(Excerpt - Sermon On Righteousness #9)
Continued…
"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:20)
The time of the entering in of the law was the time when it was spoken from Sinai. It entered that the offense, or sin, might abound. But where that sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
There was sin in the world before that law was proclaimed from Sinai.
Therefore the law was there before it was proclaimed from Sinai.
But God spoke it in that awful way and in those thunder tones from the mount for the purpose that sin might seem to be a greater sin. It was done that the people might see sin more as God saw it.
These things were written for our benefit. The speaking of that law in thunder tones with such a solemn scene of grandeur all around it is to have the same effect on us that it had on the children of Israel. We are to see the thunder clouds and the lightning and they are to strike terror into our hearts.
Still further: Whoever touched the mount was to die. What is meant by that? All that was intended to show the awfulness of the law. It was given in that way that the people might see the wonderful majesty that it had and that by it no man could get life. It was so great that no man could keep it.
Everything connected with its giving, conspired to show man that the only thing he could get by it was death.
It was so great, so inexpressibly great, that they never could reach to the heights of it. It was given in that way to show the people that there was only death and condemnation to them in it.
Then was not the law just given to put discouragement into the hearts of the people?
No. Go back to Abraham and we shall see what else was taught by the giving of the law. There was a promise to Abraham and to his righteous seed of a righteous inheritance. That promise was sworn to Abraham and to his seed by God Himself. God had pledged His own existence that there should be righteous men--men whose righteousness should be equal to the righteousness of the law. But here was the law in such awful majesty that there could be no righteousness gotten out of it. It was to be the sole standard. Now put two things together: The law is so holy in its claims that no man can get any righteousness out of it, as was shown in the giving of it; but God had sworn that there should be men who would have all the righteousness that it demands; therefore the very giving of the law served to show the people that there must be and was another way of getting that same righteousness.
So in giving the law, He was giving the gospel in thunder tones. Righteousness and peace dwell together in fullness in Christ. So in Him is life. Condemnation is in the law, but the law is in Christ, and in Christ is also life. In Christ we get the righteousness of the law by His life. The voice that declared the law from Sinai was the voice of Christ, the voice of the very one who has this righteousness to bestow.
Now see the force of the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 33:2, 3. "And he said, The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran and He came with ten thousands of his saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, He loved the people."
The giving of that law was one of the highest manifestations of love that could be because it preached to the people in the strongest tones that there was life in Christ.
The One who gave the law was the One who brought them out of Egypt. He was the one who swore to Abraham that he and his seed should be righteous, and this showed to them that they could not get righteousness in the law but that they could get it through Christ. So there was a superabundance of grace, for where sin, by the giving of the law did abound, there grace did much more abound.
That thing is acted out every time that there is a sinner converted. Before his conversion he does not realize the sinfulness of his sins. Then the law comes in and shows him how awful those sins are, but with it comes the gentle voice of Christ in whom there is grace and life.
How precious it is to have that conviction of sin sent to our hearts, for we know that it is a part of the work of the Comforter which God sends into the world to convict of sin. It is a part of the comfort of God to convict of sin, because the same hand that convicts of sin holds the pardon, that as sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. In this grace we have again those precious words--much more. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.
The Lord searches the heart and He knows our sins. Shall we go about mourning and sighing and saying our sins are so great that God cannot forgive such sinners as we are? Some people seem to fancy that God never knew that they had any sins. Then they say that they are not worthy that He should take their sins away. They cannot see how He can save them. Who is it that makes us feel sinful? Who shows us our unworthiness? How do we come to find out that we have sinned? It is God that shows us our sins. He had known them all the time. We do not consider this--that God has known all our sins beforehand and that He it is who shows them to us for the first time, when we are convicted of sin by Him.
When God made the plan of salvation, he knew what He was doing. He knew the human heart. He knew the depth of degradation to which humanity would fall, as no man has ever known it. Now, by His law He drives the sins home to our hearts and then that sin abounds in the proportion that it should. It was small in our eyes before, but He makes us see it as He sees it.
Remember it is the Comforter that convicts.
Remember that where sin abounds in your heart or in your mind that there grace does much more abound.
It is your firm belief of that that makes the grace effective in taking away the sin.
Christ is able to save to the uttermost him that cometh to God by Him.
You cannot ask anything of Him so good or so great but what He is able to do it and--much more.
God does not have to take the measure of grace and look over the world to see how many there are among whom it will need to be divided and then go to work to portion it out so that there will be enough to go round. He gives us scripture measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over. No matter how great are the sins to be covered up, there is grace much more than enough to do it.
Mortal man may be covered with the righteousness of Christ as with a garment. Then let us take the life of Christ by faith and live a new life.
1891 General Conference Sermons- Study #9 A.T. Jones
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