Chapter 48—The Divine Standard
[
This article appeared in
The Signs of the Times, December 5, 1892
.]
The commandments of God are comprehensive and far reaching;
in a few words they unfold the whole duty of man. “Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength.... Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself” (
Mark 12:30, 31
). In these words the length and breadth,
the depth and height, of the law of God is comprehended; for Paul
declares, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (
Romans 13:10
). The only
definition we find in the Bible for sin is that “sin is the transgression
of the law” (
1 John 3:4
). The Word of God declares, “All have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God” (
Romans 3:23
). “There is none
that doeth good, no, not one” (
Romans 3:12
). Many are deceived
concerning the condition of their hearts. They do not realize that the
natural heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
They wrap themselves about with their own righteousness, and are
satisfied in reaching their own human standard of character; but how
fatally they fail when they do not reach the divine standard, and of
themselves they cannot meet the requirements of God.
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We may measure ourselves by ourselves, we may compare our-
selves among ourselves, we may say we do as well as this one or that
one, but the question to which the judgment will call for an answer
is, Do we meet the claims of high heaven? Do we reach the divine
standard? Are our hearts in harmony with the God of heaven?
The human family have all transgressed the law of God, and as
transgressors of the law, man is hopelessly ruined; for he is the enemy
of God, without strength to do any good thing. “The carnal mind is
enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be” (
Romans 8:7
). Looking into the moral mirror—God’s
holy law—man sees himself a sinner, and is convicted of his state of
evil, his hopeless doom under the just penalty of the law. But he has
not been left in a state of hopeless distress in which sin has plunged
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