commandment, he has never appended any promise to it whatever; much less
has he added the one here quoted by Paul. It is also a fact that this
commandment does stand in the Decalogue, not only as its first commandment
with promise, but with the very promise in question annexed! Hence it is a fact
that Paul quotes from the Decalogue, and this too for the purpose of enforcing
one of the clearest duties in the word of God: thus distinctly acknowledging the
fifth
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commandment as the fountain head of all authority on this subject. With this
important fact before us, we can judge whether those do not wrest the words of
Paul, who represent him as teaching the abolition of all the ten commandments.
Paul tells the Ephesians that he had kept back nothing that was profitable to
them. Acts.20:20. If therefore the moral law had been abolished, Paul must have
revealed this important fact to them. What them must the Ephesians have
thought when Paul wrote them four years later, appealing to the Decalogue, and
not to his apostolic authority, to enforce the duty of children to their parents? Paul
was never guilty of such inconsistency; it belongs only to those who teach the
abolition of the ten commandments.
"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish
the law." Rom.3:31. This text has been already quoted as concluding Paul's
argument on redemption through the death of Christ. We quote it again to give
Paul an opportunity to speak explicitly on the question before us. No one of the
apostles has treated so largely upon the doctrine of justification by faith as the
apostle Paul. But lest any should conclude from the earnest manner in which he
insists upon this doctrine that he believed the law of God abolished, he asks this
very question that he may answer it in the most definite manner. His answer
should put to the blush those teachers who represent Paul as
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setting aside, or teaching the abolition of the moral law. "God forbid," says the
Apostle, "yea, we establish the law." Nor can an exception be taken to the form of
the Apostle's question; for the same word that is rendered "make void" in this
verse, is in 2Cor.3:13; Eph.2:15; 2Tim.1:10, rendered "abolished." Paul has
therefore rendered a definite answer to the question under consideration. And the
strong language he uses in denying that he taught the abolition of that sacred
law, should forever silence those who lay such an accusation against him.
Paul will understood the fact, that, though men now have the offer of pardon
through the blood of Christ, the time will arrive when this work of mercy will be
finished, and the just penalty of the law of God be inflicted upon all who are then
in their sins. Knowing the terror of the Lord, he labored night and day to persuade
men to become reconciled unto God, and thus escape the penalty of the law -
the second death. Paul affirms that he did not teach the abolition of the law. Who
dare affirm that he did? Yes, said he, we establish the law. Who dare deny it?
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin,
but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, "Thou shalt not
covet." Rom.7:7. The conversion of Paul took place some years after the
crucifixion of Christ; so that what he says relative to the law of God has direct
bearing upon this subject.
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The experience of the Apostle, as here narrated by himself, is a proper example
of sound conversion to God. The law of God struck the first blow in Paul's
religious experience; and thus it is with all others. The tenth commandment of the
decalogue convinced Paul that he was a sinner; and he testifies that had it not
been for that precept of the law, he had not known himself a sinner: thus
exemplifying his own statement that "by the law is the knowledge of sin," showing
that the law is God's great standard of right.
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
The remainder of chapter 7 exhibits the powerful struggle of Paul, as an
awakened sinner, to keep the law of God. He is constrained to call the law holy,
and the commandment holy and just and good; and he testifies that it is by the
commandment that sin becomes exceeding sinful. He adds that the law is
spiritual, but that he is carnal, sold under sin. His language depicts in the most
