The Law and the Gospel
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
A CALIFORNIA minister, bearing the title D. D., not long since made this remark: "I want nothing to do with the law; I have no use for it; I think too much of my master for that." Ordinarily we might reply, that this was an honest confession. Paul says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Why cannot the carnal mind be subject to the law? Because it thinks too much of its master. But the reverend doctor probably intended to intimate that Jesus was his master, inasmuch as he professes to preach the gospel of Christ. Having no use for the law, he evidently considers it abolished. Hear Paul again: "Sin is the transgression of the law." "Where no sin is, there is no transgression." According to this logic, if there is no law in force there can be no sin, and consequently no need of a Saviour. "They that are whole need not a physician." Clearly, then, it is the very existence of the law that makes the crucified Master a necessity.