The Law of God

Have you kept the law of God today? How about in most of the day? In a single hour of the day? In 5 minutes?

People often boast that they’ll most likely enter heaven because they think that they’re basically good. And since all men everywhere are basically good, most of human beings, if not all should and must go to heaven when they die. Salvation by existence. They have the inalienable right to salvation because they exist, and exist as basically good.

But as we see in Luke 10:27-28 we are instructed of what the essence of the law really is:

And he answered, “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.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

—Luke 10:27-28

And we clearly read here from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,  that if we do this, which is the greatest commandment, we will indeed live. Have you done that? All your life, have you loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself?

You haven’t have you? Not even for five minutes have you done that! This is the very reason why Martin Luther, the protestant reformer was almost driven into insanity. Because he desperately understood that if he violated this commandment, then he has committed the greatest sin! And he understood that he did not simply violate it once or twice a day, but he violates it continually and perpetually!

He was a devout monk. In a monastery there are so few sins that you can commit. But despite the solitude, despite the deprivation of mediums of temptation, still Luther would spend hours upon hour upon hours a day in the confessional in confession of his sins. His mentor, Staupitz, finally grew angry and scolded Luther: “‘Look here’, he said, ‘if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive—parracide, blasphemy, adultery—instead of all these peccadilloes . . . ” (Bainton, Here I Stand, 41)

Do you know why Luther was so driven to despair because of all  his sins? Minor and microscopic sins as compared to the sins you and I commit? Because he knew Who it was he was sinning against.

Everybody says and everybody knows that old adage, “Nobody’s perfect.” But isn’t it interesting that nobody’s worried about it? We take that statement for granted far too much that we totally miss the implications that lie therein. Dear beloved, the most frightening thing we can consider about ourselves as fleshly, human beings is that we are not perfect. It is a terrible must that saying that “Nobody’s perfect” should drive us to great trembling in abject terror and fear. It is because of our not being perfect, because of our imperfection that we deserve the full weight of the burning fury of the wrath of God against sin and sinners.

Do you realize that your slightest violation of God’s law demands the fury of His wrath be poured out on you?

Sin

Who are you sinning against?

The sovereign and eternal God creates the heavens, the stars, the planets, galaxies and unfathomable works of creation in the universe. He creates the earth and fills it with all sorts of plants and animals, the beauty and magnificence of nature. And as the crowning jewel of His creation He creates man in His own image, an image bearer and a reflector of His glory and majesty. And God places Him in a garden, and gives Him every good thing, every form of bliss, joy and happiness. And God gives that man one command, “do not eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

And yet despite of all God’s goodness towards him; despite knowing the eternality, the infinite glory, the superlative holiness of that God who created Him; despite having an unveiled reality of the character of God; despite seeing and experiencing God in the wholeness of His glory and majesty, no veils, no need of mediation, no need for atonement; despite beholding the fullness of the glorious God, not only did he spurn God’s command but he went so far as to want to kick God out of His throne. He wanted to be God.

Isn’t that the fundamental sin in our own hearts that branches out to all our other sins? The very reason why we lie, blaspheme, covet, hate, and commit adultery in our hearts is because we have placed ourselves in the throne of our own universe. We cry out to God in hate like the Israelites of old: “I will not have You as my King!”

I can’t think of anything more offensive and reprehensible and at the same time I can’t imagine anything more stupid. Mere finite human beings, discarding, spurning and spitting upon the glory of God and exchanging Him for a totem pole? Exchanging him for personal preference?

This is sin! We have violated God’s law. We are an insult to His holiness. We have become false witnesses to God. God, whom we owe everything. When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole of creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the filed: “This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in this mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of the Almighty.” We say to the world, “God is covetous; God is ruthless; God is bitter; God is a murderer, a thief, a slanderer, an adulterer. God is all of these things that we are doing.” (R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God: Ch.6, Holy Justice)

And we do it in every faculty of our person this abominable display of sin; in our person; in our minds; in our activities; in our hands and feet; in our tongues; in our paths and in our eyes.

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

—Romans 3:10-18

And yet in arrogance we can say that Heaven won’t be complete if were not in it? And yet in arrogance we can say that God will be broken and weepy throughout eternity if we’re not with Him in Heaven? It’s like saying you can live without having feces in your bedroom. And it’s infinitely more disgusting for God to behold us sinners in His eyes.

You who are of purer eyes than to see eviland cannot look at wrong,why do you idly look at traitorsand remain silent when the wicked swallows upthe man more righteous than he?

—Habakkuk 1:13

Convincing God to Save

You have nothing to convince God with to save you. It is impossible for you to enter heaven. In the words of Jonathan Edwards, he says,

If one worm be a little exalted above another by having more dust, or a bigger dunghill, how much does he make of himself! What distance does he keep from those that are below him! A little condescension is what he expects of other men below him, & for his position to be acknowledged as important & powerful!

We flatter ourselves that we will escape Hell when we die. We device all sorts of things to mute the screams of our conscience. Not one person, in his right mind, plans his life that he may enter Hell. No, but all goes to great lengths of effort to at least try and secure eternity in Heaven for himself, yet many of such men have awoken at this moment in the flames of God’s unmitigated wrath.

What can you offer to convince God to save you?

R.C. Sproul often tells this story when he was teaching in a Christian college years ago. He had the assignment of teaching a freshman Old Testament course of 250 students. On the first day of class he went over and explained the course assignments carefully. The course had three short papers. And he explained to the students that the first paper was due on his desk by noon the last day of September. No extensions were to be given except for students who were physically confined to the infirmary or who had deaths in the immediate family. If the paper was not turned in on time, the student would receive an F for the assignment. The students acknowledged that they understood the requirements.

On the last day of September, 225 students dutifully handed in their term papers. Twenty-five students stood quaking in terror, full of remorse. They cried out, “Oh, Professor Sproul. We are so sorry. We didn’t budget our time properly. We didn’t make the proper adjustment from high school to college. Please don’t give us an F. Please, oh, please give us an extension.”

Dr. Sproul bowed to their pleas for mercy. “All right,” He said. “I’ll give you a break this time. But, remember, the next assignment is due the last day of October.” The students were profuse in their gratitude and filled the air with solemn promises of being on time for the next assignment.

Then came the last day of October. Two hundred students came with their papers. Fifty students came empty-handed. They were nervous, but not in panic. When asked for their papers, again they were contrite. “Oh, Professor. It was Homecoming Week. Besides it is midterm and all of our assignments are due in other classes. Please give us one more chance. We promise it will never happen again.” Once more Sproul relented. He gave them another chance, and suddenly he became Mr. Popularity among the students.

Can you guess what happened on the last day of November? Right. One hundred and fifty students came with their term papers. The other hundred strolled into the lecture hall utterly unconcerned. When asked about their papers the hundred replied with cavalier and unconcerned answers. “We’ll have it ready in no time”, was their answer.

Dr. Sproul picked up my lethal black grade book and began taking down names. “Johnson! Do you have your paper?” “No sir,” came the reply. “F,” he said as he wrote the grade in the book. “Muldaney! Do you have your paper?” Again, “No, sir,” was the reply. Dr. Sproul marked another F in the book.

The students reacted with unmitigated fury. They howled in protest, screaming, “That’s not fair!” I looked at one of the howling students, “Lavery! You think it’s not fair?” “No,” he growled in response. “I see. It’s justice you want? I seem to recall that you were late with your paper the last time. If you insist upon justice you will certainly get it. I’ll not only give you an F for this assignment, but I’ll change your last grade to the F you so richly deserved.”

The student was stunned. He had no more arguments to make. He apologized for being so hasty and was suddenly happy to settle for one F instead of two. The students had quickly taken mercy for granted. They assumed it. When justice suddenly fell, they were unprepared for it. It came as a shock, and they were outraged. This, after only two doses of mercy in the space of two months.

See, beloved, the first time we encounter God’s mercy, we’re astonished and overjoyed. The second time we experience God’s mercy, we’re jaded, we’re simply happy about it. The third time we experience God’s divine mercy, not only do we expect it, but we demand it. And in our sin and depravity we cry out to God saying, “How dare God not let someone like me enter Heaven? That’s not fair!”

Fairness? Are you and I to argue about fairness before the throne of God?

The problem with us is that we are strangers to our own selves. We skim over the surface of life that we hardly consider these things in any real depth. We take things for granted far too much. This was the same problem in Enfield, Connecticut, in the 17th century. The concern of the Jonathan Edwards and the other reformers is that these people have been acquainted so much with the Gospel and grace that they don’t know what it means and why at all they need it.

George Whitefield knew it. In Paris Reidhead’s sermon, he recounted Whitefield as he stood on Boston Commons speaking to twenty thousand people and he said,

Listen sinners – you’re monsters – monsters of iniquity! You deserve Hell! And the worst of your crimes is that criminals though you’ve been, you haven’t had the good grace to see it!

If you will not weep for your sins and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitefield will weep for you!

That man would put his head back and he would sob like a baby. Why? Because they were in danger of Hell? No! But because they were “monsters of iniquity”, that didn’t even see their sin or care about their crimes.

We have no sense of the enormity of our guilt. No sense of the enormity of our crimes. No sense of the insult that we are against a thrice holy God. We soon forget that with our first sin we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That we the very breath we are breathing this moment is an act of divine mercy. God owes you nothing. We owe Him everything.

If God kills you this moment and casts you in Hell you cannot claim injustice. Dear beloved, as Romans 7:18 declares, in us there lies no good thing. And that “nothing”, as Martin Luther comments upon, is not a little something.

In the words of Arthur W. Pink, he says, “Is God obliged to force His gift on those who value it not? Is God compelled to save those who are determined to go their own way?” We have nothing to convince God to save us, nothing to flatter ourselves that we can earn God’s pleasure for us.

Grace

Jonathan Edwards tells us again, “If one worm be a little exalted above another by having more dust, or a bigger dunghill, how much does he make of himself! What distance does he keep from those that are below him! A little condescension is what he expects of other men below him, & for his position to be acknowledged as important & powerful! Yet Christ condescends to wash our feet, even the feet of sinners who think so highly of themselves!”

The only thing that is in us that we can offer God is our sin. The only thing you and I can ever convince a superlatively holy God to do is to eternally damn us in Hell forever.

Grace, do you know what it is? Grace is simply not unmerited favor. Grace is demerited favor. We don’t deserve grace. We deserve the utter opposite of it. The unmitigated wrath of the fury of God’s anger is what we deserve for all eternity. Yet here is the beauty of grace,

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

—Romans 5:6-11

It is not while we were good people that Christ died. It is not while we were basically good and moral that the dear beloved of God was made a curse on our behalf. It is not while we were dignified human beings that Christ suffered on the Cross, being damned by His own Father. It is while sinners, like you and I, were weak, depraved and God-hating; it was while we were haters of God, moral insurrectionists; it was while we were undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners, a mass of corruption a heap of sin; it is at this time that Christ died for sinners!

That, dear beloved, is grace. And He was buried and was raised on the third day for the perfect atonement for sins and is now at the right hand of God ever interceding for those whom He died (Hebrews 7:23-25).

Coram Deo

Are you a Christian today? Have you been converted? Have you been brought from spiritual death to spiritual life? If you are a Christian this day, it is my sincere prayer that you have a renewed understanding of who God is and what He has done for one such as we are.

If you are not a Christian, I command you by Scripture, repent from your sins and by faith and faith alone believe in the God-man, Jesus Christ as the sole perfect Savior and as Sovereign Lord and King. He saves sinners. He can save even one as you are.

The “Goodness” of Man & the Law of God

I. Man: The Good Being • Hitler: The Good Person

II. The Law of God and the Impossibility of Salvation