Sect. 11. — The use of that distinction in practice.
Sect. 11. — The use of that distinction in practice.
And now, my loving neighbour Neophytus, I ask you to seriously consider these things, and learn to distinguish rightly between the law, as it is the Law of Works, and the law, as it is the Law of Christ, and to do that in both effect and practice — I mean, in heart and conscience.
Neo. Sir, it is the unfeigned desire of my heart to do so. And therefore, I implore you, give me some direction in this.
Evan. Surely the best direction I can give you is to labour to truly know, and to firmly believe, that you are not now under the law, as it is the Law of Works; and that you are now under the law, as it is the Law of Christ. And therefore you must neither hope for what the Law of Works promises, in case of your most exacting obedience; nor fear what it threatens, in case of your most imperfect and defective obedience. And yet you may both hope for what the Law of Christ promises, in case of your obedience, and you are to fear what it threatens, in case of your disobedience.
Neo. But, sir, what are these promises and threatenings? And first, I ask you to tell me what the Law of Works promises.
Evan. The Law of Works, which as I told you, is the same as the Covenant of Works, promises justification and eternal life to all who yield perfect obedience to it. And this you are not to hope for, because of your obedience. And indeed, to say it as it is, being dead to the Law of Works, you can yield no obedience to it at all. For how can a dead wife yield any obedience to her husband? And if you can yield no obedience to it at all, then what hope can you have of any reward for your obedience? No, let me tell you more: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has purchased both justification and eternal life by his perfect obedience to the Law of Works, and he has freely given it to you, as it is written in Acts 13.39, “By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses:” and “Truly, truly,” says our Saviour, “he that believes in me has everlasting life.” John 6.47.
Neo. I ask you, sir, what does the Law of Works threaten in case of a man’s disobedience to it?
Evan. Why, the penalty which the Law of Works threatens in that case, is condemnation and eternal death. You have no cause to fear this at all in case of your most defective obedience; for no man has any cause to fear the penalty of that law which he does not live under. Surely a man that lives under the laws of England, has no cause to fear the penalties of the laws of Spain or of France. In the same way, now that you live under the Law of Christ, you have no cause to fear the penalties of the Law of Works.
No, the Law of Works is dead to you; therefore you have no more cause to fear its threats, than a living wife has to fear the threats of her dead husband, or a dead wife has to fear the threats of a dead husband. Let me say still more: Jesus Christ, by his condemnation and death on the cross, has delivered you and set you free from condemnation and eternal death. As it is written in Rom. 8.1, ‘‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And, Christ himself says, John 11.26, “Whoever lives, and believes in me, shall never die.”
Thus you see your freedom and liberty from the law, as it is the Law of Works. And so that you may be better able to “stand fast in this liberty with which Christ has made you free,”Gal 5.1 beware of conceiving that the Lord now stands in any relation to you, or will any way deal with you, as a man under that law. So if the Lord is pleased to bestow on you a great measure of faith by which you will be enabled to yield an exact and perfect obedience to the mind and will of God, then beware of conceiving that the Lord looks at it as obedience to the Law of Works; or that he will in any measure reward you for it according to the promises of that law. And if at any time after this, because of the weakness of your faith, and the strength of temptation, you are drawn aside, and prevailed upon to swerve from the mind and will of the Lord, then beware of conceiving that the Lord sees it as any transgression of the Law of Works. For if you cannot transgress that law, then it is impossible for the Lord to see what is not possible. And if the Lord can see no sin in you as a transgression of the Law of Works, then it is impossible that he would either be angry with you, or correct you for any sin, as it is a transgression of that law.
No, to speak with holy reverence, as I said before, the Lord cannot, by virtue of the Covenant of Works, either require any obedience from you, or give you an angry look or any angry word, much less threaten and afflict you for any disobedience to that covenant. Therefore, whenever your conscience tells you that you have broken any of the Ten Commandments, do not conceive that the Lord looks at you as an angry Judge, armed with justice against you; much less should you fear that he will execute his justice on you according to the penalty of that covenant. He will not un-justify you, or deprive you of your heavenly inheritance, or give you a portion in hell fire. No, assure yourself that your God in Christ will never un-son you, or un-spouse you. Nor yet, as touching your justification and eternal salvation, will he ever love you one bit less, even though you commit however many or great sins. For this is a certain truth: that just as no good either in you or done by you, moved him to justify you and give you eternal life, so no evil in you or done by you can move him to take it away from you, once given.
And therefore, believe it while you live, that just as the Lord first loved you freely, so hereafter he will “heal your backslidings, and still love you freely,” Hos. 14.4. Yes, “he will love you to the end,” John 13.1. Although the Lord expresses the fruits of his anger towards you in chastising and afflicting you, do not imagine that your afflictions are penal, proceeding from hatred and vindictive justice as payments and satisfaction for sins, and thus as the beginning of eternal torments in hell. For as you have heard, being freed from the Law of Works, and consequently from sinning against it, you must likewise be freed from all wrath, anger, miseries, calamities, afflictions, yes, and from death itself, as fruits and effects of any transgression against that covenant.
Therefore you are never to confess your sins to the Lord, as though you conceived them to have been committed against the Law of Works, thus making you liable to God’s everlasting wrath and hell-fire. Nor must you crave pardon and forgiveness for them, so that you may thereby escape that penalty; nor should you fast, weep, mourn, or humble yourself out of any belief that you will thereby satisfy the justice of God, appease his wrath in whole or part, and thus escape his everlasting vengeance. For if you are not under the Law of Works, and if the Lord sees no sin in you as a transgression of that law, and he is neither angry with you, nor afflicting you for any sin as a transgression of that law, then consequently you have no need either to confess your sins, or crave pardon for them, or fast, or weep, or mourn, or humble yourself for your sins, conceiving them to be a transgression of the Law of Works.
Neo. Well, sir, you have fully satisfied me in this point; and therefore, I ask you to proceed to show that reward which the Law of Christ promises, which you said I might hope for in case of my obedience to it.
Evan. Why, the reward which I conceive the Law of Christ promises to believers, and which they may hope for according to their obedience to it, is to comfortably enjoy sweet communion with God and Christ, even in this life, and a freedom from afflictions, both spiritual and corporeal, to the extent that they are fruits and effects of sin, as a transgression of the Law of Christ. For you know that so long as a child yields obedience to his father’s commands and does nothing displeasing to him, if the father loves his child, he will conduct himself lovingly and kindly towards him, and allow him to be familiar with him, and will not whip or scourge him for his disobedience. Even so, if you unfeignedly desire and endeavour to be obedient to the will and mind of your Father in Christ — in doing what he commands, and avoiding what he forbids, both in your general and particular calling; and to the end that you may please him — then accordingly, as you do so, your Father will smile upon you when you draw near to him in prayer, or in any other of his ordinances.
And he will manifest his sweet presence and loving favour towards you, and exempt you from all outward calamities except in trials of your faith and patience or the like. As it was written in 2Chron. 15.2, “The Lord is with you while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you.” And so the apostle James says in James 4.8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” And “Oh,” says the Lord, “that my people had listened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways! He would have fed them with the finest wheat, and I would have satisfied you with honey out of the rock,” Psalm 81.13, 16. This may suffice to show you what you may hope for, according to your obedience to the Law of Christ.
Neo. Then, sir, I implore you to proceed to show the penalty which the Law of Christ threatens, and which I am to fear if I transgress that law.
Evan. The penalty which the Law of Christ threatens if you transgress the Law of Christ, and which you are to fear, is the lack of near and sweet communion with God in Christ in this life, and being liable to all temporal afflictions as fruits and effects of transgressing that law.
Therefore, whenever you transgress any of the Ten Commandments, you are to know that you have thereby transgressed the Law of Christ, and the Lord sees it and is angry with it, with a fatherly anger. If necessary, he will chastise you, 1Pet. 1.6, either with temporal or spiritual afflictions, or both. And your heavenly Father will do this in love to you, either to bring your sins to remembrance, as he did the sins of Joseph’s brethren, Gen. 42.21; and as the widow of Zarephath confesses concerning herself, 1Kings 17.18; or else “to purge or take away your sins,” according to what the Lord says in Isa. 27.9, “By this, therefore, the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin.” “For indeed,” says Mr. Culverwell, “afflictions, through God’s blessing, are made special means to purge out that sinful corruption which is still in the nature of believers. Therefore in Scripture, they are most aptly compared to medicines, for so they are indeed to all God’s children: they are most sovereign medicines to cure all their spiritual diseases. And indeed all of us have great need of it.
For as Luther, on the Galatians, p. 66, truly says, “We are not yet perfectly righteous; for while we remain in this life, sin still dwells in the flesh, and God purges this remnant of sin.” — “Therefore,” says Luther in another place, “When God has remitted sins, and received a man into the bosom of grace, then he lays on him all kind of afflictions, and scours and renews him from day to day.” And to the same purpose, Tyndale says truly, “If we look at the flesh, and into the law, there is no man so perfect that is not found to be a sinner, no man so pure, that has no need to be purged. And thus the Lord chastises believers to heal their nature by purging out the corruption that remains in it.”
And therefore, whenever you hereafter feel the Lord’s chastening hand upon you, let it move you to take the prophet Jeremiah’s counsel, which is to “search and try your ways, and turn to the Lord,” Lam. 3.40. Confess your sins to him, saying with the prodigal, Luke 15.21, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son;” beg pardon and forgiveness at his hands, as you are taught in the fifth petition of the Lord’s prayer, Mat. 6.12. Yet do not crave pardon and forgiveness at the hands of the Lord, as a malefactor does at the hands of a judge — as someone who fears condemnation and death, as though you had sinned against the Law of Works, and therefore feared hell and damnation. Rather, beg pardon and forgiveness as a child does at the hands of his loving father, feeling the fruits of his fatherly anger in his chastising hand on you, and fearing the continuance and augmentation of it if your sin is not both pardoned and subdued. Therefore also beseech your loving Father to subdue your iniquities according to his promise, Micah 7.19. And if you find that the Lord has not heard your prayers by feeling your iniquities subdued, then join to your prayers, fasting and weeping, if you can; so that you may be more seriously humbled before the Lord, and more fervent in prayer. And this explanation, I hope, may be sufficient to show you what the penalty is which the Law of Christ threatens.
Neo. O, but, sir, I would think myself a happy man if I could be so obedient to the Law of Christ, that he might have no need to inflict this penalty on me.
Evan. You say very well. Yet while you carry about this body of sin with you, doing the best you can, the Lord will now and then need to give you some fatherly corrections. Yet, let me tell you this: the more perfect your obedience, the fewer lashes you will have. “For the Lord does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men,” Lam. 3.33. And therefore, according to my former exhortation, and your own resolution, be careful to exercise your faith, and use all means to increase it, so that it may become effectual, working by love, 1Thess. 1.3; Gal. 5.6. For according to the measure of your faith, will be your true love to Christ and his commandments. And according to your love for them, will be your delight in them, and your aptness and readiness to do them. Hence Christ himself says in John 14.15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” And “this is the love of God,” says that loving disciple, “that we keep his commandments, and his commandments, are not grievous,” 1John 5.3. No, the truth is, if you have this love in your hearts, it will grieve you that you cannot keep them as you would. Oh, if this love abounds in your heart, it will cause you to say with godly Joseph, if you are tempted as he was, “How can I do this great wickedness, and so sin against God?”Gen 39.9 How can I do what I know will displease so gracious a Father, and so merciful a Saviour? No, I will not do it; no, I cannot do it. No, you will rather say with the Psalmist, “I delight to do your will, my God! Yes, your law is within my heart,” Psalm 40.8.
Indeed, let me tell you more: if this love of God in Christ is truly, and in any good measure, rooted in your heart, then even though the chastising hand of the Lord is not upon you, even though the Lord in no way expresses any anger towards you, yet if you but consider the Lord’s ways towards you, and your ways towards him, you will mourn with a gospel-mourning, reasoning with yourself in this way: Was I not under the Law of Works by nature, and so, for every transgression against any of the Ten Commandments, was I not made liable to everlasting damnation? And am I now, through the free mercy and love of God in Christ, brought under the Law of Christ, and thus subject to no other penalty for my transgressions than fatherly and loving chastisements, which tend to purge that sinful corruption that is in me? Oh what a loving Father this is! Oh what a gracious Saviour this is! Oh, what a wretched man I am,Rom 7.24 to transgress the laws of such a good God, as he has been to me! Oh, even the due consideration of this will, as it were, melt your heart, and cause your eyes to drip with the tears of godly sorrow! Yes, the due consideration of these things will cause you to “loathe yourself in your own sight for your transgressions,” Ezek. 36.31. Yes, not only to loathe yourself for them, but also to abandon them, saying with Ephraim, “What have I to do any more with idols?” Hos. 14.8. And to “cast them away as a menstruous cloth, saying to them, Get away from here!” Isa. 30.22. And truly you will desire nothing more than to so live that you might never sin against the Lord any more. And this is that “goodness of God which,” as the apostle says, “leads to repentance;” yes, this is that goodness of God which will lead you to a free obedience. So that if you will but apply the goodness of God in Christ to your soul, in any good measure, you will accordingly yield obedience to the Law of Christ — not only without respect to what the Law of Works either promises or threatens; but also without respect to what the Law of Christ either promises or threatens. You will do what the Lord commands, only because he commands it, and to the end that you may please him; and you will forbear when he forbids, only because he forbids it, to the end that you may not displease him.”
And this obedience is like that obedience which our Saviour exhorts his disciples to in Mat. 10.8, saying, “Freely you have received, freely give.” This is to “serve the Lord without fear” of any penalty, which either the Law of Works or the Law of Christ threatens, “in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life,” as Zacharias said, Luke 1.74, 75. This is to “pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” of offending the Lord by sinning against him, as the apostle Peter exhorts in 1Peter 1.17. Yes, and this is to “serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear:” as the author of Hebrews exhorts, Heb. 12.28.
Thus, my dear friend Neophytus, I have endeavoured, according to your desire, to give you my judgment and direction in these points.
Neo. And truly, sir, you have done it very effectually; may the Lord enable me to practise according to your direction!