17. When Christ thus ministers the law in the heart, what does it become?
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:2-4.
18. In what other statement is this same truth expressed?
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63.
19. What kind of teaching have men substituted for the words which are spirit and life?
“Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.... And He said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:7-9.
Notes.—There are two cups, the cup of the Lord and the cup of Babylon. The wine in the Lord's cup represents the living truth, “as the truth is in Jesus;” the wine in the cup of Babylon represents her false doctrines, her substitution of human tradition for the living word and law of God, and the illicit connection which she has made between the church and the secular power, depending upon political power to enforce her teachings, rather than upon the power of God. By this very thing, while maintaining a form of godliness, she denies the power thereof. 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
The following quotation states the position of that church in regard to tradition: “Though these two divine streams [the Bible and tradition] are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe.”—“Catholic Belief,” Rev. Joseph Faa Di Bruno, D. D. (Roman Catholic), page 45.
The substitution of the law of the church for the law of God, in fulfilment of the prophecy in Dan. 7:25, testifies to the complete subordination of the Word of God to the authority of the church. The world-wide teaching of these doctrines in place of the pure gospel has led the world astray, and has made all the nations drink of the wine of her fornication. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was an effort to return to the pure truths of God's Word. In this the Reformers denied the supremacy of tradition over the Bible.
20. What relation does the Church of Rome sustain to other apostate churches?