Rom. iii. 20. By the law is the knowledge of sin.
OUR lost estate, and our consequent need of a Sa- viour, can never be truly known, unless we compare our lives with that universal rule of duty, the law of God. St. Paul took this method of proving that both Jews and Gentiles were under sin : in all the preceding part of this epistle he sets forth their transgressions against the law ; and having confirmed his assertions by many passages out of the old Testament, he says in the verse before my text, " We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." From hence it is evident that the law of which he is speaking, is the moral law, that same law which was originally engraven in the heart of Adam, and was afterwards published to the world on Mount Sinai : for the Gen- tiles having never been subject to the ceremonial or judicial law, it can be no other than the moral law, which shuts their mouth and brings them in guilty before God. The principal ends for which he referred them to this law were these ; first, to convince them that they could not be justified by their obedience to it (and therefore in the words immediately preceding our text, he says, that by the law shall no flesh be justified ;) and secondly, to shew them their undone condition by the law ; and therefore he adds, in the words of our text, "by the law is the knowledge of sin."
From these words we shall take occasion to com- pare our lives with the law of God, that so we may obtain the knowledge of our sins: and while we are thus bringing our iniquities to remembrance, may the Spirit of God come down upon us, to convince us all of sin, and to reveal unto us that only Deliverer from sin, the Lord Jesus Christ !