Law
Psalms 1:2
But his delight is in the law of the LORD;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Romans 3:31
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Romans 7:7
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.
T. S. P. Volume One
The Law of God PG 261
The law of God existed before man was created.
The angels were governed by it.
Satan fell because hetransgressed the principles of God's government. After Adam and Eve were created, God made known to them his law. It was not then written, but was rehearsed to them by Jehovah.
----------------------------------------- Patriarchs and Prophets PG 48, 49
Our first parents, though created innocent and holy, were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing. God made them free moral agents, capable of appreciating the wisdom and benevolence of His character and the justice of His requirements, and with full liberty to yield or to
withhold obedience. They were to enjoy communion with God and with holy angels; but before they could be rendered eternally secure, their loyalty must be tested. At the very beginning of man's existence a check was placed upon the desire for self-indulgence, the fatal passion that lay at the foundation of Satan's fall. The tree of knowledge, which stood near the tree of life in the midst of the garden, was to be a test of the
obedience, faith, and love of our parents. While permitted to eat freely of every other tree, they were forbidden to taste of this, on pain of death. They were also to be exposed to the temptations of Satan; but if they endured the trial, they would finally be placed beyond his power, to enjoy perpetual favor with God. God placed man under law, as an
indispensable condition of his very existence. He was a subject of the divine government, and there can be no government without law.
God might have created man without the power to transgress His law; He might have withheld the hand of Adam from touching the forbidden fruit; but in that case man would have been, not a free moral agent, but a mere automaton. Without freedom of choice, his obedience would not have been voluntary, but forced. There could have been no development of character. Such a course would have been contrary
to God's plan in dealing with the
inhabitants of other worlds. It would have been unworthy of man as an intelligent being, and would have sustained Satan's charge of God's arbitrary rule. God made man upright; He gave him noble
traits of character, with no bias toward evil. He endowed him with high intellectual powers, and presented before him the strongest possible inducements to be true to his allegiance. Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition he was to have access to the tree of life.
-----------------------------------------
A. R. & S. H.
July 15, 1890
We must inquire what captain we are following, under whose banner we are standing. Satan was the first transgressor of the law of Jehovah. We read in the Bible how sin entered into the world. Satan was the first one who ever questioned the holy will of God, and his very first work was to transgress God's law, and then he
came to Adam and Eve in Eden, and through his temptations caused them to break the commandments of God. Satan thought to win the human family to his side that they might war against the family in heaven. It was Satan's plan to war against the God of heaven. God has a constitution and laws to govern those whom he has created, and it would be a terrible thing if any of us should be found on the wrong side, warring against the government of Heaven. There are
many deceptions to lead us away from the truth. Many think that Adam and Eve were very foolish in listening to the voice of the tempter that caused their fall
from the high and holy estate, yet those who criticize do the same thing. Why do not the children of Adam who find fault with him for his sin, cease themselves to transgress?
------------------------------------------
Signs of the Times
January 30, 1879
The Father could not change nor abolish one precept of his law
to meet man in his fallen condition. But the Son of God, who had in unison with the Father created man, could make an atonement for man acceptable to God, by giving his life a sacrifice, and bearing the wrath of his Father.
Faith and Works PG 29
Sanctification is obtained only in obedience to the will of God. Many who are willfully trampling upon the law of Jehovah claim holiness of heart and sanctification of life. But they have not a saving knowledge of God or of His law. They are standing in the ranks of the great rebel. He is at war with the law of God, which is the foundation of the divine government in heaven and in the earth. These men are doing the same work as their master has done in seeking to make of none effect God's holy law. No commandment-breaker can be
permitted to enter heaven; for he who was once a pure and exalted covering cherub was thrust out for rebelling against the government of God.
----------------------------------------
1 John 3:4
Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law: for
sin is the transgression of the law.