Basic HTML Version
Blending the Law and Gospel, May 15
Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God forbid:
yea, we establish the law.
Romans 3:31
.
We hear so many who are deceived by the enemy constantly claiming,
“I am saved”; but ... they show such contempt of God’s rule of righteous-
ness that we know that they ... know nothing of saving grace. The heart
is not in harmony with the law of God, but is at enmity with that law.
Thus was the great rebel in heaven. Will the Lord take men and women to
heaven who have no respect for the law of His universe? ...
What is to bring the sinner to the knowledge of his sins unless he
knows what sin is? The only definition of sin in the Word of God is given
us in
1 John 3:4
. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” The sinner must
be made to feel that he is a transgressor. Christ dying upon the cross of
Calvary is drawing his attention. Why did Christ die? Because it was
the only means for man to be saved.... He took upon Himself our sins
that He might impute His righteousness to all who believe in Him.... The
goodness and the love of God lead the sinner to repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The awakened sinner ... is pointed
to the law he has transgressed. It calls to him to repent, yet there is no
saving quality in law to pardon the transgression of law, and his case
seems hopeless. But the law draws him to Christ. However deep are his
sins of transgression, the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse him from all
sin....
The law and the gospel go hand in hand. The one is the complement
of the other. The law without faith in the gospel of Christ cannot save
the transgressor of law. The gospel without the law is inefficient and
powerless. The law and the gospel are a perfect whole. The Lord Jesus
laid the foundation of the building, and He lays “the headstone thereof
with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.”
Zechariah 4:7
. He is the
author and finisher of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end, the first and the last. The two blended—the gospel of Christ and
the law of God—produce the love and faith unfeigned.
[142]
146