For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
God reveals Christ to sinners, and they behold Him dying upon Calvary for the sin of His creatures. They then understand how they are condemned by the law of God, for the Spirit works upon their consciences, enforcing the claim of the broken law. They are then given the opportunity of defying the law, of rejecting the Savior, or of yielding to its claims and receiving Christ as their Redeemer. God will not compel the service of sinners, but He reveals to them their obligation, unfolds to them the requirements of His holy law, and sets before them the result of their choice—to obey and live, or to disobey and perish.
The command from heaven is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” When the force of this requirement is understood, the conscience is convicted, the sinner is condemned. The carnal mind, which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, rises up in rebellion against the holy claims of the law. But as sinners behold Christ hanging upon the cross of Calvary, suffering for their transgression, deeper conviction takes hold upon them, and they see something of the offensive nature of sin.
Where there is a true conception of the spirituality and holiness of the divine law, sinners are under condemnation, and their sins stand arrayed before them in their true character. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and in its light they understand the evil of secret thoughts and deeds of darkness....
Character is tested and registered by Heaven more by the inward spirit, the hidden motives, than by that which appears to others. People may have a pleasing exterior and be outwardly excellent, while they are but whited sepulchers, full of corruption and uncleanness. Their works are registered as unsanctified, unholy. Their prayers and works, devoid of the righteousness of Christ, do not ascend before God as sweet fragrance, but they are abomination in the eyes of the Lord. To those who will open their eyes, the law presents a perfect likeness of the soul, a complete photograph of the inner being; and as this picture is unveiled before sinners, they are constrained to acknowledge that they are sold under sin, but that the law is holy, and just, and good.—Signs of the Times, November 3, 1890.
From From the Heart - Page 301
From the Heart