The Law’s Failure and Fulfillment

The Law's Failure and Fulfillment

(No. 2228)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1891,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
1, 1891.

"For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned in the flesh. That the righteousness of the Law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Romans 8:3,4.

THE Law of God is perfect. You cannot add anything to it, nor take
anything from it, without spoiling it. If you will read the Ten
Commandments and understand them in their spiritual meaning, you will
find that they are far-reaching and that they deal with every sin. I
noticed, some time ago, that a learned prelate said that he could not
find any Commandment against gambling. Where were his eyes? Is it not
plainly written, "You shall not covet"? What is gambling but
covetousness in action? Most manifestly, the gambler desires his
neighbor's goods and this desire gives zest to the vice which the Law
of God quite plainly condemns. Depend upon it, there is nothing wrong
but the Law of God condemns it and there is nothing right but the Law
approves it. The Decalogue is an absolutely perfect Law.

If you take the soul of it, what I may call the summary of the Law, it
seems to me to be even larger in brief than it is in the lengthy form.
Here it is. First, in the Old Testament in two different passages, one
in the Sixth Chapter of Deuteronomy and the other in the Nineteenth of
Leviticus, and then as given by Christ in answer to the question of a
lawyer– "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind;
and your neighbor as yourself." Wonderful Law, summed up in one word,
"LOVE" but comprehending in its circle every form of duty which springs
out of our relationship to God or man! Well may Paul say, as in the
previous chapter, "Therefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy,
and just, and good." If evil is worked, it is not the Law of God which
works it, for that Law is the expression of the Nature of the Eternal
and reveals His holiness and justice– but as "God is Love," the Law
which He gives is also comprehended in the same word–love. "We know
that the Law is good, if a man uses it lawfully."

But there are some things which the Law cannot do. It cannot produce a
new heart in a sinner. It cannot save a lost soul. It cannot justify a
guilty person. It cannot draw a wanderer back to God. The Law, as
originally given to Adam, a perfect man, had he carried it out, would
have glorified God and would have produced in him a perfect life. But
we are not in the same position towards God as Adam was and we are not
free from the taint of evil as he was. We have fallen and there is now
in our nature that which Paul calls, "the flesh," which lusts to envy,
and turns aside from God. This has made the Law weak for the
accomplishment of God's purpose of justification or salvation. The law
of England, where it is true and good, protects honest men and deters
many from committing crime–but it is practically powerless in the case
of some habitual criminals who seem to have inherited the tendency to
criminality. The defect is not in the law, but in the person with whom
it has to deal. So the Law of God becomes weak through our weakness.
There are some who cling to the Law and expect to be saved by their own
doings, but they are leaning on a broken reed! To free from guilt and
condemnation is what the Law cannot do, not on account of any fault in
itself, but because it is weak through our flesh.

What, then, is the purpose and limit of the Law? It sets before us a
straight path. Right up the mountain side I see the way to the summit.
But I have fallen into an abyss. I am bruised and broken–I cannot stir
an inch. What is the use of a straight road to me? Here I must lie, at
the bottom of the crevasse, and perish unless something more than a
straight road is shown to me. The way is before me, but I am weak and
cannot stir. The Law of God tells us what we ought to do, but that does
not enable us to do it! Still, it is useful to know the way in which we
should go, for that will show us how far we

have fallen, cause us to be discontented with our present state and
prepare us to accept help, if help should come. The Law can do that.

The Law is also very useful because it shows us our deflections and
stains. It is like the mirror which my lady holds up to her face that
she may see if there are any spots on it. But she cannot wash her face
with the mirror! When the mirror has done its utmost, there are the
stains, all the same. It cannot take away a single spot–it can only
show where it is. And the Law, though it reveals our sins, our
shortcomings, our transgressions–it cannot remove the sin or the
transgression. It is weak for that purpose because it was never
intended to accomplish such an end.

The Law also serves another purpose–it upbraids us for our sin. Did
you ever feel its ten-thronged lash coming upon the back of your
conscience? What furrows these plowers make! "Condemn him," says whole
ten-throated Law of God! The First Commandment says, "Condemn him–he
has broken me." And the Second Command says, "Condemn him– he has
broken me." And the Third says, "Condemn him–he has broken me." Not
one of them is silent! All clamor for their due and if you truly know
your own heart, you confess that not one charges you falsely, seeing
that hate is murder and the thought of folly, sin! When conscience is
really awake, what pain, what anguish the Law will bring to the spirit!
But it cannot heal you. It cannot speak peace to you. It cannot forgive
you. To convince and to condemn is all the Law can do. It is too weak
to save even one poor sinner!

Again, the Law can tell you what you ought to do, but it gives no
inclination to do the right. On the contrary, without any blame to the
Law, it often creates inclination to do otherwise. Paul says, "I was
alive without the Law once: but when the Commandment came, sin revived,
and I died." There are some things men would not think of doing if they
were not forbidden–but the very forbidding of them makes some desire
to do them! Many a thing which is commanded, we might have freely done
if it had been left to our own choice–but such is the perversity of
our nature that, being commanded to do it, straightway we refuse! We
kick against the Commandments. The Law does not sweetly incline us to
holiness, but, through the weakness, or, rather, wickedness of our
flesh, it often stirs up the obstinate and rebellious propensities
which are in our nature. Certainly the Law does not incline us to
righteousness, but, "sin, taking occasion by the Commandment," works in
us all manner of evil.

The Law is weak in another way. It does not lend us any aid towards the
fulfillment of its Commands. It says, "This do, and you shall live.
Make the bricks; make the bricks," but it gives us no straw with which
to make them, nor can we find any in all the land–so we are worse off
than Israel in Egypt! The Law, in and of itself, does not contribute to
our obedience to its commands, nor does it restrain us when we go
astray. It thunders out, "You shall not kill," but when the heart darts
its thought of bitterness, or the hand raises the assassin's knife, it
does not hinder–it looks on, cold and unmoved. It aids us not in any
way because it cannot! Only Divine Grace can do that. We have to look
to another source for help in holiness.

And when we have broken the Law of God, it brings no remedy. Of mercy
the Law knows nothing. You have broken the Law–there is the penalty
and you must bear it. Through having committed sin, you have brought
upon yourself a grievous malady. The Law points out the malady, but it
never brings any medicine with which to cure it! It pours in no oil and
wine–it is no good Samaritan. It is not the Law's business to do that.
When Her Majesty's judge is on the bench, his business there is to
administer the law and to see that the rules of the nation are carried
out fairly and justly. He does not sit there to provide for the poor or
to help the sick, but to judge men and condemn the guilty! This is all
that the Law of God was meant to do. In that it is weak through our
flesh, there are some things which the Law cannot do.

On one occasion some workmen were quarrying some rocks and, having made
all ready for a blast–drilled the holes, filled them with gun-cotton
and connected the fuses–they then warned everyone away from the place
of danger. Then the fuses were lighted and the workmen, themselves,
withdrew. But, to their horror, they saw a little boy, attracted by the
lights, running towards them! Those strong men raised their voices and
shouted to the boy, "Go back! Go back!"–they could do no more. But of
course the boy, having the same nature as the rest of us, only went the
more quickly forward and into the danger. Still the men cried, "Go
back! Go back!" They were like the Law, powerless. Not because their
voices were weak, but because of the material with which they had to
deal.

But the mother of the boy heard the call and, seeing the fearful peril
in which her child was placed, she dropped on one knee, opened her arms
wide and called, "Come to mother! Come to mother!" The boy stopped,
turned, hesitated a moment, and then ran to her embrace and, in
listening to her call and obeying it, escaped the danger which
threatened

him. What all the shouts of the strong men could not do, the gentle
voice of the mother accomplished. Their voices were like the Law which
says, "Go back! Go back!" Her voice was like the sweet sound of the
Gospel, "Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus!" "For what the Law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son" easily
accomplished. Behold here the wisdom and might and love of Jehovah!

Is it not a grand thing when a wise person, seeing a difficulty which
he did not produce, comes in and sets everything right? Through our
sinful flesh, there has come a great warp in the original order of
things! God cannot be glorified by the Law, for we have broken it! And
we cannot be saved by the Law, for we still continue to break it! But
God, Himself, comes to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. I
want to show you, first, God's glorious method. And when I have shown
you that, I will speak of God's glorious accomplishment. These two
things will serve us both for instruction and stimulus.

I. First, GOD'S GLORIOUS METHOD. Here we are with a Law which we have
not kept, any one of us–a Law which we never shall keep! There is no
hope of salvation by the Law of God. What happens, then? Does He devise
means that His banished be not expelled from Him forever? If He does,
what are those means?

Hear these words, "For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending"–listen!– "God sending," not God
waiting till we went to Him, but, seeing our misery and helplessness,
He sends. From yonder Throne, beyond your sight, and higher than your
loftiest imagination, He sends! His thoughts are with poor, struggling,
guilty, unworthy men–He sees that the Law cannot help men and that
they will never glorify God by the Law, except it be by being made to
suffer the punishment due for their sin. Therefore Jehovah interposes!
God sends! I say again, He does not wait for us to come to Him. If we
had sent an embassy to Him and waited at Heaven's gate many long years
and He had, at last, deigned to answer us, it would have been a
wonderful instance of love. But now He sends an Ambassador! It is He
who has been offended who seeks to make peace–not the guilty and the
offending ones!

Read on farther. "God sending"–an angel? An archangel? No! "God
sending His own Son." Hear this! He sends His Son. The case was so
desperate that only God, Himself, could meet it! Well, Jesus Christ,
God's own Son, is very God of very God–and He can do it. But shall He
leave Heaven? Shall He come down to earth? Will He be a Servant? Will
He who can command be humble, Himself, as to be sent? Will He, before
whom angels bow with veiled faces, go on an errand down to earth? It is
even so–"God sending His own Son." He had but one, His
Only-Begotten–but He determined to have many and so He sent His one
Son that He might, in "bringing many sons unto Glory," show to all
worlds the riches of His love and Grace! From all eternity the Son was
in the bosom of the Father–and no less than He shall be chosen to be
an Ambassador of peace to the sons of men–

"Hark, the glad sound, the Savior comes, The Sa vior promised long! Let
every heart prepare a throne, And every voice a song."

But how does He send Him? He sends Him in the flesh. This is the
amazement of angels, the astonishment of all thoughtful beings! God
sends His Son to take our flesh into communion with Himself! Not to be
an angel–"for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels"–but to
be a man and to come here, as you and I came here, by birth! In
Bethlehem's manger He lies, the offspring of a woman! At that woman's
breast He hangs, a Babe. Yes, He that made the heavens and the earth,
"being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped," as
the Revised Version gives it to us, "to be on an equality with God."
Yet–oh, the amazing condescension–He has "emptied Himself, taking the
form of a Servant, being made in the likeness of men." He has veiled
Himself under the form of an Infant and there He is, bone of our bone,
and flesh of our flesh! "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the
Father), full of Grace and truth." The Incarnation of Christ is a great
reality which we can never understand, but which we devoutly believe
and, believing it, we have before us God's way of doing what the Law
could not do. He sent His own Son in human flesh!

But Paul puts it in a way which increases the wonder. God not only
deigns to send His Son, but He sends Him in the likeness of sinful
flesh. Christ did not come in sinful flesh, but He came in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He came in the reality of flesh, but not in the
sinfulness of flesh. His flesh was like sinful flesh, but it was not
sinful flesh. It was real flesh, but it was not sinful flesh. It was
the likeness of sinful flesh, for, as you looked upon Him, you could
not tell Him from anyone else. That marvelous prophecy of Isaiah was
fulfilled–"He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him,

there is no beauty that we should desire Him." He was "a Man of Sorrows
and acquainted with grief." This was the likeness of sinful flesh which
He assumed–to be poor, to be hungry, to be thirsty, to be despised, to
be rejected, to be homeless, to be friendless, to be forsaken, to be
betrayed, to be scourged, to be put to death! Yes, it was necessary
that He should be "numbered with the transgressors," though without
fault. "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful

flesh."

There is in the world this strange thing called sin–a discord which
mars the harmony of God's universe–a blight which makes evil that
which God at first pronounced to be "very good." Sin! We cannot get
away from it. We know more of it than of our most familiar friend–it
meets us everywhere and in everything. Sin! It is the history of
humanity. It is the history of the Bible, for why else was it written?
It is the history of this building–why else was it built? It is the
history of the ordinances of worship–why else were they instituted?
Best of all, it is the history of the Christ of God!

This is a very amazing story which I am telling you, but I have not yet
told you all. When the Father sends His Only-Begotten and Well-Beloved
Son, He sends Him on account of sin. "For sin." Why did You come here,
sweet Babe, away from the royalties of Heaven? "I came because of sin."
What brought you here, dear Child, sojourning 12 years at Nazareth?
"Sin brought Me here," says the Boy. "I came on My Father's business,
and that is to put away sin." What brought You here, dear Lord, coming
up dripping from the waters of Jordan? "Ask My servant John," He says.
And John answers, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of
the world." If I question our Divine Savior at any period of His
life–and even at His death, "Why are You here?" He will tell me, "I am
here for two reasons–for love and for sin–here because men have
sinned and here because I love them and would save them from their
sin."–

"'Twas love that sought Gethsemane,

Or Judas never had found Thee.

'Twas love that nailed You to the tree,

Or iron never had bound Thee.

'Twas love that lived, 'twas love that died,

With endless life to bless us!

Well have You won Your blood-bought bride,

All hail! You glorious Jesus."

I must ask you to notice the marginal reading here–"by a sacrifice for
sin." The Revised Version has it, "God, sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh." He sends Him to be a Sacrifice for sin. Christ came here to
be offered up as a Sin Offering! Our sin was laid on Him and when God
came to visit sin, He found it laid on Christ–and He smote it there.
There God cursed the evil thing, for Christ "was made a curse for us."
Yes, He killed it–for Christ drank of the cup of death, even as we
read, "that He, by the Grace of God, should taste death for every man."
Wonderful is this doctrine! In that the Law was weak through the flesh
and could not save us, God sent His own Son to be Incarnate here in the
likeness of sinful flesh, to be offered up as a Sacrifice, to be
presented as the Atonement for human guilt–"For Christ also has once
suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God." He has once suffered, "to declare at this time, God's
righteousness, that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which
believes in Jesus."

Only one other word and I have completed the first verse. God does all
this and He thus condemns sin in the flesh. "For sin" or, "by a sin
offering," we read, He "condemned sin in the flesh." Christ's death
condemned sin! You may find strong words with which to censure sin and
you may talk of the bitter effects of sin, but no words can be too
strong, no picture too dark to set forth the evil thing! What a curse
sin is to this world of ours! You point me to the graveyard and you
ask, "Who slew all these?" Sin! You point me to the prison and you ask,
"Who bound all these?" Sin! You point me to the misery of this great
city–the drunkenness, the wantonness, the selfishness, the crime–and
ask, "What caused all this?" Sin! And you may even lift the veil and
bid me gaze into the awful future where souls lie beneath the ban of
God, accursed forever, and ask, "What brought man into such a plight?"
Sin! Sin did it all, and we will, we must, condemn the cause of such
horrors!

But, I tell you, sin was never so condemned as when Jesus died. By His
death, Jesus, in effect, said, "Sinners have died–sinners have been
cast into Hell. Their sin deserved it." But He said more than that, for
when sin was laid on Him, it was taken by Him as a deed of love! It was
not His sin. He had done no evil. That the sin was on Him was an act of
supreme Grace! He took the awful load willingly and bore it in the
place of guilty men. He was innocent, yet, because of

man's sin, He must die–even He must die! This blot must put out, not
the candles and the moon and the stars, but the sun, itself! This
poison is so virulent that not only must the mortal die, but the
Immortal must bow His head and give up the ghost. Oh, Sin, you are a
poisonous thing, indeed, to slay God's own Son! All Heaven and earth
unite with one voice to say that you are hateful and abhorrent! You are
condemned!

If there is a king in a country and he has made a law, and there is one
who is brought before him and condemned– and that person is his own
son–we may be assured of his strict justice. If the king carries out
the law upon the prince and puts him in prison, everyone is assured
that he respects the law. If there is proved against the prince an
offense whose penalty is death and the king gives up, even, his own
guilty son to death, you see how he vindicates the law and how he
abhors the offense charged against the prince. And God never showed His
justice, as well as His love so much as when He gave up His Son! And He
never showed His hatred of evil so much as when, sin being by
imputation laid upon Christ, He bade Him die and Christ, "became
obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." Now is sin condemned
as the vilest thing in the universe! It has slain the Christ! It has
forced the hand of Divine Justice to smite down even Christ, Himself,
instead of guilty men!

This is the story more marvelous than all the annals of earth! I have
told it to you in simple language. You will hear some men talk very
grandly about it–with much argument and vain philosophy. That is not
my business! I have only to tell you the story as it stands. "God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh." This is God's glorious method of salvation
and deliverance from sin!

II. Now I am going to show you, in a few words, what is, through this,
GOD'S GLORIOUS ACHIEVEMENT. The result is "that the righteousness of
the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." This righteousness is fulfilled in two ways.

First, in Christ the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled. It is
vindicated. This is how the matter stood. God has justly annexed a
penalty to sin. It is right that the offender should be punished. I,
guilty by God's Law, am condemned to punishment. But I am one with
Christ. Christ is my Adam. He stands for me. I am a member of His body,
joined to Him in mystical, yet real, union. He comes in and answers for
me. He takes the sin as though He had committed it, though He could
never commit sin. He bares His neck to the ax and suffers what I ought
to have suffered, or suffers what is more than equivalent, thereunto,
and so God's Law is vindicated. I have died, for I am one with Christ
and He died for me, and I have died in Him. I have borne the wrath of
God, for I am one with Him and He bore the wrath of God for me. Thus
the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in every Believer because his
accepted Substitute and Surety has borne the punishment! The two
doctrines of "Substitution" and "Union to Christ" must always go
together. The second explains the first, and the first becomes possible
because of the second! Christ's death was a substitution for me because
in the Covenant of Grace I am united to Him by bonds which can never be
broken.

"Then that is an end of the Law," says one. Stop–the Law of God has
one great demand–obedience! If a man disobeys and is punished, he does
not, thereby, escape from the duty of obedience. The law is still upon
him, saying, Obey, obey! "Oh, but I have been punished for past
offenses." Even so, but you still are bound to obey. The law is always
our creditor for a perfect obedience. Where, then, have we this? I
answer, Christ fulfilled the Law. There never was such a Law-fulfiller
as He! He did it willingly. He did it from His heart. "Lo, I come," He
said, "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." He did it
scrupulously. In Him was no sin. "I do always those things that please
Him," said He of His Father. He was perfect. He kept the Law in every
jot and tittle.

There could not have been such obedience rendered to the Law even by
sinless Adam as the Christ rendered to it. Adam had not the quality of
being which would have rendered him capable of offering such an
overflowing obedience as Christ rendered. Christ is God and if He
becomes obedient to the Law–if He is born under the Law, comes under
it and carries it out–the Law receives from such a Person, so
marvelously constituted, a higher fulfillment than it could have
received from any mere man! I take, today, the perfect obedience of my
Lord and, appropriating it by faith to myself, I call Him, "The Lord my
righteousness." I do not presume in so doing, for it is written, "This
is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"
and, "of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." In
Christ Jesus you have done for you what the Law

could never have done. The righteousness of the Law has been fulfilled
in you. You have borne the penalty–you have obeyed the Law of God in
the Person of your Covenant Head and Representative.

Now I take the words in the second and inferior sense, which is still
very precious. The righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in the
Christian by the Grace of God. When we believe in Christ we not only
receive pardon, but we also receive renewal. I am told that the
teaching of certain people, nowadays, is that the Believer only gets
pardon to begin with and a long time afterwards he gets the clean
heart. But I say, on the authority of God's Word, that no man is
pardoned unless he has a clean heart! God gives the clean heart at the
time He gives the pardon! You must never divide the renewing of the
Holy Spirit from the pardon of sin. They go together and he that
receives the pardon of sin receives a new birth–and is made a new
creature in Christ Jesus then and there. The work of regeneration and
the act of faith which brings justification to the penitent sinner are
simultaneous and must, in the nature of the case, always be so.

At the present moment, the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in the
new-born, Grace-renewed mind. There is a present obedience actually
rendered. We have to admit to faults, imperfections and sins, but, at
the same time we strive to be holy. I speak for all of you who love
Christ. You long to obey Him. Yes, and you do obey Him. You have laid
aside the works of the flesh. If you are Believers, you cannot do what
you used to do, and you are striving to do things which once would have
been irksome to you. You are honest, you are true, you are righteous,
you love the Lord. You make Him– not an idol–to be your God. You are
seeking to do to others as you would that they should do to you. You
love God and you love your neighbor.

And though not perfectly, yet, in a large measure, by the exercise of
the Grace of God, the Law is fulfilled in you in a way that it never
could have been fulfilled as mere law. You now obey God and attain a
measure of holiness through what Christ has done for you–a measure of
holiness that you never reached when you tried to be saved by good
works. It is a noteworthy fact that while work-mongers cry up works,
they never have any worth talking about–and while Believers in Christ
decry their own good works, they abound in them! I try to live as if my
salvation depended only upon my works–and yet I do so knowing all the
while that I am justified by faith, through Jesus Christ–and not by
the works of the Law. Thus present obedience is actually rendered.

Now we must go a little further. There is perfect obedience rendered in
heart. You know how Paul puts it. He says that the things that he would
do, somehow he did not always do and that caused him grief. And the
things that he would not do, but hated to do, he sometimes did and that
caused him grief. But he says, "If I do that I would not, it is no more
I that does it, but sin that dwells in me." The child of God is not
perfect in his life, but he wills to be so–he sighs to be so–his
heart is set on it. It reminds me of Mr. Bunyan when he says, "You see
a man sent to get the doctor and riding on a horse that is rather
sluggish. But look how he keeps kicking and whipping; whipping and
kicking; pulling and tugging. He would go quicker if he could. So in
his heart he is all the way to the doctor's when he is only half-way!
He is all the way there in his mind, though, alas, his horse keeps him
back." It is thus that we are hindered through the weakness of the
flesh.

O Brothers and Sisters, if we could be perfect, we would be in Heaven,
for I cannot imagine a higher Heaven than to be perfectly like Christ!
A sinner, if he could have his way, would like to have some nice little
smug sins all to himself and never be called to account for them. He
would choose forever to have no God and no Law of God. How delicious
that would be to him! And then if he let his evil heart have full sway,
he would desire to have his glass, his merriment, his debauchery free
from any restraint! His liberty would soon run into license. That would
be the highest pleasure to the child of the flesh. But the child of God
hates sin as sin! He loves holiness as holiness and if he could go to
Heaven and sin, it would be no Heaven to him! And if God could reward
him for sin–though such a thing is impossible and the very thought of
such a thing is almost blasphemy–yet would he hate sin as sin and flee
from it!

Even when it most condemns him, he would have the Law of God no other
than it is. Not even for his salvation would he have God bate one jot
or tittle of His justice. He is jealous for holiness and seeks not to
be saved in sin, but to be saved from it. As far as his renewed heart
is concerned, he cannot sin because he is born of God. His new nature
clings and cleaves to holiness and the new nature is perfect–made
perfect in the image of Christ–and it will never rest till it has
stamped out the last spark of sin in the members. Thus a perfect
obedience is rendered in his heart. The child of God says, "I will walk
within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before
my eyes–I hate the work of them that turn aside–it shall not cleave
to me."

Once more, what the Law could never do–for it never made a man even
wish to be holy, much less made him live a holy life–Christ, by coming
in the likeness of sinful flesh, has done, for there is that in every
Believer which will be perfect holiness before long. Absolute obedience
is observed in Heaven. We shall, by-and-by, break through all the
en-thrallments of the old life and come into the land of the hereafter,
where, says the Christ who has done all for them, "They shall walk with
Me in white: for they are worthy." Up yonder the life that is in every
palm-bearer is the life that he had here below. "He that believes on
the Son has everlasting life," that is, he has it here–and in Heaven
it will be the same life, but it will be that same life developed–and
when developed it will be absolute perfection! Not perfection in name,
nor perfection in measure, but absolute perfection and fully developed!
We shall be absolutely free from every disobedience and absolutely
perfect in every good work, doing God's will and delighting to do it,
world without end!

In the third place, I would have you remember that this righteousness
is fulfilled through the Lord Jesus Christ. We fulfill the Law, but not
in any strength which the Law gives to us, nor in any power of our own.
The obedience to the Law is fulfilled in us out of gratitude to Christ
for what He has done for us. We flee from sin out of hatred of the
things that nailed Christ to the Cross and put Him to death. What the
Law could not do, the dying Christ has done! His Sacrifice makes us
hate evil. Naming the name of Christ, we "depart from iniquity," for we
realize that it was not only Roman soldiers and rabble Jews who nailed
Him to the tree, but it was our sins that did it! Those little sins of
ours were like thorns in His blessed brow. Those ordinary commonplace
sins were like nails in His hands and feet. That giant sin was like a
spear to pierce His side. And yet–

"His love to man, so sorely tried, Proved stronger than the grave! The
very spear that pierced His side Drew forth the blood to save."

O you who have long toiled in the vain endeavor to give up your sins,
come and look at the Cross! See there what your sins have done and
learn to hate them with a perfect hatred! See how sin stooped to the
meanness of betrayal and killed the Prince of Life who went among men
healing and helping them, doing nothing but good! Your instinct rises
against oppressors–will you not seek to throw off the chains of the
sin which worked so cruel a deed that day at Calvary? Sin is your
enemy! To you who believe in Christ, I would say–Remember that on the
Cross you were crucified, for when Christ died, you died. Now, say to
yourself that if sin that day crucified you, then today you will
crucify sin. "I am crucified with Christ," says Paul, "nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and
gave Himself for me." Thus, because God sent His Son and condemned sin
in the flesh, we condemn it, too. His death becomes to us the gate of
life!

More than that. Not only do we seek to avoid the evil because of the
Sacrifice of Christ, but gratitude to Him incites us to do good. Shall
He do all this for me and I do nothing for Him? Shall He die for me and
shall I henceforth not live for Him? If He gave His life for me, then I
will give my life to Him! He has bought it. He deserves it and He shall
have it. I will no longer live to the flesh, since in the flesh Christ
condemned my sin. What a wonder it is that the Lord Jesus, by His
Atonement, could condemn sin and let the condemned sinner go free!
Surely, the delivered soul will henceforth count it the greatest joy of
life to serve Him "who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised
again for our justification." Thus, what the Law could not do, the Sent
One, by His wondrous work, fulfils! He takes us from under the bondage
of the Law and, in being delivered for our sins, He also delivers us
from our sins! "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are
not under the Law, but under Grace." Thus, Grace triumphs against the
flesh in giving us liberty. "Being then made free from sin, you became
the servants of righteousness." Thus the holy Law of God is cheerfully
fulfilled!

To crown all, this righteousness is fulfilled in the energy of the
Spirit–"in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
God not only works for us, but He also works in us "both to will and to
do of His good pleasure." The Spirit applies the work of Christ to the
soul, since it is because of the work of Christ the Spirit is given,
while both are to the praise of the Father. "It needs the three Persons
of the Trinity to fill up the triangular heart of man," as one of the
Puritans puts it. Why should not everyone whom I address receive, by
the Spirit, this new life at this moment? Then it will grow, for we
"walk after the Spirit"–we do not stand still! As we obey the Law of
God, we shall receive more and more of His power, for it is written of
the Holy Spirit that He is "given to them that obey Him." He first
teaches us to obey and then, when we obey, He dwells with us in greater
fullness! And, when we are filled with the Spirit, then "the
righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit."

I have now set before you God's glorious method and achievement. May
you accept the one and have your part in the other! Sin is condemned
and righteousness fulfilled for everyone that believes! That is what
the Christ has done by coming here below. Blessed be His name! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 8.