In other words that law which remains on the statute book, which is enforceable, and for the violation of which men become liable to punishment.

In the Mosaic dispensation, "the law" meant, first, the constitution of God's government as epitomized in the Ten Commandments, these in turn summarized in the expression, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," and "thy neighbor as thyself;" and second, all the subsidiary statutes growing out of the principles of the Decalogue, or shadowing forth the sacrifice and work of Christ. When type met antitype there was necessarily a termination of some of these subsidiary statutes; but the great constitution of God's government did not and could not pass away with them.

The statement that the "apostles did not go to the Sinaitic law to convince men of sin," is contradicted by the apostle Paul, who said, "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Rom. 7:7. This same scripture also refutes the subsequent affirmation of the same writer, that "Paul was not convicted by the law, but by the faith of Jesus." How can faith convict one of sin if there is no standard of righteousness?

Again, the declaration that, "Neither is the Decalogue needed for justification or righteousness," is condemned by the very fact that the righteousness of the Christian, is and must be attested or "witnessed by the law and the prophets." Rom. 3:21.

Said one to me, "I admit that the law still exists in the world as a standard, but the Christian is above the law, not subject to it."

I answered: "Why, then, are you content to live below the standard while teaching others to live above it?"

"O," said he, "nobody does or can live up to that standard except Christ. He kept the law for me."

But the Bible says, "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." Verse 6.

Again it is asserted that "When man is immortalized in glory, with all sexual instincts obliterated, it is difficult to see what need of a prohibition of adultery there can be." The principles of God's law are broad enough to cover every contingency in every part of His universe. The word adultery has much the same meaning as adulteration, and there will be always need of a reminder against adulterating the pure with the impure.

A law is a rule of action, and God's law is the rule by which He acts. Consequently, unless our God is a changeable God, His law, method, principle, or rule of action can never change. He saves people now by sacrifice, by blood-atonement, the same as He did under the old or Mosaic dispensation. The ceremonies and ordinances, have changed from animal sacrifices, etc., to baptism and the Lord's Supper, because what the types pointed forward to is now completed and must be pointed back to. But there has been no change in the law.

Christ came to magnify or enlarge the law. To magnify is to reveal more of the article in question. This Jesus did. He enlarged the scope of the Ten Commandments in the minds of men, and showed what they implied; that to want to kill is the same as to kill, that to want to commit adultery is the same as to commit it, so far at least as the sinful thought and act affect the character and the destiny of the transgressor.

Prescott, Arizona.