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God’s Law in the Heart, October 20
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and
write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people.
Hebrews 8:10
.
The blessings of the new covenant are grounded purely on mercy in
forgiving unrighteousness and sins. The Lord specifies, I will do thus and
thus unto all who turn to Me, forsaking the evil and choosing the good. “I
will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more.” (
Hebrews 8:12
). All who humble their hearts,
confessing their sins, will find mercy and grace and assurance.
Has God, in showing mercy to the sinner, ceased to be just? Has He
dishonored His holy law, and will He henceforth pass over the violation
of it? God is true. He changes not. The conditions of salvation are ever
the same. Life, eternal life, is for all who will obey God’s law. Perfect
obedience, revealed in thought, word, and deed, is as essential now as when
the lawyer asked Christ, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said
to him, “What is written in the law? how readest thou? .... this do, and
thou shalt live” (
Luke 10:25-28
).
Under the new covenant the conditions by which eternal life may be
gained are the same as under the old—perfect obedience. Under the old
covenant there were many offences of a daring, presumptuous character
for which there was no atonement specified by law. In the new and better
covenant Christ has fulfilled the law for the transgressors of law if they
receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour.... Mercy and forgiveness are
the reward of all who come to Christ trusting in His merits to take away
their sins. In the better covenant we are cleansed from sin by the blood
of Christ.... The sinner is helpless to atone for one sin. The power is in
Christ’s free gift, a promise appreciated by those only who are sensible
of their sins and who forsake their sins and cast their helpless souls upon
Christ, the sin-pardoning Saviour. He will put into their hearts His perfect
law, which is “holy, and just, and good” (
Romans 7:12
), the law of God’s
own nature
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Letter 276, 1904
.
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