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God’s Law A Hedge Against Evil, February 24
[His commandments] stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth
and uprightness.
Psalm 111:8
.
He who willfully breaks one commandment, does not, in spirit and truth, keep
any of them. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all” (
James 2:10
).
It is not the greatness of the act of disobedience that constitutes sin, but the
fact of variance from God’s expressed will in the least particular; for this shows
that there is yet communion between the soul and sin. The heart is divided in
its service. There is a virtual denial of God, a rebellion against the laws of His
government.
Were men free to depart from the Lord’s requirements and to set up a standard
of duty for themselves, there would be a variety of standards to suit different
minds and the government would be taken out of the Lord’s hands. The will of
man would be made supreme, and the high and holy will of God—His purpose of
love toward His creatures—would be dishonored, disrespected.
Whenever men choose their own way, they place themselves in controversy
with God. They will have no place in the kingdom of heaven, for they are at
war with the very principles of heaven. In disregarding the will of God, they are
placing themselves on the side of Satan, the enemy of God and man. Not by one
word, not by many words, but by every word that God has spoken, shall man live.
We cannot disregard one word, however trifling it may seem to us, and be safe.
There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of
man, both in this life and in the life to come.
In obedience to God’s law, man is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the
evil. He who breaks down this divinely erected barrier at one point has destroyed
its power to protect him; for he has opened a way by which the enemy can enter
to waste and ruin.
By venturing to disregard the will of God upon one point, our first parents
opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. And every individual who follows
their example will reap a similar result. The love of God underlies every precept
of His law, and he who departs from the commandment is working his own
unhappiness and ruin....
A legal religion is insufficient to bring the soul into harmony with God.... The
only true faith is that which “worketh by love” (
Galatians 5:6
) to purify the soul.
It is as leaven that transforms the character.... Jesus proceeded to show His hearers
what it means to keep the commandments of God—that it is a reproduction in
themselves of the character of Christ. For in Him, God was daily made manifest
before them.—
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 51-55
.
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