The Law Of God [10 Commandments] Is As Immutable As His Throne Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Matthew 5:17. What a contrast between the words of Christ, and the language of those who claim that he came to abrogate [abolish] the law of God [10 commandments] and to do away with the Old Testament. Our Saviour, who knew all things, understood the wiles of Satan, the snares by which he would seek to entrap the children of men, and so made this positive statement to meet the questioning doubts and the blind unbelief of all coming time. But there is a law which was abolished, which Christ took out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Col. 2:14. Paul calls it the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Eph. 2:15. This ceremonial law, given by God through Moses, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be binding upon the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Then all the sacrificial offerings and services were to be abolished. Paul and the other apostles labored to show this, and resolutely withstood those Judaizing teachers who declared that Christians should observe the ceremonial law. Christ himself declares that he came not to destroy the law of ten precepts, which was spoken from Sinai. He says, Verily I say unto you,--making the assertion as emphatic as possible,--Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Matt. 5:18. Here he teaches not merely what the claims of Gods law had been and were then, but that these claims should hold so long as the heavens and the earth remain. This testimony should forever settle the question. The law of God is as immutable as his throne. It will maintain its claims upon all mankind in all ages, unchanged by time or place or circumstances. The ritual system was of altogether a different character, and typified the death of Christ as a sacrifice for the broken precepts of the moral law. I am not come to destroy, Christ says, but to fulfill,--to magnify the law and make it honorable, as Isaiah, hundreds of years before, had prophesied respecting the Messiahs work. Matt. 5:17. To fulfill the law. In his own life the Saviour gave the children of men an example of perfect obedience. In his teachings he made clear and distinct every precept of the divine law; he swept away the rubbish of erroneous tradition with which the Jews had encumbered it; he illustrated and enforced its principles, and showed in all its particulars the length and breadth and height and depth of the righteousness required by the law of God. The Pharisees were dissatisfied with the teachings of Christ. The practical godliness which he enjoined condemned them. They desired him to dwell upon the external observances of the ceremonial law, and the customs and traditions of the fathers. But Jesus taught the spiritual nature of the law and made clear its far reaching claims. Love to God and to men must live in the heart and control the life, as the spring of every thought and every action.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:31:02 +0000
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