“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12
1. Perhaps there are few subjects within the whole compass of religion so little understood as this. The reader of this Epistle is usually told, by the law St. Paul means the Jewish law; and so, apprehending himself to have no concern therewith, passes on without farther thought about it. Indeed some are not satisfied with this account; but observing the Epistle is directed to the Romans, thence infer that the Apostle in the beginning of this chapter alludes to the old Roman law. But as they have no more concern with this, than with the ceremonial law of Moses, so they spend not much thought on what they suppose is occasionally mentioned barely to illustrate another thing.
2. But a careful observer of the Apostle’s discourse will not be content with theses light explications of it. And the more he weighs the words, the more convinced he will be, that St. Paul, by the law mentioned in this chapter, does not mean either the ancient law of Rome, or the ceremonial law of Moses. This will clearly appear to all who attentively consider the tenor of his discourse. He begins the chapter, “Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law,)” to them who have been instructed therein from their youth, “that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth” (What! the law of Rome only, or the ceremonial law No, surely; but the moral law.) “For,” to give a plain instance, “the woman which hath an husband is bound by the” moral “law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law: so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” From this particular instance the Apostle proceeds to draw that general conclusion: “Wherefore, my brethren,” by a plain parity of reason, “ye also are become dead to the law,” the whole Mosaic institution, “by the body of Christ,” offered for you, and bringing you under a new dispensation: “That ye should” without any blame “be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead;” and hath thereby given proof of his authority to make the change; “that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” And this we can do now, whereas before we could not: “for when we were in the flesh” — under the power of the flesh, that is, of corrupt nature, which was necessarily the case till we knew the power of Christ’s resurrection, “the motions of sins, which were by the law,” — which were shown and inflamed by the Mosaic law, not conquered, “did work in our members,” — broke out various ways, “to bring forth fruit unto death.” “But now we are delivered from the law;” from that whole moral, as well as ceremonial economy; “that being dead whereby we were held;” — that entire institution being now as it were dead, and having no more authority over us than the husband, when dead, hath over his wife: “That we should serve him,” — who died for us and rose again, “in newness of spirit;” — in a new spiritual dispensation; “and not in the oldness of the letter;” — with a bare outward service, according to the letter of the Mosaic institution (Rom. 7:1-6.)
3. The Apostle, having gone thus far in proving that the Christian had set aside the Jewish dispensation, and that the moral law itself, though it could never pass away, yet stood on a different foundation from what it did before, — now stops to propose and answer an objection: “What shall we say then Is the law sin” So some might infer from a misapprehension of those words, “the motions of sins, which were by the law.” “God forbid!” saith the Apostle, that we should say so. Nay, the law is an irreconcilable enemy to sin; by the law: for I had not known lust,” evil desire, to be sin, “except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7:7.) After opening this farther, in the four following verses, he subjoins this general conclusion, with regard more especially to the moral law, form which the preceding instance was taken: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
4. In order to explain and enforce these deep words, so little regarded, because so little understood, I shall endeavour to show, First, the original of this law: Secondly, the nature thereof: Thirdly, the properties; that it is holy, and just, and good. And, Fourthly, the uses of it.
I. 1. I shall, first, endeavour to show the original of the moral law, often called “the law,” by way of eminence. Now this is not, as some may have possibly imagined, of so late an institution as the time of Moses. Noah declared it to men long before that time, and Enoch before him. But we may trace its original higher still, even beyond the foundation of the world: to that period, unknown indeed to men, but doubtless enrolled in the annals of eternity, when “the morning stars” first “sang together,” being newly called into existence. It pleased the great Creator to make these, his first-born sons, intelligent beings, that they might know him that created them. For this end he endued them with understanding, to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil; and, as a necessary result of this, with liberty, — a capacity of choosing the one and refusing the other. By this they were, likewise, enabled to offer him a free and willing service; a service rewardable in itself, as well as most acceptable to their gracious Master.