A FRIEND who takes some exceptions to our views of the Law of God, and its perpetuity, quotes the following sentiment from John Wesley for our consideration: 'I will close by quoting Paul once, and giving Wesley's note on the place, 'I do not make void the grace of God; for if righteousness is by the law then Christ is dead in vain. Gal. ii, 21. John Wesley. I do not make void the grace of God—the free love of God in Christ; but they do who seek justification by the law; for if righteousness is by the law—if men might be justified by their obedience to the law, moral or ceremonial, then Christ died in vain—without any necessity for it, since men might have been saved without his death.''
Most of the readers of the REVIEW will recognize in the above extract a plain statement of one item of our faith. It is a sentiment with every word of which we are still happy, as we ever have been, perfectly to agree. But our friend was serious, no doubt, in quoting it as the belief of a great and good man, diametrically opposed, in his opinion, to what we now teach; and if he was thus serious in applying it, we must be equally serious in correcting the misapprehension. So long as our position is not understood, so long we must calmly and patiently explain.
There is no necessity for the misunderstanding that seems to exist on this point. The dispensation under which we are now placed is neither all law nor all gospel, but a due admixture of the two. Let us go back to the condition in which man was placed at first; let us look at the proposed ground of his justification then; let us trace the steps by which he descended to his present deplorable state, and inquire for the ground and hope of his justification now. Here, beneath the broad blaze of reason and revelation, we need not stumble nor stray.
Adam was placed in Paradise on probation. Now had he not sinned, but his probation ended and he been saved, what would have been the ground of his justification? Would it not have been obedience? Most certainly. Here then righteousness or justification, would have been by the law, and in this case Christ need not, and would not, have died. But man sinned and fell. If now he is ever justified and redeemed, will it be by the law? No; because he has broken it; and future obedience cannot atone for past transgression. It was man's duty to keep the whole law in all its perfection. When then he transgressed, he found himself staggering under a burden, which of himself he could never remove. Now Christ comes in a ransom to cover by his righteousness the transgressions of all those who will have faith in him. Thus man, through Christ, is imputed righteous, and saved from the fearful consequences of his sin.
So far then all is clear. We understand how we are justified. But it is at this point that many run into a great mistake. They seem to think that when we are justified by faith in Christ, we have nothing more to do with the law; that obedience is no longer necessary. A greater mistake than this could hardly be made, nor one more fatal if persisted in. But we ask, What is to be done when our sins are covered, and we, through the righteousness of Christ, are accepted of God, and placed in the same relation to him that we should have been in had we never sinned? Shall we then sin again—again transgress the law? Shall we take ourselves out of this relation again by disobedience? Shall we eject ourselves from this Paradise of God's grace, by going on in the transgression of his commands? God forbid! says the Apostle. Rom. vi, 1. Know then that we do not seek justification by the law, nor expect it on this ground; for we have all sinned, and our justification must come through Christ. But know also, that this does not release us from future obedience, and that those only who do the law shall be justified. Rom. ii, 13. Nor are we dependent on him for justification of our past transgressions only; but having inherited a carnal heart, a fallen nature, we must look to him for grace to enable us to keep the law in the future. We are, in our present state, disqualified even for rendering acceptable obedience except through faith in Christ. There is therefore no making void of the law through faith, nor of the grace of God through obedience to the law. But if we think to be justified by faith in Christ, while continuing in sin, we make him the minister of sin.
That Wesley did not understand Gal. ii, 21, as granting us any release from the moral law is evident from his discourse on our Lord's sermon on the mount, a sentence or two of which we here transcribe: 'But the moral law, contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take away. The moral stands on an entirely different foundation, from the ceremonial or ritual law. Every part of this [the moral] law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages.'