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The great obstacle to the acceptance of the gospel message is the want of a deep and permanent conviction of the enormity of sin and of our actual transgression before God.

I. In the words before us THE HIGHEST AND BEST POSSIBLE SUPPOSITION IS MADE WITH REFERENCE TO HUMAN OBEDIENCE. It is supposed that the individual here presented before us has kept the whole law with but one solitary exception. Dress yourself out in your best plumes, put on your most courtly array; deck yourself in your most unspotted garments; suppose the best opinion to be true, that with any degree of self-examination you can entertain of your condition, yet surely you are guilty of one sin, you have broken one commandment — then thou art guilty of the whole, "thou art weighed in the balance," and by thine own weights and measures thou art "found wanting."

II. THE SLIGHTEST POSSIBLE FLAW SUPPOSED that could be supposed to exist. Now, can we make a stronger supposition in favour of human righteousness than that which he makes? — and can we refuse to admit a possible flaw to the extent he supposes it to exist, after the plain declaration of the Word of God?

III. From the strongest possible supposition of human righteousness, and from the slightest possible flaw that can be supposed to exist in that righteousness, THE MOST FEARFUL CONCLUSION IS DEDUCED AS TO ITS BEARING ON US in these words, "He that shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point is guilty of all."

1. Because all the commandments of the law are inseparably connected.

2. This conclusion of the apostle rests on the unity of the commandments themselves, on the oneness of the principle on which they are founded. God reveals Himself as our Creator and Preserver, a Being to whelm we are under infinite obligations; in revealing Himself in this character, all He asks of us is love. From that one feeling, He deduces the various duties we owe to Him — they are all but so many proofs of the existence of the principle of love — and on the same ground of obligation to Him, He enforces the duties we owe to our fellow-men.

3. "He who offends in one point is guilty of all," because the keeping of some commandments will not, by any means, atone for the violation of others.

4. The law, as law, cannot permit the slightest deviation, and here we see the folly of looking to the law for justification in the sight of God.

(W. H. Cooper.)

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KJV: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

WEB: For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.