The Government of God

It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.» Ps. 119:126-128. If this prayer was appropriate in David’s time, it is especially appropriate now; for the warring powers of darkness are prevailing to a remarkable extent. The law of God is made void in the land, and the penalty of its transgression is death. For this cause Christ suffered death for man, bringing to light life and immortality.

When Christ died, the death-knell of sin and Satan was sounded. The effect of his work was to destroy him that had the power of death; therefore we are to-day prisoners of hope. How grateful we should be that, notwithstanding this earth is so small, God notices even us. The nations are before him as a drop in a bucket, and as small dust in the balance; and yet the great, the stupendous work that has been done for us shows how much our Saviour loves us.

When we look at the cross of Calvary, we cannot doubt God’s love or his willingness to save. He has worlds upon worlds that give him divine honor; but so great was his love for the fallen race that he gave his well-beloved Son to die that they might be redeemed from eternal death. In view of this great salvation, we cannot afford to lose our souls; we cannot afford to sin against God. Life, eternal life in the kingdom of glory is worth everything. But if we would obtain this precious boon, we must live a life of obedience to all of God’s requirements; we must carry out the principles of the Christian religion — which are the principles of the divine law — in all our daily life.

Satan gained such control over the Jewish nation that they rejected and crucified the Son of God. As soon as Christ was raised from the dead, he started the lie that Christ’s body had been stolen. He thought by this method to conceal the fact that it was the Son of God who died and was raised again. He now pretends to exalt Christ before the Christian world by telling them that instead of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, they must keep the first day of the week in memory of Christ’s resurrection. Anything, he cares not what, to show that the law of God can be changed! If he can make the world believe that this law can be changed, he will have gained his point.

There is one pointed out in prophecy as the man of sin. Taking the suggestion of Satan concerning the law of God, which is as unchangeable as his throne, the man of sin represents to the world that he has changed that law, and that the first day of the week instead of the seventh is now the Sabbath. Professing infallibility, he claims the right to change the law of God to suit his own purposes. By so doing he exalts himself above God, and leaves the world to infer that God is fallible. If it were indeed true that God made a rule of government that needed to be changed, it would certainly show fallibility.

But Christ declared that not one jot or tittle of the law should fail until heaven and earth should pass away. The very work that he came to do was to exalt that law, and show to the universe that God is just and his law unchangeable. But here is the papacy trying to amend the law; and the Christian world has sanctioned its efforts by adopting the Sunday institution.

God has borne long with the perversity of the human race; he has tried to win them to himself. But the time will come when they will have filled their measure of iniquity; and then it is that God will work. This time is almost reached. God keeps a record with the nations in the books of heaven, and soon their cup will be full. And every one who sees the light in regard to the law of God, should help to repair the breach that has been made in that law by the man of sin. «And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations. And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.»

We should consider that it was not merely to accomplish the redemption of man that Christ came to earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might have a just regard for the law of God; but it was to demonstrate to all the worlds that the divine law is unchangeable, and that the wages of sin is death. The very fact that it was necessary for him to give his life for the fallen race, shows that the law of God will not release man from one tittle of its claims upon him. The fact that he bore the penalty of transgression is a mighty argument to all created intelligences, in heaven and in other worlds, that that law is changeless; that God is righteous, merciful, and self-denying; and that his administration is one of justice and mercy.