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Selected Messages Book 1
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold,
yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there
is great reward. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from
secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let
them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall
be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my
strength, and my redeemer” (
Psalm 19:7-14
).
Paul’s Estimate of the Law
Paul’s testimony of the law is: “What shall we say then? Is the
law sin [the sin is in the man, not in the law]? God forbid. Nay, I
had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by
the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For
without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once:
but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
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For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it
slew me” (
Romans 7:7-11
).
Sin did not kill the law, but it did kill the carnal mind in Paul.
“Now we are delivered from the law,” he declares, “that being dead
wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and
not in the oldness of the letter” (
Romans 7:6
). “Was that then which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might
appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by
the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (
Romans 7:13
).
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good” (
Romans 7:12
). Paul calls the attention of his hearers to the
broken law, and shows them wherein they are guilty. He instructs them
as a schoolmaster instructs his scholars, and shows them the way back
to their loyalty to God.
There is no safety nor repose nor justification in transgression of the
law. Man cannot hope to stand innocent before God, and at peace with
Him through the merits of Christ, while he continues in sin. He must
cease to transgress, and become loyal and true. As the sinner looks