And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
The commandment was appointed to give life as the God-given way of life, promising eternal life, happiness and peace to those who obey it in harmony with God's character. It is found to be unto death not because the law is evil, but because sin takes occasion by the good, holy and spiritual commandment to stir up desire, deceive, condemn and slay the sinner. It brings death by exposing transgression and making sin known, reaching beyond outward acts to thoughts, feelings, desires and designs, and revealing sin in its exceedingly sinful character with death as its penalty. When it comes home to heart and conscience by the Holy Spirit, the sinner sees his guilt and dies to sin, and in humility, repentance and faith is pointed to Christ as the only remedy who bore its curse and magnified it. Kept through moral power from Christ's righteousness it gives life and kills sin in the heart, but without Christ it remains condemnation and death whose penalty will be executed on every transgressor.
Law Ordained to Life
The commandment was ordained to life as the God-given way of life, given to lead the obedient to life and to give life to those who obey it and walk in harmony with its claims. Those who so obey receive eternal life as the reward of the faithful, with happiness and peace and eternal good. To those who remain under its condemnation it is bondage and death, death to the sinner and transgressor, because when broken it condemns sin and brings conviction of transgression. There is in the law itself no power to save, pardon, remove guilt, or shield from penalty, so to the carnal mind sold under sin it brings only condemnation. Those who keep it through moral power obtained from imputed righteousness experience it as giving life.
The law is an expression of love to man, partaking of the perfection of the divine character, guarded with jealous care because of its sacred character as contained in the ark. To despise it or treat it with disrespect is to despise its Author. Coming into harmony with it is in man's highest interest; obedience elevates character and is recognized as wisdom.
It is found to be unto death not because the law is evil or sin, but because sin takes occasion by the good commandment to revive, work all manner of evil desire, deceive, condemn, and slay. The law and commandment remain holy and just and good, spiritual and God's only standard of character, to be honored and obeyed and not set aside. It is Paul, the carnal mind, and the sinner who die, not the law. The Holy Spirit presents it to sinners to reveal sin in its true and exceedingly sinful nature, while the inward person can still delight in it.
The commandment does this by giving the knowledge of sin as transgression of the law, exposing lust such as coveting made known by the command not to covet. When it comes home to the conscience with its broad spiritual reach beyond outward conduct to soul, mind, thoughts, feelings, desires, and designs under obligation to love and righteousness, hidden guilt is brought to light. Sin then revives and the sinner dies, with the sentence of death coming upon him because of sin. It is the detector of sin that makes transgression known in hideous deformity, which is why transgressors oppose it.
Thus it reveals sin in its hateful character and pronounces death on the transgressor, becoming to the disobedient not a savor of life unto life but a savor of death unto death, with judgment and punishment due to disobedience. Yet it cannot remove sin or save the sinner from its consequences, having no saving quality and no glory except as Christ is embodied and represented in it as the One full of righteousness and truth. It remains unchanged and immutable, the Ten Commandments as the non-typical standard of righteousness plainly discerned in glory when type met antitype. Its full penalty will be executed upon every transgressor, and only through Jesus Christ can man keep it and escape punishment.
Conviction Leading to Christ
The commandment ordained to life is found to be unto death when it comes home to the conscience with the light of the Holy Spirit upon heart and conscience, exposing sin and slaying the sinful nature. So long as the sinner measures himself by himself and by fellow sinners, he does not see the purity and holiness of Christ, but when the law exposes sin in its hateful character he realizes the sinfulness of sin and the malignity of his disease and recognizes himself guilty as a sinner. In that light, as when lust was made known by the command not to covet, sin revives and he dies, so that the sinful life in him is brought to an end.
That sense of sin and unworthiness and of the malignity of the disease produces humility and leads to repentance, conversion, and a felt need of a cure and cleansing. It enables him to appreciate the value of the atonement and the necessity of being cleansed from all sin. The law itself reveals sin and brings conviction but cannot remove sin or save the sinner from its consequences, so the convicted sinner must repent and have faith in Jesus Christ for pardon, with Christ's death bearing sin's penalty while showing the law unchanged. That repentance includes dying to sin, faith in Jesus as Saviour, baptism, becoming obedient to the claims of God's law, and learning from Christ.
By thus exposing guilt unto death the commandment does its practical work of revealing sin, converting the soul, and sending and pointing the repentant, confessing, believing soul to Christ as the only remedy and Healer of sin and the need for deliverance through Him. There is hope of escaping sin's suffering and death only because the Redeemer bore its curse on man's behalf. Jesus magnified the law and made it honorable by living it in human flesh, condemning sin in the flesh, dying to satisfy its claims, and giving His life as an offering for transgression.
Those who keep the law through moral power obtained from the imputed righteousness of Christ experience it as giving life. Only through Jesus Christ can man keep the law, for the law itself has no power to save, no saving quality, and no power to shield the transgressor from its penalty or to pardon and redeem. Without Christ embodied and represented in it as the One full of righteousness and truth it is lusterless, only condemnation and death to the carnal mind sold under sin and to every transgressor remaining under its condemnation, and its full penalty will be executed upon every transgressor who does not receive Christ as atoning sacrifice and personal Saviour.
Honoring God by obeying the commandments in spirit and in truth lets the law kill sin in the heart and slay the sinful nature, and that death to self is the way to lay hold of eternal life. This is the experience of those who are truly converted, as Paul was when, though strictly conscientious while persecuting the saints, his spiritual vision was touched and in the light of the law he saw himself a sinner and a transgressor of the very law he thought he had kept zealously. The self-confident rich young ruler, by contrast, missed eternal life because he did not let the commandment show him his sin and slay his sinful nature, not seeing that he was sinful.
The law's condemnation is overcome only through Christ, whose promised salvation was represented in the sacrificial types and shadows. When type met antitype at Christ's advent and death as man's sacrifice, God's law of Ten Commandments as the immutable, non-typical standard of righteousness which remaineth was plainly discerned in its glory by all who saw to the end of that which was abolished. Jesus is thus the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the Finisher of faith and fulfiller of prophecy, come for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law as the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices.
The commandment was appointed to give life as the God-given way of life, promising eternal life, happiness and peace to those who obey it in harmony with God's character. It is found to be unto death not because the law is evil, but because sin takes occasion by the good, holy and spiritual commandment to stir up desire, deceive, condemn and slay the sinner. It brings death by exposing transgression and making sin known, reaching beyond outward acts to thoughts, feelings, desires and designs, and revealing sin in its exceedingly sinful character with death as its penalty. When it comes home to heart and conscience by the Holy Spirit, the sinner sees his guilt and dies to sin, and in humility, repentance and faith is pointed to Christ as the only remedy who bore its curse and magnified it. Kept through moral power from Christ's righteousness it gives life and kills sin in the heart, but without Christ it remains condemnation and death whose penalty will be executed on every transgressor.
Law Ordained to Life
The commandment was ordained to life as the God-given way of life, given to lead the obedient to life and to give life to those who obey it and walk in harmony with its claims. Those who so obey receive eternal life as the reward of the faithful, with happiness and peace and eternal good. To those who remain under its condemnation it is bondage and death, death to the sinner and transgressor, because when broken it condemns sin and brings conviction of transgression. There is in the law itself no power to save, pardon, remove guilt, or shield from penalty, so to the carnal mind sold under sin it brings only condemnation. Those who keep it through moral power obtained from imputed righteousness experience it as giving life.
The law is an expression of love to man, partaking of the perfection of the divine character, guarded with jealous care because of its sacred character as contained in the ark. To despise it or treat it with disrespect is to despise its Author. Coming into harmony with it is in man's highest interest; obedience elevates character and is recognized as wisdom.
It is found to be unto death not because the law is evil or sin, but because sin takes occasion by the good commandment to revive, work all manner of evil desire, deceive, condemn, and slay. The law and commandment remain holy and just and good, spiritual and God's only standard of character, to be honored and obeyed and not set aside. It is Paul, the carnal mind, and the sinner who die, not the law. The Holy Spirit presents it to sinners to reveal sin in its true and exceedingly sinful nature, while the inward person can still delight in it.
The commandment does this by giving the knowledge of sin as transgression of the law, exposing lust such as coveting made known by the command not to covet. When it comes home to the conscience with its broad spiritual reach beyond outward conduct to soul, mind, thoughts, feelings, desires, and designs under obligation to love and righteousness, hidden guilt is brought to light. Sin then revives and the sinner dies, with the sentence of death coming upon him because of sin. It is the detector of sin that makes transgression known in hideous deformity, which is why transgressors oppose it.
Thus it reveals sin in its hateful character and pronounces death on the transgressor, becoming to the disobedient not a savor of life unto life but a savor of death unto death, with judgment and punishment due to disobedience. Yet it cannot remove sin or save the sinner from its consequences, having no saving quality and no glory except as Christ is embodied and represented in it as the One full of righteousness and truth. It remains unchanged and immutable, the Ten Commandments as the non-typical standard of righteousness plainly discerned in glory when type met antitype. Its full penalty will be executed upon every transgressor, and only through Jesus Christ can man keep it and escape punishment.
Conviction Leading to Christ
The commandment ordained to life is found to be unto death when it comes home to the conscience with the light of the Holy Spirit upon heart and conscience, exposing sin and slaying the sinful nature. So long as the sinner measures himself by himself and by fellow sinners, he does not see the purity and holiness of Christ, but when the law exposes sin in its hateful character he realizes the sinfulness of sin and the malignity of his disease and recognizes himself guilty as a sinner. In that light, as when lust was made known by the command not to covet, sin revives and he dies, so that the sinful life in him is brought to an end.
That sense of sin and unworthiness and of the malignity of the disease produces humility and leads to repentance, conversion, and a felt need of a cure and cleansing. It enables him to appreciate the value of the atonement and the necessity of being cleansed from all sin. The law itself reveals sin and brings conviction but cannot remove sin or save the sinner from its consequences, so the convicted sinner must repent and have faith in Jesus Christ for pardon, with Christ's death bearing sin's penalty while showing the law unchanged. That repentance includes dying to sin, faith in Jesus as Saviour, baptism, becoming obedient to the claims of God's law, and learning from Christ.
By thus exposing guilt unto death the commandment does its practical work of revealing sin, converting the soul, and sending and pointing the repentant, confessing, believing soul to Christ as the only remedy and Healer of sin and the need for deliverance through Him. There is hope of escaping sin's suffering and death only because the Redeemer bore its curse on man's behalf. Jesus magnified the law and made it honorable by living it in human flesh, condemning sin in the flesh, dying to satisfy its claims, and giving His life as an offering for transgression.
Those who keep the law through moral power obtained from the imputed righteousness of Christ experience it as giving life. Only through Jesus Christ can man keep the law, for the law itself has no power to save, no saving quality, and no power to shield the transgressor from its penalty or to pardon and redeem. Without Christ embodied and represented in it as the One full of righteousness and truth it is lusterless, only condemnation and death to the carnal mind sold under sin and to every transgressor remaining under its condemnation, and its full penalty will be executed upon every transgressor who does not receive Christ as atoning sacrifice and personal Saviour.
Honoring God by obeying the commandments in spirit and in truth lets the law kill sin in the heart and slay the sinful nature, and that death to self is the way to lay hold of eternal life. This is the experience of those who are truly converted, as Paul was when, though strictly conscientious while persecuting the saints, his spiritual vision was touched and in the light of the law he saw himself a sinner and a transgressor of the very law he thought he had kept zealously. The self-confident rich young ruler, by contrast, missed eternal life because he did not let the commandment show him his sin and slay his sinful nature, not seeing that he was sinful.
The law's condemnation is overcome only through Christ, whose promised salvation was represented in the sacrificial types and shadows. When type met antitype at Christ's advent and death as man's sacrifice, God's law of Ten Commandments as the immutable, non-typical standard of righteousness which remaineth was plainly discerned in its glory by all who saw to the end of that which was abolished. Jesus is thus the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the Finisher of faith and fulfiller of prophecy, come for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law as the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices.