God's Character:

The Best News in

the

Universe

by Dr. Elliot O. Douglin

Author of The New World Economic Order, The Hour of His Judgment is Come,

Ministration of Holy Angels, Absolute Rest and Principles of Sabbath Rest,

The True Church Prepares For Her Final Conflict, The Mystery Of Three Choices,

The Gathering Of The Nations, The Sealing Work, Abiding In Christ,

The Power of God's Word in the Science of Faith...

Copyright © 2001 by

Truth For The Final Generation

Contents

Chapter Seventeen
The Royal Law Of Liberty

Chapter Seventeen
The Royal Law Of Liberty

God is absolutely, immutably, eternally and infinitely righteous! The moral law of God is a description of His righteousness. In other words the moral law of God is a transcript of His character, an unerring account of how God behaves in any and every circumstance.

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." Psalm 145:17.

"For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Malachi 3:6.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.

"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good."Romans 7:12.

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Psalm 19:7-9.

God is love. God's Agapé love is utterly unselfish, it is an "all-for-the-other" love, a love which always does the best for others whatever the cost to oneself.

"Love suffereth long, and is kind; Love envieth not; Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." 1 Corinthian 13: 4, 5.

Eternal, infinite love is the fundamental functional principle of God's righteousness. Eternal, divine, Agapé love is that eternal principle within God by which He uses His eternal power righteously.

This is the eternal basis of God's eternal life.

Infinite power, infinite wisdom, infinite righteousness and infinite love are all eternally inherent in God. Since love is the principle by which God unchangingly and unchangeably applies righteousness to power we can conclude with absolute certainty that God is love, His nature, His law is love.

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John 4:8,16.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:10.

"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:25.

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:" James 2:8.

Love and righteousness are therefore inseparable, in fact, righteousness is love in action. Love, the love of God, is therefore the essential functional living principle in the moral law of God. In other words the spirit of the law is love.

"Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:35-40.

God's righteousness cannot be separated from His life or His love.

God cannot change His nature, He cannot change His character. To do so would be to cease from being God because since He is absolutely, eternally, infinitely perfect He cannot be improved upon neither can He deteriorate.

Therefore God cannot change His moral law which is a transcript/blueprint of His character, a description of how His nature behaves.

Similarly God cannot transgress or go against His nature or His character. Therefore God cannot transgress His moral law. Sin is defined as the transgression of God's moral law. God cannot sin, He cannot transgress His moral law. Moreover since His moral law is perfect God never has to break His law in order to achieve any objective. An absolute eternal and perfect law can stand on its own and can never be defeated. God's absolute moral law is not arbitrary and has no imperfections. Therefore, like His nature, it cannot be improved upon neither can its standard be lowered in anyway. No one, not even God can change His moral law because no one, not even God, can change God's nature.

"Think not 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. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-19.

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."Hebrews 13:8.

"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." 1 Samuel 15:29.

Remember we are describing God's moral law. We are not talking about the laws of creation which God made. The moral law is as eternal as God's nature, its principles are absolute and immutable. The moral law is an unerring description of God's immutable behaviour under all circumstances, to friend or foe and at all times.

The assertion that God is above His moral law, is not bound by it, and can break it, is a false assertion based on ignorance of God. It is an argument usually employed, as a desperate last resort, by those who want to avoid the claims of one or more of the Ten Commandments.

Before the development of sin all of God's creatures possessed His law of love written in their minds and they willingly, naturally and joyfully obeyed that law of love spontaneously.

God's law of unselfish, self-sacrificing, all-for-the-other (Agapé) love is the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. Since God is infinite in power, wisdom, righteousness, life and love, He is the Source of all life and of all good and it is impossible for Him to be the source of evil or death.

"In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Proverbs 12:28.

In heaven, in His ministry for all created beings the Son of God is the channel of all good from His Father. The Father's life, love, righteousness and blessings flow out to all through His Son and through the Son the love returns in praise and joyous service. This is the circuit of beneficence, the law of love and life for the universe.

In heaven itself this law of love and life was broken. Sin originated in self-centredness. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He suggested that he had a better way of governing the universe than God's way of self-sacrificing love. But there can be no other way of life than God's way, therefore Satan's government of selfishness and sin became the government of death. Satan was a liar and a murderer from the outset of his rebellion because his government would separate creatures from God's government and therefore and thereby destroy them.

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law… He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:4, 8.

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44.

One third of the angelic hosts sided with Satan and the rival government was on its way. After they left heaven, Satan and his fallen angels aimed their attack on the first two humans on planet earth.

Satan's aim was to obliterate the law of love from Adam's mind and to replace it with the law of selfishness which is the law of sin and death.

He succeeded in getting Adam to disobey God and the night of woe settled down on our planet.

Mankind progressively lost the details of the principle of Divine Love from their minds until it became necessary for God to spell out those details. On Mount Sinai God spoke and wrote the Ten Commandments moral law for Israel and for the entire world (Read Exodus 20).

Scripture describes the Ten Commandment moral law as the perfect law of liberty, the royal law. This law is a complete unit describing the details of the principle of divine self-sacrificing love. In other words the Ten Commandment moral law is God's law of love expressed in simple, unmistakable moral instructions so that every person can understand how Divine Love behaves. Moreover this law of love expressed in the Ten Commandments is the standard for all moral judgement.

"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:25.

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:8-12.

Since the fundamental, eternal principle in the moral law of Ten Commandments is the principle of unselfish, self-sacrificing love, the transgression of any one commandment is the transgression of the basic principle of love which runs through each and every commandment. Therefore to break one commandment is to break all. The love of God keeps the commandments of God.

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:2,3.

"And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." 2 John verse 5, 6.

Any attempt to keep the Ten Commandments without the love of God in the soul is miserable legalism because it cannot be done. During His earthly ministry Jesus firmly and lovingly exposed the futility and emptiness of merely legal or ceremonial obedience.

We have already established that God's moral law is a perfect law, it is not an arbitrary set of rules but rather it is an absolute law based upon the eternal principle of unselfish Divine love. Therefore God never breaks His law in order to enforce it. The moral law of love, the Royal law of liberty describes how the Divine Nature behaves under any and all circumstances.

Since the moral law is a transcript of God's character we should be able to clearly see that God does not, in fact, cannot break His law of love.

The moral law says, "Thou shalt not lie." God cannot lie.

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." Titus 1:2.

The moral law says, "Thou shalt not steal." God is the Giver of all good gifts and He never changes. He is not a thief, He cannot steal.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."John 10:10.

The moral law says, "Thou shalt not kill." God is the eternal absolute Source of life He cannot be the Source of death. Those who depart from Him write off themselves. Since the moral law is a transcript of God's character, if killing is not in the law it cannot be in God's character either.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:10.

"O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." Jeremiah 17:13.

Sin is the cause of death. Death is inherent in sin, sin produces death as mammary glands produce milk. A farmer does not have to inject milk into the mammary glands and then milk them to get milk. THUS IT IS WITH SIN AND DEATH.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Romans 5:12.

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

"I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." Deuteronomy 30:15-20.

In the years leading up to the first advent of Christ the Jews had progressively lost sight of God's love in His law. They held to the "letter" of the law but, generally speaking, had rejected the principle of self-sacrificing love which is the "spirit" of the moral law. They invented a multiplicity of rules in an attempt to make themselves obedient to the moral law while all the time they were devoid of God's love.

Jesus came to show them that only by receiving the love of God in their hearts could they truly be obedient to His law.

The entire life of Jesus on earth was the perfect example of a life of love and love-motivated obedience. His life was the clearest demonstration of God's character of self-sacrificing love ever given to mankind.

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15:9-14.

"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." John 5:30.

The love of God had been so lost sight of by the Jews, let alone the world, that they rejected the character of Christ. They were so ignorant of the true character of God they could not recognize Him in His Son.

"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:14-17, 25, 26.

THE "ACID'TEST'

The prophet Isaiah gives us the "acid-test."

"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20.

The life of Christ on earth was a perfect example of how to keep the Ten Commandments and a perfect demonstration of God's character of agape love. His life on earth was the testimony or true witness of His Father's character. When we want to know whether a doctrine is true or not we must test it by comparing it with the moral law and the perfect life of Jesus Christ.

The traditional view of a God who kills His opponents by direct decree or by direct personal attack is neither in harmony with the moral law of God nor the life of Christ.

The moral law of God declares that killing is sin.

The life of Christ was one in which He never hurt anyone and when He was urged to destroy according to what the disciples construed to be Old Testament precedent, He rebuked them with the fact that it is the spirit of Satan, not the Spirit of God, which seeks to destroy one's opponents.

"But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village." Luke 9:55-56 note verse 55.

THE INDIVIDUAL COMMANDMENTS

THE FIRST: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3.

There is only one true, living God. A true God by definition must be self-existent and must be absolutely eternal i.e. beginningless and endless. Since there is only one true God, YAHWEH, there are no others worthy of that name because all other beings are creatures.

God the Father, His Son and Holy Spirit are one God, uncreated, eternal, perfect and infinite. To turn from the true God to any other supposed god is to turn from life to non-existence. This first commandment is an expression of God's infinite love for us because He does not want us to turn from the only Source of life to sources of death.

THE SECOND: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image….

God wants us to have the correct image of Him.

A creature can rise no higher morally than the image he has of his god. To have the wrong image of the right God is equivalent to worshipping the wrong god.

We are to form the correct picture of God by allowing scripture to interpret and explain its statements about God's behaviour. Satan had made it his business to distort the correct scriptural image of God and so when the fullness of time had

come God sent His Son to give us the right picture, the correct image of Himself.

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Hebrews 1:1-3.

Jesus is the express image of His Father and He is the Father's clearest and fullest expression of His character, therefore all statements about God must be interpreted and explained by the demonstration given by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

THE THIRD: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD (YAHWEH) thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Exodus 20:7.

To take God's name in vain means more than using His name irreverently or disrespectfully. It includes false profession. To profess to be a child of God, calling on His Name and using His name, while denying His claims or rejecting His righteousness is to take God's name in vain.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:21-23.

To use the name of God while believing Satan's lies about God's character is also to take God's name in vain.

THE FOURTH: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD (YAHWEH) thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughters, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh-day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

God could have spoken our planet into complete perfection by one word but He chose to speak the crude planet into existence and then in six days to make it, shape it and create all that was necessary to make it a complete and perfect paradise for mankind.

Why?

By the time our planet and solar system were to be created, sin had already developed in the universe. The assertion of Satan's government was that creatures did not need God's government of righteousness. God intended to show that every detail of His creative work had to be accomplished in, by and through complete righteousness. Any detail of the creation not constructed in complete righteousness would mean a defect which would spell eventual ruin.

During Creation Week God proceeded, day by day, with His creative work until our planet was a completely perfect paradise and He pronounced it very good.

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Genesis 1:31.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 2:1-3.

Every detail of creation was completely covered and filled with righteousness. Seven is God's number of completeness. If God had stopped His creative work on the first day of the week or on any day before completion there could have been no rest because the earth would have been a long way from the completely perfect paradise He intended it to be. Rest is the end-result of righteousness.

"And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever." Isaiah 32:17.

The seventh day Sabbath is therefore the immutable memorial and sign of the fact that God's righteousness must cover and fill His creation in order for existence and life to be perfectly maintained. The weekly seventh-day Sabbath is the constant reminder of our need to have God's righteousness completely applied to every aspect of our beings.

The righteousness of God is functionally constituted in Christ, therefore in Him we have complete righteousness and rest.

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. 1:30.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:28-29.

When Jesus was here on earth He unequivocally stated that the Sabbath was made for mankind. He had to have been absolutely correct for He was the One who made all things perfect and complete in the beginning, including the Sabbath.

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." Mark 2:27,28.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:1-3.

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." Hebrews 4:9, 10,4.

It is clear then that since the weekly seventh-day Sabbath was established before the entrance of sin in the earth, it is not and can never be a shadow or ceremony but rather a constant reminder of the facts that:

(i) God is the Creator and

(ii) The creation needs to be completely detailed with God's righteousness in order for things to work perfectly right.

Therefore the command to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy is of the highest moral order. It is in fact the most moral of all the Ten Commandments and it is the commandment, which binds or seals the Ten Commandments into one moral unit of love. And all this because the seventh-day Sabbath teaches, as no other command does, that creation must have God's complete righteousness and that only the Creator God can give that righteousness and apply it to every detail with absolute completeness, hence the number 7.

God knew that to forget the Sabbath would be to forget the very basis of all morality which is the righteousness of God given and applied to us by the Creator. So it is not any one day in seven, it is only the seventh-day of the week which can be the reminder of the Creator's creative righteousness. No other day can be the Sabbath but the seventh-day of the week.

Furthermore in remembering the seventh-day Sabbath to keep it holy there is the highest state and sense of freedom because it is the righteousness of God that liberates from bondage to sin.

Love for God manifests itself in loving obedience to the first four commandments.

We come now to the last six commandments which describe the details of how love behaves towards others.

THE FIFTH: Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

God made the family unit. Human children need loving instruction and guidance over the first three seven year periods of life i.e. up to age 21. Children should love, honor, respect and submit to righteous parental authority. And parents should ensure that their authority is that of love and righteousness.

THE SIXTH: Thou shalt not kill. Exodus 20:13.

God is the only Source of created life. And He is not the Source of death. Death came as a result of sin and were it not for the redemption of Christ, death would have been permanent. Because of Christ's redemptive work physical death is called (i) a sleep and (ii) the first death by implication since there is a second death.

God is the Giver of all good gifts. He neither changes nor varies, He is never the giver of bad gifts and death is so bad it is called an enemy of God and God is never the Source of anything inimical to Himself.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Corinthian 15:24-26.

Death is the enemy of God and His creation and He intends to destroy it. He is not the cause of it.

To inflict death on anyone, to kill anyone is the lowest level of morality, it is using the enemy of God against the Creator's creatures.

God values life so very highly that He is hurt even when a sparrow falls dead to the ground!

When we have God's love in our souls we will value life as highly as God does. God kills no one neither should we, rather we should seek to promote health and save life.

Sickness, suffering and death are the result of the sin-problem on earth. God is the One Who restores. Satan, with his government of sin, is the destroyer.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:1-5.

THE SEVENTH: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14.

In Ephesians 5 Paul teaches us that physical marriage is a symbol of the marriage between Christ and His church. One of the most strikingly lovely characteristics of the Divine Nature is God's faithfulness, His loyalty, His commitment to His creatures through His selfless love.

Marriage was ordained for the reproduction of the race and to provide an environment of love, faithfulness, loyalty and commitment for human family life.

To every natural power or biological system which He made God fixed particular and specific principles of righteousness. To transgress these principles is to expose the particular natural power or system to perversion of function with resultant physical, mental and spiritual disaster.

Sexual immorality exposes the biological systems involved to the damage which always results when sin separates any aspect of creation from God's righteousness.

"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthian 6:18-20.

THE EIGHTH: Thou shalt not steal. Exodus 20:15.

Agapé Love always gives. Love does not even seek its own let alone what belongs to others.

The love of God always moves its possessor to give, to share, not looking for anything in return. Our Heavenly Father has set us the example.

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."

THE NINTH: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Exodus 20:16.

A lie or falsehood describes that which is not. All lies therefore contain the seeds of non-existence or death masquerading under the guise of existence. To believe a lie or to tell a lie is to be a purveyor of death.

THE TENTH: "Thou shalt not covet ..." Exodus 20:17.

Covetousness is idolatry. It is a cardinal manifestation of selfishness which is the opposite of God's self-sacrificing, "all-for-the-other," love.

Covetousness is the springboard of theft. Rather than seeking others' possessions we should follow the counsel of Jesus in Matthew 6:33, 34.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matthew 6:33, 34.

Conclusion

There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of man, both in this life and in the life to come. In obedience to God's law, man is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from evil. Anyone who breaks down this divinely erected barrier at one point has destroyed its power to protect him, for he has opened a way by which the enemy can enter to waste and ruin.

The absolute moral law of Agapé love in the ten commandments, as well as the gospel, reflects the true character of God.

"In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof is no death." Proverbs 12:28.

Since there is no death in the way of righteousness God can never be the Source of death because He is absolutely, eternally, infinitely righteous and immutably so.

The sting of death is sin (1 Corinthians 15:56).

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23).

The law can be kept only by abiding in Christ and having His love, faith and righteousness in our hearts.