Preaching the Law

Preaching the Law
By A.W. Pink
(Studies in the Scriptures, March 1934)

The fairest face on earth, which was endowed with the most comely features, would soon become ugly and unsightly if one feature continued to grow while all the others remained undeveloped. No matter how well formed or beautiful the mouth, if it became ten times the size of the eyes or ears, how repulsive would it appear. Beauty is principally a matter of proportion. So it is with the Word of God: its beauty and blessedness are best perceived when it is presented in its true proportions. To be all the time dwelling on the love of God and be silent about His wrath, or to be constantly expounding His righteousness and say little or nothing about His mercy, is to present a caricature of the Divine perfections. So also to preach ten sermons on the Gospel of God's grace to one upon God's Law, is to lose the balance of truth, and to present the truth disproportionately.

It has long appeared to the writer that the greatest and most deplorable defect in modern "evangelism" is the almost total absence of the preaching of God's Law. And as this little magazine is sent to a considerable number of preachers and mis¬sionaries, the editor feels it laid upon him to write a short article thereon. Before a servant of God is warranted in setting before the unsaved the Divine way of sal¬vation, he needs to make very clear wherein lies the need of salvation. This is the order of Scripture throughout. The Old Testament precedes the New. The ministry of John the Baptist comes before that of the Lord Jesus: and the former came "in the way of righteousness" (Matt. 21:32), calling to repentance. Romans 3:10-20 (read it!) precedes Romans 3:21-26, and so it should be in all preaching.

"By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20): then why not preach God's Law! Does not the Apostle to the Gentiles tell us, in that wondrous and blessed biographical passage of Romans 7, "I had not known sin, but by the law" (v. 7)! Fellow-preachers., the knowledge of God's Law is absolutely necessary in cider to a true knowledge of sin. Because God's Law is the rule of man's conduct, of a.11 his heart exercises and outward actions, so that he is sinful, or not, just in proportion as he conforms to the law, or does not conform thereto, it necessarily follows that he cannot possibly judge of his own char¬acter and determine whether he be a sinner or no, if he is completely igno¬rant of the law; and he must be igno¬rant of his own sinfulness, however great a sinner he be, just in proportion to the degree of his ignorance of the law he is under.

"Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4): therefore, where there is no law, there is no sin; and he who has no idea, no apprehension or knowledge of the law, has no real idea of sin; it is impossible that he should have, for every person's notion of sin will be according to his notion of the law. If he thinks God's Law requires that which it does not, then he will judge that to be sin which in truth is not so. If he thinks the law he is under does not require what it does (for example, heart-purity), then he will look upon that to be no sin, which in truth is so; and so far as he sees not, the ground and reasonableness of the law he will be ignorant of the crime or real sinfulness in transgressing it. While he is ignorant of the excellency of the law, and the authority of its Giver, and so sees not the glory of the law, he must be blind to the turpitude of sin, and can have no true idea of it.