Question:
What is the moral law you always speak about?
Answer:
Emphatically the Ten Commandments; a largely negative and detailed expression of the two great positive principles of love to God and love to man. (See Deuteronomy 6:4, 5; Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:25-28; Matthew 22:37-40). God, Elohim, the Creator, spoke this law (Exodus 20:1-17) and engraved it with His finger on tables of stone (Exodus 32:16; 31:18). These Ten Words are expressly called a law (Exodus 24:12); and when God gave them to Moses “He added no more,” showing them to be complete (Deuteronomy 5:22). This law is called “the Royal Law,” the law “according to Scripture,” by which is meant the Old Testament, the only Scriptures of James’s day; two of its commandments are quoted, and the obligation of the whole law affirmed. (James 2:8-12). That law was written in the heart of Jesus (Psalms 40:7, 8); consequently, He delighted to do His Father’s will, to keep His Father’s commandments (John 4:34; 15:10). It is the work of the new covenant to write that law in the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:10); of which the Jews had the form, but not the spirit (Romans 2:17-21); but faith establishes it in the heart of the Christian, and enables him to fulfill the law’s requirement (Romans 3:31; 8:4). It is impossible that that law should be changed in one jot or tittle because it is the expression of the righteousness—character—of God (Psalms 111:7, 8; Isaiah 51:6-8; Matthew 5:17-20); hence it witnesses to the true justification of the sinner (Romans 3:21), and is the perfect standard by which all men are to be judged (Psalms 19:7; Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; James 2:8-12). The only reason why men oppose it is found in Romans 8:7.
