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The Cross and the Law, August 21
Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he
shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just
shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
Hosea 14:9
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The cross speaks to the hosts of heaven, to worlds unfallen, and to the
fallen world, the value which God has placed upon men, and of His great
love wherewith He has loved us. It testifies to the world, to angels, and to
men, the immutability of the divine law
The death of Christ was to be the convincing, everlasting argument
that the law of God is as unchangeable as His throne.... The fact that His
own Son, the Surety for man, was not spared, is an argument that will
stand to all eternity before saint and sinner, before the universe of God, to
testify that He will not excuse the transgressor of His law. Every offense
against God’s law, however minute, is set down in the reckoning, and when
the sword of justice is taken in hand, it will do the work for impenitent
transgressors that was done to the divine Sufferer
Through the imputed righteousness of Christ, the sinner may feel
that he is pardoned, and may know that the law no more condemns him,
because he is in harmony with all its precepts. It is his privilege to count
himself innocent when he reads and thinks of the retribution that will fall
upon the unbelieving and sinful. By faith he lays hold of the righteousness
of Christ.... Knowing himself to be a sinner, a transgressor of the holy
law of God, he looks to the perfect obedience of Christ, to His death
upon Calvary for the sins of the world; and he has the assurance that he is
justified by faith in the merit and sacrifice of Christ. He realizes that the
law was obeyed in his behalf by the Son of God, and that the penalty of
transgression cannot fall upon the believing sinner. The active obedience
of Christ clothes the believing sinner with the righteousness that meets the
demands of the law
[241]
43
The Review and Herald, May 23, 1899
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44
The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 3:1166
.
45
The Youth’s Instructor, November 29, 1894
.
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