Transformation Through Faith and Obedience
309
of the law; but the Christ who made the law of any value he refused.
He was confident that he was right. He says: “I verily thought with
myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints
did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests;
and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them” (
Acts
26:9, 10
). For a time Paul did a very cruel work, thinking that he was
doing God service; for he says, “I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (
1
Timothy 1:13
). But his sincerity did not justify his work, or make error
truth.
Faith is the medium through which truth or error finds a lodging
place in the mind. It is by the same act of mind that truth or error is
received, but it makes a decided difference whether we believe the
Word of God or the sayings of men. When Christ revealed Himself to
Paul, and he was convinced that he was persecuting Jesus in the person
of His saints, he accepted the truth as it is in Jesus. A transforming
power was manifested on mind and character, and he became a new
man in Christ Jesus. He received the truth so fully that neither earth
nor hell could shake his faith.
[347]
There are many who cry, “Believe, only believe.” Ask them what
you are to believe. Are you to believe the lies forged by Satan against
God’s holy, just, and good law? God does not use His great and
precious grace to make of none effect His law, but to establish His law.
What is the decision of Paul? He says: “What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.... For I
was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and [the commandment then ended?—No.] I [Paul] died....
Wherefore the law is [standing directly in the way of my having liberty
and peace?—No.] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good” (
Romans 7:7-12
).
The Law Cannot Pardon
Paul learned that there was no power in the law to pardon the
transgressor of law. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified” (
Romans 3:20
). “For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that