The Apostle Peter in an Epistle that all Christians like to believe is addressed to them, and which we are sure does speak to us, because it contains living words, even "the Word of God, which lives and abides for ever," (1 Peter 1:23) says: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." (1 Peter 2:2)
God's people are a royal people, because they are children of the Great King. God is the King of kings; He reigns over kings, and has no subject of lower rank than king. All His subjects are members of His own family; they are His own children; hence they are a kingly race, a royal people.
Now it is fitting that a royal people should have a royal law, and this God's people have. The Apostle James, writing to those who have "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory," (James 2:1) says, "If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well." (James 2:8)
This royal law, given by the King of kings, is what God's loyal and royal people are to keep. They are to fulfill it even as Christ fulfilled it. But this that is quoted by the Apostle James is but a portion of the law. By the words of Christ we find that it is but one-half of it; for we read the following question and answer: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)
Since the words, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" are a royal law, and are but the second portion of one great law, we know that the whole is the royal law of God for His royal people. Our study this week pertains only to the first portion of the law; next week we shall consider the second branch.
God's law cannot be too often read, and there are no other words equal to them which God speaks with His own voice amid such awful scenes as will never be paralleled until Christ comes in the clouds of heaven, to save His people, and therefore we print them here: "And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:1-11) "These words the Lord spoke ... in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice." (Deuteronomy 5:22)
They are the first portion of what is emphatically the royal law. Many articles would not be sufficient to set forth all the details of these commandments, taking them one by one, for the commandment is exceeding broad, (Psalm 119:96) and we have half of the law before us; hence we can do but little more than merely refer to it. If anybody wishes to enquire particularly concerning any feature we shall be glad to answer; but let each one note these words of Christ: "If any man wills to do His [God's] will, he shall know of the teaching." (John 7:17)
That the law of God is His will, is shown by the Apostle Paul in Romans 2:17-18, where he says that the one who knows the will of God is the one who is "instructed out of the law." If anyone, therefore, is willing to keep God's law, he has the promise of Jesus Christ that he shall know all His teaching. Truly it is a royal road to learning. "The law is spiritual," (Romans 7:14) and the Spirit is given us, to guide us into all truth. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come." (John 16:13)
Here is what a great king of old said of this law: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward." (Psalm 19:7-11) He also said, "O how love I your law! it is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97)
Can each one who reads this say the same? Have you, like him, made haste to keep God's commandments? We have seen that those who keep this law are a royal people; and it is plain that those who do not are not of the royal family; for: "If you have respect of persons you commit sin, and are convinced of [by] the law as transgressors. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law;" (James 2:9) and there is a vast difference between a transgressor of law and a king.
The apostle's reasoning applies as well to any other commandments as to those he mentioned. For example, "He that said, You shall not kill, said also, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Now if you do not kill, yet if you are profane or irreverent, you are convicted by the law as a transgressor." Or, again: "He that said, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, said also, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Now if you do not swear, yet if you profane God's rest day, you are a transgressor of the royal law; you are acting contrary to the rules of God's family, and so disclaiming relationship with Him."
Would it not be well to recall the exhortation, "Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves." (2 Corinthians 13:5)
It is possible that some readers of these lines have unconsciously been trampling some portion of God's holy law under foot. Do not run any risk. Do not rest in uncertainty. "What is written in the law? how do you read?" (Luke 10:26)
You cannot afford to have the slightest doubt in regard to this matter. If there is any deviation in your life from the plain letter of God's law, do not flatter yourself that you are obeying its Spirit. For while the letter kills, and the Spirit gives life, you must not think to find life in departure from the law of life. The Spirit is not opposed to the letter, or separate from, but resides in it, quickening it into life.
If you find that you are not keeping all of God's law just as He commanded, do not think that you can do it yourself; and, above all, do not make the mistake of excusing your shortcoming by saying that since you are not saved by works you are absolved all from any duty with respect to it. Our righteousness cannot save us; but our unrighteousness can destroy us. Only the righteousness--the right-doing, the commandment-keeping,--of Christ can save us; but His obedience to the law must be in us, not apart from us. We are "saved by His life" (Romans 5:10) in us, and His life was characterized by a perfect obedience to the law; and that same perfect obedience must be in us. "By the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." (Romans 5:19)
Notice it is not by the obedience of One that many are allowed to do is they please, and to transgress the law; but by Christ's obedience we are to be made righteous. Through Him the righteousness of the law is to be fulfilled in us. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)
What more need we say? We have sinned, but God is ready to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness--to make us righteous. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified [made righteous] freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23)
His promise is to send His Spirit to put His law in our inward parts, and to write it in our hearts, so that we can both remember it and do it. "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33)
Let us then yield to His Spirit, praying with new fervor and enlarged understanding, "Your will be done, as in heaven, so one earth," (Luke 11:2) even in me.--Present Truth, June 26, 1902--Exodus 20:1-14
E.J. Waggoner