From Spurgeon's sermon #223
Nor does the Gospel in any way whatever give man a hope that the claims of the Law will be in any way loosened.
Some imagine that under the old dispensation, God demanded great things of man—that He did bind upon man heavy burdens that were grievous to be borne! And they suppose that Christ came into the world to put upon the shoulders of men a lighter Law—something which would be more easy for them to obey—a Law which they can more readily keep, or which if they break, would not come upon them with such terrible threats. Ah, not so!
The Gospel came not into the world to soften down the Law! Till Heaven and earth shall pass away, not one jot or tittle of the Law shall fail. What
God has said to the sinner in the Law, He says to the sinner in the Gospel! If He declares that, “the soul that sins shall die,” the testimony of the Gospel is not contrary to the testimony of the Law. If He declares that whoever breaks the sacred Law shall most assuredly be punished, the Gospel also demands blood for blood and eye for eye and tooth for tooth and does not relax a solitary jot or tittle of its demands! It is as severe and as terribly just as even the Law itself! Do you reply to this that Christ has certainly softened down the Law? I reply that you know not, then, the mission of Christ!
What did He say Himself? The Lord has said in the Law, “You shall not commit adultery”—has Christ softened the Law? No. He Says, “I say unto you that whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” That is no softening of the Law! It is, as it were, the grinding of the edge of the terrible sword of Divine Justice to make it far sharper than it seemed before. Christ has not put out the furnace—He rather seems to heat it seven times hotter! Before Christ came, sin seemed unto me to be but little. But when He came, sin became exceedingly sinful and all its dread heinousness started out before the light!
“But,” says one, “Surely the Gospel does in some degree remove the greatness of our sin. Does it not soften the punishment of sin?” Ah, no. You shall appeal to Moses. Let him ascend the pulpit and preach to you. He says, “The soul that sins, it shall die.” And his sermon is dread and terrible. He sits down—and now comes Jesus Christ, the Man of a loving Countenance. What says He with regard to the punishment of sin? Ah, Sirs, there was never such a preacher of the fires of Hell as Christ was! Our Lord Jesus Christ was all love but He was all honesty, too. “Never man spoke like that Man,” when He came to speak of the punishment of the lost. What other Prophet was the author of such dread expressions as
these?—“He shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”—“These shall go away into everlasting punishment”? Or this—“Where their worm dies not and their fire is not quenched”? Stand at the feet of Jesus when He tells you of the punishment of sin and the effect of iniquity and you may tremble there far more than you would have done if Moses had been the preacher and if Sinai had been in the background to conclude the sermon! No, Brothers and Sisters, the Gospel of Christ in no sense whatever helps to make sin less! The proclamation of Christ today by His minister is the same as the
utterance of Ezekiel of old—“The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great.”
