Solomon, the man to whom God gave wisdom such as none ever had before or since his time, sums up everything as follows: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
There is a very close connection between these two verses. The statement in verse 14 depends upon that in verse 13. To "Fear God and keep His commandments ... is the whole duty of man;" (Ecclesiastes 12:13) and the necessity of performing this duty is enforced by the statement that: "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing." (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
From these verses, then, we learn:
1. That the ten commandments contain the whole duty of man; there is no duty outside of them;
2. That the ten commandments are the standard by which men shall be judged; for they are to be judged according to what they have done, and the ten commandments is what they are required to do;
3. That the Judgment will take into account every work, and every secret thing; and
4. That therefore the ten commandments cover every work and every secret thing, that is, every thought.
From the nature of the law of God we know that it must of necessity cover every work or thought for which it is possible for God to call men to account:
1. It contains the whole duty of man.
2. The law is perfect: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." (Psalm 19:7)
If it is perfect, the man who obeys it strictly must also be perfect, and God requires nothing more than this. "Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
3. Above all, it is the statement of God's character, which is perfect righteousness. God himself calls His law "my righteousness": "My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on my arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings." (Isaiah 51:5-7)
4. It is the will of God. "Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God, And know His will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law." (Romans 2:17-18)
Now since all God requires of men, in order that He may admit them into His eternal kingdom, is that they should do His will: "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) therefore there can be no duty for man outside of the ten commandments. It is utterly impossible to conceive of any sin which is not forbidden by some one of the commandments.
When this statement is made, people sometimes cite the case of the ancient Israelites, who were required to bring offerings and make sacrifices for sin. On the day of atonement an offering was to be made for the whole congregation, to atone for the sins of all the people; and it was declared that whoever should not afflict his soul on that day should be cut off from among the people.
Now it is asked which one of the ten commandments was violated by the man who refused to regard the day of atonement; and the idea intended to be conveyed by the questioner is that there are moral duties outside of the ten commandments.
Again we are cited to the ordinance of baptism as something which the Lord requires, but which the commandments say nothing about. Both these objections are the same, and are covered by the question which we have been asked, "What commandment does a man violate by not having faith in Christ?"
We think it can be shown that although death will be the portion of those who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17) their destruction comes primarily and solely because they have not kept the commandments.
In Romans 6 we read that: "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)
Wherever there is death there must have been sin, for without sin there is no death. But, "Sin is the transgression of the law," (1 John 3:4) and therefore it is certain that all who shall be "punished with everlasting destruction," (2 Thessalonians 1:9) will be punished because they have broken the law. But the law to which the apostle refers is the ten commandments, for Paul says that it was only the law which says, "You shall not covet," (Romans 7:7) that convicted him of sin. We are also told that: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) "There is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10)
All men then are condemned to death, and condemned solely by the law of God. When Christ was upon earth, He was not acting as judge, but as reconciler, and therefore He did not condemn sinners. He did not come to condemn, but to save. He himself said: "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world;but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believes on Him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18)
This being true, it follows that nothing which pertains to Christ's work of saving men, can condemn them. Christ came to save the world, not to condemn the world. Therefore nothing in His work of saving the world can condemn the world.
Let the reader bear in mind the reason why Christ did not come to condemn. It was not because He had any sympathy for sin, but because He came to save. Now the very fact that He came to save, shows that they were lost. They had violated the law of God, and consequently were "condemned already." (John 3:18)
The ancient sacrifices, like baptism and the Lord's Supper, were connected with Christ's work of saving men. They were part of the gospel. Men who are "condemned already" may be justified by believing in Jesus. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith." (Romans 3:24-27)
Christ has died, and we are saved by faith in Him. Our faith in Him brings strength to overcome: "For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." (1 John 5:4)
But first we must have the "remission of sins that are past," (Romans 3:25) which is given in return for simple faith in Christ's sacrifice. Now all the ancient sacrifices of the Jews were simply means by which they showed their faith in the Messiah, whose blood could take away sin. In like manner baptism and the Lord's Supper are ceremonies by which we show our faith in Christ's death and resurrection.
Someone may say that many of the Jews did not understand the full meaning of their sacrifices, and did not fully understand the work of Christ. Very true, and so thousands of professed Christians do not understand the full meaning of baptism and the Lord's Supper; yet the fact remains that these ceremonies are for the purpose of manifesting faith in Christ, and the object for which they were designed is not affected in the least by the ignorance of any who may use them.
From the above, it will readily be seen that a refusal to offer sacrifices, or to take part in the exercise of the atonement day, indicated a lack of faith in Christ as the Saviour of sinners. Since Christ has ordained that men shall show their faith in Him, if they have any, by the ordinances of the gospel, it follows that those who reject those ordinances, do so because they reject Christ and His sacrifice.
In other words, they refuse pardon and salvation. All such, without any doubt, will suffer destruction; but it must be remembered that the penalty which they suffer is not as a punishment for failure to comply with the provisions of the gospel, but for the sins which they have committed, from which they might have been freed by accepting the gospel.
Let us illustrate this by something which is more common. Here is a murderer who is under sentence of death. He is told that the Governor will pardon him if he will acknowledge his guilt and make application for pardon, promising, of course, to obey the law in the future. But he refuses to do this, and the law is allowed to take its course, and the man is hanged.
Now why is the man hanged? Is he hanged because he refused to sue for pardon? Of course not. He is hanged for the murder. There is no law saying that a man must apply for pardon, and making death the penalty of refusal, but there is a law against murder, and death is the penalty for its violation. Whoever commits murder is condemned, and is subject to the penalty.
If he is hanged, even though a pardon has been offered and rejected, he is hanged solely for the murder. No part of the penalty is inflicted because he refused the pardon, although every particle of the penalty would have been remitted if he had accepted the pardon.
Carry the illustration a little farther: Here are two murderers in their cells awaiting execution. Both are equally guilty; their crime is the same. Now suppose that pardon is freely offered to one, but not to the other. The one who has been offered pardon refuses it, and both he and the one that had no pardon offered him are hanged.
Now which is the guiltier man of the two? When they were put in their cells, both had the same degree of guilt. Has the one who refused to be pardoned acquired additional guilt by that refusal? Not by any means. If he is hanged, he is hanged for precisely the same reason that the other one is,--because he has broken the law.
So it is with the sinner in his relation to the law of God. He is "condemned already." Now Christ comes, offering pardon; if the sinner accepts it, he may be saved; but if he refuses pardon, then the curse of the law, death, is allowed to fall upon him.
God invites men to be saved, but he has no law to compel them to be pardoned. The refusal to receive the pardon is not that for which men are destroyed, but it is the sins which they committed and which condemned them even before the way of salvation was made known to them.
Now if it is borne in mind that a failure to comply with the provisions of the gospel, whether in the so-called old dispensation or in the new, is simply a refusal to receive the pardon which the gospel brings, it will be seen that the fact that men were cut off for not afflicting their souls on the day of atonement, is no evidence whatever that the death penalty is inflicted for anything save violation of the ten commandments. As Christ said, "He that believes not is condemned already." (John 3:18) "Sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 4:3) "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Not merely have all men broken the law as a whole, but all men have broken every portion of the law, as it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one." (Romans 3:10-12)
We read also that: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)
Therefore if we were asked, "What commandment does a man violate if he doesn't have faith in Christ?" we should reply that he breaks them all, or rather that he is a breaker of all of them, and that his punishment will be inflicted for such violation and not for his lack of faith.
Once more: Sin is active and positive. Failure to have faith is not an act at all. It is the absence of action. It is a passive condition, which leaves him exposed to punishment for sin, but it is not of itself a sin for which he is to be punished.
But enough has been said to make the point clear, that violation of the law of God, and that alone, brings punishment. Let no one think that we lightly regard the ordinances of the gospel. We do not. No one can lightly regard them if he has any just conception of the law of God.
But they are not primary duties. The punishment which will be inflicted upon the finally impenitent will be death, just what would have been inflicted upon man if the gospel had never been introduced. The gospel, with its ordinances, furnishes the way by which man may escape the wages of his sins, and therefore it is of the most vital importance.
To those who imagine that a belief that men are punished only for violation of the moral law must be at least a partial ignoring of the gospel, the following words are in place: "And do you think, O man, that judges them which do such things, and do the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds." (Romans 2:3-6)--Signs of the Times, June 30, 1887.