0370. Under the Law, a Debtor to the Whole Law

Under the Law, a Debtor to the Whole Law

"For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law" (Gal_5:3).

1. The verse means simply this that if one puts himself under the Law he cannot choose one phase of legal requirement, such as circumcision, and side step the balance of the Law.

If we are to be saved by the Law we must keep the whole Law, and not some specialized part of the Law.

A man being tried before the court for stealing, will do little good by arguing that he is not a murderer, and not a drunkard.

2. In Jam_2:10 we read "For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." This does not mean that a man who blasphemes, is covetous; but it means, that the man who blasphemes is guilty before God, whether he be covetous or not.

We suppose that those who boast their morality will hardly boast a perfect morality. Yet, any failure, at any point, at any time between the cradle and the grave, to live a life absolutely as holy as God is holy, must bring eternal death.

3. Leaping sixteen feet, over a chasm that is eighteen feet wide, will not bring me to safety.

But how foolish is all of this talk! Whoever jumped, in ratio, eighteen feet out of twenty across the gaping chasm of eternal death, toward life and Heaven and Home? The fact is we had all better quit boasting of our morals and the way we have kept the Law, and we had better confess that from our head to our feet we are "all wounds and bruises and putrifying sores."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR