“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” Verse 9.
12. By what are all men proved guilty?
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Verse 19.
Note.—It is what the law says, and not what one may interpret it to mean, that proves the sinner guilty. Moreover, God is no respecter of persons, but treats Jew and Gentile alike. Measured by the law, all the world are guilty before God.
13. Does faith in God make void the law?
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Verse 31.
14. What, more than all else, proves the perpetuity and immutability of the law of God?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “Christ died for our sins.” 1 Cor. 15:3.
Note.—Could the law have been abolished, and sin been disposed of in this way, Christ need not have come and died for our sins. The gift of Christ, therefore, more than all else, proves the immutability of the law of God. Christ must come and die, and satisfy the claims of the law, or the world must perish. The law could not give way. Says Spurgeon in his sermon on “The Perpetuity of the Law of God,” “Our Lord Jesus Christ gave a greater vindication of the law by dying because it had been broken than all the lost can ever give by their miseries.” The fact that the law is to be the standard in the judgment is another proof of its enduring nature. See Eccl. 12:13, 14; James 2:8-12.
15. What relation does a justified person sustain to the law?