The Perpetuity of the Law of God

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 21, 1882,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all is fulfilled."
Matthew 5:18.

IT has been said that he who understands the two Covenants is a
theologian and this is, no doubt, true. I may also say that the man who
knows the relative positions of the Law and of the Gospel has the keys
of the situation in the matter of doctrine. The relationship of the Law
to myself and how it condemns me–the relationship of the Gospel to
myself and how, if I am a Believer, it justifies me–these are two
points which every Christian man should clearly understand. He should
not "see men as trees walking" in this department, or else he may cause
himself great sorrow and fall into errors which will be grievous to his
heart and injurious to his life. To form a mingle-mangle of Law and
Gospel is to teach that which is neither Law nor Gospel, but the
opposite of both. May the Spirit of God be our teacher and the Word of
God be our lesson book–and then we shall not err.

Very great mistakes have been made about the Law. Not long ago there
were those about us who affirmed that the Law is utterly abrogated and
abolished. They openly taught that Believers were not bound to make the
moral Law the rule of their lives. What would have been sin in other
men they counted not to be sin in themselves. From such Antinomi-anism
as that, may God deliver us! We are not under the Law as the method of
salvation, but we delight to see the Law in the hand of Christ and
desire to obey the Lord in all things. Others have been met with who
have taught that Jesus mitigated and softened down the Law and they
have, in effect, said that the perfect Law of God was too hard for
imperfect beings and, therefore, God has given us a milder and easier
rule. These tread dangerously upon the verge of terrible error,
although we believe that they are little aware of it.

Alas, we have met with authors who have gone much further than this and
have railed at the Law. Oh, the hard words that I have sometimes read
against the holy Law of God! How very unlike those which the Apostle
used when he said, "The Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and
just, and good." How different from the reverent spirit which made him
say– "I delight in the Law of God after the inward man." You know how
David loved the Law of God and sang its praises all through the longest
of the Psalms. The heart of every real Christian is most reverent
towards the Law of the Lord. It is perfect, no, it is perfection
itself! We believe that we shall never have reached perfection till we
are perfectly conformed to it. A sanctification which stops short of
perfect conformity to the Law cannot truthfully be called perfect
sanctification, for every lack of exact conformity to the perfect Law
is sin.

May the Spirit of God help us while, in imitation of our Lord Jesus, we
endeavor to magnify the Law. I gather from our text two things upon
which I shall speak at this time. The first is that the Law of God is
perpetual–"Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the Law." The meaning is that even in the least point
it must abide till it is all fulfilled. Secondly, we perceive that the
Law of God must be fulfilled–Not "one jot or one tittle shall pass
from the Law, till all IS fulfilled." He who came to bring in the
Gospel dispensation here asserts that He has not come to destroy the
Law, but to fulfill it.

I. First–THE LAW OF GOD MUST BE PERPETUAL. There is no abrogation of
it, nor amendment of it. It is not to be toned down or adjusted to our
fallen condition, but every one of the Lord's righteous judgments
abides forever. I would urge three reasons which will establish this
teaching. In the first place our Lord Jesus declares that He did not
come to abolish it. His words are most exact–"Think not that I am come
to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill." And Paul tells us with regard to the Gospel, "Do we then make
void the Law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the Law"
(Rom. 3:31). The Gospel is the means of the firm establishment and
vindication of the Law of God. Jesus did not come to change the Law,
but He came to explain it, and that very fact shows that it remains,
for there is no need to explain that which is abrogated.

Upon one particular point in which there happened to be a little
ceremonialism involved, namely, the keeping of the Sabbath, our Lord
enlarged and showed that the Jewish idea was not the true one. The
Pharisees forbade even the doing

of works of necessity and mercy, such as rubbing ears of corn to
satisfy hunger and healing the sick. Our Lord Jesus showed that it was
not at all according to the mind of God to forbid these things. In
straining over the letter and carrying an outward observance to excess,
they had missed the spirit of the Sabbath Law, which suggested works of
piety such as truly hallow the day. He showed that Sabbatic rest was
not mere inaction, and He said, "My Father works hitherto, and I work."
He pointed to the priests who labored hard at offering sacrifices and
said of them, "the priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath and are
blameless." They were doing Divine service and were within the Law.

To meet the popular error, He took care to do some of His greatest
miracles upon the Sabbath–and though this excited great wrath against
Him, as though He were a Law-breaker, yet He did it on purpose that
they might see that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the
Sabbath–and that it is meant to be a day for doing that which honors
God and blesses men! O that men knew how to keep the spiritual Sabbath
by an easing from all servile work and from all work done for self! The
rest of faith is the true Sabbath and the service of God is the most
acceptable hallowing of the day. Oh that the day were wholly spent in
serving God and doing good!

The sum of our Lord's teaching was that works of necessity, works of
mercy and works of piety are lawful on the Sabbath. He explained the
Law in that point and in others, yet that explanation did not alter the
command, but only removed the rust of tradition which had settled upon
it. By thus explaining the Law, He confirmed it! He could not have
meant to abolish it or He would not have needed to expound it. In
addition to explaining it, the Master went further– He pointed out its
spiritual character. This the Jews had not observed. They thought, for
instance, that the command "You shall not kill" simply forbade murder
and manslaughter. But the Savior showed that anger without cause
violates the Law of God and that hard words and cursing–and all other
displays of enmity and malice–are forbidden by the Commandment.

They knew that they might not commit adultery, but it did not enter
into their minds that a lascivious desire would be an offense against
the precept till the Savior said, "He that looks upon a woman to lust
after her commits adultery with her already in his heart." He showed
that the thought of evil is sin; that an unclean imagination pollutes
the heart; that a wanton wish is guilt in the eyes of the Most High!
Assuredly this was no abrogation of the Law of God–it was a wonderful
exhibition of its far-reaching sovereignty and of its searching
character! The Pharisees fancied that if they kept their hands, their
feet and their tongues, all was done. But Jesus showed that thought,
imagination, desire, memory– everything–must be brought into
subjection to the will of God or else the Law was not fulfilled.

What a searching and humbling doctrine is this! If the Law of the Lord
reaches to the inward parts, who among us can, by nature, abide its
judgment? Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults!
The Ten Commandments are full of meaning–meaning which many seem to
ignore. For instance, many a man will allow in and around his house
inattention to the rules of health and sanitary precaution, but it does
not occur to him that he is trampling on the commandments–"You shall
not kill." Yet this rule forbids our doing anything which may cause
injury to our neighbor's health and so deprive him of life. Many a
deadly manufactured article; many an ill-ventilated shop; many a
business with hours of excessive length is a standing breach of this
Commandment!

Shall I say less of drinks, which lead so speedily to disease and death
and crowd our cemeteries with untimely graves? So, too, in reference to
another precept–some persons will repeat songs and stories which are
suggestive of unclean-ness–I wish that this were not so common as it
is. Do they not know that an unchaste word, a double meaning, a sly
hint of lust all come under the Commandment, "You shall not commit
adultery"? It is so according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus! Oh,
talk not to me about our Lord's having brought in a milder Law because
man could not keep the Decalogue, for He has done nothing of the kind!
"His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor." "Who
may abide the day of His coming? For He is like a refiner's fire and
like fullers' soap."

Let us not dare to dream that God had given us a perfect Law which we
poor creatures could not keep and that, therefore, He has corrected His
legislature and sent His Son to put us under a relaxed discipline!
Nothing of the sort! The Lord Jesus Christ has, on the contrary, shown
how intimately the Law of God surrounds and enters into our inward
parts, so as to convict us of sin within even if we seem clean on the
outside. Ah me, this Law is high! I cannot attain to it! It surrounds
me everywhere; it tracks me to my bed and my board; it follows my steps
and marks my ways wherever I may be! No moment does it cease to govern
and demand obedience. O God, I am everywhere condemned, for everywhere
Your Law reveals to me my serious deviations from the way of
righteousness and shows me how far short I come of Your Glory. Have
pity on Your servant, for I fly to the Gospel which has done for me
what the Law could never do–

"To see the Law by Christ fulfilled, And hear His pardoning voice,

Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.'

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in addition to explaining the Law and pointing
out its spiritual character, also unveiled its living essence, for when
one asked Him "Which is the great Commandment in the Law?" He said,
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great
Commandment. And the second is like unto it; You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and
the prophets." In other words, He has told us, "All the Law is
fulfilled in this–you shall love." There is the pith and marrow of it!
Does any man say to me, "You see, then, instead of the Ten
Commandments, we have received the two commandments and these are much
easier." I answer that this reading of the Law of God is not in the
least easier!

Such a remark implies a lack of thought and experience. Those two
precepts comprehend the 10 at their fullest extent and cannot be
regarded as the erasure of a jot or tittle of them. Whatever
difficulties surround the Ten Commandments, are equally found in the
two, which are their sum and substance. If you love God with all your
heart, you must keep the first table–and if you love your neighbor as
yourself you must keep the second table. If any suppose that the Law of
Love is an adaptation of the moral Law to man's fallen condition, they
greatly err. I can only say that the supposed adaptation is no more
adapted to us than the original Law. If there could be conceived to be
any difference in difficulty, it might be easier to keep the 10 than
the two, for if we go no deeper than the letter, the two are the more
exacting, since they deal with the heart, soul and mind.

The Ten Commandments mean all that the two express. But if we forget
this and only look at the wording of them, I say, it is harder for a
man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his
mind, with all his strength and his neighbor as himself than it would
be merely to abstain from killing, stealing and false witness. Christ
has not, therefore, abrogated or at all moderated the Law to meet our
helplessness. He has left it in all its sublime perfection, as it
always must be left–and He has pointed out how deep are its
foundations, how elevated are its heights, how measureless are its
length and breadth! Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, God's
commands cannot be altered!

We are saved by another method. To show that He never meant to abrogate
the Law, our Lord Jesus has embodied all its Commandments in His own
life. In His own Person there was a nature which was perfectly
conformed to the Law of God–and as was His nature, such was His life.
He could say, "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" And again, "I have
kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." I may not say
that He was scrupulously careful to keep the Law of God–I will not put
it so, for there was no tendency in Him to do otherwise–He was so
perfect and pure; so infinitely good and so complete in His agreement
and communion with the Father, that He, in all things, carried out the
Father's will.

The Father said of Him, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased; hear you Him." Point out, if you possibly can, any way in
which Christ has violated the Law or left it unfulfilled! There was
never an unclean thought or rebellious desire in His soul. He had
nothing to regret or to retract–it could not be that He should err. He
was thrice tempted in the wilderness and the enemy had the
impertinence, even, to suggest idolatry, but He instantly overthrew the
adversary. The prince of this world came to Him, but he found nothing
in Him–

"My dear Redeemer and my Lord,

I read my duty in Your Word.

But in Your life the Law appears

Drawn out in living characters." Now, if that Law had been too high and
too hard, Christ would not have exhibited it in His life. But as our
Exemplar He would have set forth that milder form of Law which is
supposed by some theologians. He came to introduce. Inasmuch as our
Leader and Exemplar has exhibited to us in His life a perfect obedience
to the sacred Commandments in their undi-minished grandeur, I gather
that He means it to be the model of our conversation.

Our Lord has not taken off a single point or pinnacle from that
up-towering alp of perfection. He said at the first, "Lo, I come: in
the volume of the Book it is written of Me. I delight to do Your will,
O My God; yes, Your Law is within My heart." And well has He justified
the writing of the volume of the Book. "God sent forth His Son, made of
a woman, made under the Law" and, being for our sakes under the Law, He
obeyed it to the fullest, so that now, "Christ is the end of the Law
for righteousness to everyone that believes."

Once more, that the Master did not come to alter the Law of God is
clear because after having embodied it in His life, He willingly gave
Himself up to bear its penalty, though He had never broken it, bearing
the penalty for us, even as it is written, "Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us." "All we like sheep
have gone

astray, we have turned, everyone, to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on Him the iniquity of us all." If the Law had demanded more of us than
it ought to have done, would the Lord Jesus have rendered to it the
penalty which resulted from its too severe demands? I am sure He would
not! But because the Law asked only what it ought to ask–namely
perfect obedience and exacted of the transgressor only what it ought to
exact, namely, death, as the penalty for sin–death under Divine wrath,
therefore the Savior went to the Cross and there bore our sins and
purged them once and for all.

He was crushed beneath the load of our guilt and cried, "My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death," and at last, when He had
borne–

"All that Incarnate God could bear,

With strength enough, but none to spare," He bowed His head and said,
"It is finished." Our Lord Jesus Christ gave a greater vindication to
the Law of God by dying, because it had been broken, than all the lost
in Hell can ever give by their miseries, for their suffering is never
complete, their debt is never paid! But He has borne all that was due
from His people and the Law is defrauded of nothing. By His death He
has vindicated the honor of God's moral government and made it just for
Him to be merciful! When the Lawgiver, Himself, submits to the Law;
when the Sovereign, Himself, bears the extreme penalty of that
Law–then is the justice of God set upon such a glorious high throne
that all admiring worlds must wonder at it! If, therefore, it is
clearly proven that Jesus was obedient to the Law of God, even to the
extent of death, He certainly did not come to abolish or abrogate it!
And if He did not remove it, who can do so? If He declares that He came
to establish it, who shall overthrow

it?

But, secondly, the Law of God must be perpetual from its very nature,
for does it not strike you, the moment you think of it, that right must
always be right, truth must always be true, and purity must always be
pure? Before the Ten Commandments were published at Sinai, there was
still that same Law of right and wrong laid upon men by the necessity
of their being God's creatures. Right was always right before a single
command had been committed to words! When Adam was in the garden it was
always right that he should love his Maker and it would always have
been wrong that he should have been at cross-purposes with his God. And
it does not matter what happens in this world, or what changes take
place in the universe, it never can be right to lie, or to commit
adultery, or murder, or steal, or to worship an idol god. I will not
say that the principles of right and wrong are as absolutely
self-existent as God, but I do say that I cannot grasp the idea of God,
Himself, as existing apart from His being always holy and always
true–so that the very idea of right and wrong seems to me to be
necessarily permanent and cannot possibly be shifted.

You cannot bring right down to a lower level! It must be where it
always is–right is right eternally–and cannot be wrong. You cannot
lift up wrong and make it somewhat right–it must be wrong while the
world stands. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the smallest
letter or accent of the moral Law can possibly change. In spirit the
Law is eternal. Suppose for a moment that it were possible to temper
and tone down the Law of God, where would it be? I confess I do not
know and cannot imagine! If it is perfectly holy, how can it be altered
except by being made imperfect? Would you wish for that? Could you
worship the God of an imperfect Law? Can it ever be true that God, by
way of favoring us, has put us under an imperfect Law? Would that be a
blessing or a curse?

It is said by some that man cannot keep a perfect Law and God does not
demand that he should. Certain modern theologians have taught this, I
hope, by inadvertence. Has God issued an imperfect Law? It is the first
imperfect thing I ever heard of His making! Does it come to this that,
after all, the Gospel is a proclamation that God is going to be
satisfied with obedience to a mutilated Law? God forbid! I say, better
that we perish than that His perfect Law perish! Terrible as it is, it
lies at the foundation of the peace of the universe and must be honored
at all hazards. That gone, all goes! When the power of the Holy Spirit
convinced me of sin, I felt such a solemn awe of the Law of God that I
remember well, when I lay crashed beneath it as a condemned sinner, I
yet admired and glorified it. I could not have wished that perfect Law
to be altered for me.

Rather did I feel that if my soul were sent to the lowest Hell, yet God
was to be extolled for His Justice and His Law held in honor for its
perfectness. I would not have had it altered even to save my soul!
Brethren, the Law of the Lord must stand, for it is perfect and,
therefore, has in it no element of decay or change. The Law of God is
no more than God might most righteously ask of us. If God were about to
give us a more tolerant Law, it would be an admission, on His part,
that He asked too much at first. Can that be supposed? Was there, after
all, some justification for the statement of the wicked and slothful
servant when he said, "I feared you, because you are an austere man"?
It cannot be! For God to alter His Law would be an admission that He
made a mistake! That He put poor imperfect man (we are often hearing
that said) under too rigorous a regime and, therefore, He is now
prepared to abate His claims and make them more reasonable.

It has been said that man's moral inability to keep the perfect Law
exempts him from the duty of doing so. This is very specious, but it is
utterly false! Man's inability is not of the kind which removes
responsibility–it is moral, not physical! Never fall into the error
that moral inability will be an excuse for sin! What? When a man
becomes such a liar that he cannot speak the truth–is he, therefore,
exempted from the duty of truthfulness? If your servant owes you a
day's labor, is he free from the duty because he has made himself so
drunk that he cannot serve you? Is a man freed from a debt by the fact
that he has squandered the money and, therefore, cannot pay it? Is a
lustful man free to indulge his passions because he cannot understand
the beauty of chastity? This is dangerous doctrine! The Law is a just
one and man is bound by it though his sin has rendered him incapable of
doing so.

The Law, moreover, demands no more than is good for us. There is not a
single Commandment of God's Law but what is meant to be a kind of
danger signal such as we put up upon the ice when it is too thin to
bear. Each Commandment does, as it were, say to us, "Dangerous!" It is
never for a man's good to do what God forbids him! It is never for
man's real and ultimate happiness to leave undone anything that God
commands him. The wisest directions for spiritual health and for the
avoidance of evil are those directions which are given us concerning
right and wrong in the Law of God! Therefore it is not possible that
there should be any alteration, for it would not be for our good. I
should like to say to any Brother who thinks that God has put us under
an altered rule–"Which particular part of the Law is it that God has
relaxed?" Which precept do you feel free to break?

Are you delivered from the Commandment which forbids stealing? My dear
Sir, you may be a capital theologian, but I should lock up my spoons
when you call at my house! Is it the Commandment about adultery which
you think is removed? Then I could not recommend your being admitted
into any decent society! Is the Law as to killing softened down? Then I
had rather have your room than your company. From which Law is it that
God has exempted you? That Law of worshipping Him, only? Do you propose
to have another god? Do you intend to make engraved images? The fact
is, that when we come to details, we cannot afford to lose a single
link of this wonderful golden chain which is perfect in every part as
well as perfect as a whole! The Law is absolutely complete and you can
neither add to it nor take from it. "Whoever shall keep the whole Law,
and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do
not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no
adultery, yet if you kill, you have become a transgressor of the Law."
If, then, no part of it can be taken down, it must stand and stand
forever!

A third reason I will give why the Law must be perpetual is that to
suppose it altered is most dangerous. To take away from the Law its
perpetuity is, first of all, to take away from it its power to convict
of sin. Is it so, that I, being an imperfect creature, am not expected
to keep a perfect Law? Then it follows that I do not sin when I break
the Law! And if all that is required of me is that I am to do according
to the best of my knowledge and ability, then I have a very convenient
rule, indeed–and most men will take care to adjust it so as to give
themselves as much latitude as possible! By removing the Law you have
done away with sin, for sin is the transgression of the Law! And where
there is no Law, there is no transgression! When you have done away
with sin, you may as well have done away with the Savior and with
salva-tion–for they are by no means necessary!

When you have reduced sin to a minimum, what need is there of that
great and glorious salvation which Jesus Christ has come to bring into
the world? Brothers and Sisters, we must have none of this! It is
evidently a way of mischief. By lowering the Law, you weaken its power
in the hands of God as a Convincer of sin. "By the Law is the knowledge
of sin." It is the looking glass which shows us our spots–and that is
a most useful thing–though nothing but the Gospel can wash them away–

"My hopes of Hea ven were firm and bright, But since the precept came

With a convincing power and light,

I find how vile I am.

My guilt appeared but small before,

Till terribly I saw

How perfect, holy, just and pure

Was Your eternal Law.

Then felt my soul the heavy load, My sins revived again, I had provoked
a dreadful God, And all my hopes were slain."

It is only a pure and perfect Law that the Holy Spirit can use in order
to show us our depravity and sinfulness. Lower the Law and you dim the
Law of God by which man perceives his guilt! This is a very serious
loss to the sinner rather than a gain, for it lessens the likelihood of
his conviction and conversion.

You have also taken away from the Law its power to shut us up to the
faith of Christ. What is the Law of God for? For us to keep in order to
be saved by it? Not at all! It is sent in order to show us that we
cannot be saved by works and to shut us up to be saved by Grace! But if
you make out that the Law is altered so that a man can keep it, you
have left him his old legal hope and he is sure to cling to it! You
need a perfect Law that shuts man right up to hopelessness apart from
Jesus–puts him into an iron cage and locks him up–and offers him no
escape but by faith in Jesus! Then he begins to cry, "Lord, save me by
Grace, for I perceive that I cannot be saved by my own works."

This is how Paul describes it to the Galatians–"The Scripture has
concluded all are under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be
revealed. Therefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith." I say you have deprived
the Gospel of its most able auxiliary when you have set aside the Law!
You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to
Christ. No, it must stand and stand in all its terrors to drive men
away from self-righteousness and constrain them to fly to Christ! They
will never accept Grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law!
Therefore the Law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose and it
must not be removed from its place.

To alter the Law is to leave us without any Law at all. A sliding scale
of duty is an immoral invention, fatal to the principles of law. If
each man is to be accepted because he does his best, we are all doing
our best. Is there anybody that is not? If we take their words for it,
all our fellow men are doing as well as they can, considering their
imperfect natures. Even the harlot in the streets has some
righteousness– she is not quite so far gone as others. Have you ever
heard of the bandit who committed many murders, but who felt that he
had been doing his best because he never killed anybody on a Friday?
Self-righteousness builds itself a nest, even in the worst character!
This is the man's talk– "Really, if you knew me, you would say I have
been a good fellow to do as well as I have. Consider what a poor,
fallen creature I am! Consider what strong passions were born in me!
Consider what temptations to vice beset me and you will not blame me so
much! After all, I dare say God is as satisfied with me as with many
who are a great deal better because I had so few advantages."

Yes, you have shifted the standard and every man will now do that which
is right in his own eyes and claim to be doing his best! If you shift
the standard pound weight or the bushel measure, you will certainly
never get full weight or measurement again! There will be no standard
to go by and each man will do his best with his own pounds and bushels.
If the standard is tampered with, you have taken away the foundation
upon which trade is conducted and it is the same in soul
matters–abolish the best rule that ever can be, even God's own
Law–and there is no rule left worthy of the name! What a fine opening
this leaves for vain-glory! No wonder that men talk of perfect
sanctification if the Law has been lowered! There is nothing at all
remarkable in our getting up to the rule if it is conveniently lowered
for us! I believe I shall be perfectly sanctified when I keep God's Law
without omission or transgression, but not till then!

If any man says that he is perfectly sanctified because he has come up
to a modified law of his own, I am glad to know what he means, for I
have, no longer, any discussion with him! I see nothing wonderful in
his attainment. Sin is my need of conformity to the Law of God–and
until we are perfectly conformed to that Law of God in all its
spiritual length and breadth–it is idle for us to talk about perfect
sanctification! No man is perfectly clean till he accepts absolute
purity as the standard by which he is to be judged. So long as there is
in us any coming short of the perfect Law, we are not perfect! What a
humbling Truth of God this is! The Law shall not pass away, but it must
be fulfilled! This Truth must be maintained, for if it goes, our
tackling is loose; we cannot well strengthen the mast; the ship goes
all to pieces; she becomes a total wreck!

The Gospel itself would be destroyed could you destroy the Law of God!
To tamper with the Law is to trifle with the Gospel. "Till Heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law,
till all is fulfilled."

II. I come to show, secondly, that THE LAW MUST BE FULFILLED. I hope
there are some in this place who are saying, "We cannot fulfill it."
That is exactly where I want to bring you! Salvation by the works of
the Law must be felt to be impossible by every man who would be saved!
We must learn that salvation is of Grace through faith in Jesus Christ
our Lord–not by our own doings or feelings. But this is a doctrine no
one will receive till he has learned the previous Truth of God–that
salvation by the works of the Law can never come to any man born of
woman!

Yet the Law must be fulfilled. Many will say with Nicodemus, "How can
these things be?" I answer, the Law is fulfilled in Christ and, by
faith, we receive the fruit thereof. First, as I have already said, the
Law is fulfilled in the matchless Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If a man
has broken a Law, what does the Law do with him? It says, "I must be
honored. You have broken my command which was sanctioned by the penalty
of death. Inasmuch as you did not honor me by obedience, but dishonored
me by transgression, you must die." Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
great Covenant Representative of His people, their second Adam, stood
forward on the behalf of all who are in Him and presented Himself as a
victim to Divine Justice.

Since His people were guilty of death, He, as their Covenant Head, came
under death in their place! It was a glorious thing that such
representative death was possible–and it was only so because of the
original constitution of the race as springing from a common father and
placed under a single head. Inasmuch as our fall was by one Adam, it
was possible for us to be raised by another Adam! "As in Adam all died,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive." It became possible for God,
upon the principle of representation, to allow substitution. Our first
fall was not by our personal fault, but through the failure of our
representative–and now in comes our second and grander
Representative–the Son of God, and He sets us free, not by our
honoring the Law, but by His doing so!

He came under the Law by His birth. And being found as a Man loaded
with the guilt of all His people, He was visited with its penalty! The
Law lifts its bloody axe and it smites our glorious Head that we may go
free! It is the Son of God that keeps the Law by dying, the Just for
the unjust. "The soul that sins, it shall die"–there is death
demanded– and in Christ death is presented! Life for life is rendered!
An infinitely precious Life instead of the poor lives of men! Jesus has
died and so the Law has been fulfilled by the endurance of its penalty.
And being fulfilled, its power to condemn and punish the Believer has
passed away.

Secondly, the Law has been fulfilled, again, for us by Christ in His
life. I have already gone over this, but I want to establish you in it.
Jesus Christ as our Head and Representative, came into the world for
the double purpose of bearing the penalty and, at the same time,
keeping the Law. One of His main designs in coming to earth was "to
bring in perfect righteousness." "As by the disobedience of one, many
were made sinners, so by the righteousness of one, shall many be made
righteous." The Law requires a perfect life and he that believes in
Jesus Christ presents to the Law a perfect life which he has made his
own by faith. It is not his own life, but Christ is made of God unto
us, righteousness, even to us who are one with Him. "Christ is the end
of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believes."

That which Jesus did is counted as though we did it! And because He was
righteous, God sees us in Him and counts us righteous upon the
principle of substitution and representation. Oh, how blessed it is to
put on this robe and to wear it! And to stand before the Most High in a
better righteousness than His Law demanded–for that demanded the
perfect righteousness of a creature–but we put on the absolute
righteousness of the Creator Himself! And what can the Law ask more? It
is written, "In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely, and this is the name with which He shall be called–THE LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." "The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness'
sake: He will magnify the Law and make it honorable."

Yes, but that is not all. The Law has to be fulfilled in us personally
in a spiritual and Gospel sense. "Well," you say, "but how can that
be?" I reply in the words of our Apostle–"What the Law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh," Christ has done and is doing by
the Holy Spirit, "that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Regeneration
is a work by which the Law is fulfilled, for when a man is born again
there is placed in him a new nature which loves the Law of God and is
perfectly conformed to it. The new nature which God implants in every
Believer at the time he is born again is incapable of sin–it cannot
sin, for it is born of God! That new nature is the offspring of the
eternal Father–and the Spirit of God dwells in it, with it and
strengthens

it!

It is light, it is purity, it is, according to the Scripture, the
"living and incorruptible Seed which lives and abides forever." If
incorruptible, it is sinless, for sin is corruption and corrupts
everything that it touches. The Apostle Paul, when describing his
inward conflicts, showed that he himself, his real and best self, did
keep the Law, for he says, "So then with the mind I, myself, serve the
Law of God" (Rom. 7:25). He consented to the Law that it was good,
which showed that he was on the side of the Law. And though sin that
dwelt in his members led him into transgression, yet his new nature did
not allow it, but hated and loathed it, and cried out against it as one
in bondage! The newborn soul delights in the Law of the Lord and there
is within it a quenchless life which aspires after absolute perfection!
It will never rest till it pays to God perfect obedience and comes to
be like God, Himself!

This which is begun in regeneration is continued and grows till it
ultimately arrives at absolute perfection. That will be seen in the
world to come and oh, what a fulfillment of the Law will be there! The
Law will admit no man to Heaven till he is perfectly conformed to
it–but every Believer shall be in that perfect condition! Our nature
shall be refined from all its dross and be as pure gold! It will be our
delight in Heaven to be holy. There will be nothing about us, then, to
kick against a single Commandment of God! We shall know, there, in our
own hearts the Glory and excellency of the Divine will and our will
shall run in the same channel. We shall not imagine that the precepts
are rigorous–they will be our own will as truly as they are God's
will!

Then nothing which God has commanded, however much of self-denial it
requires, now, will require any self-denial from us! Holiness will be
our element, our delight! Our nature will be entirely conformed to the
Nature and mind of God as to holiness and goodness–and then the Law
will be fulfilled in us and we shall stand before God, having washed
our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! And, at the
same time, being ourselves without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing!
Then shall the Law of the Lord have eternal honor from our immortal
being. Oh, how we shall rejoice in it! We delight in it after the
inward man, now, but then we shall delight in it as to our risen bodies
which shall be charmed to be instruments of righteousness unto God
forever and ever! No appetite of those risen bodies, no want and no
necessity of them shall then lead the soul astray, but our whole body,
soul and spirit shall be perfectly conformed unto the Divine mind!

Let us long and pant for this! We shall never attain it except by
believing in Jesus. Perfect holiness will never be reached by the works
of the Law, for works cannot change the nature. But by faith in Jesus
and the blessed work of His Holy Spirit, we shall have it and then, I
believe, it will be among our songs of Glory that Heaven and earth pass
away, but the Word of God and the Law of God shall stand fast forever
and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen.
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Praying and Pleading