Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Though several hundred years
passed until the written law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai,
yet death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned. Sin
is not imputed when there is no law, and the fact that all
men were made subject unto death is proof that all men are under
the law of condemnation, whether Jew or Gentile, both by practice
and because of the imputation of Adam's sin, and the resulting
curse which was visited on all of his offspring. In God's own
time, he saw fit to give his law, written in tables of stone,
to Israel. Moses ascended up Sinai's fiery
slopes into the dark cloud which covered its peak, as God gave
him the law and hid him in a cliff of the rock while his glory passed
by. No other nation on the face of the earth was given this law
in this written form. Yet all nations are without excuse
before God, because they are all subject to the law of sin
and death. Even though the Lord Jesus was
that one who spoke to Moses on that fiery mount, he tells us
that he did not come into the world for the purpose of condemning
the world, since it was already under condemnation. No man is
ever made worse off because of Christ's advent. Those whom Christ
came into the world to redeem are greatly benefited by his
work. He has completely fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law
in their behalf and canceled all debt which is accrued to
their account as a result of their disobedience to it. He
did not cancel nor change the law, but He has satisfied it
in such fashion that He has removed all of its power to condemn those
who were given to Him before the foundation of the world.
They are no longer under its condemnation in any form. This
same God who delivered this law of sin and death in tablets of
stone to Moses is the same God who has now delivered the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This same Lord, who is
a consuming fire, as he demonstrated at Sinai, has now given unto
his people a new law, which is not written on tables of stone,
but in their hearts, which he has prepared to receive it. Even
as he testified through the prophet of old, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord. For they shall all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more. The grand work of justification
which the Lord has accomplished in the behalf of his elect people
has declared them to be no sinners at all, because the law worketh
wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. There can
be no transgression counted when the power of the law of sin and
death is fulfilled and the grounds and basis of its condemnation
is taken away. Christ has done just such a work
in the behalf of his people, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Faith is that
evidence of sonship which the Lord is pleased to grant to those
for whom Christ shed his precious blood. Those who have fled to
Christ for refuge can have no confidence in the flesh and in
no wise expect to add any sort of righteousness to that perfect
righteousness which he has provided in their behalf. Be it known
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that
believe are justified from all things, from which he could not
be justified by the law of Moses. The glorious preaching of this
gospel of the glory of the blessed God is that which God is pleased
to use to encourage and enlighten his children on their way to
the celestial city which Christ has gone to prepare for them.
Its enjoyment is but a foretaste of that heavenly Jerusalem itself.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
That law of sin and death required continual sacrifices which could
never actually take away sin. The purpose of these continual
sacrifices was to serve as a reminder that the shedding of the blood
of bulls and goats could never take away sin. All that the law
of sin and death could ever do was reveal the corruption of
men and their worthiness to die. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? Do you love the law of Christ?
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