CHAPTER SIX
CALVARY

       There flow from the Cross of Calvary two broad streams of Truth which together can wash the soul of man and change his whole outlook upon the Creation. The first of these streams can be called 'The Majesty of the Law'; the second 'The Love of God'.

1. The Majesty of the Law

       In all human society Law is given a high place. Even the most primitive tribes have their social and moral customs which are strictly observed. It has been found by experience that social life must be regulated by social laws. Nowhere is murder a duty, nor theft encouraged. The reason is of course that where there is no law there is no security, and when there is no security there is no happiness. Everywhere therefore Law is honoured as the basis of a settled social life, and everywhere the law-breaker is punished, that law-breaking and its consequent inconveniences may be abolished. It is the policeman, not the burglar, who enables us to sleep in our beds at night! Wherever Law is despised, and justice flouted, there is cruelty and sorrow and apprehension.

       Yet, when we come into contact with God, it is His Law that offends us! Rather do we expect a God of Love to be lenient and accommodating. God could not be so cruel as to send the sinner to Hell, we say. Yet, if the earthly judge refused to send the burglar to prison because he 'loved' him, there would soon be an outcry! We expect the earthly judge to be exact in his duties, and to put the happiness of society,

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with which he has been entrusted, first: but when the Lord God says "The wages of sin is death" and "the soul that sinneth it shall die" we are offended at His severity, and feel sure that He doesn't mean it. Ecclesiastes 8:11 puts our attitude exactly, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil". Paul clinches the whole matter in Romans 2:1-10. God's long-suffering is meant to lead us to repentance, but, as in Pharaoh's case, we take advantage of it and imagine that God does not mean what He says. The few times when judgment has immediately fallen, as with Adam, or Achan, or Ananias are forgotten in the ocean of God's forbearance. Yet God means exactly what He says, and in the last judgment all the world will be found to be guilty before God. It is easy to imagine how hopeless we should feel if we knew that God did not really mind sin, and did not intend ever to put an end to it. The worst nightmares of unbelieving but far-seeing scientists would be upon us!

       It is good if here we emphasise again the reason for the Majesty which surrounds the Law. It is because the Law of Love is the custodian of the world's happiness. It is the one and only possible way whereby we can live together in happiness. It is because the law-breaker threatens the peace of society that the judge puts him where he can do so no longer! Christ came into this world "to magnify the Law and make it honourable" (Isaiah 42:21). "Think not", he said, "that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus defined Love as law-keeping (John 14:21), and sent out His Apostles to teach their converts "to observe all things

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whatsoever I have commanded you". No unbeliever is justified by the Law, for all have broken it; but when the two believers Ananias and Sapphira broke the Law without repentance, they died. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; but Achan and his family hid theirs overnight, and perished.

       The final honouring of the Law came when the Son of God, the Creator of all men, acknowledged its claims upon His creatures, and died in their stead, that all men and angels should for ever know that "the soul that sinneth it shall die". Calvary took away from all men any hope they might have of breaking the Law with impunity. Not until the majesty of the Law had been upheld and its just claims satisfied could even God Himself save a single sinner. Law broken without retribution means Law despised, and society in chaos. Law despised means that happiness has flown out of the window, never to return. By His death on the Cross Christ established the Law (Romans 3.31) in its great simplicity—"the soul that sinneth it shall die".

       In God's sight obedience to His commandments stands before everything else. Obedience is sometimes easy, sometimes hard, but it is always essential. His only Son, who had obeyed in Heaven where is was easy, came down to earth and learned how hard obedience can be by the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8), and came to the place when even in the deepest anguish He could say "I delight to do Thy will, O my God". God does not ask success, no man can command that, but He does demand obedience, for that is in the power of us all.

       God therefore has taken His Son and nailed Him to the Law's Gibbet that all men may know for ever that the Law is supreme, and kills all who flout it. Broken Law means dead sinner. If we live after the flesh we shall die (Romans 8:13).

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