WHAT is the value of the law? Scripture replies, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5:20). It came in to make manifest what man was. God know what was in his heart, but he did not know.
The Lord had delivered Israel out of Egypt. He had broken the power of the enemy. God had brought them out of Egypt in absolute grace, and His grace led them on right up to the moment when the law was given. You will had their whole history recounted in the Psalms. In Psalms 105 you have their grace-history; it is nothing but goodness and grace, and is all about the Lord and what He did for them. When you read Psalms 106 you learn what they did, how they grumbled and murmured, and how they disbelieved God.
And then what came out? Mercy. But in between that part of their history, when God brought them out of Egypt in pure grace, and the tale of His mercy, manifested when everything was lost through Israel’s sin and idolatry, came the threefold giving of the law, in order that God might let man learn what was in his heart. For long I did not know what was in my heart, nor what was in God’s heart. The greatest surprise that a man gets in this world and which I got was this, that when I had sinned, and was far away from God, that God not only could save me, but would save me, and He has saved me. That was what was in His heart. It is a wonderful thing when a person learns that.
Now turn to Exodus 19. It gives us the record of the first giving of the law; and we will see how it came out. Now you know that in His nature God is love as well as light. God’s love acts even though man has sinned. That is the way of grace. What is grace? Grace is love in activity after man has sinned. God is love, and God was love, go as far back into eternity as you can. Love is the nature of God. From Israel’s start out of Egypt to Horeb there was nothing but pare sovereign grace on God’s part right along the whole line. Now there comes another thing. Law is introduced. The apostle Paul distinctly says, “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man.” Why? Because a righteous man does not need it. He is walking rightly. Who is the law made for? I am going to quote you Scripture in order that you may not misunderstand me. “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:9, 10).
The law came in, what to do? To make manifest what man was. He did not know himself. But it did not put him right. Men were in utter ruin by nature and departure from God before the moment that the law came in, but “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:13). Again, the law brings in wrath, for it is written, “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). God did not give it with the view of justifying. He says distinctly, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20). The object of the law then was not to justify. It was to make manifest where man was and what he was, that he might learn his own helpless ruin, and then turn to God to learn what He is. I believe the giving of the law was distinctly what I may call a retrograde action on the part of God. In the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I find God coming down and talking with these men in the most simple way possible. But when He raises with man the question of righteousness, He has to retire into thick darkness. Notice, the promise of God, which is pare grace, is one thing, and the law is quite another. The apostle Paul works that out in Galatians.
Now, what is promise? It is unconditional grace, though it may be measured by the extent of the promise. God had said to Abraham, “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen. 22:17). Moses had got hold of and remembered that promise, for when God says, after Israel’s sin of the golden calf, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation” (Ex. 32:10); he, so to speak, rejoins, “Lord, you will in that case have to recall what you said to Abraham.” Note his request― “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever” (Ex. 32:13). Had Moses not been utterly self-forgetful and devoted to God’s interests, and Israel’s blessing as His people, he would have said, This is a fine chance for me. But look at that man. He declines his own advancement, and puts God in memory of the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is very fine.
But again I inquire—Why does the law come in? To raise the question of righteousness, and prove that man, on the ground of responsibility, which involves behavior, has lost all and can claim nothing. I will illustrate. I go into a friend’s house and I meet a child, little Mary, whom I know well. I say, “Mary, I am coming back next week, and I will bring you some oranges.” well, when I come back, she is at the gate to meet me, and she gets the oranges, because I promised them, and she enjoys them. Supposing, on the other hand, I had said to her, “I am coming back again next week, and I shall bring you a bag of oranges, if I learn from mother that there has been a week of perfectly good behavior.” She is on her behavior now. Very well, I come back next week, and I open the garden gate, but I do not see Mary. “Where’s Mary?” “Oh,” says the mother, “I am sorry to say—” “Ah! I understand.” I have the bag of oranges all right, but upon her behavior she has lost them. Upon behavior, everything is lost before God. But you can get all through grace. There is not a thing the heart of God can furnish you with that you cannot get through grace. Peace, pardon, and salvation may be yours, through grace; but upon behavior, not one thing. There is where the value of the law comes in. It teaches me that I am powerless, guilty, and lost.
Now we will go back to the nineteenth chapter of Exodus. “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” That was the expression of His own goodness. That was unconditional grace. “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine” (vers. 1:3-5). There is a condition―obedience―brought in. And now mark, without even waiting to hear what the demands of the law were, as given in chapters 20, look at the blindness that leads Israel to say rashly and boldly, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (vs. 8). And what was it? They were to obey His voice. It was quite right that God should make claims, and there is not a man in this hall whose conscience does not tell him that the claims of the law are right. And what does the law tell me? It tells me what I ought to be as a responsible creature of God. It tells me my responsibility to God and my neighbor, and ensures a curse on failure therein. “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Now do you not see their blind folly? They did not even wait to learn the character of the claim that God was going to make, nor the responsibility that they were going to accept, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever” (vs. 9). Ah, it was not now face-to-face work. It was not like the Lord coming down to Abraham and speaking to him as in days gone by. No. I retire, says God, As far as the unfolding of what God is in His nature, save as to holiness and righteousness, the introduction of law was a retrogression on God’s part. Man could only fail, and then God could only judge.
And now see how the law is unfolded in what Moses elsewhere calls “the day of the assembly” (see Deuteronomy 9:10; 10:4, 18:16). “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death” (vers. 10-12). Look at that. “Draw near to me,” says God, “and you die.” And that is why the apostle says it was the “ministration of death” (2 Cor. 3:7).
The people then said to Moses, We would rather you spoke to God, than have to do with Him ourselves. They look for a mediator. “And all the people saw the thundering’s and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it they removed and stood afar off” (Ex. 20:18). Law must drive you from God. It does not draw to God. It is the full revelation of God’s claims upon me as His creature, claims which, if I know myself, I am cure I cannot fulfill. “And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (vs. 19). They could not face God. Upon that ground―the fulfillment of the creature’s responsibility―no one can face God.
You have the ten words unfolded to you in chapter 20 The first table of the law gives you man’s responsibility, and his due God-ward. Then you get the responsibility of man with his neighbor. You remember the lawyer who came to the Lord Jesus in His life and said, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The Lord says:” What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:25-28). Who has done it? No man here tonight could say, I have done it. You know your own heart. Have you loved God with all your heart? You have not. And your neighbor as yourself? No, my dear friend, if you take that ground you never can know what God’s salvation is. You may be interested in your neighbor, but have you loved him as yourself? No. Does anybody think they are going to get to heaven upon that ground? I am certain that I shall get there, but not on that ground, and I will tell you why.
One night, a few years ago, when I was in a hotel seeing a patient, there was a knock at his bedroom door. His wife went to the door, and then came back. Soon someone knocked again, and again she went to the door. Shortly there came a third knock, and again she went, but said nothing to me. I began to wonder whether I was the person wanted, and having finished my visit left. Outside on the landing stood a waiter, who said, “Doctor, your house is on fire.” I flew down the stairs and out into the darkness, for my wife was very ill at the time. It looked very like my house at a distance, as I saw flames breaking forth from the roof, but as I got up the hill someone met me and said, “It is not your house, doctor, it’s your neighbor’s.” “Thank God!” came right out of my lips. I was honest, but it showed me that I cannot go to heaven on the ground of loving my neighbor as myself. Nor can you. No man can stand on that ground before God save the Lord Jesus. If you fancy that you can, you will wake up to find out by-and-by that you are in hell, not heaven. If you are going to heaven, it will be by the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ only. But if any have an idea they are going to wend their way into heaven by works, they will eventually discover that it is all a mistake. Oh, no, you cannot get to heaven on that ground.
Do you think that the law can help you or save you? Let the apostle Paul give you one little word as to this: “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:15, 16). How then can God justify a guilty sinner? On the ground of the finished work of his own blessed Son on the cross, and of the simple faith on the sinner’s part in His Son and the work of His Son, which the charming figures Exodus and Leviticus portray so beautifully. Understand this, “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). Failure on one point brings me in guilty of all, as says the apostle, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
I tell you, my friends, there is only one man fit for God, and that is the Man in the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. He kept the law perfectly. And did He not keep it for me? I do not think that is the way in which Scripture presents it. The point is this, He proved what He was in all His blessed obedience, and when He had manifested what was in Himself, He went to the cross and died for the man that had broken the law. And what did He do? He wound up and ended the history of that man, when He died on the cross for the guilty sinner who had broken it, and then He rose from the dead, the head of a new race. Notice what the apostle Paul says: “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:11-13).
If you are going to have blessing it must be on the ground of faith, not works, Christ has hung on a tree, and He has taken the curse for us. I see that Christ has endured the curse of a broken law, and that I am clear through His death, so, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14).
W. T. P. W.