BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
THE ways of God are perfect; they need no mending. “The law of the Lord is perfect.”Psa 19:7 That which is perfect cannot be improved; hence no revision ever was necessary, or ever will be necessary. “Thy Word is true from the beginning, and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth forever.”Psa 119:160 “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Psa 119:142 The primary law of God—the moral law— and all the principles of his dealings with mankind have been the same from the very beginning. His plan of operation has not been improved, because His wisdom cannot be improved. It is true that when sin is disposed of, so that it exists no longer, He has promised to make all things new; but that relates to our earth, which now lies under the curse on account of sin; and this is in accordance with all His operations from the beginning. The time has never been, in the working out of His plan, that He has abandoned one principle of action, changed one precept of His primary law, or laid these all aside in order to begin anew. Yet people talk as though they thought that God had demolished all the past, and started out under a new plan of operation, with a new law to supersede the old; and they quote this text: “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”2Co 5:17
But this declaration is suspended upon an if,—”if any man be in Christ.”2Co 5:17 The change is all in him; “he is a new creature;” his old life of sin is passed away, and he enters upon a new life,—a life of obedience to the law of God. This is all that the text teaches. The apostle did not teach that if a man be in Christ, to him the law of God is abolished. If he did, what is the case of the man who is not in Christ ? Is the old law abolished to him also ? or is he still bound to keep it ?
God says, “I change not;”Mal 3:6 and every consistent believer in the God of the Bible must perceive that God ever acts upon the same principles,—that the law by which He governs mankind is always the same, and consequently that the very same acts that were sins at one time, are sins at all times. No old principle nor precept of moral law, has been abolished or changed, and no new principle has been introduced.
All the ways of God are harmonious. His plan goes constantly forward. He does not pull down to build greater. He does not improve upon the original plan; for that was perfect, and therefore cannot be improved. The Father and the Son have ever been one. The law of the one is the law of the other; no change has taken place in the administration. The Son has not superseded the Father; neither has the New Testament superseded the Old; but there is harmony throughout. The whole building of God is upon one foundation,—a foundation which was laid in the beginning, and a foundation which never has been, and never will be, removed. Those who build their hopes upon this foundation will build securely. Those who build upon any other, will find that the storms and floods which are about to come will sweep them away. Let all be built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. Those who hear and do the sayings of Christ, as set forth in the sermon upon the mount, build upon the rock; those who do them not, build upon the sand. Soon every one’s work will be tested.
The Present Truth Vol. 1 Num. 1 May, 1884
How will you stand if your name comes up in the judgment today ?