The Law and Grace

"I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.  The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it."

C. H. Spurgeon

A man must see the enormity of his sin and his offense before God before he can truly repent of it.  There may be many clever analogies used by preachers unfortunately without a basis in scripture, but this is not one of them.  Paul wrote, "I would not have known sin except by the Law." (Romans 7:7)  Sin is so natural to a human being we would never recognise it as wrong without the clean mirror of God's Law.  Without knowledge of sin there can be no repentance, and without repentance there is no hope for forgiveness or salvation.  A man must submit to the reality of his deadly disease before he will seek and receive the cure.  Unless a man submits to his condemnation under the Law, spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit - the Living Water Jesus spoke of - could not be received.

The truth of Spurgeon's claim is presented in a remarkable passage in the book of Numbers.  The children of Israel had been delivered by the mighty hand of God from Egypt, and God provided water from a spring in a miraculous fashion.  Numbers 21:16-18 says, "From there they went to Beer, which is the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Gather the people together, and I will give them water." ¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well! All of you sing to it-- ¹⁸ the well the leaders sank, dug by the nation's nobles, by the lawgiver, with their staves." And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah..."  The Moabites had refused to provide the Israelites with water, but God would give them water.  He commanded them to gather together and sing.  God was the lawgiver who committed the Law to Moses who then passed God's directives to the people.  As the people sung in obedience and the nobles dug with their staves into the wilderness - which were symbols of authority - living water burst from beneath their feet.

Our hearts are naturally a dry wilderness, devoid of life.  It is significant God is called the Lawgiver, for the staff of Aaron which budded was proof of God's authority (Numbers 17).  God wrote the 10 Commandments on tablets of stone and effectively rendered the entire world guilty before Him (Romans 3:19).  The Law can only condemn and is compared to a schoolmaster which leads us by the hand to salvation through faith in Christ.  The Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is only good news when a man recognises he is damned and cut off without hope for eternity because of his sin.  When the Law breaks through the heart of stone of a guilty sinner, only then is the way cleared for repentance and salvation.  Drinking from the clear spring of Beer did not prevent eventual death for the thirsty Israelites, but Jesus promised Living Water who brings salvation in John 4:13-14:  "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  The needle of the Law makes the way for the Gospel, even as the staff directed by the Lawgiver made way for Living Water to flow forth.  Amazing truth from an awesome God!