There was a time that there was an insurrection, a war of rebellion that raged within my unconverted soul. The Law of God was written upon my conscience and that stern accuser prosecuted my soul everytime I violated the statutes of that law. I did not like that strict judge in my soul, matter of fact I purely hated it. As the old poet said, “Against the God who rules the sky I fought with hand uplifted high.” But blessed be the God of grace, one day that revolt was put down. King Jesus won the battle and established His Kingdom in my soul, wrote His laws on a new flesh tablet in my most inner being and I have been in love with those laws ever since. Since the day He established His crown rights over me I can say truly, I have not found His commandments to be grievous. Now the believer’s affections are apprehended in gospel conversion. Those affections are not brought under fear and dread of these commandments but love, when he violates them he doesn’t tremble for fear of retribution, he grieves for failure. For a believer to despise the Law Word of God is not inconsistent, but inconceivable. How many times do we read David, the sweet singer in Israel, saying how much he loved the law of God, “Oh how love I your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Paul, the great apostle was far from legalistic when he said, “For I delight in the Law of God, after the inward man.” Christ is the end of the law in the sense that He is the termination of it. He has terminated it in two senses. First of all, his people are not under it as a covenant of life. “We are not under the law, but under grace.” The old covenant, as it stood with father Adam was “This do and you shall live.” Its command he did not keep and consequently he did not live, nor do we live in him, since in Adam all died. The old covenant was broken, and we became condemned thereby, but now, having suffered death in Christ, we are no more under it, but are dead to it. Although we rejoice to do good works, we are not seeking life through them, we are not hoping to obtain divine favor by our own goodness, nor even to keep ourselves in the love of God by any merit of our own. Chosen not for our works, but according to the eternal will and good pleasure of God, called not of works but by the Spirit of God, we desire to continue in this grace and return no more to the bondage of the old covenant. My dear sinner friend, put your trust in an atonement provided and applied by grace through Christ Jesus alone and you are no longer slaves but children, not working to be saved, but saved already, and working because you are saved.
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