IT is when we get into the light and liberty of the gospel that we see the folly of all our previous attempts to save ourselves; and when the “glorious gospel of the blessed God” is known in power in our souls we discover that Jesus did not come down from heaven to earth to help us save ourselves, nor to give us a lift on the road to heaven, but to save us, as it is written, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to SAVE sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).
This is very clear. He came to save us, He Himself being the Saviour.
There are a great many souls, however, who suppose they have to keep the law to be saved. As in the apostles’ days, so in ours, there are many law-teachers, and, by such, people are deceived.
But it is well to understand why the law was given. An omniscient God could never have given an absolutely perfect law to a fallen, guilty creature like man, with the thought of his being able to keep it, and by it to get saved. Let us see what it is.
1. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:2424Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)). The law, then, was a schoolmaster until Christ came. A schoolmaster is to give instruction, and the law imparted the knowledge of sin; “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
3. Also as “the ministration of condemnation.” It had a glory, but it was only glorious in the way of upholding the authority of God, of exposing the sinner’s sins, and pronouncing his condemnation. It could not save.
4. “The law worketh wrath.” (Rom. 4:1515Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15)). That which can only work wrath for the sinner cannot be the means of saving him.
“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:1010For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)). “One point,” mark you, dear reader. Have you not offended in “one point”? Then you are guilty of all.
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Rom. 7:77What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (Romans 7:7)). This finds us all out. A man may be outwardly blameless, but, in that heart of his, lust dwells. It is as easy for man to covet what is not his own as it is for him to breathe. The law forbids it, but man covets in spite of the prohibition, and comes under its condemnation. “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death”; for it not only forbids overt acts of sin, but also the workings of the evil nature within.
The law may be viewed in three different ways: as a divine mirror, a divine standard, and a divine plumb-line.
If you had, for instance, been working among coal, and your face had become very black, and on reaching your house you went to your looking glass, you would expect the glass to speak the truth. And what would be the truth? The truth would be that your face was black and needed washing.
Exactly so with the sinner. He draws near to this divine mirror—the holy law of God—and he discovers his true moral condition, that he is exceeding sinful, and needs cleansing. But can the law cleanse him? No more than the looking glass can wash the man’s face. “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Lev. 17:1111For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
In all regiments they have a regimental standard. A hundred men may wish to join, but if they do not come up to the standard they are rejected. The standard can’t help them, it can only discover the fact that they are too short.
A number of workmen, we will suppose, are building a wall. After a while it is finished, and the foreman is well pleased with the work. Much to his annoyance, however, someone declares the wall to be crooked.
“No, it is not.” replies the foreman.
“Yes, it is.”
“Well, how are you going to prove it?”
“Adjust a plumb-line.”
A plumb-line is brought and adjusted. Everything depends upon the plumb-line. The plumb-line cannot make the wall straight or crooked, but it can reveal whether it is straight or crooked. As soon as the plumb-line is adjusted it reveals the fact that the wall is crooked. The fault was not in the plumb-line, but in the wall.
The law of God is a divine plumb-line. Man talks about his goodness and merits, and a thousand other traits, but on adjusting the moral plumb-line the solemn fact is made known that he is a crooked sinner. He may quarrel with God’s line, but the fault is not there, but in himself, as it was in the crooked wall. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.... For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” (Rom. 7:12, 1412Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Romans 7:12)
14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14)).
It is quite clear, then, that while the mirror, the standard and the plumb-line may render us valuable service in discovering to us our need, it is all they can do; they cannot meet that need.
So the soul-remedy is outside of self and of law altogether. The sinner is without strength to keep the law, and the law, by its very nature, cannot help the sinner.
Faith is an outward look. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)). “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” (Isa. 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
Meetings were held in the State of Minnesota last winter, when a dear soul, after years of vain effort to keep the law to save himself, got free, seeing that “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. 3:1313Christ 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: (Galatians 3:13)).
He ceased his doings for salvation, trusted Christ who had died in his stead, and was saved.
Now, being saved, he could not do enough for the One who had redeemed him.
At the close of a meeting, a little afterward, he said to a fellow-Christian, “What a fool I was to think that I could keep the law to get saved.”
The law given by Moses can only condemn. “But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”; and, blessed be God, He can save even the vilest.
E. A.