The Lawful Use of the Law

From The Voice in the Wilderness,
Vol. 5, No. 113; September 2, 1850.

THE law, from the first bore a twofold character - it formed the rule according to which we were to serve God - and it prescribed the conditions on which life was promised to us. The condition which it thus prescribed was perfect obedience, and, while it promised life on that condition, it threatened death as the punishment of its non-fulfilment. Now the prescribed condition has not been fulfilled - it has been violated - man has disobeyed. The threatening has therefore become absolute; its terms no longer are, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," but, simply, "thou shalt surely die." Thus it has become impossible to attain to life by obedience to the law. The law having been transgressed, and its curse incurred, life, as attached to man's own obedience, has been for ever forfeited. Hence it is evident that the law is not used lawfully, if men expect to obtain life by their own obedience to it. The promised life has already been forfeited, and, though perfect obedience were now rendered, the forfeiture could not be undone.

But it is not even on an obedience perfect for the future, but on a partial obedience, that so much reliance is placed. The expectation entertained is, that a sincere though very imperfect obedience, (being viewed in connection with what Christ has done,) will be accepted. The use thus made of the law is altogether unsanctioned and unlawful - neither in accordance with the law itself nor yet with the gospel. This use of the law the apostle rejects in the preceding content - "the end of the commandment," he says, "is charity, faith unfeigned." There must first be "faith," giving an interest in Christ's righteousness, "a good conscience" - a conscience purified by faith from dead works and from conscious guilt - and "a pure heart" - a heart renewed by grace - and then love, by which faith works, will spring up and be expressed in the life; and the righteousness of the law will thus be fulfilled. It is only, accordingly, in the case of those who are righteous by faith, and therefore live, that it is fulfilled. Thus life must precede instead of being obtained by the fulfilment of it.

Let us now consider the lawful use of the law, which we may comprehend under two heads - the use of it as conveying the knowledge of sin - and the use of it as guiding in the path of new obedience.

The law, while we consider it under its covenant form, confining the promise of life to perfect obedience, and threatening death as the punishment of disobedience, discovers to us that having ourselves disobeyed, we have forfeited the promised life, and become liable to the threatened punishment. What the law thus discovers as an outward revelation, it discovers inwardly when applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit - impressing upon the soul a sense of guilt and wrath. Thus one design and use of the law is "that every mouth may be stopped - and all the world may become guilty before God." Accordingly, we use it lawfully, when, by contemplating it as a broken covenant, and applying its denunciation to our own souls, we seek to impress upon them a sense of our guilt and ruined condition; and when, with this view, we consider its curse as attached not only to our past disobedience, but also to the multiplied sins of our daily conduct. And, while we view our condition in the light of the denunciation of the law, we should view our conduct in the light of its requirements. The demand for obedience which it makes upon us is unabated - nothing less will satisfy it than the full measure of the service which it originally prescribed - that we love the Lord with all our heart, and that we give in every respect, adequate expression to this love in ourselves. When we compare our conduct with this high demand and with the rule thus set before us, we must perceive that our sins, fearfully multiplied, are gone over our heads - that in every thing we offend and come short of the glory of God. When we see that the law is exceeding broad - that it is spiritual, taking cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart, we must be still more impressed with the multiplicity of our sins - with their perversion of our whole activity.

We should also set the law before us as the rule prescribed to us, and endeavour after conformity to it. This endeavour will discover to us, as it did to the Apostle Paul - if we be taught by the Spirit - our utter impotency. In this case, when the commandment came sin revived and he died - he found that he was dead - the melancholy fact became increasingly and painfully evident.

Thus we see one use we should make of the law - we should use it to discover to us the guilt which we have contracted, the cure under which we lie while unbelieving, the sinfulness of our lives, and our utter impotency. That the law may convey to the unbelieving the knowledge of sin, as committed by them and as enslaving them, they must of course, recognise the authority of the law and the obligation under which they lie to obey it fully. In the absence of such obligation, sinful conduct would not be sinful, and there would be no reason to deplore inability to do that which is good.

In the case of believers also, the use now described is to be made of the law.

The further use of the law - a use which believers only can make of it - is the use of it as a rule to guide in the service of God. Though believers are not under the law as a covenant, they are under it as a rule of life - they are not without law to God, but under law to Christ. And they are, accordingly, to use the law and to refer to it continually as a rule - endeavouring to be conformed to it in heart and life. When they consider that Christ has delivered them from the curse of it as a covenant, gratitude may well impel them to honour him by observing it diligently as a rule. They may not entertain the vain and pernicious imagination, that they have been set free from authority of the law even as a rule of life. This were no privilege, any more than it would be a privilege that license were given them to continue unholy - that is, deformed, vile, incapable of happiness.

The constitution of our nature as moral agents, and the circumstances in which we are placed, bind us, necessarilly, to render to God the service which the law prescribes to us - until, therefore, those elements are abstracted from our nature which render us moral agents, and until we are placed in totally different circumstances, we cannot be set free from the authority of the law. The law, as outwardly given, does not create the obligation to serve God; it merely declares it - that obligation is engraven upon our nature and our circumstances.

In conclusion we would address three classes of persons - the self-righteous - unholy professors - and true believers.

The self-righteous may see from what has been advanced, that they use the law unlawfully, and that the expectation which they ground on this use of it is wholly without warrant. They have disobeyed; any obedience to which they can pretend is therefore imperfect - this they know; and, yet, while they know also that it is only to perfect obedience that the law promises life, they expect life on the ground of their own obedience! Can any thing be more infatuated and presumptuous than to cherish such an expectation, in the face of the explicit and awful denunciations of the law, and while the lawgiver and the judge, declares, that heaven and earth may pass away, but that one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Besides, if they looked narrowly at their obedience, they would discover that it is worse than imperfect - that what they trust in as obedience is rebellion.

Unholy professors prove that they are destitute of that faith, which, instead of making void, establishes the law. Faith works by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law. So when there is no love, and while the practical fulfilling of the law in which it expresses itself is not found, there is there no faith - "The law of the Spirit of life had made us free after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 2-4. Know yourselves by your fruits - you are not vines if you do not bear grapes.

True believers, see that you be able to say, each one for himself, I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man. You have been made partakers of the divine nature - renewed after the image of God - how therefore can it be otherwise than that you should delight in the law of God?

You have been laid under peculiar and strong obligations to serve God; see that you serve him accordingly. You have this great and essential advantage for observing the law as a rule that you are not under it as a covenant, but are under grace.