Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Faith does not cancel the law but keeps it fully binding and upholds it as honorable in life and action. No one is counted righteous by deeds of the law, since the law exposes sin, but sinners are freely counted righteous by grace through redemption in Christ, set forth as the atoning sacrifice whose blood is received by faith. The law thus established is the whole moral law of ten commandments resting on love to God and love to man, while the ceremonial system of types and shadows ended when it met its fulfillment in Christ's death. Christ vindicated that changeless and eternal law, which expresses God's own character, both by a life of perfect obedience proving it can be kept and by bearing its curse and penalty as substitute to uphold its sacred claims. His righteousness is credited to those who repent and believe, and through the new covenant promise the Holy Spirit writes that same law on the renewed heart, so genuine faith never leaves a person free to transgress but brings forgiveness, cleansing, and obedient harmony with God.
Verse Meaning and Context
Faith does not make the law void but establishes it as still binding and upheld, answering its own question with a denial that justification sets the law aside. This is the conclusion of the argument that no flesh is justified by deeds of the law because the law gives knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of God apart from law, attested by the law and the prophets, comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe since all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. Sinners are justified freely by grace through redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood to demonstrate his righteousness in forgiving past sins through forbearance, so that God is just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Justifying faith therefore upholds the law instead of abolishing it, through imputation of Christ's righteousness, with knowing Christ proved by keeping his commandments as the propitiation not only for believers but for the whole world.
The law in the verse means the whole moral Decalogue, not a part, which hangs on love to God and love to man and is brought in full force into the gospel. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in the New Testament, and when the two great principles of love are brought into the gospel all that hangs on them is brought in with them. Christ originated the entire Jewish system of sacrifices and came for the express purpose of vindicating his Father's law, and in his death the typical law met its antitype while the moral law remains binding as God's rule of life solemnly obliging all to obedience. The death of Christ brought the law of types and shadows, the ceremonial law, to an end, yet it did not detract in the least from the dignity of the moral law but proved its unchangeable character by showing that Christ died to satisfy its claims and alone can free transgressors from the consequences of breaking it, leaving hope for God's favor through repentance, faith in his atoning sacrifice, and a life of obedience. By the light of that moral law a person who thought himself zealously keeping it sees himself a sinner, even a sinner of sinners, with true faith joining obedience, repentance as death to sin, baptism, and zealous preaching of Jesus.
Paul once mistakenly thought faith in Jesus made the law, sacrificial offerings, and circumcision ineffective until Christ's revelation as the world's Redeemer corrected him. To make the law void is to depart even a jot or tittle from its principles to fulfill natural propensities, including leaning on worldly lawyers and acting tyrannically toward others, which God never gives grace to do and which the Word expressly forbids. To establish it is to hold its principles whole and make it honorable in life and action.
Law's Enduring Character
Faith does not abolish the law but establishes it, for the law is changeless, immutable and eternal as God himself and his throne. It cannot be weakened, strengthened, repealed, changed in one principle, abrogated or altered even to save sinners, and to abrogate it would be as impossible as for God to abolish himself. Christ's death did not extinguish the law that reveals sin but vindicated God's justice and stands as enduring proof of its immutability, for God gave his only-begotten Son yet could not set aside even the smallest part of the law to accommodate fallen humanity, since removing one part would make the whole void. Through Christ's intercession people may receive eternal life while walking humbly and obeying, and by his own obedience he places them on vantage ground with God, giving another trial and probation to show hatred of sin as transgression and return to loyalty. The law still claims obedience from every person with opportunity to know God's will, demands perfect obedience and holiness in every part, and responsibility is proportionate to light received through warnings; though many make it void and resist its requirements, God will have a people who keep it, while teaching that it has been changed or abrogated rejects a pillar of faith and brings ridicule and contempt upon those who hold it as perpetually and literally binding as the guide of life.
The law is the expression and transcript of God's character and kingdom, the echo of his own voice calling every soul to come up higher and be holy and holier still. Holiness is perfect obedience to every precept, the only true moral excellence, and only character in harmony with the law receives God's approval and shows reception by faith of Christ who died for transgressors. Mere talk of Christ, of being saved by Christ, or of righteousness means nothing without obedience, for true righteousness, goodness, virtue and purity mean entire conformity to the law. To establish the law is to desire the fullness of Christ's grace and to hunger and thirst with intense longing after righteousness with the promise of being filled, for the work of righteousness is peace and its effect quietness and assurance forever.
The law is a perfect and complete standard of right that reaches beyond outward acts to judge thoughts, motives, purposes and hidden passions, by which the guilty are condemned and the obedient justified. God does not lower its requirements, and sinners cannot meet them by their own power, but through faith they are cleansed from guilt and enabled to obey. The divine precepts remain binding as the foundation of government and the standard of righteousness, and teaching that they need not be obeyed strikes against Heaven's authority, opposes reason and brings pernicious results. As every nation has laws commanding respect and obedience to protect citizens, so the Creator has a law to govern the beings he made, and to say divine precepts need not be obeyed because they restrict liberty is as unreasonable as saying national statutes need not be obeyed; indeed trampling them is graver than disregarding laws of states and nations. When that standard is set aside the way is opened for the prince of evil to establish his rule and for evil and cruel tyranny to gain power, as was demonstrated when France ruled by atheism and cast off God's restraints.
There is no contradiction between law and gospel but the closest union and perfect harmony, with one not superseding the other and the two inseparably bound together. The law points to the gospel, while the gospel reflects its glory back upon the law and upon the whole Jewish economy by revealing Christ in every offering, for the animals daily slain at the tabernacle as victims of sin pointed to the Lamb of God to be slain for the sin of the world to save sinners from sin rather than in sin and to lead them to loyalty. The gospel has not abrogated the law or lessened its claims in the least, but is the law practiced, a perfect and complete system that fills the heart with hope and love for God and still demands perfect obedience to every precept and holiness in all who would see God. Mercy invites entrance through the gates into the city of God, and justice is satisfied to give every obedient soul full privileges as a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King, yet defective character cannot pass the gates mercy has opened to the obedient, for justice stands at the entrance demanding holiness and purity. Holding the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end reveals the Christ-life in obedience, a privilege secured at the cost of the life of the only-begotten Son and requiring diligent guarding of the soul, while refusing to let self die and to have the life hid with Christ leaves a person in unbelief and transgression, and even supposed little sins kept as part of the sinful self with its sensitiveness ready to be hurt will exclude from heaven. Divine truth is the means of sanctification, and the more clearly it is understood and the more faithfully it is obeyed, the more positive and decided the religious experience becomes, the lovelier the character and the greater the usefulness.
Justification Through Faith
The law could not justify because it was weak through the flesh, since fallen human nature leaves people unable to keep it by themselves. God therefore sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Christ's righteousness is accepted for believers and imputed to those who repent and seek to obey, while salvation rests on His merits rather than human strength. God accepts their efforts to keep the commandments because Christ supplies the righteousness they cannot achieve on their own and makes their obedience acceptable, having suffered to pay the debt created by transgression in order to impress people with the sinfulness of breaking the law and lead them to repentance and obedience.
No one can keep the commandments except through the merit of Jesus Christ, and through His righteousness as substitute and surety obedience is made acceptable. The infinite price paid for redemption was not paid so that man might be saved in his sins, and the merit of Christ's righteousness is the only ground of hope for a title to eternal life, though by deeds of the law no flesh is justified while the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ is witnessed by the law and the prophets. Belief in Christ's propitiation for sin enables fallen people, who cannot obey by personal strength, to love God with the whole heart and neighbor as self through His virtue and grace. Presenting Christ as the only source of strength, with human guilt charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but establishes it, placing it where the correct light shines upon it and glorifies it.
In that light alone the law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation. That glorifying light shines from the cross of Calvary and from the crucified and risen Saviour, is discerned only spiritually, and kindles in the beholder ardent faith, hope, and joy that Christ is his righteousness. This joy belongs only to those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God.
Christ Vindicates the Law
Since the fall there is no direct communication between God and man except through Christ, to whom the case of the fallen race has been committed in a special sense, and He undertook redemption to maintain the full honor of the law although the family of man had transgressed it. Through His mediatorial work He fully vindicates the holiness and immutability of His Father's law, and by the atonement provided He redeems from its curse all the obedient who embrace the offer of mercy by accepting it.
Faith does not abolish the law, for Christ upheld its holiness and full claims by obeying all its precepts in human nature and by dying for those who had broken it, thereby establishing it as unchanging. He clothed divinity with humanity and came to seek and save the lost from unselfish love alone, to show what human beings may become when they unite their weakness with His strength. Against Satan's declaration that man could not keep God's commandments, He lived a life of obedience on earth and showed that man can obey, so that even one soul saved proves Satan's statement false and demonstrates the righteousness of the law. He came not to introduce a new law or change the existing one, but to reveal its unchanging principles, holiness, purity, and spiritual reach, and by meeting God's test in human nature He showed Satan's claim to be false. He canceled the guilt resting on the sinner, clothing Himself with the robe of sorrow so that the sinner might stand before God clothed with the robe of righteousness.
He proved this to human beings and to the inhabitants of unfallen worlds that the law can be kept, and in human nature obeying the law He vindicated God's justice in demanding obedience. In the judgment His life will stand as an unanswerable argument in favor of the law.
His death did not end the Ten Commandments; it magnified and honored them and upheld obedience to their precepts, confirming their continuing authority because the law could not simply be removed to save humanity. He became humanity's substitute and bore the curse due to humanity, while upholding the law's sacred claims, honor, and holy dignity. By accepting the law's penalty in the sinner's place as substitute and surety, He showed that the law is unchanging and just and is not abolished by His death. His work exposes sin as breaking the law and, through divine mediation, brings people back to obedience.
God gave His only-begotten Son, but could not set aside even the smallest part of the law to accommodate humanity's fallen condition, because removing one part would make the whole law void. The cross therefore stands as enduring proof of the law's immutability and did not extinguish the law that reveals human sin. By hanging on Calvary's cross in death and crucifixion He paid the debt and exalted the law instead of abolishing it, for He could no more abolish the law than abolish Himself. It is the privilege of everyone to be a partaker of the divine nature and keep God's law and be found obedient to it, and if men kept it the crimes and murders that make men overlook the laws of nature would not be seen.
His death vindicates the law's claims and demonstrates that it is unchanging, refuting the idea that sin can be immortalized or evildoers be favored by God. Nothing less than this atonement could convince the whole universe of God's justice, while God is just and yet the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. His sacrifice lifts the law to its own eternal dignity and vindicates its holy requirements, and the cross opens to the universe a view of the character of God, revealing His attributes and His love for man far surpassing all human love. The effects of the sacrifice on the cross are still felt, and all who would be saved must themselves have a personal interest in the crucified One.
The object of the atonement, the at-one-ment with God, was that the divine law and government might be maintained. The sinner is pardoned through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness of sin, and yet the law stands immutable, eternal as His throne. The law cannot be weakened or strengthened, repealed or changed in one principle; as it has always been so it is, eternal and immutable, always holy, just, and good and complete in itself. Christ honored the law by giving it implicit obedience.
New Heart Obedience
Faith does not set the law aside but establishes it because through faith in Christ the Holy Spirit renews the heart and writes that same law there. This is the new covenant promise of God putting His laws into minds and hearts and writing them within, so that all who receive Christ as personal Saviour exalt the law rather than void it. Christ came to make those who receive and believe and practice His obedience partakers of His divine nature, one with Him and brought into perfect and complete harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. Since the law cannot justify because sinful nature leaves people unable to keep it, Christ's righteousness is accepted for believers, and those who walk by the Spirit live in obedience to it. That harmony includes the Sabbath, which was made for a round world and is to be obeyed in full consistency with the created world.
Forgiveness comes through repentance toward God and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, changing sinners so their hearts come into harmony with God and His law. The law still reveals sin and its penalty, while the gospel gives freedom from sin's condemnation and defilement, with remission of past sins. In the new birth the forgiven person is not free to transgress but passes from death to life, from sin to holiness, and from transgression and rebellion to obedience, loyalty, reconciliation, faith and love. The righteousness of the law is thus fulfilled in a life guided by the Spirit.
God's grace cleanses sinners from guilt and enables them to obey the law's binding claims and perfect standard of right. That standard reaches beyond outward acts to judge thoughts, motives, purposes and hidden passions, and God does not lower its requirements to meet human weakness. Sinners cannot meet it by their own power, but through faith in Christ they receive grace and help to keep the commandments and follow Jesus' example.
To establish the law is to desire the fullness of Christ's grace and to hunger and thirst after righteousness with intense longing, with the promise of being filled. The law is the expression of God's character demanding perfect obedience, echoing His call to be holy and holier still. The work of that righteousness is peace, and its effect quietness and assurance forever.
Holding the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end reveals the Christ-life in obedience. The gospel has not abrogated the law but is the law practiced, demanding perfect obedience to every precept, a privilege secured at the cost of the life of the only begotten Son of God and requiring diligent guarding of the soul. Faith is to increase every day, confessing sinfulness while trusting in a Saviour who died for sinners and will pardon upon sincere repentance, for profession of belief is of no avail unless the claims of the law are acknowledged and its precepts striven to be obeyed daily.
The law and the gospel are inseparably bound together, and divine truth is the means of sanctification. The more clearly that truth is understood and the more faithfully it is obeyed, the more positive and decided the religious experience becomes, the lovelier the character, and the greater the usefulness.
Genuine Faith Obeys
Forgiveness through repentance toward God and faith in Christ does not free a person to transgress God's law, for faith establishes the law instead of making it void. The new birth brings the heart into harmony with God and into accord with His law, so the sinner passes from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, and from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty, beginning a new life of reconciliation, faith, and love. Expecting salvation through Christ while disregarding the law's claims leaves people without true conviction of sin and prevents true conversion.
Salvation through Christ does not weaken God's law but breaks the power of sin, which is the cause of all human misery and woe in the world. Mercy extended to the sinner constantly draws him to Jesus, and he responds by coming in penitence with confession and by faith laying hold of the gospel hope set before him. God does not reject or despise a broken and contrite heart, and while the power of sin is broken the law stands and the scepter of mercy is extended to the penitent sinner.
Christ died to vindicate and exalt the law before all nations, tongues, and peoples, and He did not come to destroy God's pure and holy law which remains the standard of human character. He does not save by the law, but neither does He save in sin or in disobedience to the law; He came to take away the sin of the world. To be redeemed means to cease from sin, so no heart stirred to rebellion against the law of God has any union with Christ. Saying I am holy while calling the law a yoke of bondage and saying those who keep the law have fallen from grace is self-deception, selfishness, and lack of true love for Christ. Keeping the commandments is required and is shown by action in harmony with the law, but no one can keep them without the help of Christ, who alone saves by cleansing from all sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and the degree of love for God depends on the clearness and fullness of conviction of sin, producing gratitude for deliverance.
True faith is never found apart from truth and obedience, and grace is never used to set the law aside. Faith unsupported by good works is dead and can save no more than the belief of the fallen angels who believe and tremble. The peace claimed by those who want Christ without the law is only self-righteous confidence. To claim acceptance by Christ and sinlessness while waging war against God's law repeats the work of Lucifer and Satan begun in heaven and carried on earth, casting reproach on God Himself. Those who claim God's promises while breaking His precepts, even prophesying and doing wonderful works in Christ's name, will be rejected in the last great day, for since sin is transgression of the law there would be no sin if there were no law.
The standard of perfect righteousness and conformity to its principles remains the same as it was in Eden and is the same in the Old and New Testaments. This standard is attainable because God provides what is needed; His commands carry a promise, and He accomplishes their purpose in those who do not resist His grace. No one can obey the law by personal strength, but Christ's virtue and grace enable obedience, and belief in Christ's propitiation for sin enables fallen people to love God with their whole heart and their neighbor as themselves.
Every man and woman who receives Christ as personal Saviour exalts the law, and Christ came to make all who receive and believe and practice His obedience partakers of His divine nature, one with Christ, and thus in perfect, complete harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. Establishing the law is God putting His laws into hearts and writing them in minds. This includes the Sabbath, which was made for a round world, so obedience is required of people in full consistency with the Lord's created world. Christ's saving death does not excuse disobedience, and keeping the commandments remains duty even when it costs friends, position, or worldly gain. Rejecting the law, especially trampling on the Sabbath, is rebellion against truth and brings eternal loss, so repentance and reform are urged while mercy and probation remain.
Faith does not make God's law void but establishes it, so the law remains binding upon church members. People are joining with evil powers to make the law of God seem ineffective, even as the world becomes like the violent generation before the Flood and the people of Sodom. This stands in contrast to those who profess belief in Christ's near coming yet oppose God's law. Teaching from the pulpits that the law is not binding is Satan's work to lead to disobedience, reading God's Word in the light of transgression, and ministers who turn the light of truth from the people and persuade them to reject it are false shepherds who have committed a breach of trust.
Faith does not cancel the law but keeps it fully binding and upholds it as honorable in life and action. No one is counted righteous by deeds of the law, since the law exposes sin, but sinners are freely counted righteous by grace through redemption in Christ, set forth as the atoning sacrifice whose blood is received by faith. The law thus established is the whole moral law of ten commandments resting on love to God and love to man, while the ceremonial system of types and shadows ended when it met its fulfillment in Christ's death. Christ vindicated that changeless and eternal law, which expresses God's own character, both by a life of perfect obedience proving it can be kept and by bearing its curse and penalty as substitute to uphold its sacred claims. His righteousness is credited to those who repent and believe, and through the new covenant promise the Holy Spirit writes that same law on the renewed heart, so genuine faith never leaves a person free to transgress but brings forgiveness, cleansing, and obedient harmony with God.
Verse Meaning and Context
Faith does not make the law void but establishes it as still binding and upheld, answering its own question with a denial that justification sets the law aside. This is the conclusion of the argument that no flesh is justified by deeds of the law because the law gives knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of God apart from law, attested by the law and the prophets, comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe since all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. Sinners are justified freely by grace through redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood to demonstrate his righteousness in forgiving past sins through forbearance, so that God is just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Justifying faith therefore upholds the law instead of abolishing it, through imputation of Christ's righteousness, with knowing Christ proved by keeping his commandments as the propitiation not only for believers but for the whole world.
The law in the verse means the whole moral Decalogue, not a part, which hangs on love to God and love to man and is brought in full force into the gospel. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in the New Testament, and when the two great principles of love are brought into the gospel all that hangs on them is brought in with them. Christ originated the entire Jewish system of sacrifices and came for the express purpose of vindicating his Father's law, and in his death the typical law met its antitype while the moral law remains binding as God's rule of life solemnly obliging all to obedience. The death of Christ brought the law of types and shadows, the ceremonial law, to an end, yet it did not detract in the least from the dignity of the moral law but proved its unchangeable character by showing that Christ died to satisfy its claims and alone can free transgressors from the consequences of breaking it, leaving hope for God's favor through repentance, faith in his atoning sacrifice, and a life of obedience. By the light of that moral law a person who thought himself zealously keeping it sees himself a sinner, even a sinner of sinners, with true faith joining obedience, repentance as death to sin, baptism, and zealous preaching of Jesus.
Paul once mistakenly thought faith in Jesus made the law, sacrificial offerings, and circumcision ineffective until Christ's revelation as the world's Redeemer corrected him. To make the law void is to depart even a jot or tittle from its principles to fulfill natural propensities, including leaning on worldly lawyers and acting tyrannically toward others, which God never gives grace to do and which the Word expressly forbids. To establish it is to hold its principles whole and make it honorable in life and action.
Law's Enduring Character
Faith does not abolish the law but establishes it, for the law is changeless, immutable and eternal as God himself and his throne. It cannot be weakened, strengthened, repealed, changed in one principle, abrogated or altered even to save sinners, and to abrogate it would be as impossible as for God to abolish himself. Christ's death did not extinguish the law that reveals sin but vindicated God's justice and stands as enduring proof of its immutability, for God gave his only-begotten Son yet could not set aside even the smallest part of the law to accommodate fallen humanity, since removing one part would make the whole void. Through Christ's intercession people may receive eternal life while walking humbly and obeying, and by his own obedience he places them on vantage ground with God, giving another trial and probation to show hatred of sin as transgression and return to loyalty. The law still claims obedience from every person with opportunity to know God's will, demands perfect obedience and holiness in every part, and responsibility is proportionate to light received through warnings; though many make it void and resist its requirements, God will have a people who keep it, while teaching that it has been changed or abrogated rejects a pillar of faith and brings ridicule and contempt upon those who hold it as perpetually and literally binding as the guide of life.
The law is the expression and transcript of God's character and kingdom, the echo of his own voice calling every soul to come up higher and be holy and holier still. Holiness is perfect obedience to every precept, the only true moral excellence, and only character in harmony with the law receives God's approval and shows reception by faith of Christ who died for transgressors. Mere talk of Christ, of being saved by Christ, or of righteousness means nothing without obedience, for true righteousness, goodness, virtue and purity mean entire conformity to the law. To establish the law is to desire the fullness of Christ's grace and to hunger and thirst with intense longing after righteousness with the promise of being filled, for the work of righteousness is peace and its effect quietness and assurance forever.
The law is a perfect and complete standard of right that reaches beyond outward acts to judge thoughts, motives, purposes and hidden passions, by which the guilty are condemned and the obedient justified. God does not lower its requirements, and sinners cannot meet them by their own power, but through faith they are cleansed from guilt and enabled to obey. The divine precepts remain binding as the foundation of government and the standard of righteousness, and teaching that they need not be obeyed strikes against Heaven's authority, opposes reason and brings pernicious results. As every nation has laws commanding respect and obedience to protect citizens, so the Creator has a law to govern the beings he made, and to say divine precepts need not be obeyed because they restrict liberty is as unreasonable as saying national statutes need not be obeyed; indeed trampling them is graver than disregarding laws of states and nations. When that standard is set aside the way is opened for the prince of evil to establish his rule and for evil and cruel tyranny to gain power, as was demonstrated when France ruled by atheism and cast off God's restraints.
There is no contradiction between law and gospel but the closest union and perfect harmony, with one not superseding the other and the two inseparably bound together. The law points to the gospel, while the gospel reflects its glory back upon the law and upon the whole Jewish economy by revealing Christ in every offering, for the animals daily slain at the tabernacle as victims of sin pointed to the Lamb of God to be slain for the sin of the world to save sinners from sin rather than in sin and to lead them to loyalty. The gospel has not abrogated the law or lessened its claims in the least, but is the law practiced, a perfect and complete system that fills the heart with hope and love for God and still demands perfect obedience to every precept and holiness in all who would see God. Mercy invites entrance through the gates into the city of God, and justice is satisfied to give every obedient soul full privileges as a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King, yet defective character cannot pass the gates mercy has opened to the obedient, for justice stands at the entrance demanding holiness and purity. Holding the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end reveals the Christ-life in obedience, a privilege secured at the cost of the life of the only-begotten Son and requiring diligent guarding of the soul, while refusing to let self die and to have the life hid with Christ leaves a person in unbelief and transgression, and even supposed little sins kept as part of the sinful self with its sensitiveness ready to be hurt will exclude from heaven. Divine truth is the means of sanctification, and the more clearly it is understood and the more faithfully it is obeyed, the more positive and decided the religious experience becomes, the lovelier the character and the greater the usefulness.
Justification Through Faith
The law could not justify because it was weak through the flesh, since fallen human nature leaves people unable to keep it by themselves. God therefore sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Christ's righteousness is accepted for believers and imputed to those who repent and seek to obey, while salvation rests on His merits rather than human strength. God accepts their efforts to keep the commandments because Christ supplies the righteousness they cannot achieve on their own and makes their obedience acceptable, having suffered to pay the debt created by transgression in order to impress people with the sinfulness of breaking the law and lead them to repentance and obedience.
No one can keep the commandments except through the merit of Jesus Christ, and through His righteousness as substitute and surety obedience is made acceptable. The infinite price paid for redemption was not paid so that man might be saved in his sins, and the merit of Christ's righteousness is the only ground of hope for a title to eternal life, though by deeds of the law no flesh is justified while the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ is witnessed by the law and the prophets. Belief in Christ's propitiation for sin enables fallen people, who cannot obey by personal strength, to love God with the whole heart and neighbor as self through His virtue and grace. Presenting Christ as the only source of strength, with human guilt charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but establishes it, placing it where the correct light shines upon it and glorifies it.
In that light alone the law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation. That glorifying light shines from the cross of Calvary and from the crucified and risen Saviour, is discerned only spiritually, and kindles in the beholder ardent faith, hope, and joy that Christ is his righteousness. This joy belongs only to those who love and keep the words of Jesus, which are the words of God.
Christ Vindicates the Law
Since the fall there is no direct communication between God and man except through Christ, to whom the case of the fallen race has been committed in a special sense, and He undertook redemption to maintain the full honor of the law although the family of man had transgressed it. Through His mediatorial work He fully vindicates the holiness and immutability of His Father's law, and by the atonement provided He redeems from its curse all the obedient who embrace the offer of mercy by accepting it.
Faith does not abolish the law, for Christ upheld its holiness and full claims by obeying all its precepts in human nature and by dying for those who had broken it, thereby establishing it as unchanging. He clothed divinity with humanity and came to seek and save the lost from unselfish love alone, to show what human beings may become when they unite their weakness with His strength. Against Satan's declaration that man could not keep God's commandments, He lived a life of obedience on earth and showed that man can obey, so that even one soul saved proves Satan's statement false and demonstrates the righteousness of the law. He came not to introduce a new law or change the existing one, but to reveal its unchanging principles, holiness, purity, and spiritual reach, and by meeting God's test in human nature He showed Satan's claim to be false. He canceled the guilt resting on the sinner, clothing Himself with the robe of sorrow so that the sinner might stand before God clothed with the robe of righteousness.
He proved this to human beings and to the inhabitants of unfallen worlds that the law can be kept, and in human nature obeying the law He vindicated God's justice in demanding obedience. In the judgment His life will stand as an unanswerable argument in favor of the law.
His death did not end the Ten Commandments; it magnified and honored them and upheld obedience to their precepts, confirming their continuing authority because the law could not simply be removed to save humanity. He became humanity's substitute and bore the curse due to humanity, while upholding the law's sacred claims, honor, and holy dignity. By accepting the law's penalty in the sinner's place as substitute and surety, He showed that the law is unchanging and just and is not abolished by His death. His work exposes sin as breaking the law and, through divine mediation, brings people back to obedience.
God gave His only-begotten Son, but could not set aside even the smallest part of the law to accommodate humanity's fallen condition, because removing one part would make the whole law void. The cross therefore stands as enduring proof of the law's immutability and did not extinguish the law that reveals human sin. By hanging on Calvary's cross in death and crucifixion He paid the debt and exalted the law instead of abolishing it, for He could no more abolish the law than abolish Himself. It is the privilege of everyone to be a partaker of the divine nature and keep God's law and be found obedient to it, and if men kept it the crimes and murders that make men overlook the laws of nature would not be seen.
His death vindicates the law's claims and demonstrates that it is unchanging, refuting the idea that sin can be immortalized or evildoers be favored by God. Nothing less than this atonement could convince the whole universe of God's justice, while God is just and yet the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. His sacrifice lifts the law to its own eternal dignity and vindicates its holy requirements, and the cross opens to the universe a view of the character of God, revealing His attributes and His love for man far surpassing all human love. The effects of the sacrifice on the cross are still felt, and all who would be saved must themselves have a personal interest in the crucified One.
The object of the atonement, the at-one-ment with God, was that the divine law and government might be maintained. The sinner is pardoned through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness of sin, and yet the law stands immutable, eternal as His throne. The law cannot be weakened or strengthened, repealed or changed in one principle; as it has always been so it is, eternal and immutable, always holy, just, and good and complete in itself. Christ honored the law by giving it implicit obedience.
New Heart Obedience
Faith does not set the law aside but establishes it because through faith in Christ the Holy Spirit renews the heart and writes that same law there. This is the new covenant promise of God putting His laws into minds and hearts and writing them within, so that all who receive Christ as personal Saviour exalt the law rather than void it. Christ came to make those who receive and believe and practice His obedience partakers of His divine nature, one with Him and brought into perfect and complete harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. Since the law cannot justify because sinful nature leaves people unable to keep it, Christ's righteousness is accepted for believers, and those who walk by the Spirit live in obedience to it. That harmony includes the Sabbath, which was made for a round world and is to be obeyed in full consistency with the created world.
Forgiveness comes through repentance toward God and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, changing sinners so their hearts come into harmony with God and His law. The law still reveals sin and its penalty, while the gospel gives freedom from sin's condemnation and defilement, with remission of past sins. In the new birth the forgiven person is not free to transgress but passes from death to life, from sin to holiness, and from transgression and rebellion to obedience, loyalty, reconciliation, faith and love. The righteousness of the law is thus fulfilled in a life guided by the Spirit.
God's grace cleanses sinners from guilt and enables them to obey the law's binding claims and perfect standard of right. That standard reaches beyond outward acts to judge thoughts, motives, purposes and hidden passions, and God does not lower its requirements to meet human weakness. Sinners cannot meet it by their own power, but through faith in Christ they receive grace and help to keep the commandments and follow Jesus' example.
To establish the law is to desire the fullness of Christ's grace and to hunger and thirst after righteousness with intense longing, with the promise of being filled. The law is the expression of God's character demanding perfect obedience, echoing His call to be holy and holier still. The work of that righteousness is peace, and its effect quietness and assurance forever.
Holding the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end reveals the Christ-life in obedience. The gospel has not abrogated the law but is the law practiced, demanding perfect obedience to every precept, a privilege secured at the cost of the life of the only begotten Son of God and requiring diligent guarding of the soul. Faith is to increase every day, confessing sinfulness while trusting in a Saviour who died for sinners and will pardon upon sincere repentance, for profession of belief is of no avail unless the claims of the law are acknowledged and its precepts striven to be obeyed daily.
The law and the gospel are inseparably bound together, and divine truth is the means of sanctification. The more clearly that truth is understood and the more faithfully it is obeyed, the more positive and decided the religious experience becomes, the lovelier the character, and the greater the usefulness.
Genuine Faith Obeys
Forgiveness through repentance toward God and faith in Christ does not free a person to transgress God's law, for faith establishes the law instead of making it void. The new birth brings the heart into harmony with God and into accord with His law, so the sinner passes from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, and from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty, beginning a new life of reconciliation, faith, and love. Expecting salvation through Christ while disregarding the law's claims leaves people without true conviction of sin and prevents true conversion.
Salvation through Christ does not weaken God's law but breaks the power of sin, which is the cause of all human misery and woe in the world. Mercy extended to the sinner constantly draws him to Jesus, and he responds by coming in penitence with confession and by faith laying hold of the gospel hope set before him. God does not reject or despise a broken and contrite heart, and while the power of sin is broken the law stands and the scepter of mercy is extended to the penitent sinner.
Christ died to vindicate and exalt the law before all nations, tongues, and peoples, and He did not come to destroy God's pure and holy law which remains the standard of human character. He does not save by the law, but neither does He save in sin or in disobedience to the law; He came to take away the sin of the world. To be redeemed means to cease from sin, so no heart stirred to rebellion against the law of God has any union with Christ. Saying I am holy while calling the law a yoke of bondage and saying those who keep the law have fallen from grace is self-deception, selfishness, and lack of true love for Christ. Keeping the commandments is required and is shown by action in harmony with the law, but no one can keep them without the help of Christ, who alone saves by cleansing from all sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and the degree of love for God depends on the clearness and fullness of conviction of sin, producing gratitude for deliverance.
True faith is never found apart from truth and obedience, and grace is never used to set the law aside. Faith unsupported by good works is dead and can save no more than the belief of the fallen angels who believe and tremble. The peace claimed by those who want Christ without the law is only self-righteous confidence. To claim acceptance by Christ and sinlessness while waging war against God's law repeats the work of Lucifer and Satan begun in heaven and carried on earth, casting reproach on God Himself. Those who claim God's promises while breaking His precepts, even prophesying and doing wonderful works in Christ's name, will be rejected in the last great day, for since sin is transgression of the law there would be no sin if there were no law.
The standard of perfect righteousness and conformity to its principles remains the same as it was in Eden and is the same in the Old and New Testaments. This standard is attainable because God provides what is needed; His commands carry a promise, and He accomplishes their purpose in those who do not resist His grace. No one can obey the law by personal strength, but Christ's virtue and grace enable obedience, and belief in Christ's propitiation for sin enables fallen people to love God with their whole heart and their neighbor as themselves.
Every man and woman who receives Christ as personal Saviour exalts the law, and Christ came to make all who receive and believe and practice His obedience partakers of His divine nature, one with Christ, and thus in perfect, complete harmony with the principles of the law of heaven. Establishing the law is God putting His laws into hearts and writing them in minds. This includes the Sabbath, which was made for a round world, so obedience is required of people in full consistency with the Lord's created world. Christ's saving death does not excuse disobedience, and keeping the commandments remains duty even when it costs friends, position, or worldly gain. Rejecting the law, especially trampling on the Sabbath, is rebellion against truth and brings eternal loss, so repentance and reform are urged while mercy and probation remain.
Faith does not make God's law void but establishes it, so the law remains binding upon church members. People are joining with evil powers to make the law of God seem ineffective, even as the world becomes like the violent generation before the Flood and the people of Sodom. This stands in contrast to those who profess belief in Christ's near coming yet oppose God's law. Teaching from the pulpits that the law is not binding is Satan's work to lead to disobedience, reading God's Word in the light of transgression, and ministers who turn the light of truth from the people and persuade them to reject it are false shepherds who have committed a breach of trust.