Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2228
“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!