Romans 3:19-20

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.

The law

I. Its claims--are universal.

II. Its teachings--distinct and authoritative.

III. Its effects--condemnation, complete and without exception. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Law and the law

For the most part the word “law” refers to the general principle “Do this and live”; the words “the law,” to the historical and literary form in which this principle took shape in the ears, eyes, and thoughts of the Jews. (Prof. J. A. Beet.)

The convincing Tower of the law

1. “The things which the law saith”--its holy precepts, solemn sanctions, awful sentences--constitute the instrument of its power. They are the hand which grasps, the arm which conquers the transgressor.

2. The extent of their operation is to “all those who are under the law.” Are they obedient? Then it is a means of life and peace. Are they disobedient? Then it is the instrument of their condemnation and death.

3. Its convincing power is displayed either in the day of grace to bring to Christ, or in the day of judgment to banish from Him.

4. It is the agency of the Holy Spirit. In His hands it is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, but in itself it is a dead letter.

I. The things of which the law is made to convince the sinner. “It saith”--

1. “Do this, and thou shalt live”; but “whosoever offendeth in one point is guilty of all.” The law claims an entire, perpetual, and spotless obedience, and in the exercise of its convincing power it compares the sinner’s life with the strictness of its demands. It thus brings to view his obliquity by laying down its perfect and unbending rule upon the crookedness of all his conduct. It accuses him of--

(1) Presumptuous sins.

(2) Sins of inadvertence and ignorance.

(3) Secret sins, corrupt thoughts, unholy desires.

(4) Omission of holy duties.

(5) Deficiencies in the spirit which prompts to action.

(6) A corrupt nature in a state of rebellion against God.

2. “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” By this it convinceth the sinner of his exposure to the wrath of God. The condemnation of the ungodly is not future but present. The transgressor is “dead already,” and though, like a convict in his cell, he has a respite before execution, his case is to be regarded as altogether disposed of. He may be ignorant of his condition, and may deny it; but this is one of the things that the law saith, and its work is to make the sinner believe it, and behold his danger. But though under this operation he groans in anguish, he is no more in condemnation than before. He was asleep, but is now awakened. The lightning which makes a benighted traveller see the precipice in front of him does not make the danger, it only reveals it.

3. “Moses describeth the righteousness which is by the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” By these “things” the law convinces of the impossibility of self-justification.

(1) It proposes but two possible methods whereby man shall be just with God: it offers life to those who have perfectly obeyed its precepts; it presents liberty to all who have fully endured its penalties. Under which can there be hope for man?

(a) He can never obtain acceptance by his obedience--for there is imperfection and defilement in every duty.

(b) He cannot be justified by making satisfaction for disobedience, for no satisfaction can be received short of the entire penalty--everlasting death.

(2) The convinced sinner sees this hopeless state, and is compelled to renounce all effort at legal justification. A knowledge of pardon and life must come from the revelation of a Redeemer who, as the sinner’s surety, has obeyed the precepts and endured the penalty.

II. The persons to which it must be applied. “To them that are under the law”--the Jew, of course, but all mankind are born under the obligations of the law, and the things it saith, it saith to the whole family of man. And if there be not an individual who is released from the obligation of loving God with all his heart, there is not one who is not justly accused of transgression, and therefore condemned. “All have sinned,” etc. The proper operation of the law as a convincing power is, therefore, upon every human being.

III. The result to which it leads.

1. “That every mouth may be stopped.” Unconvinced sinners complain of the unreasonable strictness and severity of the Divine commandments, and invent a thousand excuses for sin and pleas of exemption from punishment. But when the law discharges its convincing office, the justice of God became so apparent, guilt so clear, that they are incapable of complaint or excuse.

2. “And all the world become guilty before God”--consciously and penitently. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Appeal to the law

The new Collector of the Port of New York is not harassed by disputes as his predecessors were. He has had all the books regulating the customs service placed within his reach, and when appealed to for his decision his clear grey eyes brighten as he replies: “The law says so and so about that question, does it not?” He is generally answered in the affirmative, and without more ado he dismisses his visitor, saying: “The law on the subject was made for me to follow, and follow it I shall.” (Christian Herald.)

The authority of the Scriptures

I feel profoundly that that word “authority” is a vital word in all considerations about the Scriptures. There are controversies about inspiration and its mode, controversies which are legion, but they may circle, like waves around a rock, round the question of authority. That which separates the Bible from all other books, however elevating, is, after all, not so much that it contains such treasures of historic information, of poetic beauty, of moral analysis, as that it contains the authority of God and the certainty of His Word. Yes, it is this, after all. There are other books, for which God be thanked, written in other ages, which have had their influence on the elevation of man, but the difference between them and this Book is, that no conceivable amount of information or influence from them, as such, is binding on the conscience; but we claim for this Book that when we have once ascertained the meaning of it, it binds us. It is not merely attractive and elevating--it is all this--but it is binding upon us; it says in the name of a greater than itself, “Believe this, because I say it; do this, because I command it.” (H. G. C. Moule, M. A.)

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.--

Justification by works impossible

I. The assertion of the text is, that our whole race is incapable of ever being justified on the ground of having kept the requirements of the moral law of God.

1. This may be easily illustrated by a reference to Scripture.

(1) It declares that the moral law, under which we have been created, commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

(2) It also asserts that man is destitute of that love; and that, in the place of it, he cherishes a spirit of enmity to his Maker; and the constitution of civil society everywhere proceeds upon the assumption that men are selfish, faithless, violent, and cruel, and laws are everywhere made to counteract those hateful tendencies.

(3) It reveals to us that our first parents disobeyed God, and transmitted a sinful taint to their posterity. Thus we see that sin is not an accident to, but a universal fact in, human nature. “By one man, sin entered into the world,” etc. Such are the declarations of Scripture, and to the truth of them our own consciousness bears undoubted testimony. As soon as any one of us begins to compare himself with the law under which he is created, or even with the imperfect moral standard held forth by his own conscience, he acknowledges himself a sinner, coming short of the praise of God. Nor does anyone find himself alone in this condition. He is surrounded by just such beings, an inhabitant of a world lying in wickedness.

II. But here the question arises, since we cannot be justified on the ground of innocence, may we not by some works of our own? This question, from the beginning, has deeply agitated the human soul.

1. The first expedient, which seems universally to have suggested itself, was the offering of expiatory victims. But such an expedient as this inevitably loses its efficacy as soon as man listens to the voice of his own consciousness. He then feels that guilt is a personal thing, and that he himself is a sinner. It is he, in his own person, that must answer at the bar of offended justice. Guilt cannot be transferred to a brute, nor can it at will be laid upon the conscience of another. Hence the worshipper returned from the sacrifice unsatisfied and unblessed. The Jew confessed that it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. The pagan retired from the flowing libation and the smoking hecatomb bearing about within him a conscience still burdened with the guilt of unpardoned sin.

2. Another expedient has been to offer reparation to the violated law by repentance and reformation. But if this doctrine be true--

(1) It must proceed upon an entire change of the moral law. The law which the Scriptures have revealed is, that the wages of sin is death. To declare, however, that if a man repents, he is entitled to justification, is to introduce another law, and to declare not that sin of itself is deserving of death, but only sin unrepented of. Now, I ask, where do we find the authority for announcing such a law? Revelation does not teach it. No government on earth could be administered upon this principle.

(2) It would lead to new views of Divine justice. If a sinner can claim justification at the hands of God in virtue of repentance, then there would seem but little distinction to exist between innocence and guilt. He who had kept the whole law without fault, and he who had broken every commandment through life, and at last repented, would both stand in the same moral condition before God; both, on the ground of their own doings, being entitled to be treated as innocent.

(3) It would lead us to believe that God Himself entertained no moral displeasure against sin, but only against sin unrepented of. The announcement of His law would seem to be, that holiness and sin repented of were equally lovely in His sight, inasmuch as they were by His law entitled to the same reward. The Deity would thus seem to entertain less abhorrence to sin than the penitent himself.

(4) It would defeat its own object; for, were this the law, repentance would be impossible. Repentance can only arise from a conviction of the moral turpitude of sin; it is an abhorrence of the act purely on account of its moral wrong, But, upon the supposition in question, sin itself is not wrong, or odious in the sight of God, but only sin unrepented of. But, if the act itself be not morally detestable, of what is there for us to repent? We are to be penitent not for the act, but for our impenitence, while penitence itself is impossible, because the act is not in itself worthy of condemnation. To me, then, the Scriptures seem to assert that repentance can offer no atonement for sin. If the law be holy, and just, and good, it is holy, and just, and good, that it be enforced. If a man repent of his sins, this is right; but under a system of law, this can make no reparation for past transgression. The man confesses that the law is just; but this confession does not render it less just. He acknowledges that he deserves to perish; but this does not alter his desert. “Therefore, by the deeds of the law can no flesh be justified,” etc.

III. The gospel is an offer of universal pardon through the mediation of Christ.

1. To reveal this great and astonishing truth is the great design of revealed religion. Natural religion intimated to us our sin, and dimly foreshadowed our doom. But from natural religion itself no news of reconciliation could proceed. It is the gospel alone that brings life and immortality to light.

2. For the announcement of this great central truth, the whole previous history of our world was one magnificent preparation.

3. Although, then, by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified, yet we may not despair, “for our help is laid upon One that is mighty,” One who is able to save to the uttermost everyone that believeth. (F. Wayland, D. D.)

Legal justification impossible because

I. Man is flesh.

1. Depraved by original corruption.

2. Obnoxious by actual transgression.

II. The best obedience to the law that he can perform is imperfect.

III. All that he does or can do is a due debt he owes to the law.

1. He owes all possible obedience to the law as a creature.

2. But by performing all his debts as a creature he can never pay his debts as a transgressor.

3. Christ alone is able to justify him. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)

Works cannot justify

No matter how much he (Luther) studied and prayed, no matter how severely he castigated himself with fasting and watching, he found no peace to his soul. Even when he imagined that he had satisfied the law, he often despaired of getting rid of his sins and of securing the grace of God.

A moralist condemned

Dr. Rogers, of Albany, gives an account of the conversion of a moralist by a dream. The man thought he died, and, coming to the door of heaven, saw over it, “None can enter here but those who have led a strictly moral life.” He felt perfectly able on that condition, but was stopped by one and another whom in some way he had wronged. He was in despair, till the words over the door gradually faded away, and in their place came, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” He awoke, and realised that without forgiveness through an atonement there was no hope for man. (Seeds and Sheaves.)

In His sight.

Man in the Divine judgment

In the judgment of God--an addition of solemn import! The all-searching Eye will try our inward as well as outward acts. None can stand out of Christ the Divine scrutiny. The world may canonise and immortalise, extol and deify her heroes; but God will perceive in a moment their defects, like the artist who, when a piece of marble had been selected as perfectly suitable for his sculpturing, in an instant detected a slight flaw that had escaped all notice, rendering, in his eyes, the block useless; and he refused to employ his time and his tools, his pains and his genius, upon it. (C. Neil, M. A.)

For by the law is the knowledge of sin.--

The knowledge of sin by the law

I. The nature of the law.

1. Sin has no existence but in relation to the law; for “where there is no law, there is no transgression.” The law may be compared to a straight rule. Sin is the deviation from this rule, and the enormity of the sin may be measured by the degree of obliquity in any act.

2. Laws are of different kinds, according to the nature of their subjects. The universe is under taw, for the Creator is a God of order. But our inquiry relates to the law given to man, as an accountable moral agent. This law was originally written on the human heart, but, as through the prevalence of ignorance and error, this law has been greatly defaced; it pleased God to make a full revelation of it, under two great commandments, enjoining love to God and our neighbour. But as the spiritual and perfect nature of the law was misapprehended by the Jews, and many of the precepts were set aside by false glosses, our Lord gave its true interpretation.

3. Many entertain very inadequate ideas of the nature and obligations of the law.

(1) By some it is believed that its strictness is now relaxed, and that a more indulgent rule has succeeded. But no conclusion is more certain than the immutable nature of the law. It arises from the nature of God, and the relation of man to Him. As God is infinitely holy, He never can require less holiness in His creatures than they are capable of. The idea of bringing down the law to adapt it to the ability of fallen man is absurd.

(2) Antinomians hold, that in consequence of Christ’s perfect obedience, the law has no demands on those in whose place He obeyed. This is a gross abuse of a cardinal doctrine. And if the thing were true, it would be no privilege, but a real detriment to the believer; for he finds that the keeping of the commandments of God is attended with a great reward.

(3) Others, again, entertain the opinion that the law was altered and improved by our Lord; and they refer to the Sermon on the Mount. But the alteration is not in the law itself, but in the interpretation of the law. Reason dictates that a rational, choosing agent should employ all his faculties, and direct all his actions, to the glory of his Creator; and as this end can in no other way be attained than by obeying the will of God, therefore the manifestation of the Divine will must be the law of all rational creatures.

4. That the law of God requires perfect obedience is self-evident. To suppose that any law could be satisfied by an imperfect obedience involves the absurdity that the law requires something which it does not require. If it should be alleged that uniform perfection of obedience ought not to be insisted on, since man is a fallible, erring creature, I would reply, that if any indulgence to sin be allowed, there can be no limit fixed to which it should be extended. Such a principle would destroy the obligation of the moral law. Again, these frailties belong not to our nature, as it came perfect from the hand of the Creator, but belong to our sinful nature, to which a holy law can show no indulgence. The ground of difficulty is in our depraved nature, which has lost all relish for the service of God. To a soul rightly constituted, the most intense exercise of holy affection is so far from being felt as a burden or task, that it affords the sweetest pleasure of which we ever partake. To be perfectly obedient to the commandments of God is to be completely happy. Surely no one ought to complain of being required to pursue his own greatest happiness.

II. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”

1. If our actions had always been conformable to the precepts of God, the closest application of that law would produce no conviction of sin. And that such perfection of obedience is possible to human nature is manifest by the example of Christ.

2. Human nature may be compared to a complicated machine, which has within it powerful springs to keep it in operation. But such a machine requires a balance or regulator, which may preserve all the parts in their proper places, and give due energy and direction to every part. If the balance wheel be taken away, the machine loses none of its power, but its action becomes irregular, and no longer subserves the purpose for which it was put in motion. It moves, it may be, more rapidly than before, but to its own ruin. So it is with man. He is an agent, possessing powers, appetites, affections, and passions which require to be regulated and properly directed; otherwise, their most powerful action will be of a ruinous character. Two things are necessary to give harmony and a right direction to the complex faculties and affections of man. The first is, light; the second, love--an enlightened conscience, and uniform and constant love to God. But when sin was introduced, the mind was blinded, conscience misdirected, and the love of God in the soul was extinct.

3. Although the mind of man has fallen into an awful state of blindness and disorder, yet conscience is not obliterated: as far as it has light, it still remonstrates against sin. Happily some actions are intuitively seen to be morally wrong; but in regard to a large part of sinful acts, or omissions, most men remain ignorant of them, because they know not the extent and spirituality of the law. Mere theoretical knowledge of the law is not sufficient: it requires the convincing light of the Holy Spirit to shine in upon the conscience, and to cause the mind to view itself, as it were, in the mirror of God’s holy law. This conviction by the law is the common preparatory work before mercy is bestowed.

Conclusion:

1. Let us endeavour to get clear views of the extent, spirituality, and purity of the moral law, in order that we may know something of the multitude and malignity of our sins. And, as all true spiritual knowledge is from the Holy Ghost, we should incessantly pray for this inestimable blessing.

2. As the law convicts every man of sin, justification by it is impossible; for even one sin would render it impossible for the transgressor to receive a sentence of acquittal; how much more impossible is it when our sins are literally innumerable!

3. If the law discovers sin of every kind to be a base and odious thing, we should be solicitous to be cleansed from its defilement; and, in order to this, should come often to the fountain for sin and uncleanness, opened by the death of Christ.

4. A spiritual knowledge of the law is the true source of evangelical repentance.

5. The knowledge of sin, produced by the law, will have a tendency to make the true penitent desirous of the perfect holiness of heaven.

6. The most important benefit of the knowledge of sin, by the law, is, that it shows us our absolute need of a better righteousness than our own, and impels us to look for salvation to the Cross of Christ. (A. Alexander, D. D.)

The knowledge of sin by the law

“Sin,” in the New Testament, means, literally, “missing that which is aimed at.” A sin done for the sake of happiness never brings happiness; and if man’s true aim is the glory of God, certainly no sin ever reaches that mark. “Sin is the transgression of the law,” for if there were no “law,” there would be no “transgression.” “Transgression” is a stepping over a certain line, and the only line is “the law.”

I. There are many “laws.”

1. The natural “law” of conscience. By this the heathen are governed--for they, “having not the law, are a law unto themselves,” etc. The transgressors of this law will be “beaten with few stripes.”

2. The Old Testament “law,” which is chiefly negative. “Do not.” This law is higher than the law of nature, more clear, minute, stringent.

3. But above both there is the “law” of love--the law of the gospel. God loves you, love Him back, and show your love by obedience.

II. As these laws rise in their character, so do they also in their obligation upon us; and the sins committed against them grow in the same proportion. By the higher standard we shall be judged! Now I do not speak of the grosser sins forbidden by the Ten Commandments, but of such as appear, to some, almost to be no sins at all, but which, measured by the law of the gospel, are perhaps most grievous to God. As is the light, so is the shadow; and the comparatively small sin of a son grieves a father more than the greatest sin of a stranger.

From this point of view, then--

1. It must be a sin in a Christian not to be happy. For this must be because you do not trust the Father, who has said that your sins were “blotted out.”

2. Or, if believing that you love and are loved by God, you are anxious, you not only disobey a command, but question a Father’s care and promise.

3. Or, if your religion is only a religion of fear, obedience without affection, it is in God’s sight worth nothing, for “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Therefore it is sin.

4. Or, if you love the world as much as you love God, how can the great God who says, “Give Me thy heart”--not a part of it--be satisfied? And if He is not satisfied that is a sin.

III. If you would measure sin, calculate it in Eden, or on Mount Calvary. In Eden, one bit of forbidden fruit ruined the world! On Calvary, it needed the death of the Son of God to repair the wreck. Remember this the next time you are tempted to sin. Think--“If I do that sin, it will cost the blood of the Son of God to wash it out.” That is the law of heaven; and by that law we know sin. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The office of the law

The wife of a drunkard once found her husband in a filthy condition, with torn clothes, matted hair, bruised face, asleep in the kitchen, having come home from a drunken revel. She sent for a photographer, and had a portrait of him taken in all his wretched appearance, and placed it on the mantel beside another portrait taken at the time of his marriage, which showed him handsome and well dressed, as he had been in other days. When he became sober he saw the two pictures, and awakened to a consciousness of his condition, from which he arose to a better life. Now, the office of the law is not to save men, but to show them their true state as compared with the Divine standard. It is like a glass, in which one seeth “what manner of man he is.” (D. L. Moody.)

The knowledge of sin by the law

When we are told what we ought to do, we learn that we are not doing as we ought.

1. The faintest spark of natural conscience in a savage bosom serves this end at least, that the barbarian’s grosser acts of treachery or cruelty seem evil even to himself. The educated conscience of an old Greek or Roman imposed on him a severer standard and made him ashamed of less flagrant crimes. Moses’ nobler code, given by Jehovah Himself, trained the Hebrew people by degrees to regard as sinful practices which neighbouring nations called innocent, and exalted every instinctive vice of the blood into the express transgression of a recorded statute. The New Testament morality has made the modern conscience quicker than ever to detect, and louder than ever in condemning what is false, dishonourable, impure, and ungenerous. Thus each addition to revealed law widens men’s knowledge of what is sinful, and pushes forward the frontier of the forbidden a little nearer to that ideal line which God’s nature prescribes.

2. Again, when a law has succeeded in educating one’s conscience to recognise that what is forbidden is in itself evil, that what is commanded is right, there follows a certain desire to keep that law--an effort even after keeping it. We cannot approve what is good and not wish to pursue it. The moral pressure thus put upon a man’s natural likings serves, in many an instance, to reveal to himself his moral impotence. The good he fain would do in his better moods he fails to do in the moment of temptation; and when the recoil comes, and desire has burnt itself down to white cold ash, and the law awakes afresh within the conscience to judge the man for that weak and wicked yielding to an improper desire, then comes a new and very bitter knowledge of sin. It is the knowledge of sin as a strong thing, stronger than I am--a hateful, hostile power, an alien despot, that has entrenched itself within my nature, and lords it there over everything that is wholesome in me.

3. Suppose, further, that a man is become so far a creature of the law that through long education he has been trained to walk contentedly within its close fences--he has got used to curb his temper and choke down his passions, and always to wear a smooth decorous face; suppose he is thus all that the law can make him, irreproachable in the presence of society, fair spoken, scrupulous, “as touching the law blameless”--why then he is only on the road to a still more profound knowledge of Sin. For such a man, if he is honest and thorough, will admit to himself, that deep down beneath this blameless exterior the old passions will not be quenched, nor the old self-will slain. He will admit that in doing violence to his tastes he has not changed them. He has merely drilled himself into outward prosperity, but at the root remains ungodly. Is it unfair to say that such righteousness is little better than a mask, useful in society, but sure to be detected by the judgment of Heaven? that the heart of such men resembles a volcano over which the lava has in the meantime cooled? What a terrific knowledge of sin is here! What a discovery of the incurableness of the heart’s evil! What a revelation of the impotence of law and the unattainableness of genuine righteousness under any system of legal repression! Surely by the law, do as you will, there is no path to a satisfying righteousness in the sight of God, but only to a deeper and ever deeper knowledge of sin! (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)

The law the standard

When Chicago was a small town it was incorporated and made a city. There was one clause in the new law that no man should be a policeman who was not a certain height--five feet six inches, let us say. When the Commissioners got into power, they advertised for men as candidates, and in the advertisement they stated that no man need apply who could not bring good credentials to recommend him. I remember going past the office one day, and there was a crowd of them waiting to get in. They quite blocked up the side of the street; and they were comparing notes as to their chances of success. One says to another, “I have got a good letter of recommendation from the mayor, and one from the supreme judge.” Another says, “And I have got a good letter from Senator So-and-so. I’m sure to get in.” The two men come on together, and lay their letters down on the Commissioners’ desk. “Well,” says the officials, “you have certainly a good many letters, but we won’t read them till we measure you.” Ah! they forgot all about that. So the first man is measured, and he is only five feet. “No chance for you, sir; the law says the men must be five feet six inches, and you don’t come up to the standard.” The other says, “Well, my chance is a good deal better than his. I am a good bit taller than he is.” He begins to measure himself by the other man. That is what people are always doing, measuring themselves by others. Measure yourself by the law of God, and if you will do that you will find that you have come short. He goes up to the officers and they measure him. He is five feet five inches and nine-tenths. “No good,” they tell him; “you’re not up to the standard.” “But I’m only one-tenth of an inch short,” he remonstrates. “It’s no matter,” say they, “there’s no difference.” He goes with the man who was five feet. One comes short six inches, and the other only one tenth of an inch, but the law cannot be changed. And the law of God is, that no man shall go into the kingdom of heaven with one sin on him. He that has broken the least law is guilty of all. (D. L. Moody.)

The knowledge of sin only by the law

All that the law does is to show us how sinful we are. Paul has been quoting from the sacred Scriptures; and truly they shed a lurid light upon the condition of human nature. This light can show us our sin; but it cannot take it away. The law of the Lord is like a looking glass. Now, a looking glass is a capital thing for finding out where the spots are on your face; but you cannot wash in a looking glass, you cannot get rid of the spots by looking in the glass. The law is intended to show a man how much he needs cleansing; but the law cannot cleanse him. The law proves that we are condemned, but it does not bring us our pardon. (C. H. Spurgeon.)