SIGNS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Warburton, Victoria, Australia
1925
1. The Perpetuity of the Law of God
2. God’s Great Mirror
3. The Law and the Gospel
4. Law and Liberty or Bondage?
5. That New Commandment
6. Ceremonial and Moral Law Distinguished
7. The Two Covenants
A SERMON BY CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
[Taken from the Australasian of March 3, 1894]
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5:18.
I GATHER from our text two things upon which I shall speak at this time. The first is that the law of God is perpetual: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from thee law.” The meaning is that even in the least point it must abide till all be fulfilled. Secondly, we perceive that the law must be fulfilled: Not “one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” He who came to bring in the gospel dispensation here asserts that He has not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.
The Law Perpetual
First: the law of God must be perpetual. There is no abrogation of it, nor amendment of it. It is not to be toned down or adjusted to our fallen condition; but every one of the Lord’s righteous judgments abides for ever. I would urge three reasons which will establish this teaching.
In the first place, our Lord Jesus declares that He did not come to abolish it. His words are most express: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” And Paul tells us with regard to the gospel “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31. The gospel is the means of the firm establishment and vindication of the law of God.
Jesus Came to Explain It.
Jesus did not come to change the law, but He came to explain it, and that very fact shows that it remains, for there is no need to explain that which is abrogated. Upon one particular point in which there happened to be a little ceremonialism involved, namely, the keeping of the Sabbath, our Lord enlarged, and showed that the Jewish idea was not the true one. The Pharisees forbade even the doing of works of necessity and mercy, such as rubbing ears of corn to satisfy hunger, and healing the sick. Our Lord Jesus showed that it was not at all according to the mind of God to forbid these things. In straining over the letter, and carrying an outward observance to excess, they had missed the spirit of the Sabbath law, which suggested works of piety such as truly hallow the day. He showed that was not mere inaction, and He said:
“My Father works hitherto, and I work.” He pointed to the priests who labored hard at offering sacrifices, and said of them: “The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless.” They were doing divine service, and were within the law. To meet the popular error He took care to do some of His grandest miracles upon the Sabbath day; and though this excited great wrath against Him, as though He were a law-breaker, yet He did it on purpose that they might see that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, and that it was meant to be a day for doing that which honors God and blesses men. Oh that men knew how to keep the spiritual Sabbath by a ceasing from all servile work, and from all work done for self!
The Rest of Faith
It is the true Sabbath, and the service of God is the most acceptable hallowing of the day. Ob that the day were wholly spent in serving God and doing good! The sum of our Lord’s teaching was that works of necessity, works of mercy, and works of piety are lawful on the Sabbath. He did explain the law in that point and in others, yet that explanation did not alter the command, but only removed the rust of tradition which had settled upon it. By thus explaining the law He confirmed it; He could not have meant to abolish it, or He would not have needed to expound it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in addition to explaining the law and pointing out its spiritual character, also unveiled.
Its Living Essence
For when one asked Him, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; You shall love your neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words, He has told us, “All the law is fulfilled in this:
There is the pith and marrow of it. Does any man say to me, “You see, then, instead of the Ten Commandments, we have received the two commandments, and these are much easier;” I answer that this reading of the law is not in the least easier. Such a remark implies a want of thought and experience. Those two precepts comprehend the ten at their fullest extent, and cannot be regarded as the erasure of a jot or tittle of them. Whatever difficulties surround the ten commands are equally found in the two, which are their sum and substance. If you love God with all your heart you must keep the first table; and if you love your neighbor as yourself you must keep the second table. If any suppose that the law of love is an adaptation of the moral law to man’s fallen condition they greatly err. I can only say that the supposed adaptation is no more adapted to us than the original law. If there could be conceived to be any difference in difficulty it might be easier to keep the ten than the two; for if we go no deeper than the letter, the two are more exacting, since they deal with the salvation of the sinner.
Heart, and Soul, and Mind
The ten commands mean all that the two express: but if we forget this, and only look at the wording of them, I say, it is harder for a man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength, and his neighbor as himself, than it would be merely to abstain from killing, stealing, and false witness. Christ has not, therefore, abrogated or at all moderated the law to meet our helplessness; He has left it in all its sublime perfection, as it always must be left, and He has pointed out how deep are its foundations, how elevated are its heights, how measureless are its length and breadth. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, God’s commands cannot be altered; we are saved by another method.
The Law Lived by Christ.
To show that He never meant to abrogate the law, our Lord Jesus has embodied all its commands in His own life. In His own person there was a nature which was perfectly conformed to the law of God: and as was His nature such was His life. He could say, “Which of you convinces Me of sin?” and again, “I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”
He was so perfect and pure, so infinitely good, and so complete in His agreement and communion with the Father, that He in all things carried out the Father’s will. The Father said of Him, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you Him.” Point out, if you possibly can, any way in which Christ has violated the law or left it unfulfilled. There was never an unclean thought or rebellious desire in His soul; He had nothing to regret or to retract. He was thrice tempted in the wilderness, and the enemy had the impertinence even to suggest idolatry, but He instantly overthrew the adversary. The prince of this world came to Him, but He found nothing in Him.
“My dear Redeemer and my Lord,
I read my duty in Thy word;
But in Thy life the law appears
Drawn out in living characters.”
Once more, that the Master did not come to alter the law is clear, because after having embodied it in His life He willingly gave Himself up to bear its penalty, though He had never broken it, bearing the penalty for us, even as it is written, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” If the law had demanded more of us than it ought to have done, would the Lord Jesus have rendered to it the penalty which resulted from its too severe demands? I am sure He would not. But because the law asked only what it ought to ask-namely.
Perfect Obedience
It is exacted of the transgressor only what it ought to exact, namely, death as the penalty for sin-death under divine wrath-therefore the Savior went to the tree, and there bore our sins, and purged them once for all. He was crushed beneath the load of our guilt, and cried, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” and at last, when He had borne
“All that incarnate God could bear,
With strength enough, but none to spare.”
He bowed His head and said: “It is finished.” Our Lord Jesus Christ gave a greater vindication to the law by dying, because it had been broken, than all the lost can ever give by their miseries. He has borne all that was due from His people, and the law is defrauded of nothing. By His death He has vindicated the honor of God’s moral government, and made it just for Him to be merciful. When
The Law-giver Himself Submits to the Law
When the Sovereign Himself bears the extreme penalty of that law, then is the justice of God set upon such a glorious high throne that all admiring worlds must wonder at it. If therefore it is clearly proven that Jesus was obedient to the law, even to the extent of death, He certainly did not come to abolish or abrogate it; and if He did not remove it, who can do so? If He declares that He came to establish it, who shall overthrow it?
The Law Perpetual by Nature
But, secondly, the law of God must be perpetual from its very nature; for does it not strike you the moment you think of it that right must always be right, truth must always be true, and purity must always be purity? Before the Ten Commandments were published at Sinai there was still that same law of right and wrong laid upon men by the necessity of their being God’s creatures.
Right was Always Right
Before a single command had been committed to words. When Adam was in the garden, it was always right that he should love his Maker, and it would always have been wrong that he should have been at cross purposes with his God; and it does not matter what happens in this world, or what changes take place in the universe, it never can be right to lie, or to commit adultery, or murder, or theft, or to worship an idol god. I will not say that the principles of right and wrong are as absolutely self-existent as God, but I do say that I cannot grasp the idea of God Himself as existing apart from His being always holy and always true; so that the very idea of right and wrong seems to me to be necessarily permanent, and cannot possibly be shifted. You cannot bring right down to a lower level; it must’ be where it always is; right is right eternally, and cannot be wrong. You cannot lift up wrong and make it somewhat right; it must be wrong while the world stands. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not the smallest letter or accent of the moral law can possibly change. In spirit the law is eternal.
It Does Not Ask too Much
The law of God is no more than God might most righteously ask of us. If God were about to give us a more tolerant law it would be an admission on. His part that He, asked too much at first. Can that be supposed? Was there, after all, some justification for the statement of the wicked and slothful servant when he said, “I feared thee, because you art an austere man?” It cannot be. For God to alter His law would be an, admission that He made a mistake at first, that He put poor imperfect men (we are often hearing that said) under too rigorous a regime, and therefore He is now prepared to abate His claims, and make them more reasonable.
A Specious but False Doctrine
It has been said that man’s moral inability to keep the perfect law exempts him from the duty of doing so. This is very specious, but it is utterly false. Man’s inability is not of the kind which removes responsibility; it is moral, not physical. Never fall into the error that moral inability will be an excuse for sin. What I when a man becomes such a liar that he cannot speak the truth, is he thereby exempted from the duty of truthfulness? If your servant owes you a day’s labor, is he free from the duty because he has made himself so drunk that he cannot serve you? Is a man freed from a debt by the fact that he has squandered the money, and therefore cannot pay it? Is a lustful man free to indulge his passions because he cannot understand the beauty of chastity? This is dangerous doctrine. The law is a just one, and man is bound by it, though sin has rendered him incapable of doing so.
I should like to ask any brother who thinks that God has put us under an altered rule: “Which particular part of the law is it that God has relaxed? Which Precept do you feel free to break? Which law is it that God has exempted you from? That law of worshipping Him only? Do you propose to have another god? Do you intend to make graven images? The fact is that when we come to detail we cannot afford to lose a single link of this wonderful golden chain, which is perfect in every part as well as perfect as a whole. The law is perfect.
Absolutely Complete
And you can neither add to it nor take from it. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now, if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you art become a transgressor of the law.” If, then, no part of it can be taken down, it must stand, and stand forever.
A third reason I will give why the law must be perpetual is that to suppose it altered is most dangerous. To take away from the law its perpetuity is, first of all, to take away from it its power to convince of sin. Is it so that I, being an imperfect creature, am not expected to keep a perfect law? Then it follows that I do not sin when I break the law; and if all that is required of me is that I am to do according to the best of my knowledge and ability, then I have no rules at all.
A Very Convenient Rule Indeed,
And most men will take care to adjust it so as to give themselves as much latitude as possible. By removing the law you have done away with sin, for sin is the transgression of the law, and where there is no law there is no transgression. When you have done away with sin you may as well have done away with the Savior and with salvation, for they are by no means needful. When you have reduced sin to a minimum, what need is there of that great and glorious salvation which Jesus Christ has come to bring into the world? Brethren, we must have none of this: it is evidently a way of mischief.
By lowering the law you weaken its power in the hands of God as a convincer of sin. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”
It is the Looking Glass
Which shows us our spots, and that is a most useful thing, though nothing but the gospel can wash them away.
“My hopes of heaven were firm and bright. But since the precept came
With a convincing power and light, I find how vile I am.”
“My guilt appeared but small before, Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just, and pure Was Your eternal law.”
“Then felt my soul the heavy load, My sins revived again,
I had provoked a dreadful God, And all my hopes were slain.”
It is only a pure and perfect law that the Holy Spirit can use in order to show to us our depravity and sinfulness. Lower the law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion.
You have also taken away from the law its power to shut us up to the faith of Christ.
What is the Law of God for?
For us to keep in order to be saved by it? Not at all. It is sent in order to show us that we cannot be saved by works, and to shut us up to be saved by grace. But if you make out that the law is altered so that a man can keep it, you have left him his old legal hope, and he is sure to cling to it. You need a perfect law that shuts man right up to God.
Hopelessness Apart from Jesus
Puts him into an iron cage and locks him up, and offers him no escape but by faith in Jesus; then he begins to cry, “Lord, save me by grace, for I perceive that I cannot be saved by my own works.” This is how Paul describes it to the Galatians: “The Scripture have concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster.
Our Schoolmaster
It is to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary when you have set aside the law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. No; it must stand, and stand in all its terrors, to drive men away from self-righteousness, and constrain them to fly to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.
To alter the law is to leave us without any law at all. A sliding-scale of duty is not duty at all.
An Immoral Invention
Fatal to the principles of law. If each man is to be accepted because he does his best, we are all doing our best. Is there anybody that is not? If we take their words for it, all our fellow-men are doing as well as they can, considering their imperfect natures. Self righteousness builds itself a nest even in the worst character. This is the man’s talk: “Really, if you knew me, you would say, I have been a good fellow to do as well as I have. Consider what a poor, fallen creature I am; what strong passions were born in me; what temptations to vice beset me, and you will not blame me much. After all, I daresay God is as satisfied with me as with many who are a great deal better, because I had so few advantages.” Yes, you have shifted the standard, and every man will now do that which is right in his own eyes, and claim to be doing his best. If you shift the standard pound weight or the bushel measure; you will certainly never get full weight or measurement again. There will be no standard.
No Standard
To go by, and each man will do his best with his own pounds and bushels. If the standard be tampered with, you have taken away the foundation upon which trade is conducted; and it is the same in soul matters abolish the best rule that ever can be, even God’s own law, and there is no rule left worthy of the name. What a fine opening this leaves for vain glory l No wonder that men talk of perfect sanctification if the law has been lowered. There is nothing at all remarkable in our getting up to the rule if it is conveniently lowered for us. I believe I shall be perfectly sanctified when I keep God’s law without omission or transgression, but not till then. If any man says that he is perfectly sanctified because he has come up to a modified law of his own, I am glad to know what he means, for I have no longer any discussion with him. I see nothing wonderful in his attainment.
Sin is any want of conformity to the law of God, and until we are perfectly conformed to that law in all its spiritual length and breadth, it is idle for us to talk about perfect sanctification. No man is perfectly clean till he accepts absolute purity as the standard by which he is to be judged. So long as there is in us any coming short of the perfect law, we are not perfect. What a humbling truth this is! The law shall not pass away, but it must be fulfilled. This truth must be maintained, for if it goes our tacklings are loosed, we cannot well strengthen the mast; the ship goes all to pieces; she becomes useless.
A Total Wreck
The gospel itself would be destroyed could you destroy the law. To tamper with the law is to trifle with the gospel. “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.”
The Law must be Fulfilled
I come to show, secondly, that the law must be fulfilled. I hope there are some in this place who are saying, “We cannot fulfill it.” That is exactly where I want to bring you. Salvation by the works of the law must be felt to be impossible by every man who would be saved. We must learn that salvation is of grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, and not by our own doings or feelings; but this is a doctrine no one will receive till he has learned the precious truth, that salvation by the works of the law can never come to any man of woman born.
Yet the law must be fulfilled. Many will say with Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” I answer,
The Law is Fulfilled in Christ
And by faith we receive the fruit thereof.
First, as I have already said, the law is fulfilled in the matchless sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If a man has broken a law, what does the law do with him? It says: “I must be honored. You have broken my command which was sanctioned by the penalty of death. Inasmuch as you did not honor me by obedience, but dishonored me by transgression, you must die.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great covenant representative of His people, their second Adam, stood forward on the behalf of all who are in Him, and presented Himself as a victim to divine justice. Since His people were guilty of death, He, as their covenant Head, came under death, in their place and stead. It was a glorious thing that such representative death was possible, and it was only so because of the original constitution of the race as springing from a common father, and placed under a single head. Inasmuch as our fall was by one Adam, it was possible for us to be.
Raised by Another Adam
“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” It became possible for God, upon the principle of representation, to allow of substitution. Our first fall was not by our personal fault, but through the failure of our representative; and now in comes our second and grander representative, the Son of God, and He sets us free, not by our honoring the law, but by His doing so. He came under the law by His birth, and being found as a man loaded with the guilt of all His people, He was visited with its penalty. The law lifts its bloody axe, and it smites our glorious Head that we may go free. It is the Son of God that honors the law by dying, the just for the unjust. “The soul that sins, it shall die.” There is death demanded, and in Christ death is presented.
Life for Life is Rendered
An infinitely precious life instead of the poor lives of men. Jesus has died, and so the law has been fulfilled by the endurance of its penalty, and being fulfilled, its power to condemn and punish the believer has passed away.
Secondly, the law has been fulfilled again for us by Christ in His life. I have already gone over this, but I want to establish you in it. Jesus Christ, as our head and representative, came into the world for the double purpose of bearing the penalty and at the same time keeping the law. One of His main designs in coming to earth was to bring in
Everlasting Righteousness
“As by the disobedience of one many were made sinners, so by the righteousness of one shall many be made righteous.” The law requires a perfect life, and he that believeth in Jesus Christ presents to the law a perfect life, which he has made his own by faith. It is not his own life, but Christ is made of God unto us righteousness, even to us who are one with Him. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.” That which Jesus did is counted as though we did it, and because He was righteous and counts us righteous upon the principle of substitution and representation. Oh, how blessed it is to put on this robe and to wear it, and so to stand before the Most High in a better righteousness than ever His law demanded; for that demanded the perfect righteousness of a creature, but we put on the absolute righteousness of the Creator Himself, and what can the law ask more? It is written, “In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name wherewith He shall be called-The Lord our righteousness.”
The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake: He will magnify the law and make it honorable.” Ay, but that is not all. The law has to be
Fulfilled in us Personally
In a spiritual and gospel sense. “Well,” say you. But how can that be?” I reply in the words of our apostle: “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,” Christ has done and is doing by the Holy Spirit, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in ms, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Regeneration is a work by which the law is fulfilled for when a man is born again there is placed in him a new nature, which loves the law of God and is perfectly conformed thereto. The new nature which God implants in every believer at the time he is born again is incapable of sin: it cannot sin, for it is born of God.
That New Nature
Is the offspring of the eternal Father; and the Spirit of God dwells in it, and with it, and strengthens it. It is light, it is purity, it is, according to the Scripture, the “living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever.” If incorruptible it is sinless, for sin is corruption, and corrupts everything that it touches. The apostle Paul, when describing his inward conflicts, showed that he himself, his real and best self, did keep the law, for he says: “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God.” Romans 7:25.
He consented to the law that it was good, which showed that he was on the side of the law, and though sin that dwelt in his members led him into transgression, yet his new nature did not allow it, but hated and loathed it, and cried out against it as one in bondage. The new-born soul delights in the law of the Lord, and there is within it a quenchless life which aspires after absolute perfection, and will never rest till it pays to God perfect obedience, and comes to be like God Himself.
This which is begun in regeneration is continued, and grows till it ultimately arrives at absolute perfection. That will be seen in the world to come; and oh, what a fulfillment of the law will be there! The law will admit no man to heaven till he is
Perfectly Conformed to It
But every believer shall be in that perfect condition. Our nature shall be refined from all its dross, and be as pure as gold. It will be our delight in heaven to be holy. There will be nothing about us then to kick against a single commandment. We shall there know in our own hearts the glory and excellence of the divine will, and our will shall run in the same channel. We shall not imagine that the precepts are rigorous; they will be our own will as truly as they are God’s will. Nothing which God has commanded, however much of self-denial it requires now, will require any self-denial from us then. Holiness will be our element, our delight. Our nature will be entirely conformed to the nature and mind of God, as to holiness and goodness, and then the law will be fulfilled in us, and we shall stand before God having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and at the same time being ourselves
Without Spot, or Wrinkle
Or any such thing. Then shall the law of the Lord have eternal honor from our immortal being. Oh, how shall we rejoice in it! We delight in it after the inward man now, but then we shall delight in it as to our risen bodies, which shall be charmed to be instruments of righteousness unto God forever and ever. No appetite of those risen bodies, no want and no necessity of them shall then lead the soul astray; but our whole body, soul, and spirit shall be perfectly conformed unto the Divine mind. Let us long and pant for this. We shall never attain it except by believing in Jesus. Perfect holiness will never be reached by the works of the law, for works cannot change the nature; but by faith in Jesus, and the blessed work of His Holy Spirit, we shall have it, and then I believe it will be among our songs of glory that heaven and earth pass away, but the word of God and the law of God shall stand fast for ever and ever. Amen.
I am the Lord your God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exodus 20:2.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
4.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days shall you labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant; nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives thee.
6.
You shall not kill
7.
You shall not commit adultery.
8.
You shall not steal.
9.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
“WHOSOEVER commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6: 23. By this law all men will be judged. James 2: 12; Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14, Christ kept this law. Psalm 40:7, 8. He said, “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” John 15:10. He taught all others to do so. Matthew 5: 17-19; 7: 21-29; 19:17. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:19, 20. By it sin becomes exceedingly sinful. Romans 7:7-14. Only the carnally minded are in opposition to the law. Romans 8:6, 7.
The law is a mirror to reveal defects or grace in character as the glass reveals defects in person, and dress. James 1:22-25. Righteousness obtained through faith in Christ is witnessed to by the law. Romans 3:21. Abraham, the father of all them that believe, kept the law. Genesis 26:5. Christ’s true followers keep it. Revelation 14:12. The gates of the holy city are closed against all transgressors. Revelation 22:14; Matthew 7:21. Love fulfils the law. True love does not break the law. Romans 13:10. “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. “By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.” 1 John 5: 2. SAID JESUS, “MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN ARE THESE WHICH HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND DO IT.” Luke 8:21. “If you wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19: 17.
The Fourth Commandment
The fourth commandment is an important part of the law-the will of God to man. This commandment requires from all men the observance of the seventh day of the week. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work.” These words were spoken by Christ upon Mount Sinai to ancient Israel, and have never been repealed.
Christ made the Sabbath. See John l:1-3, 10 and Mark 2:27, 28, It is the memorial of His own creative work, which God wrought through Him. Compare Ephesians 3:8, 9 and Hebrews 1:1-3 with Exodus 20:8-11 It is, therefore, the only Christian Sabbath. It was observed by Christ during His earthly life (Luke 4: 16, 31) as an example for all His disciples to follow. His immediate followers did observe it. Luke 23:54-56; Acts 13:42-44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:1-4, 11. While in Corinth, Paul observed seventy-eight Sabbaths. John observed the Sabbath when a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos. Compare Revelation 1:10 with Isaiah 58:12, 13, and Mark 2: 27, 28. The Sabbath is the Lord’s day. The Sabbath is thus the holy rest-day of Jehovah, sanctified by Him, observed by patriarchs and prophets, by Christ and the early Christians, and is to be observed in the kingdom of God to come. Isaiah 66:22, 23. It is commanded to be observed by all men everywhere now.
The Sunday, the first working day in God’s calendar, was adopted by the heathen as a festival in honor of the sun, and exalted by an apostate church into the place of the holy Sabbath. Why should it be observed by Christians instead of the Sabbath? There is no command in the Bible for doing so. In the Word of God the first day of the week is definitely included among the six working days. “Thus said the Lord God; The gate of the inner court that looks towards the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened.” Ezekiel 46: 1.
The first day of the week and also the seventh had their origin in the act of God upon them; the first, in work; the seventh, in rest. The first is definitely given to man as a work-day; he is commanded to work upon it. Upon the seventh day he is as definitely forbidden to do his ordinary work. Exodus 20: 8-11.
The ministers of God are reproved for not clearly keeping this distinction in these days before the
people.
“Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” Ezekiel 22:26.
To teach that it makes no difference which day is kept, or that one day in seven is all that God requires to be observed, is to put no difference between the holy and profane, to place working days on a level with the day God blessed and sanctified, and to exalt the commandments of men above the commandments of God. More than this, it is to charge God with the folly of doing that which was unnecessary-resting upon the seventh day, sanctifying that day, and commanding it to be kept holy. Genesis 2: 1-3; Exodus 20: 8-11. Do men reason thus loosely in reference to State laws? Is not the law of God as much higher than State laws as God is higher than man?
As God commanded Adam that of all the trees of the garden he might freely eat except one, so He has said that man might use for his own purpose all the days excepting one. The reservation of this day was to be a perpetual test upon man to prove his loyalty to God. It is the everlasting sign between God and His true people. Exodus 31:12-17; Deuteronomy 7:9-11; Ezekiel 20:12-20. This applies to both. Jew and Gentile. Isaiah 56:1-8. Note specially verses 6 and 7.
An Appeal to Shepherds and People
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman: if when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people, then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and takes not warning: if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning: his blood shall be upon him. But he that takes warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. Ezekiel 33:1-6.
This is the word of the Lord. When the Lord sends His servants with a message to warn the members of the churches, to open before them the truth, many of those who claim to be shepherds refuse to examine the Word of the Lord for themselves; and commence a tirade against the messenger and the, message of truth, circulating bitter falsehoods originated by those who have apostatized from the truth. They receive their falsehoods, and make every possible use of them in opposing those whom the Lord has sent with a message of warning to lead the people to search the Bible for themselves with a sacred awe, fearing lest they shall be found fighting against God and committing blasphemy. God’s messengers are charged with doing the work of Satan. But as they follow the example of the great Teacher, their work bears witness of them. Priests and rulers were continually on Christ’s track, seeking His life because He spoke the truth concerning them. Men claiming to be teachers are, to-day, doing the work that the Jews did.
The thirty-third chapter of Ezekiel should be carefully studied. Those who take upon themselves the responsibility of preaching the Word, and yet neglect to search the Scriptures prayerfully; those who entertain error and preach false doctrines contrary to a plain “Thus said the Lord,” will bring ruin upon themselves. Their condemnation will be proportionate to the influence their words and example have had upon men and women in leading them into the path of transgression. He who has taken upon him the work of a minister is responsible, to help the members of his church to be obedient to the word of the Lord. But many ministers stand directly in the way of the people’s obedience. They warn them against doing the very things God has told them to do. Every man will be called to give a strict account for the way in which his influence has been exerted. Those who do the work the enemy of all righteousness did in the heavenly court, and still does on this earth, will know very well what it means to answer for professedly being on the Lord’s side, when in reality they were on the side of the enemy, hindering others from receiving the word of the Lord. The blood of the souls who have perished through their unfaithfulness will be found upon their garments.
Those who have permitted themselves to be deceived will not be excused for neglecting to search the Word of God for themselves. They committed their souls to the minister, who was not diligent in searching the Word to know the truth. But the minister cannot pay the ransom for their souls. Christ gave His life to save them, to give them another trial, to make it possible for them to return to their loyalty. Those who have taken Satan’s side of the question, who work to justify sin, must bear the penalty of sin. “My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not.”
Instigated by the priests a lawyer came to Christ with the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This was a direct and positive question. Christ knew that the object of the priests was to find something whereby they could condemn Him, and He said to the lawyer, “What is written in the law? How reads you?” And the lawyer, answered, “You shall love the Lord your. God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as thyself.” “You have answered right.” Christ said, “This do, and you shall live.” Thus the Savior met and defeated His adversaries.
Christ gave the lawyer the same instruction that He gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel. He gave the commandments from Sinai, and these commandments were once more rehearsed to the people by Moses, who said: “You shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” Deuteronomy 5: 32, 33. “The Lord our God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
Notwithstanding this instruction, men close their eyes to the truth, arid teach their children that the commandments of God are not obligatory because the ministers say they are not. What will you do with the Lord’s words? It will be well for men and women to read the commandments over carefully, and see if any of them should be spared as non-essential.
Those who, with the Word of God before them, continue to disobey, supposing the Lord is too merciful to punish the evil-doer, will find that they have not only brought ruin upon their own souls, but have led others astray by their false theories and suppositions. They must carry on their garments the blood of those whom they have led into sin.
What is the matter with the world to-day? The ministers have taught the people that the law of God is not binding. But God certainly does not say so, and in the day of judgment that law, written with the finger of God on tables of stone, will condemn all impenitent transgressors.
The Ten Commandments are an expression of the character of God. It is our duty to obey God’s Word, to love to do His will. It was ordained by God that faithful ministers should be appointed to study the Scriptures and feed the flock, not with the words of men, but with the living Word of God. The Lord is purifying unto Himself a peculiar people, who are to be sanctified and holy, and who are to keep His Sabbath, the seventh day, because He has commanded them to. They are to refuse any interpretation of the Scriptures which makes disobedience a trifling matter. So long as the people of God obey His commandments, walking in the light of His Word, they will be prospered; but if they walk contrary to His plain requirements, He cannot give them clear, spiritual perception. To those who do not appreciate God’s Word, the light becomes darkness. They see not His grace. They enjoy not His infinite love.
God means what He says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations; and repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him that hates Him, He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.” Deuteronomy 7: 9-11.
Let the Word of the Lord be obeyed, for it is obedience that brings the blessing. God will for Christ’s sake look upon as righteous only those who have respect unto His commandments. Those who obey God’s law will be given the assurance that they are His sons and daughters, members of the royal family, children of the Heavenly King, because through faith in Christ they have returned to their loyalty.
In the discharge of our duty we should work with an eye single to the glory of God. We do not despise those who are placing all possible contempt upon the law of Jehovah. Neither should we fear them, or pay attention to the statements they make which are not in perfect accord with God’s Word. Individually, we are to trust in the Lord at all times and in all places. We are to go forward humbly and trustingly, with an earnest desire to save perishing souls. We are to commit our ways to the Lord, following the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. Will you obey God?
There is a decided work of reformation to be done in the last days of this earth’s history. A people is to be raised up who will keep holy the seventh day, in obedience to the light God has given them; who acknowledge His sign and are distinguished from the world as God’s commandment-keeping people. “And they that shall be of, thee shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:, then shall you delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob your Father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58: 12-14,
“I and my Father are one.” John 10:30.
THE Father, and the Son were one in man’s Creation, and in his redemption. Said the Father to the Son, “Let us make man in our image.” And the triumphant song in which the redeemed take part; is unto “Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.”
Jesus prayed that his disciples might be one as he was one with his Father. This prayer did not contemplate one disciple with twelve heads, but twelve disciples, made one in object and effort in the cause of their Master. Neither are the Father and the Son parts of the “three-one God.” They are two distinct beings, yet one in the design and accomplishment of redemption. The redeemed, from the first who shares in the great redemption, to the last, all ascribe the honor, and glory, and praise, of their salvation, to both God and the Lamb.
But if it be true that the law of the Father and the gospel of the Son are opposed to each other, that one was to take the place of the other, then it follows that those saved in the former dispensation are saved by the Father and the law, while those of the present dispensation are saved by Christ and the gospel. And in this came, when the redeemed shall reach Heaven at last, and their redemption shall be sung, two songs will be heard, one ascribing praise to the Father and the law, the other singing the praises of Christ and the gospel.
This will not be. There will be harmony in that song of redemption. All the redeemed will sing the facts as they have existed during the period of man’s probation. All will ascribe the praise of their salvation to God and the Lamb. Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses will join with the disciples of Jesus in singing of the redeeming power of the blood of the Son, while those who have lived: since the crucifixion of Christ, saved by his blood, will join-the patriarchs and prophets in the song of praise to the Father, the Creator, and Lawgiver. Therefore the law and the gospel run parallel throughout the entire period of man’s probation. The gospel is not confined to some eighteen centuries. The dispensation of the gospel is not less than about six thousand years.
The word gospel signifies good news. The gospel of the Son of God is the good news of salvation through Christ. When man fell, angels wept. Heaven was bathed in tears. The Father and the Son took counsel, and Jesus offered to undertake the cause of fallen man. He offered to die that man might have life. The Father consented to give his only beloved, and the good news resounded through Heaven, and on earth, that a way was opened for man’s redemption. In the first promise made to man that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, was the gospel of’ Jesus Christ as verily as in the song the angels sung over the plains of Bethlehem, to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by night, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth good will to men.”
Immediately after the fall, hope of a future life hung upon Christ as verily as our hopes can hang on Christ. And when the first sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord, Cain in his unbelief brought the first fruits of the ground, which were not acceptable. Abel brought a firstling of the flock in faith of Christ, the great sacrifice for sin. God accepted his offering, Through the blood of that firstling, Abel saw the blood of Jesus Christ. He looked forward to Christ, and made his offering in the faith and hope of the gospel, and through it saw the great sacrifice for sin, as truly as we see the bleeding Lamb as we look back to Calvary, through the broken bread and the fruit of the vine. Through these emblems we see Christ crucified. Abel saw the same through the dying lamb which he offered. Do we hang our hopes in faith upon. Christ? So did Abel. Are we Christians by virtue of living faith in Christ? So was Abel.
Abraham had the gospel of the Son of God. The apostle says that the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham.
Paul testifies of the Israelites in the wilderness, that they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10: 2-4. The gospel was preached to the children of Israel in the wilderness. The apostle says, “Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” Hebrews 4:2.
Moses and the believing Jews had the faith and hope of the gospel. Through the blood of the sacrificial offerings, they saw Christ, and by faith embraced him. Their hopes of the future life were not in the law, but in Christ. “The law,” says Paul, “having a shadow of good things to come.” The typical system is but the shadow. The good things, of which Christ as a sacrifice and mediator is the center, are the body that casts its shadow back into the Jewish age. The bleeding sacrifices of the legal system were but the shadow. Christ, bleeding on the cross, was the great reality. Every bleeding sacrifice offered by the Jews, understandingly, and in faith, was as acceptable in the sight of Heaven as what Christians may do in showing their faith in the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ, by baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The one was done in the faith and hope of redemption through the blood of the Son of God, as verily as the other may be. The gospel dispensation, which is the dispensation of the good news of redemption through Christ, has been six thousand years long.
The dispensation of the law of God is longer than that of the gospel. It commenced before the fall, or there could not have been in the justice of God any such thing as the fall. It existed as early as there were created intelligences subject to the government of the Creator.
It covers all time, and extends to the future, running parallel with the eternity of God’s moral government. Angels fell, therefore were on probation. They, being on probation, were consequently amenable to law. In the absence of law they could not be on probation, therefore could not fall. The same may be said of Adam and Eve in Eden.
The reign of sin runs parallel with the reign of death, from Adam until sin and sinners shall cease to be. And parallel with these, stretching through all dispensations, there has been the knowledge of the principles of the Ten Commandments, consequently a knowledge of sir?
The means of this knowledge has been the law of God. “By the law;” says the apostle, “is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20. “I had not known sin but by the law.” Romans 7:7. As proof that this knowledge did exist immediately after the fall, see Genesis 4: 7, 23, 24; 6:5, 11, 12. Also, Noah was righteous before God. Genesis 7:1. He was a preacher of righteousness. 2 Peter 2:5. By his preaching right-doing, reproving the sins of the people of his time, he condemned the world. Hebrews 11:7. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were great sinners, excepting one man. Abraham interceded, saying, “Will you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Genesis 13:13; 18:20, 23, 25; 19:7. The blessing of God came upon Abraham, because he obeyed his voice and kept his commandments. Genesis 26: 5. Those who refused obedience, experienced his wrath for their transgressions. The cities of the plain were condemned for their unlawful deeds. 2 Peter 2:6-8.
As an illustration of this subject, I will briefly notice the murder of righteous Abel. Cain killed his brother, and, as a sinner, received the mark of God’s displeasure. Sin, says the apostle, is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4 Cain broke the sixth commandment; hence that precept existed in the time of Cain. Otherwise he did not sin; for where no law is, there is no transgression Romans 4:15.
The foregoing positions relative to the law of God would meet with but little opposition were it not for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The proper observance of the Bible Sabbath is not only crossing, but with many inconvenient, and not favorable to the successful prosecution of their worldly plans. The fearful and unbelieving shun its claims, brand it as a Jewish institution, and frequently assert that it was unknown to men until the Sabbath law was proclaimed from Sinai. Sacred history, however, proves this statement to be false. It is true that Sabbath-keeping is not mentioned in the book of Genesis. But this does not prove that it did not exist during the long period covered by that brief record. The facts connected with the giving of the manna show that the Israelites understood the obligations of the Sabbath, that some of the people violated them, and were reproved by Jehovah, thirty days before they saw Mount Sinai. See Exodus 16: 22-30.
We now come to the New Testament. The first four chapters of Matthew are devoted to a sketch of the genealogy of Christ, Joseph, and Mary, the birth of Jesus, Herod slaying the children of Bethlehem, John the Baptist, the temptation of Christ, and his entering upon his public ministry. The fifth chapter opens with his inaugural address. This was his first sermon. In this memorable sermon upon the mount, Christ warns his disciples against a terrible heresy that would soon press its way into the church.
The Jews boasted of God, of Abraham, and of the law, but despised and rejected Jesus. The great facts connected with his resurrection were soon to be so convincing that many would believe. And as the Jews were to reject and crucify the Son, while boasting in the law, Christians would run to the opposite and equally fatal heresy of trampling upon the authority of the Father, and despising his law, while receiving Christ and glorying in the gospel It has ever been Satan’s object to separate, in the faith of the church, the Father and the Son.
With the Jews was the cry, The Father, Abraham, the law; but away with Jesus and his gospel. With Christians the cry was to arise, Christ, the cross, the gospel; but away with the law of the Father. To meet this heresy, erelong to arise in the Christian Church, the Master, in his first recorded sermon, spoke pointedly. Listen to his appeal to his disciples in the presence of the assembled multitudes: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”
These words of warning from our Lord fully meet the case. They need no comment. The history of the church, showing how loosely great and apparently good men have hold the law of God, and the present closing controversy respecting it, give them especial force.
Jesus did not come to legislate. In no case did he intimate that he would give a new law to take the place of that of his Father. Speaking of the Son, the Father says, “He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him,” Deuteronomy 18:18. “Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” John 7:16. “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father bath taught me, I speak these things.” John 8:28. “The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me,” John 14:24.
We will now consider the important question of the great apostle to the Gentiles, relative, to the law of God and the faith of Jesus: “Do we then make void the law through faith?” Romans 3:31. This question points directly to the true issue between us and the men of this day who teach that the gospel of the Son makes void the law of the Father. Paul decides the question in these emphatic words: “God forbid; yea, we establish the law.”
The gospel is a necessity in consequence of law transgressed. Where there is no law there is no transgression. No sin, no need of the blood of Christ, no need of the gospel. But the gospel teaches that Christ died for sinners, on account of their sins. Sin is the transgression of the law. He came, therefore, as the great sacrifice for those who transgress the law. The gospel presents him to the sinner as the bleeding sacrifice for the sins of those who transgress the law. This fact establishes the existence of the law of God. Remove the law, and we have no further need of Christ and his gospel.
In the gospel arrangement for the salvation of man, there are three parties concerned: The Lawgiver, the Advocate, and the sinner. The words of the apostle are to the point: “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2: 1. Sin is the transgression of the law of the Father; hence the sinner offends the Father, is in trouble with the Father, and needs Jesus to plead his cause with the Father. But if the Father’s law has been abolished, and Christ sustains to the sinner the relation of lawgiver, who is his advocate? “Mother Mary,” or some other one of the multitude of canonized saints, will answer for the Papist; but what will the Protestant do in this case? If he urges that Christ, and not the Father, is the lawgiver, and that in the present dispensation sin is the transgression of the law of Jesus Christ, then I press him to tell me who the sinner’s advocate is. And I ask him to harmonize his position with the words of the beloved John, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Paul addresses the elders of the church at Miletus, relative to the fundamental principles of the plan of salvation, thus: “I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus, Christ.” Acts 20:20, 21. The apostle has here set before the men of the present dispensation two distinct duties: First, the exercise of repentance toward God for his law is binding upon them, and it is his law that they have transgressed. Second, the exercise of faith toward Christ as the great sacrifice for their sins, and their advocate with the Father.
These are both indispensable. Paul presented both. He kept back nothing pertaining to the plan of salvation, that was profitable.
The closing words of the, third angel point directly to a body of Christian commandment keepers. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. The Jew takes no stock in this text, because he sees in it the despised Jesus of Nazareth. Many professed Christians find it as objectionable as the Jew, for the reason that they find in it the equally-despised commandments of God. But said the adorable Jesus, “I and my Father are one.” So the law of the Father and the gospel of the Son pass through all dispensations of man’s fallen state, in perfect harmony. Would God, that both the blind Jew and the blind Christian might see this, and embrace the whole truth, instead of each a part, might keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and be saved.
But here let it be distinctly understood that there is no salvation in the law. There is no redeeming quality in law. Redemption is through the blood of Christ. The sinner may cease to break the commandments of God, and strive with all his powers to keep them; but this will not atone for his sins, and redeem him from his present condition in consequence of past transgression.
Notwithstanding all his efforts to keep the law of God, he must be lost without faith in the atoning blood of Jesus. And this was as true in the time of Adam, of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the Jews, as since Jesus died upon the cross. No man can be saved without Christ.
On the other hand, faith in Jesus Christ, while refusing obedience to the law of the Father, is presumption. An effort to obtain friendship with the Son, while living in rebellion against the Father, is Heaven-daring. No greater insult can be offered to either the Father or the Son. What! Separate the Father and the Son, by trampling on the authority of the one, and making a friend of to other? “I and my Father are one.” The Jew insults the Father, in his rejection of the Son; and the Christian flings in the face of Heaven equal insult, in all his acts of worship in which he vainly thinks to make Jesus his friend while, with light upon the subject, he breaks the commandments of God.
The oneness of the Father and the Son is seen at the transfiguration. That voice which is the highest authority in the universe, is there heard saying, “This is my beloved Son; bear him.” It is also seen in the closing benediction of the Son, in the last chapter of the Bible, which presents before those who are loyal the glories of the reward in reserve for the obedient. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
I briefly call attention to three grand events which have taken place in connection with the sad history of fallen man, either one of which is sufficient to establish the perpetuity of the law of God.
First, the fall with all its terrible consequences. If the law of God was of such a nature that it could, in any particular, be changed at any time, it would have been thus changed before-Adam and Eve left Eden. if the plan of God’s moral government could be changed, it would then have been changed, so as to set them free, and save the tide of human wretchedness and agony which has followed. But no; it could not be changed. The curse must fall on man, and upon the earth for man’s sake; and the blight and mildew of sin must follow everywhere, and hang upon creation like a pall of death. Why? Because God’s law that had been transgressed could not be changed-could not be abolished. Every fading flower and falling leaf, since man left Eden, has proclaimed the law of God changeless. This has been the result of sin. It is the result of the terrible fall. And this has all come about because of the transgression of that law which is as changeless as the throne of Heaven. If that law could ever be changed in any particular it would have been changed when there were but two fallen beings, in such a way as to free them from the sentence of death, and raise them from their degradation, and the race from continued sin, crime, and woe.
Think of the recent American war, with all its terrible agony. But this is only an item in the vast record of human woe. For six thousand years, the tide has been swelling, and creation has been adding groan to groan. Oh! the sorrow, the wretchedness, the agony! Who can compute it? The fall then, with all its accumulated wretchedness, proclaims God’s law changeless. We hasten to notice the next great event which proclaims this truth.
Second, the announcement of the Ten Commandments from Sinai with imposing display. It was not left for Moses to proclaim this law. It was not left for an angel to assemble the tribes of Israel, and utter these ten holy precepts in their, hearing. The Lord himself descended in awful grandeur, and proclaimed these precepts in the hearing of all the people.
Do you say that that was the origin of the law of God? Do you say that the Lord descended, on Sinai, and there legislated? And do you say that he has since abolished that code, or changed it? When did he do this? Where did he do it? Has any prophet foretold that such an event should take place? And has any apostle recorded that such a work was ever done? Never.
The several States empower their legislators to enact laws. These laws are published throughout the commonwealth. The people understand them. Some of these laws are repealed or changed. Is it done in secret, and the people permitted to know nothing about it? No. The same body that enacts laws, also changes, amends, or abolishes, and the people are apprised of the fact. This is made as public as the enactment of the law. And has not the Lord manifested as much wisdom in managing affairs in which man has so great an interest, affairs which affect his eternal welfare? He came down upon. Sinai, and proclaimed his law under such circumstances as to impress the people with its grandeur, dignity and perpetuity. Who can suppose that ho would abolish, or alter it, and say nothing about it?
Third, the crucifixion establishes the law of God. If that law was of such a nature that it could be abolished, or any of its precepts be changed, why not have this done, and set man free, instead of the Son of God laying aside his glory, taking our nature, living the sad life he lived here upon the earth, suffering in Gethsemane, and finally expiring upon the cross? Why, oh, why, should the divine Son of God do all this to save man, if that law which held him as a sinner could be changed, so that he could be set free? But no; nothing could be done in that direction. Man had sinned, had fallen, and was shut up in the prison-house of sin. His sins were of such nature that no sacrifice was adequate but the sacrifice of Him to whom the Father had said; “Let us make man.” The death of an angel was not sufficient. He only who engaged with the Father in the formation of man, constituted a sufficient sacrifice to open the door of hope by which he might find pardon, and be saved.
“Come, O my soul, to Calvary,”
And here behold love and agony mingled in the death of the Son of God.
Behold him groaning in Gethsemane. His divine soul was in agony as the sins of man were rolled upon him. “My soul,” said he, “is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” The weight of man’s sin in transgressing God’s immutable law was such as to press from his pores as it were great drops of blood.
He then bears his cross to Calvary. The nails are driven into his hands and feet. The cross is erected. There the bleeding Lamb hangs six terrible hours. The death of the cross was most agonizing. But there was in his case the additional weight of the sins of the whole world. In his last expiring agonies he cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and bows his head in death.
The sun, the brightest luminary of heaven, can no longer view the scene, and is vailed as with sackcloth. The vale of the temple, the noblest work of man, is rent in twain. Christ, the noblest being in the universe save One, is dying in agony. Creation feels the shock, and, groaning and heaving, throws open the graves of many of the saints, who come out of their graves after his resurrection. This great event transpired because it was the only way by which sinners could be saved. The law must stand as firm as the throne of Heaven, although the earth shake, and the whole creation tremble, as the Son of God dies in agony.
The law of God was given to man as his savior. He broke it. Could it then redeem him? It is not in the nature of law, either human or divine, to redeem the transgressor of law; Those who transgress the law of any commonwealth, must suffer the full penalty, unless the Governor shall pardon the transgressor. This is his only hope of escaping the full sentence of the law. It is said by those who do not fully understand our position, that we trust in the law, and the keeping of the Sabbath, for salvation. No, friends, you may observe all these precepts, to the best of your ability, conscientiously; but if you look no farther than the law for salvation, you can never be saved. The hope of eternal salvation hangs upon Christ. Adam hung his hope there. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the, believing Jews hung theirs there. We can do no more. The hope of the next life depends upon Christ. Faith in his blood can alone free us from our transgressions. And a life of’ obedience to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will be a sufficient passport through, the golden gates of the city of God.
“If you be led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18.
The object of this tract is to render a Scriptural answer to the vital question: What is the relation which the true follower of Christ sustains to the law of God? First let us consider:
What Is The Law?
The word “law” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘liegan’, which means that which is laid down or fixed. Law is a rule of action or conduct. It may relate either to moral, mental, or physical action. All laws of universal application emanate from the one great Source that originates all things. Natural or physical laws were established by the same Being who spoke the Ten Commandments. Laws which govern human conduct may be divided into two classes, arbitrary and moral. Laws of the former class depend upon the will of their author for their existence. They originate in His will, they are not of force until they have been proclaimed. By the will of the ruling power they may be changed, suspended, or expire.
Moral laws inhere in established relations. They exist independent of any formal proclamation or written commandment. They are unchangeable so long as the conditions which called them into existence continue. Moral laws are not called into existence by commandments, the object of commanding their observance being to bring them to the recognition of those to whom they apply. Moral law has its full scope in two relationships: The relation which the creature sustains to the Creator, and the relations which the creatures sustain to each other. The duties growing out of these relations sprang into existence when the relations were formed, and are co-existent with them.
These duties form the moral law, or, as it is often called, the law of God. When God became the Father of mankind, and bestowed upon man every mark of fatherly love, it became at once man’s highest and most sacred duty and privilege to love God with all his heart and mind and soul. From the moment that there were two or more human beings in the world, it became their duty to love one another as themselves. These two considerations form the basis of all moral law. Upon them hangs every obligation resting upon us as morally accountable beings.
Beings whose moral sensibilities have not been blunted by sin do not require the administration of a rigorous law, attended by pains, and penalties, and curses to compel their obedience. The simple knowledge of God’s will is all that they need to produce in them loving and willing obedience. It is thus that the angels obey, who “do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word.” It is to this happy condition that the gospel of Christ seeks to restore mankind. Christ seeks to bring us into that state where the bond of our allegiance to God will not be the terrors of a threatening law upon rebellious carnal hearts, but an all-absorbing love that shows itself in glad obedience to all of his Father’s commands. Will the reader consider at this point whether such a condition means liberty or bondage.
The Character Of The Law
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Psalm 19:7, 8. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.” “For we know that the law is spiritual.” Romans 7:12, 14. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20. “I had not known sin but by the law.” Romans 7:7. The highest possible testimony to the character of the law is the fact that it is the standard of character, and the detector of sin. In order to detect sin the detector must be absolutely perfect. No correct test can be established by an incorrect standard. Without an infallible standard the formation of character would only be a matter of taste.
The Perpetuity Of The Law
“The works of His hands are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Psalm 111:7, 8. “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens.” Psalm 119:89. “Do not imagine that I have come to do away with the law or the prophets; I have not come to do away with them, but to complete them. For believe Me, till the earth and the sky disappear, not even the dot of an ‘I’ or the cross of a ‘T’ will disappear from the law-not till all is done.” Matthew 5: 17, 18 (20th Century New Testament.). “It would be easier for the earth and the sky to disappear than for the cross of a ‘t’ in the law to be lost.” Luke 16:17 (20th Cent. N.T.). Nothing could be plainer or more positive than the above statements. No theory or hypothesis should be permitted to set aside such wonderful declarations. To fulfill a law does not set it aside. It establishes it. Paul writes: “Bear you one another’s burdens, and so fulfill (not abolish) the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2.
Jesus said to the Baptist: “Thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.” Not meaning to abolish or destroy it, as all will admit.
Man’s Relation To The Law
There are three classes, each of which sustains different relations to the law of God. These are: The sinner, impenitent and unsaved. The self righteous, who depends upon obedience to the law for justification with God. And the true believer in Christ, who seeks and obtains justification through the gospel of the Son of God alone. The first class must include not only those who make no pretence of faith in Christ and obedience to God, but also any who may profess to be Christians while they repudiate the law of God, and set it aside as obsolete and inoperative.
The Sinner And The Law
“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. The relation which this class sustains to the law is that of open hostility. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7. With the soul that is out of Christ the law of God has nothing in common. Its requirements are burdensome and disagreeable to such, and if he obeys it at all, it is under the protest of his feelings and desires. He often finds the way he would choose hedged up by a stern “you shall not.” So far as he recognizes the law at all he is under its dominion, and lives in fear of its penalties. He is not free.
Liberty he has none. Bondage is his lot, though like an outlaw he may roam about under condemnation, presuming upon the forbearance of God. Yet there comes a time when the law claims its due. Over his head ever hangs the penalty of a broken law. The professed Christian who turns “away his-ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Proverbs 28:9. Such people may boast of their liberty, but so also may an escaped criminal, whose recapture is sure, boast of freedom.
The Pharisee And The Law
The Pharisee is the man whose righteousness pertains to himself, and who depends upon his own actions done in obedience to law for acceptance with God. His life is a continuous effort to observe specifications and rules as a means of salvation. He becomes legal and exacting in his relations with others. He has a hopeless prospect. By no possibility can such a course ever lead him to heaven. It is true that perfect obedience to a perfect law will produce a perfect character, and that would secure salvation.
But through the weakness of the flesh that road is closed up to all mortal travelers. One single misstep, and all is lost. The law he has broken can never justify the sinner. The law is spiritual, and reaches to the thoughts and intents of the heart. Therefore the Pharisee must be perfect in heart as well as in outward actions. But “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no, not one.” What an intolerable burden such a man is carrying! The only escape from his wretchedness is to become callous to conscience, proud and self-sufficient without Christ. The law in which he trusts only waits for the judgment to expose his hypocrisy, and overwhelm him in ruin.
The Christian And The Law
By the Christian we mean the true disciple of Christ. The Scripture leaves no room to doubt that the relation which the Christian sustains to the law of God is essentially different from that which is sustained by the other classes. They are under’ the law in many senses of the word. They are under its domination, its censure, its penalties, its curse. When one becomes a true Christian his relation to the law is radically changed. Unlike the sinner or the Pharisee, the Christian is not under the condemnation or curse of the law, for Christ has taken that upon Himself. His sins are forgiven, and he stands right with God because he has confessed his sins, forsaken them, and believes in Jesus as his sin-pardoning Savior. He is free from the law, though, as Paul says, “being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” 1 Corinthians 9:21. He is no longer at enmity with God and His law, for that enmity has been abolished. Ephesians 2:15. He is reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. He loves God, and therefore keeps His commandments. 1 John 5: 3. “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” “He that said he knows Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.” 1 John 2: 4, 5. With his blessed Master he now exclaims, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yes, Thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8. His boast is of a Savior mighty to save. His heart is renewed, he comes, into perfect harmony with God. He realizes the promise: “If you continue in My word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Righteousness is imputed to him, and imparted as well. The law of God is his delight, not a yoke of bondage. He is not trying to earn his salvation, for that is freely given him of God.
A great change has taken place. His attitude toward God and His law is the reverse of what it was. Was this change made in God or in His law? No, no. It was wholly in the man. With him old things had passed away, and all things had become new. He was a new creature in Christ Jesus.
What The Apostle Says
We are now prepared to understand what the apostle means in his frequent allusions to this subject in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” We can never be justified by the law because we have all broken it. A violated law cannot justify the transgressor. Justification is to be obtained by us only through the grace of God (Romans 3:24), by the blood of Christ (Romans 5:9), and through our faith in Christ. Romans 5:9. Our keeping the commandments counts nothing in the matter of our justification or righteousness. These are of God, as many scriptures show. “You are not under the law, but under grace.” The law is no longer upon us with its constraints or restraints, its condemnation or curse. The love of Christ is the motive power in every good work. Having the mind which was also in Christ Jesus, the law of the Lord is in our hearts. We walk at liberty; for we seek His precepts. The only man in this world who walks at perfect liberty is the man whose every desire is to obey the will of God. He has the liberty to do just as he pleases. When a man is truly converted from sin to righteousness, the law of the Lord is his delight, and there is no restraint or coercion upon him. We are brought into this happy condition by the gospel of Christ. Galatians 5:1.
The man who is in accord with the laws of his country walks at liberty without fear or restraint. But the man who is at variance with the laws under which he lives is continually in bondage to them. If he violates the law, it lays its heavy hand upon him. If he does not openly do so, he is ever under the bondage of restraint. So it is with him who is out of Christ. The law is to such a “schoolmaster,” or child-guide, to bring him to Christ, and teach him his need of Him as a Redeemer and a Helper. When we give ourselves into His hands by repentance and faith, He cleanses us from sin, and writes His Father’s law upon our hearts. Then we are no longer under the schoolmaster, but under Christ, under grace, led of the Spirit, and not under the law. The law has now acted its part in teaching us of sin (Romans 3:20); it has brought us to Christ (Galatians 3:24), and we are crucified with Him. Galatians 3:20. Christ now assumes control. We are dead to the law through the body of Christ. That is, through the death of Christ, and our death into Him, we are as dead in the sight of the law as is the man who has been hanged by the neck. “For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. Having died under the law, we now live unto God by faith in Christ. The penalty of sin is death. We have paid it through Christ. By the power of God we are created anew, and we live in a spiritual, not a legal, realm. In this state we approve of the law, that is holy, spiritual, just, and good. Romans 7: 12, 14. We now obey God not in letter, but in spirit.
A spiritual law that is external to us can not be obeyed by us. The law written only on stone or paper will bring condemnation. But the law of God placed in our hearts by the grace of God as a life-giving principle becomes a power to save from sin and death. This is the difference between the old and the new covenants.
Obedience to God is but the out flowing of gratitude to Him. It is the test of love. It is the only evidence that we love God that He requires, or that we can give. Can we believe for a moment that Christ removed this test of love, or obliterated the privilege of loyal obedience? Let Him and the great apostle answer: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.” “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” “What then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Romans 6:15. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yes, we establish the law.”
To the servants of’ God Paul gives the admonition, “Bear you one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6: 2. This law was expressed by Christ in the words, “A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13: 34.
It is supposed by many that this new commandment effectually supersedes and abrogates the law of Jehovah, as found in the Ten Commandments. Therefore, having the law of Christ, the Christian is no longer called to give obedience to the law that was written upon stone. But this conclusion is both hasty and unwise.
Notice first that the principle of love expressed in this new commandment is not in itself new. In giving a summary of the law of God, Christ set forth its principles thus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it; You shall love your neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40.
Love, then, is the very embodiment of the ten words. The first table of the law contained four commandments guarding the honor, the worship, the character, and the property of Jehovah. No man who loves God with all his heart can allow anything to share the supreme position of Jehovah. He can make nothing to compete in the worship of the God he adores. The name of Deity will ever be held sacred, and His property-the Sabbath-will be regarded forever as holy. Love to God, then, leads to the true fulfilling of the law that stands between man and his God.
So with the man who loves his neighbor: Parental rights will be respected, life will be held as a sacred thing, the sanctity of home relationships as set forth in the seventh commandment will be regarded; the property-rights of his neighbor will be held in reverence; his neighbor’s character will be esteemed a holy thing, and no covetous desires respecting any of these things will be permitted to abide in his mind. “Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10.
Out of these two features-love to God and love to man-grow all the requirements of the Ten Commandments, and the man who loves truly must obey truly. These principles appear early in the history of the Old Testament, so they cannot be set forth as new: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5. “You shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as thyself. Leviticus 19:18.
In what way, then, does Christ’s requirement to “love one another” constitute a new commandment? Centuries before the time when Christ walked among men, God had placed the requirement before men to “love your neighbor as thyself.” What addition is brought to view in the “new commandment?”
The requirement to love God with all the heart, soul, and strength is complete. Nothing can do beyond that in degree or extent. But the requirement to love your neighbor “as thyself,” may be superseded by loving him better than thyself. Here, then, is where the new feature comes in. Christ gave a new measure to the expression of love – “As I have loved you.” Hitherto it had been “as thyself;” now it must be “as I have loved you.”
The question might be asked, Why was not this divine measure of love given in the beginning? Possibly because man could not understand anything more than a corresponding love between man and n-ran until Christ came and demonstrated the new measure – “As I have loved you.”
So far, then, from superseding the law of God, the command of Christ, with its new measure of love, only intensifies the requirements found in the law of God. The negative form of love, that simply refrains from injury or working ill to his neighbor, will not do. It must be an active love that not only refrains from doing injury to the man, but loves according to the measure of Christ’s love-better than Himself.
This is an old commandment, heard from the beginning, but under the new measure – “As I have loved you” - it becomes a new revelation-a revelation that if put into practice will make all the springs of life new also.
When we bear another’s burden, if that burden bearing calls for the sacrifice of self, we fulfill the law of Christ, but that is only the law of Jehovah divinely magnified, according to the measure and example of Jesus Christ.
The following articles-the first, written by John M. Stearns, counselor at law, and the second, written by an infidel-will give the reader some idea of the perfection that God has set forth in the law that is holy, just, and good.
The Decalogue as a Legal System
What is usually termed the Ten Commandments, or the decalogue, is a complete system of law and government. But, though written by the finger of God on the tables at Sinai, it was not for the first time enacted then and there. It had antecedents and authority from the creation, more or less distinctly noted in the sacred narrative.
Allegiance of man to God was the law of Eden; and paying homage to other beings than the Deity was rebuked and punished. The crime of Cain was a profane use of the forms of worship, while envy of his brother, and covetousness of his fortune, induced the crime of murder; and lying and falsehood were brought in to conceal this crime. At least four of the distinct commands of the decalogue were violated by Cain, and such violations directly or incidentally appear in the sacred record.
The institution of marriage was established by God in Eden, was respected by the antediluvian patriarchs, and the violation of this law is noted as a chief sin of the victims swept away by the flood. They were exceedingly wicked, and took them wives of all that they chose, and God determined their destruction.
Noah and his wife were saved from the waters of the flood. And God said to him, “Thee have I seen righteous before Me. in this generation.” His sons also respected the primitive institution of marriage. They had each but one wife, as St. Peter tells us that Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house, wherein eight souls were saved from the flood. Even the name and person of God carried with them the idea of His character and government. “Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” that is, he obeyed God in his conduct and life.
The right of property-as sacred to its possessor, as the person by whose labor, industry, and care it was accumulated and preserved-is recognized as early as the days of Cain and Abel. Abel’s offering was the firstling of his flock. If the rights of property were thus sacred, the commandment against theft had even then force and authority. Abraham, and Lot, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, accumulated estates.
Idolatry became a characteristic of the age of Nimrod. The recent destruction by the flood had taught men the force of divine authority.
This sentiment of respect for government above man was sought to be appropriated by this mighty hunter of the East, to sustain his personal and despotic authority. So he caused a vast and high tower to be erected in the plain of Shinar, designing that the tower of Babel should stand in the place of God to protect the people against a future flood. Thus the followers of Nimrod constituting a primitive nation, established idolatry as an incident of national power, until God, offended with their impiety, confounded their language, and vindicated what he afterward wrote as the second commandment of His law.
The Sabbath, as instituted by the example of God in creation, was still a subsisting institution in the days of Moses. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” showed that this sacred institution subsisted as a religious tradition of by-gone ages.
That honor to parents, as enforced in the fifth commandment, was not a new idea, is evident from the entire domestic history of the patriarchs. Witness the respect shown to Noah by his two more worthy sons; the deference of Isaac, in the matter of his marriage, to the wishes of his father; the burial of Abraham and Isaac by their respective children; the care and sustenance of Jacob by his son Joseph; the dying scene of this distinguished patriarch; his funeral obsequies, and the funeral march to a distant and foreign land, to the cave of Machpelah, where his mortal form was placed beside the dust of his father. These all testify how the fifth commandment controlled. God’s chosen servants.
These ten simple commandments had been the subsisting laws by which God had sought to govern the human race for twenty-five hundred years before their special consecration and enactment amidst the fires and thundering of Sinai.
They were, in fact, the contents and digest of God’s moral law. Taking these two tables as a whole, they embrace the most complete and perfect system of law that the world has ever known.
No virtue known to the moral world herein fails of approval and commendation; and no vice or crime of which man was ever guilty escapes condemnation. These laws are definite and precise in their requirements, and still universal in their application.
The law libraries of the world, with their mixed dialects, and ancient lore, and mammoth tomes, innumerable reports, and multitudinous variety of discussions by men of judicial acumen and giant learning, do not give us one idea of crime or virtue, right or wrong, of the propensities or delinquencies of human life, beyond what is embodied in these sacred tables.
This decalogue, as a whole, is one of the most convincing proofs of divine revelation and the divine government. Human wisdom and human learning are entirely inadequate to the production of so perfect a system of law and government; so definite, and yet so universal; so brief, and yet so comprehensive!
Where Did Moses Get that Law?
An infidel, wishing to examine into the truth of the Christian religion, inquired of an elder of the Presbyterian church as follows: “What books, sir, would you advise me to read?” “The Bible,” said the elder. “I believe you do not understand me,” resumed the unbeliever, surprised in his turn.” I wish to investigate the truth of the Bible.” “I would advise you, sir,” repeated the elder, “to read the Bible; and,” he continued, “I will give you my reasons: Most infidels are very ignorant of the Scriptures. Now, to reason on any subject with correctness, we must understand what it is about which we reason. In the next place, I consider the internal evidence of the truth of the Scriptures stronger than the external.” “And where shall I begin?” inquired the unbeliever, “at the New Testament?” “No,” said the elder, “at the beginning -at Genesis.”
One evening the elder called and found the unbeliever at his house or office, walking the room, with a dejected look, his mind apparently absorbed in thought. He continued, not noticing that any one had come in, busily to trace and retrace his steps. The elder at length spoke: “You seem, sir,” said he, “to be in a brown study; of what are you thinking?” “I have been reading,” replied the infidel, “the moral law.” “Well, what do you think of it?” asked the elder. “I will tell you what I used to think.” answered the infidel. “I supposed that Moses was the leader of a horde of bandits; that, having a strong mind, he acquired great influence over a superstitious people; and that on Mount Sinai he played off some sort of fireworks, to the amazement of his ignorant followers, who imagined, in their mingled fear and superstition, that the exhibition was supernatural.” “But what do you think now?” interposed the elder. “I have been looking,” said the infidel, “into the nature of that law. I have been trying to see whether I can add anything to it, or take anything from it, so as to make it better. Sir, I cannot. It is perfect.
“The first commandment,” continued he, “directs us to make the Creator the object of our supreme love and reverence. That is right. If He be our Creator, Preserver, and supreme Benefactor, we ought to treat Him, and none other, as such. The second forbids idolatry. That certainly is right. The third forbids profaneness. The fourth fixes a time for religious worship. If there is a God, He ought surely to be worshipped. It is suitable that there should be an outward homage, significant of our inward regard.
If God be worshipped, it is proper that some time be set apart for that purpose, when all may worship Him harmoniously and without interruption. One day in seven is certainly not too much, and I do not know that it is too little. The fifth defines the peculiar duties arising from the family relations. Injuries to our neighbor are then classified by the moral law. They are divided into offences against life, chastity, property, and character; and,” said he, applying a legal idea with legal acuteness, “I notice that the greatest offense in each class is expressly forbidden. Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder; to chastity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, perjury.
Now the greatest offense must include the less of the same kind. Murder must include every injury to life; adultery, every injury to purity; and so of the rest. And the moral code is closed and perfected by a command forbidding every improper desire in regard to our neighbor.
“I have been thinking,” he proceeded, “where did Moses get that law? I have read history; the Egyptians and the adjacent nations were idolaters; so were the Greeks and Romans; and the wisest and best Greeks or Romans never gave a code of morals like this. Where did Moses get this law, which surpasses the wisdom and philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived at a period comparatively barbarous; but he has given a law, in which the learning and sagacity of all subsequent time can detect no flaw. Where did he get it? He could not have soared so far above his age as to have devised it himself. I am satisfied where he obtained it. It came down from Heaven.
“I am convinced of the truth of the religion of the Bible.”
THE Lord Jesus came into the world to suffer and die for the sins of men. John the Baptist, seeing Him, cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. Since the time of Adam’s transgression the people of God had looked forward by faith to His coming, that through the shedding of His blood they might be “saved from wrath through Him.”
His coming was prefigured, or foreshadowed, by the sacrificial system, which consisted in the shedding of blood by the slaying of innocent beasts, and the offering of their bodies in burnt sacrifice upon the altar. In this way the children of God manifested their faith in the sacrifice of the coming Savior; “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1: 19. Thus, “by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice,” when he slew the innocent lamb. He thereby confessed to all about him that he believed the blood of the Son of God was to be shed for his sins. So with Abraham as he built his altar, wherever he went; and so with his descendants, the Israelites, to whom God gave minute and specific instruction regarding the ceremonial sacrificial system.
There was virtue in this system only as “a shadow of things to come; “for, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4. Therefore, the one great object of this system of types and shadows was to point forward to the Lamb of God, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:14. When, therefore, the Lamb of God had “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20), when in His expiring agony He cried, “It is finished,” type had met antitype; shadow had met substance. Henceforth the sacrificial ordinances and ceremonies of the temple were at an end; for at the death of Jesus, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” Matthew 27:51.
The great sacrifice had been offered. The remedy for sin had come. He had been “brought as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7), and because of this, the ceremonies and rites which had so long pointed forward to this great event, being no longer needed, in the nature of things, ceased to exist. Paul speaks of this ritual system as “the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” which Christ “abolished in His flesh.” Ephesians 2:15. In the ninth chapter of Hebrews it is spoken of as follows: “Which [temple or sanctuary] was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances [rites, or ceremonies, margin], imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Hebrews 9:9, 10.
The Ceremonial Law
This law of commandments contained in ordinances; this law which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, together with all other Mosaic rites and ceremonies, is known to Bible students as the “ceremonial law.” It was written by Moses in a book, as we shall see later, and had to do exclusively with the sacrifices and services of the temple; with divers washings, meats and drinks, feast days and holy days, with days of the moon, etc.; together with the ceremonial Sabbath days, spoken of in Leviticus 23 and other scriptures, as follows:-
“In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein; but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement; it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And you shall do no work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls.”
These ceremonial Sabbath days were entirely distinct from the weekly Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Their count had nothing whatever to do with the days of the week, as they were yearly Sabbaths, and came on the first day of the seventh month, and on the tenth day of the seventh month, etc., without regard to the day of the week.
The prime object of these typical Sabbaths was to point forward to Christ. For on those days the priests were instructed to “offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord;” thus typifying Him who made “His soul an offering for sin.” The tenth day of the seventh month was the annual day for atonement, in which all were to afflict their souls, and confess their sins.
And those of the people who had a true sense of the meaning of the sacrifices and offerings of that day, understood that the blood of the victims could not atone for their sins; but simply their faith manifested in the great provision God would make in the future.
After the death of Christ, many of the Jewish converts to Christianity were slow to discern that these days which had foreshadowed the death of Christ had passed away in His death, and that the law of commandments contained in ordinances had been abolished. They still argued in favor of circumcision, and the ceremonial days of the old dispensation under the Mosaic law. And often, disputes arose between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians, and uncharitable judgment was pronounced owing to the conflicting opinions in this matter. The Jewish Christians argued that their Gentile brethren could not be saved unless they observed the rite of circumcision, and the holy days of ceremonial Sabbaths of the Jewish system. The Gentiles, on the other hand, took the Jewish Christians to task for still observing the days and ceremonies which had been abolished. Owing to this controversy, Paul wrote to the Roman Christians:
“Who art then that judges another man’s servant? One man esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, He that regards the day, regards it unto the Lord; and he that regards not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” Romans 14:4-6.
Here is a true setting forth of the matter as it stood at that time. To illustrate: Some of the Jewish converts esteemed the tenth day of the seventh month above common days, and regarded it to the Lord, whereas the Gentile converts did not regard the day as sacred. Paul showed them that it was no sin either to regard the day, or not to regard it, as the day had lost its former significance. He said, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” And now, if a Jewish Christian still wished to regard it as holy, it would be no sin for him to do so. And if the Gentile Christian disregarded the day (which he had a right to do), his Jewish brother had no authority to sit in judgment upon him for so doing. On the contrary, the Gentile must not condemn his Jewish brother for keeping the day if he chose.
Concerning this same matter, Paul wrote to the Colossians:
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which area shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:14-17.
The “Sabbath days” here brought to view as a part of the typical system, are the, very ones mentioned in Leviticus 23; for they are said to be “a shadow of things to come.” And such, indeed, in their prime significance, and exclusively such, were the typical Sabbath days of the ceremonial system. This being true, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment cannot possibly be placed in the same category with these shadowy “Sabbath days” of the ceremonial law; for, first of all, the Sabbath day of Jehovah belongs to the moral law of Ten Commandments, an eternal and unchangeable code, as we shall see; and besides, the term “Sabbath days” is in the plural, denoting the different typical Sabbath days, such as the first day of the seventh month, and the tenth day of the seventh month, etc., while God’s seventh day Sabbath is spoken of in the Bible as the Sabbath day, singular number.
Not a Type or Shadow
Another reason why the Sabbath days here included in the typical economy could not have reference to the weekly Sabbath is, that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment never was a, type or a shadow of anything. It was instituted and fully appointed at the creation of the world, before sin entered, and, consequently; before types and shadows were needed. Instead of being a shadow of anything to come, it points unfailingly back to creation. Types and shadows were needed to point forward to the remedy for sin, only after sin entered. And as we have seen, the Sabbath day was set apart before the entrance of sin; and, too, there is nothing about the Sabbath day which suggests type or shadow.
Speaking of the handwriting of ordinances, and the ceremonial days of Colossians 2:16, Dr. Adam Clarke says:
“The apostle speaks here in reference to some particulars of the handwriting of ordinances, which had been taken away; viz., the distinction of meats and drinks, what was clean and what unclean, according to the law; and the necessity of observing certain holy days or festivals, such as the new moons, and particular Sabbaths, or those which should be observed with more than ordinary solemnity; all these had been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross, and were no longer of moral obligation. There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away; or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. I have shown elsewhere that ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’ is a command of perpetual obligation, and can never be superseded but by the final termination of time.”
Dr. Albert Barnes, speaking of the same text, says:
“Or in respect of an holy day.’ The word rendered ‘holy day’ means properly a feast or festival, and the allusion here is to the festivals of the Jews. ‘Or of the Sabbath days’ (Greek, ‘of the Sabbaths’). The word Sabbath in the Old Testament is applied not only to the seventh day, but to all the days of holy rest that were observed by the Hebrews, and particularly to the beginning and close of their great festivals. There is, doubtless, reference to those days in this place, as the word is used in the plural number. There is not the slightest reason to believe that he meant to teach that one of the Ten Commandments had ceased to be binding on mankind. If he had used the word in the singular number-the Sabbath-it would then, of course, have been clear that he meant to teach that that commandment had ceased to be binding, and that a Sabbath was no longer to be observed. But the use of the term in the plural number, and the connection, show that he had his eye on the great number of days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law, and not to the moral law or the Ten Commandments. No part of the moral law-no one of the Ten Commandments-could be spoken of as ‘a shadow of good things to come.’ These commandments are, from the nature of the moral law, of perpetual and universal obligation.”
The American Tract Society, in “New Testament with Notes,” says:
“Judge you;’ pronounce you good or bad, according to your treatment of the ceremonial law. A holy day-Sabbath days; in the original, a festival Sabbath. The days referred to are those required to be observed in the ceremonial law-days associated by God with meats, drinks, and new moons. The passage does not refer to the Sabbath of the moral law, associated with the commands forbidding theft, murder, and adultery. The weekly Sabbath was never against men or contrary to them, but always for them, and promoting of their highest good. The observance of it caused them to ride upon the high places of the earth, and to possess the heritage of God’s people.” Isaiah 58: 13, 14; Jeremiah 17:21-27.
A Striking Contrast
In order that no one may be confused with regard to the typical system as it stands related to God’s great law of righteousness, the following comparison is made between the Ten Commandments, or moral law, and the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or ceremonial law. And, notwithstanding the fact that some teachers of these days are sadly confounding the moral with the ceremonial, it will be seen that the distinction between the two systems is most pronounced. The opinions, also, of leading commentators, reformers, and founders of churches, is given in order that all may see what the true teaching has been in years gone by, and what it still is, in truth, with reference to the two systems, moral and ceremonial.
Moral Law
Of Ten Commandments
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7.
“All Thy commandments are righteousness.” Psalm 119:172.
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth.” Psalm 119:142.
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7: 12.
2. A law in itself spiritual.
“For we know that the law is spiritual.” Romans 7:14.
3. Spoken by Jehovah.
“And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments.” Deuteronomy 3:12, 13. (Exodus 20: 1.)
4. Written by the Lord upon two tables of stone.
“Those words the Lord spoke unto ail your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 5:22. (Exodus 31:18.)
5. Eternal, therefore requiring obedience from all.
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yes, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31.
“Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.” Matthew 5:17, 18, R.V.
“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16: 17, R.V.
“If you wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17.
“Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Corinthians 7:19.
“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.” Revelation 22:14.
Ceremonial Law
Of Commandments Contained in Ordinances
“For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitable ness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.” Hebrews 7: 18, 19.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered - year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.” Hebrews 10: 1.
2. A law not in itself spiritual.
“Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Hebrews 9:10.
3. Spoken by Moses.
“And the Lord called unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering,” etc. Leviticus 1:1, 2.
“This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering,” etc., “which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that He commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord.” Leviticus 7:37, 38.
4. Written by Moses in a book.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write you these words.” Exodus 34:27.
“And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi.” Deuteronomy 31:9.
“And they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses.” Nehemiah 8:1. (2 Kings 22:8-16.)
5. Abolished, therefore not requiring obedience from any.
“Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” Ephesians 2:15.
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which arc a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:14-17.
“Certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, You must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment.” Acts 15:24.
What Men Have Said
MORAL LAW
1. A perfect law.
Spurgeon: “The law of God is a divine law-holy, heavenly, perfect. There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity.” - Spurgeon’s Sermons, page 280.
Alexander Campbell: “God’s ten words, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality.”-Debate with Purcell, page 215.
Dr. Adam Clarke: “It would be almost impossible for a man to have that just notion of the demerit of sin so as to produce repentance, or to see the nature and necessity of the death of Christ, if the law were not applied to his conscience by the light of the Holy Spirit; it is then alone that he sees himself to be carnal and sold under sin; and that the law of the commandments is holy, just, and good. Comments on Romans 7:13.
Scott: “This law is so extensive that we cannot measure it; so spiritual that we cannot evade it, and so reasonable that we cannot find fault with it.” - Comments on Exodus 20:1-17.
Nevin: “The moral law, summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments uttered from Mount Sinai, requires in all its precepts a spiritual obedience.” Biblical Antiquities.
3. Spoken by Jehovah.
Buck: “Moral law is that declaration of God’s will which directs and binds all men, in every age and place, to their whole duty to Him. It was most solemnly proclaimed by God Himself at Sinai.” - Theological Dictionary.
4. Written by the Lord upon two tables of stone.
Scott: “But God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments, the substance of the moral law, on the tables of stone.” - Comments on Exodus 34:27.
Presbyterians: “The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by Him on two tables of stone.”-Confession of Faith, ed. 1883.
5. Eternal, therefore requiring obedience from all.
John Wesley: “But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He (Christ) did not takeaway. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven. The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law, which was only designed for a temporary restraint upon a disobedient and stiff necked people; whereas this was from the beginning of the world, being written not on tables of stone, but on the hearts of all the children of men, when they came out of the hands of the Creator. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages, as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change; but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.”-Sermons, Volume 1, sermon 25.
Martin Luther “Question. Are we under obligation to keep the moral law? Answer. Yes; because it is founded on the nature of God, and cannot be changed; it is of universal application, which was impossible with respect to the ceremonial and civil laws. Christ demands obedience to His law.”-Shorter Catechism, ed. 1834.
Calvin: “The law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience.” - Institutes, book 2.
Dr. Adam Clarke: “And let it be observed that the law did not answer this end merely among the Jews in the days of the apostles; it is just as necessary to the Gentiles to the present hour. Nor do we find that true repentance takes place where the moral law is not preached and enforced. Those who preach only the gospel to sinners, at best only heal the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly.” - Comments on Romans 7:13.
Baptists: “We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good.” - Church Manual.
Martin Luther: “I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments. Can it be imaginable that there should be any sin where there is no law? Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also.”-Spiritual Antichrist.
John Wesley: “Beware of antinomianism, making void the law, or any part of it, through faith.” - Christian Perfection.
Christians: “By the abolition of the law I do not think that the moral law of love to God and love to man was destroyed; for this must be unchangeable and eternally binding on all intelligent creatures. I see no connection between the death of Christ and the destruction of the moral law.” -Elder Barton W. Stone.
Alexander Campbell: “The everlasting ten.” - Popular Lectures.
CEREMONIAL LAW
Dr. Barnes: “The ceremonial laws are such as are appointed to meet certain states of society, or to regulate the religious rites and ceremonies of a people. These can be changed when circumstances are changed, and yet the moral law be untouched. Comments on Matthew 5:18.
Bishop Hopkins: “The ceremonial law was wholly taken up enjoining those observations of sacrifices and offerings, and various methods of purification and cleansings, which were typical of Christ, and that sacrifice of His which alone was able to take away sin.”-Complete Works of Bishop Hopkins, The Ten Commandments, page 7, Edition 1841.
“And concerning this it is that the apostle (Paul) is to be understood, when in his epistles he so often speaks of the abrogation and disannulling of the law. He speaks it, I say, of the ceremonial law and Aaronical observations.” -Idem, page 8.
2. A law not in itself spiritual.
Nevin: “The ceremonial law of the Jews comprehended a vast number of precepts. It stood in meats and drinks, and divers washings and carnal ordinances, imposed on them till the time of reformation.” -Biblical Antiquities.
Justin Edwards: “The other kind, called ceremonial laws, related to outward observances which were not obligatory till they were commanded, and then were binding only on the Jews till the death of Christ.”-Sabbath Manual, page 133.
3. Spoken by Moses.
Methodists: “Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, does not bind Christians; yet notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.”-Discipline. Article 6.
4. Written by Moses in a book.
“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant.” Deuteronomy 31:24-26.
Scott: “Moses wrote in a book the judicial and ceremonial precepts that he had received.” Comments on Exodus 34:27.
5. Abolished, therefore not requiring obedience from any.
John Wesley: “The ritual or ceremonial law, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel, containing all the injunctions and ordinances which related to the old sacrifices and services of the temple, our Lord indeed did come to destroy, to dissolve, and utterly abolish. To this bear all the apostles witness; not only Barnabas and Paul, who vehemently withstood those who taught that Christians ought to keep the law of Moses’ (Acts 15:6); not only St. Peter, who termed the insisting on this, on the observance of the ritual law, a ‘tempting of God,’ and ‘putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers,’ said he, ‘nor we were able to bear;’ but ‘all the apostles, elders, and brethren, being assembled with one accord’ (verse 10), declared that to command them to keep this law, was to subvert their souls; and that‘ it seemed good to the Holy Ghost’ and to them ‘to lay no such burden upon them.’ This ‘handwriting of ordinances’ our Lord did ‘blot out,’ take away, aid nail to His cross. Verse 24.” Sermons-Volume 1, sermon 25.
Martin Luther: “Question. Are we under obligation to keep the ceremonial, or church law of the Jews? Answer. No; the ordinances which it enjoined were only types and shadows of Christ; and when they were fulfilled by His death, and the distinction between the Jew and Gentile was removed, the ceremonial law was abolished, because it was no longer necessary.”-Shorter Catechism, edition 1834.
Reverend George Elliot: “By the phrase ‘the ten words’ as well as in the general scope of Hebrew legislation, the moral law is fully distinguished from the civil and ceremonial law. The first is an abiding statement of the divine will; the last consists of transient ordinances having but a temporary and local meaning.” Essay on the Abiding Sabbath, page 116.
Scott: “Moses wrote in a book the judicial and ceremonial precepts that he had received; but God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments, the substance of the moral law, on the tables of stone. This difference strongly marked the permanency and perpetual obligation of the moral law, and the inferior importance and temporary obligation of the ceremonial institutions.” - Comments on Exodus 34:27.
Christians. “But there is an intimate connection between His (Christ’s) death and the ceremonial laws; for these were types and shadows of Christ, the antitype and substance.” -Elder Barton W. Stone.
Olshausen: “There was represented in the holy of holies the absolute relation of the absolutely holy God to the sinful people. How very superficial is the view of those who would place the decalogue in the same category with the ceremonial law, and regard it as given only for the Jews. The whole ceremonial law had rather a significance only on the supposition that the decalogue was not a relative thing suited to the capacity and development of the time when it was given, but the Purely absolute representation of the eternal, independent will of God.”-Commentary, Hebrews 9:25.
Thus we have seen clearly established the distinction between the law of ritualism and the law of Ten Commandments. The one, “provisional and temporary;” the other, “changeless and eternal.” One, having completed its mission, expired in the death of Christ; the other, continuing on in its everlasting perfection, “as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change,” makes known forever the duty of man to his God. The one, a” law of commandments contained in ordinances,” was in itself subsidiary, dependent, and incomplete; the other consisted of “ten precepts, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative” - a complete law in itself. For when, from the burning mountain, the Lawgiver spoke its sacred precepts, the record states that “He added no more,” and then He wrote it “in two tables of stone” (Deuteronomy 5:22), showing thus that it is distinct, separate, and complete.
The only way by which it is possible for men to know that they are sinners, is by this law. Paul says, “I had not known sin, but by the law,” and then to show what law he refers to, immediately he adds, “For I had not known lust [“coveting,” RV.], except the law had said, You shall not covet.” And the law which says, “You shall not covet,” is the law of Ten Commandments. This law, which, as we have seen, is and has been binding upon all men in every age, in convicting men of sin, and defining their duty with regard to keeping holy the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week, says: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.
May the God of truth, by His gracious Spirit, impress upon the heart of every seeker after immortality the solemn, all-important, and saving truth, that whosoever would enter into life eternal, must keep the commandments. Matthew 19:17; Luke 10:25-28: Revelation 22:14.
“For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Hebrews 8:8.
THE subject of this text is the new covenant. This new covenant is called, in the preceding verse, the second covenant. But a new implies an old, and a second implies a first. Two covenants are thus singled out in the Word of God as standing in this relation to each other: the one called the first or old covenant, the other called the second or new covenant.
Why are two covenants thus coupled together, and made so prominent in the sacred Scriptures? It is because these relate particularly to that great work, the redemption of a lost race, for the furtherance of which even the Scriptures themselves are given, which have consequently received the names of the Old and the New Testament. This is shown in the fact that the new covenant is designed to bring all those who avail themselves of its proffered blessings into such a relationship to God that their sins and iniquities will be remembered no more; and this can be accomplished only by redemption.
The conclusion is therefore clear, that these two covenants embody two grand divisions of the work which Heaven has undertaken for human redemption, and cover two especial dispensations devoted to the development of this work.
Paul, in Ephesians 2: 11, 12, sets forth the condition of those who do not place themselves within the provisions of the covenants
“Wherefore remember, that you, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time you were with out Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
This presents in a startling light the condition of every unconverted man, and a more utterly wretched and abject condition it would be difficult to describe. No Christ, no hope, no God! Such is the condition of him who is a stranger from these covenants of promise. It becomes, therefore, a matter of infinite moment to ascertain what the new covenant is, upon what conditions its blessings are suspended,-and what we are to do in order to become partakers of its benefits.
That the old covenant has been abolished by being superseded by the new, Paul plainly states. Of this there is no question. And we affirm further that nothing has been abolished but the old covenant. Whatever has been abolished was included in that covenant, and whatever was not included in that covenant still remains, unaffected by the change from old to new. If the Ten Commandments constituted the old covenant, then they are forever gone, and no man need contend for their perpetuity or labor for their revival. But if they did not constitute the old covenant, then they have not been abolished, and no man need breathe a doubt in regard to their perpetuity and immutability. This, therefore, becomes a test question. It determines, as definitely as any one subject can, the whole question of the perpetuity or abolition of the moral law.
Can we then tell what did constitute the first or old covenant? What does the word covenant mean? Webster defines it thus: “A mutual agreement of two or more persons or parties, in writing and under seal, to do or to refrain from doing some act or thing; a contract; stipulation.”
This is the primary, leading definition of the word; and in looking for the old covenant, we look for some transaction to which this definition will apply.
We have definite data from which to work. We are told who was the author of the first covenant. It was God. We are told with whom it was made. It was made with Israel. We are told when it was made. It was made with that people when they came out of the land of Egypt. Jeremiah 31:32; Hebrews 8:9. By these circumstances the old covenant is clearly distinguished from the Adamic, the Abrahamic, or any other covenant brought to view in the Bible.
We go back therefore to the history of Israel as they came out of Egypt, and lay down this as a consistent and self-evident principle: That the very first transaction we find taking place between God and the Israelites after they left Egypt which answers to the definition of the word covenant, must be the first covenant, unless some good reason can be shown why it is not.
Do we find anything of this kind in the experience of that people, anything which constituted a formal and mutual agreement between God and themselves, based upon mutual promises? We find one, and only, one, transaction of that kind. The record of it commences in Exodus 19:3-8:
“And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be unto Me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel.”
“And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.”
Such was the response of the people. They said, “We agree to the terms; we will enter into the arrangement.” We now have the two parties before us, and the mutual, voluntary action on the part of each. This is the first transaction of the kind recorded between God and that people. It answers most strictly to the meaning of the word covenant. Therefore we say that this has the primary claim to be considered the old covenant of which Jeremiah prophesied and Paul discoursed.
It may be asked, then, how the Ten Commandments can be called “the covenant.” We answer, That is just where the people are misled: They are never called “the” covenant, referring to the first or old covenant. That the Ten Commandments are called “a” covenant, we admit; but what kind of a covenant? and in what sense are they so called? Please read again Exodus 19:5: “Now, therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant,” etc. Then God had something which He called His covenant, which antedated the covenant made with Israel. It was already in existence before any formal agreement whatever was made with that people. And this explains Deuteronomy 4:13. Those who read that verse should be critical enough to observe that Moses does not call the Ten Commandments the covenant, nor a covenant, but His-(God’s) covenant.
“And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments.”
These, then, are what God referred to in Exodus 19: 5, in the words My covenant; and these were already in existence where the covenant was made with Israel. It should be noticed further that the covenant of Deuteronomy 4: 13 is not a covenant made, but a covenant commanded; and surely anyone can see the difference between an arrangement established upon the voluntary and mutual promises of two parties, and that which one party has power to enjoin with authority upon another party. But the covenant here mentioned, God did thus enjoin upon them without regard to any action on their part.
It is now easy to be seen why the Ten Commandments are called a covenant, and what kind of a covenant they were. They were simply the basis of that agreement recorded in Exodus 19:3-8; for the very first condition God proposed was, “If you will keep My covenant.” It is simply the use of the figure of metonymy, by which one thing is put for another with which it is closely related. We say a man sets a good table, when we do not mean the table at all, but only the food which the table contains. So the Ten Commandments are called God’s covenant, because they are the condition on which His agreement with Israel rested, and upon which all. His promises to men in every age are suspended. In this sense is Deuteronomy 9: 9 to be understood. In this sense, and this only, are the Ten Commandments ever called a covenant.
And this brings us to the secondary definition of the term covenant, which is “a writing containing the terms of agreement between parties.” Thus the conditions upon which an agreement, or covenant, rests are, in a secondary sense, called also a covenant. This may be illustrated by the relation which all good citizens sustain to their respective governments. They are all in covenant relation with the government. The government says, If you will obey the laws of this commonwealth, you shall be protected in your life, liberty, and property. The citizens respond, We will obey. This is the mutual agreement, the covenant, virtually existing everywhere between the citizen and the government. But when we speak of the government alone, its covenant would be its laws which it commands its citizens to perform. These are the conditions of the agreement, and hence may be called the covenant of the government, because upon obedience to these are suspended all the blessings which it proposes to confer.
Such was the relation established between the Lord and His people. He had a law which the very circumstances of our existence bind us, to keep; yet He graciously annexed a promise to the keeping of it.
Obey My law, and I will secure you in the possession of certain blessings above all people. The people accepted the offer. The matter then stood thus: The people said, We will keep God’s law. God said, Then I will make you a kingdom of priests, a peculiar treasure unto Myself. This was the agreement or covenant made between them. But so far as God was concerned, His law was His covenant, because it was the basis of the whole arrangement, and upon the keeping of that by the people, all the blessings were suspended which He proposed to confer.
When the people agreed to obey God’s voice (verses 5, 8), they had not heard His voice, and knew not what conditions it might impose. But on the third day, after this, the Lord came down in fearful majesty, and with a voice that shook the solid earth from pole to pole declared the Ten Commandments. Here for the first time the people heard God’s voice, which they were to obey. Then the Lord took Moses into a private interview with Himself, and gave him some instruction which the people were to follow in civil and religious matters, under this arrangement. This instruction is found in the latter part of Exodus 20, and chapters 21, 22 and 23 entire, and is an epitome of the civil and ceremonial laws given to the Hebrews.
In chapter 24 is resumed the narrative of the steps taken in the formation of this covenant. Moses appeared’ before the people a second time, and rehearsed in their hearing all the words which the Lord had communicated to him. And here the people, after having heard for themselves God’s voice, and being told all that He had said to Moses, had an opportunity to answer again whether they would enter into this arrangement or not. At their first answer (Exodus 19:8) they did not know what would be, required of them; now they understood all the conditions, and what will they answer now?
“And all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said, will we do.” Exodus 24: 3.
It would seem that this was all-sufficient. But the Lord moved very carefully in the matter, so that the people might have no opportunity to plead in after years that they did not know what they were doing in entering into this covenant with Him. So He caused Moses to write out in a book all the words He had told him, that all points might be again carefully considered, and then to read it all over to the people.
“And he took the book of the covenant, and read, in the audience of the people.” Verse 7.
Here they had opportunity for the third time to reconsider the matter, and change their decision if they so desired. And what was their answer this time?
“And they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
Moses then took blood which had been offered for the purpose (verses 5, 6), and sprinkled it on the people, and said “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” Verse 8.
Here the covenant was closed up, sealed, and ratified by the shedding of blood. Keep this scene in mind while we pass down fifteen hundred and fifty-five years to the days of Paul, and notice his remarks upon this event.
“For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.” Hebrews 9:17-20.
Paul here plainly states that the first covenant was dedicated with blood, the words testament and covenant meaning the same thing, being from the same original word. And to what scene does Paul refer? To the very one recorded in Exodus 24: 8, just described. Moses says, Behold the blood of the covenant; and Paul says that the covenant then and there ratified was the first or old covenant.
Now to settle the fact, once and forever, that this covenant was not the Ten Commandments, we have only to remark that neither Moses nor the people had the tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments in their hands at that time. This will appear from the further record of Exodus 24. In verse 12 we read “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
But before Moses was called up to receive this law of Ten Commandments which God had written, the first covenant had been made, closed up, finished, and ratified by the shedding of blood. These facts throw a fortification around this point which it is not possible either to surmount or break down. The first covenant was dedicated with blood. But when that dedication took place, the tables of stone had not been put into the possession of the people; hence they were not dedicated with blood. Therefore, the Ten Commandments were not the old covenant.
Another line of thought showing just as clearly that the Ten Commandments were not the first or old covenant, is based on Deuteronomy 5: 2, 3, a passage to which some religious teachers appeal with such seeming assurance:
“The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”
Having assumed that the Ten Commandments were the, old covenant, these verses are appealed to, to show that these commandments were here for the first time introduced, and hence came to an, end with that dispensation. But the quotation is fatal to the assumption; for the Ten Commandments did exist before this time; hence they were not the covenant at that time made.
The book of Genesis, though so brief in its record that its fifty short chapters cover a period of - over 2,500 years, nevertheless abounds with indications that the principles of the Ten Commandments were well understood and acted upon, even from the creation down. Why was Cain’ condemned for killing his brother if the law against murder did not exist? “Where no law is, there is no transgression;” and “sin is not imputed when there, is no law.” By what standard was it shown-that Noah and his house alone were righteous, while all-the rest of mankind were only evil, and that continually, if there was no law for a standard in such matters? To be righteous is to be living in conformity with a standard of righteousness, or right doing. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” On what ground were the inhabitants of the wicked cities of the plain given over to the vengeance of eternal fire on account of their vileness, if there was no law against un chastity? There was such a law; and Peter makes a statement which shows that it was as well understood then as now. He says that those cities were made an example unto all that should after live ungodly. This covers all time from that day to this, and onward to the end. And the ungodly of today may look, back to Sodom, and learn how God will deal with them unless they repent. Are there moral principles binding on them now? So there were then, if their, case is an example. Do men understand these laws now? So they did then. Is it an acknowledged principle now that a man cannot be justly punished who does not know, or has not had an opportunity to know, the law? So it was then.
We have heard of tyrants who posted their laws so high that no one could read them, and then struck off the head of every transgressor; but God does not so deal with His creatures. No, the law of God was in existence and understood in ancient Sodom, as well as in the numberless Sodoms of today.
But some may be ready to suppose that even if the principles of the other commandments were known, surely the Sabbath was neither, known nor regarded before the time of Moses. We answer that if it can be shown that any other commandment was known, tenfold more proof can be given that the Sabbath was known, and a commandment given for its observance. In proof of this it is only necessary to refer to the record of Genesis 2:2, 3, which records the origin of the Sabbath institution in Eden. God rested on the seventh day. He then blessed the day; not the day that was past, but the day for time to come. Then He sanctified it. Sanctify means to set apart to a sacred or religious use. This could not refer to past time, but to the seventh day for time to come. And it was to be used in this sacred or religious manner, not by the Lord; for He does not need it: but by man, for whom, says: Christ, the Sabbath was made. Mark 2:27.
How, then, we ask, could the Sabbath be thus sanctified for man’s use, or be set apart to be used in a holy or sacred manner by him? Only by telling man to use it in this manner. But just as soon as the Lord had told Adam to use the Sabbath in a sacred or religious manner, He had given him a command for its. observance. The record in Genesis is therefore plain that a Sabbath commandment was given in Eden. And we should do no violence to the text if we should read it, And God blessed the seventh day, and commanded Adam to sacredly observe it. But a command given to Adam under these circumstances was a command through him to all his posterity of every age and clime.
No more need be said to show to all who respect the testimony of God’s Word, that the Ten Commandments were known all through the ages before the time of Moses, and that men were held under obligation to obey them. Therefore, these commandments were not the covenant made with Israel at Horeb, which covenant had no existence previous to that time.
Perhaps all has now been said that need be said in this connection respecting the old covenant. Every essential fact concerning it is clearly defined, and can easily be found. We have seen plainly brought to view the parties between whom this covenant was made, the time when it was made, what it contained, and the steps taken in its ratification. It was made between God and Israel, when that people came out of Egypt; it was the special arrangement between God, and that people, whereby they became His peculiar treasure; the matter embraced in it was that privately communicated by the Lord to Moses, and by him written out in a book, called the book of the covenant; and it was dedicated with blood.
The Ten Commandments were not, therefore, the old covenant, because: (1) They were in existence, and were just as much binding on men before as after the exodus; (2) They were never dedicated with blood; (3) They were set forth by the Lord Himself as antedating His covenant with Israel, being the primary and essential basis of the arrangement then entered into with them.
The New Covenant
We shall pursue our inquiry under this head in the following channels: When was the new covenant announced? Why was it necessary that a new covenant should be made? By whom was it made? When was it made? With whom was it made? And what are its conditions and provisions?
The new covenant was announced by Jeremiah six hundred and six years before Christ, in the following language:
“Behold, the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, said the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, said the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, said the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34.
This language is explicit in answering nearly all the inquiries raised respecting the new covenant. Over six hundred years before Christ, it was announced that such a covenant would be made. And the reason for this covenant is given; namely, because they had already virtually -annulled the first arrangement, by breaking God’s covenant.
Paul states this a little more fully in his letter to the Hebrews. He says:
“For if that first covenant had been faultless [Greek, amemptos, without defect], then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
This covenant is declared to be faulty, not that there was; anything wrong about it, in itself considered; but it was imperfect, simply because its provisions were not ample enough, as we shall presently see, to meet the emergency which arose under it. And this is more than intimated in the next sentence; “For finding fault with them.” The fault, then, in reality, was with the people; and the fault with them was that they had broken God’s covenant, the ten commandments, and thus violated the conditions of the covenant made.
Violating a law does not abolish the law, but it does break up or nullify any arrangement which is suspended upon the keeping of the law. Such was the effect of Israel’s transgression of the law. It did not abolish the law, but it did virtually abolish the old covenant, by releasing God from all obligations He had placed Himself under on condition of their obedience.
Well, suppose the people did break the Ten Commandments, was there not a remedy provided for such cases? They, by their transgressions against God, became sinners; but was there not provision for the removal of sin, so that they could come back into the same relation to God as if they had not sinned? Here was the difficulty. To be sure, they had their services, their rounds of ceremonies, and-their offerings. There was plenty of blood provided; but it was only the blood of beasts. Paul gives us a true view of the situation when he says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9: 22); and yet that it was “not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” Hebrews 10:4. Not all the thousands of offerings that were brought during the fifteen hundred years of that dispensation, nor all the rivers of blood that flowed around their consecrated altars, could, avail to remove a single sin; and unless something more effectual should be provided, all were lost.
The new covenant undertakes to supply this deficiency, by providing a sacrifice which can take away sin; for the grand result of it, as expressed by Paul, is that their unrighteousness would find mercy at the hands of God, and their sins and iniquities would be remembered no more.
Prophecy, after announcing the fact that a new covenant would be made; again takes up the matter, and brings to view the minister and the sacrifice. The prophet Daniel, speaking of the Messiah, says:
“And He shall confirm the covenant with made for one week.”
There can be no question that this refers to the new I covenant. Sixty-nine of the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 were to extend to the manifestation of the Messiah. The last one of the seventy weeks was allotted to the work of the Messiah and His apostles for Daniel’s people. Our Lord carried on the work in person for the first half of that week. In the midst of the week He caused the sacrifice and oblation (of the Jewish service) to cease, by the offering up of Himself, thus providing the new-covenant sacrifice. The apostles then took up the work, and carried it out the remaining half of the week. Hebrews 2: 3.
We now have before us the minister of the new covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ; and the sacrifice provided, His own blood; and the author of the new covenant, God, who made the first covenant, of which Moses was minister.
We now inquire, With whom was the new covenant made? Was it made with the Gentiles? Here is an important point on which a great deal of misapprehension seems to exist. The idea generally conveyed on this question is that God at first made a covenant with Israel; but they finally proved to be such a hardhearted, stiff necked, and reprobate race, that God determined to cast them off, and select other people with whom to enter into relation; so He cast off the Jews, and made a covenant with the Gentiles. And this is probably why we so often hear the expression, “Show us where a Gentile is ever commanded to keep the Sabbath,” etc. What a short-sighted view does this betray! A more mistaken idea was never entertained. God never made, and never proposed to make, a covenant with the Gentiles. He has nothing whatever to do with the Gentiles further than to hold them amenable to His government, and to open the way of mercy before them. So long as a man is a Gentile, he is in a godless, hopeless state. And such is the state of every unconverted man. His condition must be changed before God can take him into favor with Himself.
In the prophecy as originally given, and as quoted by Paul, it is plainly stated with whom the Lord would make the new covenant: “Behold, the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a new covenant,” not with the Gentiles, but “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” The new covenant, therefore, is made with the very same people, with whom the old was made.
Paul elsewhere mentions this fact in a number of places. In Romans 9:3-5 he says:
“For I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
There is no question but Paul is here speaking of the literal seed of Abraham. He continues:
“Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.”
These are very important and lofty distinctions conferred upon that people. Let us for a moment consider them. To them pertained “the adoption.” God adopted Abraham as His friend, and his posterity as His children, because when all others had apostatized from Him, Abraham alone was found faithful; and of him God bore testimony that he had obeyed His voice, kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws. Genesis 26:5. So that the people were set apart to be the depositaries of God’s law, and preserve the worship and the knowledge of the true God in the earth.
And to them pertained “the glory, that is the manifestation of God’s glory among men. This was exhibited at the giving of the law, when Moses was obliged to put a vale over his face to hide the glory of his countenance; and after that, in the visible appearance of God’s glory in connection more especially with the ark and the mercy-seat.
And to them pertained “the covenants,” plural, both of them, the old and the new. He does not say that to them pertained “the covenant,” referring to the old, while the new pertained to some other people; but both were theirs. “And the giving of the law.” Then the law was distinct from the covenants. “And the service of God, and the promises.” All the promises came through the same channel. No promise is made to any one who is not in, some sense a member of the Israel of God.
And, finally, our Lord Himself, as concerning the flesh, came of that people. Many seem to think that all they need to say about the Sabbath is that it is Jewish; and they look upon anything to which they think they can apply this term with apparent if not real abhorrence. But in what condition should we find ourselves to-day had not the Jews acted the part they have acted in our world’s history? They received the lively oracles to commit unto us. By them truth was kept alive in the world. They were for long ages the only conservators of the knowledge of the true God, and of revealed religion in the earth. And our Lord said that salvation is “of the Jews.”
Those things did not become Jewish by being for a time in the charge of the people. The law did not become Jewish because they alone were found worthy for a long period to be its depositaries; nor was our Lord merely a Jewish Savior, because, as pertaining to the flesh, He sprang from that people.
Let us not despise the Jews, but honor them for the high distinction they once enjoyed, pity them that through blindness they rejected the blessings of the gospel, and pray for them; that many of them may yet come to, the light, and be re-united to the good olive tree.
Away with this cry of Jewish; for the new covenant itself was made with Israel and Judah. How, then, do the Gentiles come in to share in, its blessings? Paul explains in Ephesians 2:13-15, 19. After speaking of the Gentiles as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, he says:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain the new man, so making peace. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”
Thus plainly is it stated that through Christ the Gentiles are brought into such a relation to God that they are no longer strangers from the covenants of promise. The middle wall of partition between the Jews and themselves was broken down by what Christ abolished on the cross.
It was the old covenant that was abolished, and nothing but the old covenant. Now if that covenant was the Ten Commandments, the text should read: “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the Ten Commandments.” But it does not read thus. It does not even intimate a change of those commandments. It reads: “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances;” and no one will for a moment contend that there was anything in the Ten Commandments pertaining to ordinances, or that could come under the head of what is here said to have been abolished.
These ordinances point unmistakably to the services and ceremonies of the Jewish worship, which constituted the body and substance of the old covenant. These peculiarities of the Jewish worship, their circumcision, priesthood, and offerings, for a time hedged in that people as by an impassable wall of separation from all other nations. This was the middle wall of, partition which kept them separate. And this being broken down, what is the result?
Here a most ludicrous and ridiculous blunder is made by some opponents of the Sabbath, even those who claim to be minister’s of the Word. They assert that the wall of “partition was broken down in order that the Jews might come out, where the Gentiles were, and partake of their liberty and blessings, the privileges of the gospel, and the first-day Sabbath.
This is just exactly the opposite of the truth. The Gentiles had no blessings to offer. We have already seen from Paul’s testimony that they are without God, without Christ, and without hope, and have no interest in the covenants. The gospel was not theirs, but was preached to Abraham, to Moses, and the Hebrews all through their history; and all its blessings were included in the new covenant, which, like the old, was made with that people. Galatians 3: 8; Hebrews 4: 2.
No! The middle wall of partition was broken down that the Gentiles might go in where the Jews were, and be partakers of the blessings and promises which they had in their possession. Through Christ they enter in. He hath made both one so far as they will accept of His work and His offering. The Gentiles who thus come in are then no longer Gentiles, but members of the commonwealth of Israel; no longer far off, but made nigh by the blood of Christ; no longer strangers, but fellow-citizens with the saints.
That the Gentiles are then reckoned as Israel in a certain sense, Paul elsewhere very clearly shows:
“Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall your seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Romans 9: 7, 8.
In harmony with this, he testifies to the Galatians:
“And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29.
All who are Christ’s, then, are the children of Abraham, not literally but spiritually, and are accounted for the seed. So we hear him saying to the Romans in language still more pointed:
“For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
The inward work of grace, then, in the heart; under the gospel, constitutes one a Jew in reality, and an Israelite indeed. Nothing need be added to such plain statements by the apostle; yet he uses a figure in Romans 11 which beautifully illustrates this point, and is entitled to a passing notice. He there represents the Jewish people, while they were the children of God, by a tame olive-tree, and the Gentiles by a wild olive-tree. The branches of the tame olive-tree were broken off, and grafts from the wild olive-tree, the Gentiles, were inserted in their places. Did this change the tree, and make a Gentile tree of it? No; it was the same tree; but now the Gentiles are brought in to be a part of it, and thus partake of its root and fatness, the blessings of the new covenant, the promises of God through Abraham and his seed.
Having now seen with whom the new covenant is made; namely, with Israel and Judah, and how the Gentiles come in to share in its blessings; namely, by joining themselves to the commonwealth of Israel through Christ, thus becoming Abraham’s seed, we now inquire:
When Was the New Covenant Made?
In Matthew 26: 26-30 we have an account of the institution of the Lord’s supper. After He had broken the bread, “He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink you all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed, for many for the remission of sins.” The blood of Christ is the blood of the new covenant, the word testament, as already noticed, being the same as covenant. The disciples present on this occasion were Jews, and there, as representatives of the whole Christian church, they entered into the new covenant with the Lord. God had now set forth Christ as the Savior of the world, virtually proposing to all that if they would receive Him and His offering, on the conditions which He, in His divine teaching, for three years and a half, had set before them, they should receive the remission of their sins, as it was for this purpose that His blood was shed. And they, by partaking of those emblems, accepted the arrangement.
The next day, Christ’s blood was actually shed upon the, cross, and there the new covenant was ratified and sealed. Paul says: “For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.”
From that moment the new covenant was in force. And right in connection with this fact we call attention to what Paul says concerning the ratification of a covenant:” Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls or adds thereto.” Galatians 3:15.
When a covenant is once confirmed, no change can be made in it, not an item can be added to it, and not an item can be taken from it. And if this is true of a covenant made by man, how much more of one made by the Lord! After the new covenant was ratified, therefore, upon the cross, no addition whatever could be made to it, and nothing could be taken from it.
Now we ask where Sunday-keeping comes in. Where was that incorporated into the new covenant as one of its provisions and duties? We have never yet heard the claim put forth that it originated the other side of the cross. It is always placed this side. Then it is too late. It could not be added after the covenant was confirmed by the blood of the cross, on Paul’s showing. Even if its origin could be traced back to the days of the apostles, it would avail nothing. We deny that it can be traced to that early date.
It is lost in the theological bosh and bogs of the days of Constantine. But if it could be traced beyond that, to the days of the earlier Fathers, to the days of the apostles, to the day of Pentecost, even to the day of the resurrection, still “Too late !” must be branded upon its brazen brow, and we must regard it as an interloper, an intruder, a usurper, a fraud, and a deception. It has no place in the new covenant, and we are under no obligation thereto.
But what of the Sabbath? We answer, The Minister of the new covenant was careful to affirm its perpetuity and consequent binding obligation in this dispensation, by affirming in the most positive manner the perpetuity and immutability of that law of which it is an integral part; that law which is the standard of righteousness, and from which not a jot or tittle was to pass while the heavens and the earth should remain. Matthew 5: 17-20.
And the prophecy of the new covenant itself has something very emphatic to say about the law. Under this covenant, says God, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” As Paul quotes it, it reads: “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” To what law does this prophecy refer? To that, which was the law of God in the days of Jeremiah, which no one will dispute was the ten commandments. If it does not mean this, then it should have read: “I will put a new law into their minds, and write it in their hearts.”
If, then, under the new covenant the law which requires the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is written in the heart of every believer, how does it happen that multitudes who have lived under this covenant, and who have certainly enjoyed the blessing and favor of God, have lived and died in the observance of the first day of the week? This is with many a very perplexing question. But we think it is; subject to a fair and consistent solution. We reply that these persons have had the true principle of obedience implanted in their hearts.
And they have kept the first day of the week, because they have for a time labored under a misapprehension as to what the law requires. In keeping that day, they have honestly supposed they were rendering obedience to the fourth commandment of the decalogue; or in not keeping any day in a true Sabbatical sense, they have supposed honestly that God’s law required nothing of the kind at their hands. Had they become convinced that the fourth commandment required of them the observance of the seventh day, whether they were keeping another day or no day, would they not have immediately changed their practice accordingly? Assuredly, every individual of them. Otherwise, the principle of obedience was not in their hearts, and they were not in covenant relation with God.
Therefore, leaving them with the Lord, who will deal with all in accordance with the light they have enjoyed, and the sincerity with which they have followed it, it becomes us all to look rather for the truth for our time, and to our own circumstances and obligations. Paul speaks of times of ignorance which God winked at, while at other times of greater light He commanded-all men everywhere to repent.
Our times are of this latter character. Covering after covering, which the great apostasy had thrown over the law of God and other portions of His truth, has been lifted off, and men are accountable to God for the increasing light. We are living in days of reform preparatory to the coming of Christ; and we have reached the last reform; for we can find nothing higher or holier than that law of liberty which is designed to develop perfect characters in us, and by which we are to be judged in the last day. James 2:10-12. Friend, you may heretofore have honestly kept the first day of the week for the Sabbath, and have enjoyed the favor of God; but you can do so no longer. The light has now come clearly forth; and before whomsoever it is set, he has no longer a cloak for following the traditions of men.
Join yourself to the commonwealth of Israel. Christ is the way; and He invites you to come. The promises are of value untold, and will soon be fulfilled. The opportunity will expire by limitation when Christ concludes His work as priest. Come while you may. And soon in that heavenly city, which bears upon the twelve foundations with which it is garnished the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and upon its twelve gates of pearl the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and into which all who have entered into covenant relation with God, both of the literal and spiritual seed, will have a right to enter, you will realize what an infinite blessing was couched in that arrangement through which God condescended to be our God, and took us to be His people.