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).