The Perpetuity of the Seventh-day Sabbath

NINETEENTH SPEECH

Mr. Waggoner in the Affirmative.—Respected audience, again I appear before you to address you from God’s word upon the truth which we have been from time to time examining. God’s word is truth. When last I was before you, I was considering Romans 6. in reference to the law which Paul says was not made void by faith. Chapter 3:31. But the faith of our Lord does not make void the law. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Now, if grace has abounded, we are dead to sin, which is a transgression of the law: hence we are dead to transgression. Chapter 6:12-14. But the reason of this is given in verse 11. Dead to the transgression of the law of God, but alive unto God. Dead to God while we are in the transgression of His law and alive to sin. We cannot be dead to sin and alive to sin at the same time. Being alive to God is not the transgression of His law. Dead in trespasses and sins, but alive to God. We pass from that state of deadness to God when we are living in sin, to become alive to God by obeying His law. Verse 14. Instead of being under the dominion of the law, or under obligation to keep the law, we are under grace. Is that so? What is the declaration in the next verse? [Reads.] Then perhaps my opponent will argue the observance of it is without obligation, because they were not under obligation to keep it. But if he uses it to show there’s a force in using it also to show They are taken out of that state which is a state of condemnation, and placed in a state of favor. An individual may be under obligation to keep the law, and still not be in the favor of God. Now, everybody has the favor of God till they forfeit it. When they forfeit the favor of God, it is because [original illegible] transgression or disobedience of His law. When a person is under grace, he is not under condemnation, and vice versa. If the obligation was fulfilled, they certainly would be under grace. Now, you are not under the law, having been held by the law to be a condemned individual. Shall we transgress the law because we are under favor or grace? God forbid. Verse 16. They are not under the law but under grace. If they again transgress the law, they are no longer servants of grace. When they transgress the law, they cease to be servants of grace, and are servants of sin. The sinner is brought out from a state of condemnation under the law, and placed under grace. This is a plain proposition clearly argued by the Apostle Sin being the transgression of the law, when we cease to sin we are placed under grace, that is, we are justified. But if we go back into sin, or bring ourselves under condemnation, we are not alive to grace any more than we should be if we had never been brought under grace at all. PSDS 74.1

But there is another declaration that we wish to notice. It has been proposed that this law has perished or come to an end. Nod the only Scripture that has any thing of the sound of that is Romans 10:4. Now, if Christ has become the end of the law in such a manner that we need not keep the law, it must be a fact, that it is countermanded to the unbeliever as well as to the believer, unless Jesus came into the world on certain conditions, that the law is made void when a person is freed from sin. Would the Son become the end of the law to those who do not believe? James says, in speaking of the trials of Job, “Ye have seen the design or object of the Lord.” So the salvation of souls is the end or object of faith, and in a certain sense, it is also the end of the law. Suppose that the ten commandments are cast out; who is the declaration? Christ has, of course, released every one who believes, but he has not released those who have not. My idea of Christ is, that he came to take away the carnal mind that is not subject to the law, and take away those principles of conduct that would prevent man from yielding obedience to the law. It was stated here this afternoon that man might keep the commandments of God without loving Him, or that man could love God without keeping His commandments; but I cannot believe that the faith of Christ affords us any opportunity to dispense with those precepts. The opposite of transgression of the law is stated in the text as being a condition of grace or favor with God. Do you believe that the object of the law was that man should obey it or disobey it at pleasure, and still be a subject of God’s grace or favor? If Jesus’ death was to release us from obedience to the law of God, this object is accomplished; but, is this a true position? PSDS 75.1

We are free to admit that we are justified by the law in no sense whatever. All our future obedience is not our own. We receive strength and power from God to go on and sin no more. The design of the law is accomplished. God teaches its perpetuity in the clearest possible manner, when, rather than have that law changed, He would let His dear Son come and die for our transgressions. Every one that transgresses the Divine law must die, or else Jesus Christ, the substitute, must die. Mankind might all die, for all were under condemnation, but God chose rather to sacrifice His own dear Son than abrogate his law. Jews and Gentiles were equally under condemnation. God could have kept His Son alive and let man perish; or He could have kept His Son alive and saved man by abolishing His law. Rather than do either, He would let His dear Son perish upon the cross—let Him suffer and die that whosoever would believe in Him might have everlasting life. This is my view. All the Apostle’s argument goes to show that the law is not made void through faith in Jesus Christ, but that it is established. God suffered His own dear Son to die rather than that His law should be trampled upon with impunity. If we esteem the law lightly, we must hold redemption through faith in Jesus Christ lightly also. And if we esteem the Gospel plan of redemption lightly, we shall also think lightly of obedience to the law of God. Our views of the Gospel must be regulated by our views of God’s law, for one does not come in conflict with the other. The Gospel always teaches obedience to the law. PSDS 76.1