Chapter 136—Not a Substitute for the Law
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under
grace? God forbid.
Romans 6:15
.
It is the sophistry of Satan that the death of Christ brought in grace to
take the place of the law. The death of Jesus did not change or annul, or
lessen in the slightest degree, the law of ten commandments. That precious
grace offered to men through a Saviour’s blood, establishes the law of God.
Since the fall of man, God’s moral government and His grace are inseparable.
They go hand in hand through all dispensations.
The gospel of the New Testament is not the Old Testament standard
lowered to meet the sinner and save him in his sins. God requires of all His
subjects obedience, entire obedience to all His commandments.
Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, that He might know
how to succor those who should be tempted. His life is our example. He
shows by His willing obedience that man may keep the law of God and that
transgression of the law, not obedience to it, brings him into bondage....
Man, who has defaced the image of God in his soul by a corrupt life,
cannot, by mere human effort, effect a radical change in himself. He must
accept the provisions of the gospel; he must be reconciled to God through
obedience to His law and faith in Jesus Christ. His life from thenceforth
must be governed by a new principle.... He must face the mirror, God’s law,
discern the defects in his moral character, and put away his sins, washing his
robe of character in the blood of the Lamb....
The influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the
salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in
transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon his mind
and he fully understands the requirements of God and realizes the extent of
his transgressions, he will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the
strength obtained from His Saviour, and lead a new and purer life.
It is not the work of the gospel to weaken the claims of God’s holy law,
but to bring men up where they can keep its precepts.
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