Perfect Law
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into the great moral looking glass, he sees his defects of character.
He sees himself just as he is, spotted, defiled, and condemned. But
he knows that the law cannot in any way remove the guilt or pardon
the transgressor. He must go farther than this. The law is but the
schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. He must look to his sin-bearing
Saviour. And as Christ is revealed to him upon the cross of Calvary,
dying beneath the weight of the sins of the whole world, the Holy Spirit
shows him the attitude of God to all who repent of their transgressions.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (
John 3:16
).
We need, individually, to take heed as we have never done before to
a “Thus saith the Lord.” There are men who are disloyal to God, who
profane His holy Sabbath, who cavil over the plainest statements of the
Word, who wrest the Scriptures from their true meaning, and who at
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the same time make desperate efforts to harmonize their disobedience
with the Scriptures. But the Word condemns such practices, as it
condemned the scribes and Pharisees in Christ’s day. We need to know
what is truth. Shall we do as did the Pharisees? Shall we turn from
the greatest Teacher the world has ever known to the traditions and
maxims and sayings of men?
Results of Transgressing the Law
There are many beliefs that the mind has no right to entertain.
Adam believed the lie of Satan, the wily insinuations against the
character of God. “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (
Genesis 2:16, 17
). When
Satan tempted Eve, he said, “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of
it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil” (
Genesis 3:1-5
).