[Footnote 2:  Romans vii. 9-11.]

[Footnote 3:  Some of the Schoolmen distinguished carefully between the two things, and denominated the former, velleitas, and the latter, voluntas.]

[Footnote 4:  MILTON:  Paradise Lost, IV. 23-25; 35-61.]

THE ORIGINAL AND THE ACTUAL RELATION OF MAN TO LAW.

ROMANS vii. 10.—­“The commandment which, was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.”

The reader of St. Paul’s Epistles is struck with the seemingly disparaging manner in which he speaks of the moral law.  In one place, he tells his reader that “the law entered that the offence might abound;” in another, that “the law worketh wrath;” in another, that “sin shall not have dominion” over the believer because he is “not under the law;” in another, that Christians “are become dead to the law;” in another, that “they are delivered from the law;” and in another, that “the strength of sin is the law.”  This phraseology sounds strangely, respecting that great commandment upon which the whole moral government of God is founded.  We are in the habit of supposing that nothing that springs from the Divine law, or is in any way connected with it, can be evil or the occasion of evil.  If the law of holiness is the strength of sin; if it worketh wrath; if good men are to be delivered from it; what then shall be said of the law of sin?  Why is it, that St. Paul in a certain class of his representations appears to be inimical to the ten commandments, and to warn Christians against them?  “Is the law sin?” is a question that very naturally arises, while reading some of his statements; and it is a question which he himself asks, because he is aware that it will be likely to start in the mind of some of his readers.  And it is a question to which he replies:  “God forbid.  Nay I had not known sin, but by the law.”

The difficulty is only seeming, and not real.  These apparently disparaging representations of the moral law are perfectly reconcilable with that profound reverence for its authority which St. Paul felt and exhibited, and with that solemn and cogent preaching of the law for which he was so distinguished.  The text explains and resolves the difficulty.  “The commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.”  The moral law, in its own nature, and by the Divine ordination, is suited to produce holiness and happiness in the soul of any and every man.  It was ordained to life.  So far as the purpose of God, and the original nature and character of man, are concerned, the ten commandments are perfectly adapted to fill the soul with peace and purity.  In the unfallen creature, they work no wrath, neither are they the strength of sin.  If everything in man had remained as it was created, there would have been no need of urging him to “become dead to the law,” to be “delivered from the law,” and not be “under the law.”  Had man kept his original righteousness, it could never be said of him that “the strength of sin is the law.”  On the contrary, there was such a mutual agreement between the unfallen nature of man and the holy law of God, that the latter was the very joy and strength of the former.  The commandment was ordained to life, and it was the life and peace of holy Adam.