Ezekiel 20:11 - Homiletics

Law and life.

I. THE LAW WAS GIVEN AS A MINISTER OF LIFE . God vouchsafed his statutes in order that the Jews might live by means of them. Without those ordinances they were in danger of death, for they were sinners, and the fruit of sin is death. Thus we see that the Law was given in mercy. It came as a blessing. It was in its aim a gospel. Nothing can be further from the truth than the notion that it was a rod of chastisement, or even, as some have regarded it, an evil thing, a sort of curse upon sinners. It was not so regarded by the Old Testament saints, who sang hymns in praise of it, and hailed it with language of affection and rapture ( e . g . Psalms 40:1-17 and Psalms 119:1-176 ).

1 . Truth leads to life . The Law was a revelation of God's eternal verities, without which the soul would perish in the night of its own ignorance.

2 . Righteousness would make for life . The Law declared the nature of righteousness, and pointed out the path on which it could be pursued. Thus it was an aid to conscience. Further, by its sanctions of menace and promise it urged the careless to walk in that path.

3 . Grace leads to life . The Law did not exclude all grace. On the contrary, it was given in mercy, and it contained saving provisions in various forms of condescension to human weakness and in the great institution of sacrifices for sin.

II. THE LAW PROVED TO BE A MESSENGER OF DEATH . (See Ezekiel 20:25 ). We have come to regard the Law with aversion under the influence of the arguments of St. Paul. Yet he distinctly teaches that the Law was good, but that the perversion of it led to ruin ( Romans 7:12 ).

1 . The Law condemns sin . Before we have sinned it is a friend to warn us against doing wrong, but by sinning we have turned it into an enemy. The warning beacon has thus become an ominous meteor, the sign post a gallows tree. That which by its guidance protects the innocent from death, by its judgments condemns the guilty to death ( Romans 7:10 ).

2 . The Law is powerless to save from sin .

III. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS THE ONLY EFFECTUAL WAY OF LIFE . The Law was "weak," though not on account of its own imperfection, but "through the flesh," i . e . on account of man's human degradation, so that man did not respond to it. Therefore God sent his Son to bring the salvation which the Law was powerless to produce ( Romans 8:3 ).

1 . In Christ we have the gift of life . ( 1 John 5:12 ). Nothing less than death is due under the Law; nothing less than life is given by Christ. This we receive by active regenerating grace, not by the erection of a new standard of morals—the Sermon on the Mount substituted for the Ten Commandments—but by the presence and work of a living Saviour.

2 . This life in Christ does not destroy the glory of the Law .