Paul says, “sin is the transgression of the law.  Where there is no law there is not the knowledge of sin.”  From this it appears that sin, being a transgression of that law, which was given us for the regulation of our conduct in this life, can receive no punishment in the future world.  If sin should be committed in the future state, then in the future state it would be punished.  The same argument will apply to our obedience to the law, which can receive, for the same reason, no reward in that world.  “No flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the law.”  “Eternal life is the gift of God.”  If so, then it cannot be “of works, lest any man should boast.”  God, being infinite in wisdom, could not have failed to enact a law so perfect, and so exactly adapted to the nature of man, that obedience would render him a rich reward, and disobedience a condign punishment.  The wise man says that “the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.”

We now turn to the spirit of the law.—­“To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself is the fulfillment of the law;” and if we are not to be saved by the law, then our love to God and each other cannot save us; for that is the law.  By what then are we to be saved?  Answer:  by the gospel, which is God’s love manifested to his creatures.  The conclusion then is that we are not to be saved by our love to God, but by God’s love to us.  This, I presume, no one will dispute.  Here then we discern the difference between the law and the gospel.  God’s love is the cause of salvation—­human love is the effect.  “Herein (says John) is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us.”  “We love him because he first loved us.”  How many did he love?  He so loved the world who were dead in trespasses and sins, that he freely delivered up his Son for us all—­he by the grace of God tasted death for every man.  This is the gospel-love that God commendeth towards us, and the love that will finally save us.

Many persons contend that we must love God and do certain duties, or we cannot be saved.  This is preaching ourselves.  It is preaching the love of man as the cause of his salvation, instead of the love of God.  And while thus preaching, they will perhaps at the same time tell the sinner that God is his enemy.  But will the sinner’s love make God his friend—­will it cause his Creator to love him?  No; right the reverse of this is the doctrine of Christ.  “We love God because he first loved us.”  If we deny God’s first love to the sinner, we then destroy the very cause by which alone the sinner can be made to love God.  If we make men believe that God is their enemy and hates them, then we use all the means in our power to drive them from the bosom of their Father, and keep them in darkness and sin.