JANUARY, 1885.
THE PRESENT TRUTH.
131
BIBLE CONVERSION.
{ Continued. )
OFFICE OF THE LAW IN CONVERSION.
By the lawis here meant the law par excel-
lence—the law of supreme love for God and
equal love for man drawn out in ten precepts,
and usually termed the moral law, because it
relates to moral duties.
Of this law the Psalmist says, ** The law of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Ps.
19: 7. “By thelaw is the knowledge of sin.”
Rom. 3: 20. Again it is written, * Sin is
the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4.
The law 1s the well-defined rule by which to
determine what sin is. Without it, it would
be impossible to get at the starting point
from which to commence the work of con-
version. We could not tell what to be con-
verted from, nor what to be converted unto.
ven ¢ the light of conscience,” of which
some boast, teaching that the law is unneces-
sary in conversion, is but the result of, at least,
a faint copy of the law written in the heart.
Rom. 2: 14, 15.
Conversion is a change from sin to holiness.
“Sin is the transgression of the law,” and
holinéss is conformity to the law. The law is
not only necessary as a faithful mirror in
which to see our moral defects (James 1:
25); it is also needful, indispensable, as a
sure indicator of the way of holiness. And
whether we look at the law as written in the
decalogue, or at the life of Christ, for these
objects, the result will be one and the same;
for in Christ's life the law appears drawn out
in livingcharacters. John 15: 10; 1 John 3:
4, 5.
We could not repent without the knowledge
of sin by the law. “ Where no law is, there
1s no transgression’ (Rom. 4: 15), nothing
to repent of. Nor would there be room for
faith in Christ for salvation from sin, if there
was no law that had been transgressed; for
there would be no sin to be saved from.
Faith in Christ establishes the law. Rom. 3:
31. The necessity of repentance and faith
grows out of the fact that men have violated
God's law.
All must admit that Paul was soundly con-
verted. Yet from his own showing, the law
was the instrument that slew him in conver-
sion. While relating his experience in con-
version, he says: ** What shall we say then?
Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay I had not
known sin, but by the law: for IT had not
known lust, except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet. . . . For I was alive without
the law once: but when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died. And the com-
mandment, which was ordained to life, I
found to be unto death. For sin taking occa-
sion by the commandment, deceived me, and
by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy,
and the commandment holy, and just, and
good.”” Rom. 7: 7-12.
The first great work to be wrought in con-
version, is the crucifying of the old man of
sin, the slayingof sininus ( Rom. 6: 6, etc.);
and the law is the instrument that the Spirit
of God uses to accomplish this work. Then
the new man, Christ Jesus, can be formed in
us the hope of glory.
Before conversion the heart is opposed to
God's law (Rom. 8: 7); butin conversion
the law is written in the heart ( Heb. 8: 10;
Jer. 31: 33); and those for whom this work
is performed will love and keep the law.
They will hunger and thirst after righteous-
ness (Matt. 5: 6; Isa. 51:7; Ps. 119: 172),
and their great desire will be to walk in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless.
Before conversion we are under the law as
a condemning rule. Bom. 3: 19. Its just
S14; Lam. 5:
{
penalty hangs over our heads because of our
transgressions. At conversion we come under
the grace or favorof God through Jesus Christ,
which brings us pardon, and Christ's imputed
righteousness, and delivers us from the just
condemnation of the law, so that we arc no
more under the law in the sense that we were
before. Rom. 6:14. But this does not give
us license to sin, or transgress the law (verse
15); on the contrary, it presents strong
additional motives to shun sin and keep the
law.
If Christ had to do and suffer so much to
save us from sin, to show his hatred to sin,
and his love for the law, ag well as for man
(Rom. 8: 3; Heh. 12: 24; Ps. 40: 8; Isa.
42: 21; Matt. 5: 17-19; and 19: 17-19),
we should, through love for Christ, keep
the law. To take the liberty of sinning,
or transgressing the law, because we are not
under the law but under grace, would be
a sure way to forfeit our right to grace, and to
bring us under the law again.
We cannot be justified by the deeds of the
law, because by the law is the knowledge of
sin. Rom. 8: 20. It justly condemns us for
having broken it, and it cannot both justify
and condemn us at the same time. The law
. being perfect, our present obedience thereto
cannot, were it perfect, more than meet its de-
mands for the present, and cannot offset
against our past sins to cancel them and justify
us.
Supposing a man opening an account with
you, gets indebted to you to the amount of one
pound. He then pays for every article he
buys of you for six months. Would that
cancel his indebtedness to you? We should
not look to the law, but to Christ, for justifi-
cation and salvation.
What would you think of a carpenter who
would reject his square and his line because
they condemn every crooked stick to which
they are applied ? or of a woman who would
break her mirror because it would not remove
the defects in her appearance? Greater,
a thousand times greater is the folly of those
who reject the law because it does not justify
nor save them. Give the law its place; let it
show the sinner his sins and his lost condition,
that he may see the need of a remedy; and
let it serve as a rule of life to the Christian;
but associate with it the cleansing, healing
Fountain.
RE—CONVERSION.
Conversion is just as necessary in cases of
backsliding, as it is when the sinner starts
out in the service of Christ. Indeed, in such
cases there is even more urgent need of con-
version than at the first start in religion.
The guilt of those concerned is far greater for
their having sinned against greater light.
And it is more difficult to engage in the work
of conversion under such circumstances. It
requires a greater effort to arouse the con-
science and lead the individual to action.
The light enjoyed at first has become dark-
ness ; the conscience has been hardened by
sin; and Satan has a firmer hold on his victim;
who upon awaking to a sense of his situation,
is in danger of giving way to discouragement
and of shrinking from the task before him.
Paul, fully conscious of this, exhorts his breth-
ren to ** go on unto perfection ; notlaying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works,
and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of the laying on of hands,” etc.
Heb. 6: 1, 2,
Much of what the Bible says about turning
unto God and being couverted, ete., applies to
backslidden professors of relizion (Jer. 3:
21; Kze. 33: 11; Acts 3: 19;
Jas. 5:19, 20, ete), yet such are generally
slow to admit that they need converting.
They usually fall back on their profession and on
outward popular forms, shun the very truths
and duties that require self-denial, and con-
gratulate themselves upon great blessings they
have received in the past, and wonders they
have done in the name of Jesus; and it is not
an uncommon thing for them to point to the
spot where and time when they were con-
verted.
The great question is not whether we were
once converted, or whether we have done
wonders, or whether we were blessed twenty
years ago, or ten years ago, or even yesterday ;
but whether we are now converted (so far,
at least, as we have put away every known
wrong, and walk in the light that shines on
our pathway ), and have a daily, living expe-
rience in practical, experimental religion ;
whether we have a present, living connection
with Heaven, and enjoy God's smiles now.
Have we retained our first love ( Rev.
2: 4, 5), the love that we experienced under a
sense that God for Christ's sake had for-
given us our sins? Have we the burden for
souls that we then had ? Do we have the
tender conscience, the relish for prayer, for
reading the Bible and assembling with the
saints, that we then possessed? Do we make
most earnest endeavors to fulfill the solemn
vows we then made, to co-operate with the
Spirit of God in the work of overcoming the
evil passions of our heart ? or have we fallen
into the error of thinking that the whole work
is accomplished because we then received so
wonderful a blessing, and that there is no
need that we should fulfill our solemn vows?
In short, do we most earnestly seek to do
right in all things, as we did when we received
the Spirit of adoption? We can no more be
saved in a backslidden state, than we could
be had we never experienced conversion.
The Scriptures clearly represent that near
the end of this age a large proportion of the
church will be in a fearfully backslidden state ;
that at that time iniquity shall abound, and
the love of many shall wax cold. Matt. 24:
12, 13. Many in Zion will then be charac-
terized by going into the vain and ridiculous
extremes of fashion in the matter of dress, con-
trary to the plain teachings of God’s word.
See Isa 3: 16-26, in connection with Chap.
92: 1,2, 10, ete.; 1 Tim. 2: 9,10; 1 Pet
3:3.
The church, who are called to be distinct
and separate from the world, and who are
forbidden by Christ to lay up treasures upon
earth (John 17: 16; 2 Cor. 6: 17, 18; Matt.
6: 19), will then, with rare exceptions, court
the friendship of the world, will occupy
popular positions and largely control worldly
governments, and will take the lead in amass-
ing wealth. Isa. 2: 2-7, etc.; Dan. 2: 35;
Jer. 51: 25; Jas. 4: 4; Rev. 14: 6-8, and
18: 9-23.
Paul, giving a description of ‘men”
“ having a form of godliness and denying the
power thereof,” “in the last days,” says,
that they “shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, diso-
bedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, with-
out natural affection, truce-breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good, traitors, heady, highminded,
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”
2 Tim. 3: 1-4.
Is not this a faithful picture of the sad
moral declension seen in too many professors
of to-day? Surely here is ground for con-
version. To modern Israel God says to-day,
as he once said to ancient Israel, “0 Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast
fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words,
and turn to the Lord: say unto him, take
away all iniquity, and receive us graciously:
so will we render the calves of our lips. I
will heal their backsliding, I will love them
freely.” Hos. 14: 1-4.
Yes, backsliders can be re-converted and