The Prophetic Telegraph - No.9
The Law
January 1988
LAW HAS BECOME A DIRTY WORD
IN THE society in which we live. Man has grown used to its disrespect. He tends
to keep to a set of laws of his own making, rather than those of God's giving.
He looks upon the Old Testament as a document of historical value only. He
refers to 'the Law of Moses', or to 'the Jewish laws',
without realising that they were God's own laws, written by His own hand upon
tablets of stone, forming the basis of a divine covenant with a chosen people.
They were only 'the Mosaic law' insofar as God chose Moses as
His instrument in the giving of them, and they were only 'the Israelite
(not Jewish) laws' because
What has happened? Why does
the church of today pour such scorn on God's laws? What is the origin of this
besmirching of the great commandments of God? Why in particular does the
evangelical and charismatic branch of the church find the law so unappetising?
Where did all this begin? We have decided to reprint an article from an old
Bible Encyclopaedia, of over 100 years ago, to help us in answering these
questions. If we ourselves were to make statements of belief, then some would
write to us and say that our thesis was out of order, and that we were leading
our readers into bondage. But this article, now a century old, has a certain
grandeur about it which is most refreshing to read, and most instructive to all
who would give but a quiet half hour in meditation on it. Perhaps after so
doing, you will be surprised to find what ordinary conservative Biblical
scholars believed in those days.
Gone are the days when
children of most families were sent to Sunday School, and when even at day school
the Ten Commandments were learned off by heart as surely as
the number tables. With horror we find that even the number tables are now no
longer taught in many primary schools. Children are growing up unable to add
and subtract, unable to check their change when purchasing goods, and quite
unable to grapple with sums of medium difficulty. However much we may be
alarmed at such tendencies, their seriousness is in no way to be matched to
that of the demise of the law.
There used to be a time
when the Ten Commandments were recited in Anglican churches
with commendable frequency but sadly, no longer. Go to any reasonably large
church with a flourishing congregation and find out how many members would be
able to state even the contents of the Decalogue, let alone recite the whole
law. It is doubtful that even one person could be found. We just do not know
what God's laws are any more. For the most part we have not discarded them as
one might dispose of refuse, but our lack of concern for them is tantamount to
the same thing in God's sight. Our neglect is a barometer of the value we place
upon them. Brethren, we are not saying this to be contentious or condemnatory,
for we ourselves are just as much to blame as anyone else. Until very recently
we were in the same boat. We knew not the laws, and we had not taught our
children the laws. And so we speak as those who have suddenly become aware of
this great vacuum in our Christian lives. God has spoken to us very clearly in
recent days, (and by that we mean during 1987) and has shown us just where we
stand in His sight in respect to His laws, and we had to admit that we were
ignorant of them.
Some may object at this
point and say that surely the Holy Spirit of God had etched the laws indelibly
upon our hearts since the day we joined the household of faith. This is true
enough. By walking 'in the spirit' we have been enabled
to 'put to death the works of the flesh' in varying
measure as the days have progressed. But in the O.T. God made great emphasis to
His people on the need to read, learn, and inwardly digest the written laws He
had given His people. If today we are the people of God, then surely we need to
do likewise. We are now shocked by the degree to which the whole church has
neglected to do this vital thing, a thing which our fathers did quite
meticulously only 100 years ago.
Why has this change taken
place? We have in our study a copy of "Harper's Bible
Dictionary", a massive volume of 1178 pages, which was published
in 1985, exactly 100 years after the one we have copied here in this article.
It is sickening to read, and shows where the disrespect comes from. Much of it
has grown out of the rising tide of modernism, or higher-criticism, as it has
been called. There is nothing 'higher' about it. It comes from the pit, the
lowest place. But another obvious influence is that of EVOLUTION, which was
popularised by
Behind all this movement
away from the faith of our fathers is an insidious movement of LAWLESSNESS,
which has been so cunningly devised that it has deleted all mention of itself
in the Authorised Version of the Bible. Let one take a copy of say Young's
Concordance and turn up the word 'lawless', and it will be found just once, in
1 Tim.1:9, there being no mention at all in the 0.T. But the truth of the
matter is that a Hebrew word exists (RASHA) which means lawless, and what is
more it occurs over 250 times in the O.T. and is mostly translated WICKED. In
the N.T. the equivalent words are ANOMOS & ANOMIA and they appear in the
Greek Bible 24 times. We shall have to deal with the importance of this great
omission in an article devoted to the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS, because he, the very
Antichrist himself, the one who is given this title in 2 Thess. 2, has been
responsible for these omissions. The result is that Christians now believe that
we still await the Antichrist whereas in truth he has been heavily at work far
nearly 200 years! The following article has been taken from
THE ENGLISHMAN'S
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY
BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA
by
Rev. A.R.FAUSSET, M.A.
1885 pages 423 - 427
Law. The whole history of the Jews is a
riddle if Moses' narrative be not authentic. If authentic he was inspired to
give the Law; for he asserts God's immediate commission. Its recognised
inspiration alone can account for the Israelites' acquiescence in a burdensome
ritual, and for their intense attachment to the Scriptures which condemn them
as a stiffnecked people. A small isolated people, no way distinguished for
science or art, possessed the most spiritual religion the world has over seen:
this cannot have been of themselves, it must be of God. No Israelite writer
hints at the possibility of fraud. The consentient belief of the rival kingdoms
northern
Even
Nothing short of its origin
being Divine, and its continuance effected by Divine interposition account for
the fact, that it was only in their prosperity the law was neglected; when adversity
awakened them to reflection they always cried unto God and returned to His law,
and invariably found deliverance. Unlike the surrounding nations, the Jews have
their history almost solely in the written word. No museum possesses sculptured
figures of Jewish antiquities, such as are brought from Egypt.,
Thus
Even the moral law is not
severed from but intimately bound up with both. The moral precepts are
eternally obligatory, because based on God's own unchangeable character, which
is reflected in the enlightened conscience; their positive enactment
is only to clear away the mist which sin has spread over even the conscience.
The positive precepts are obligatory only because of enactment, and so
long as the Divine Legislator appointed them to remain in force. This is
illustrated in Hos. vi. 6, "I desired mercy and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." God did
desire "sacrifices" (for He instituted them), but moral obedience
more; for this is the end for which positive ordinances, as
sacrifices, were instituted; i.e., sacrifices and positive ordinances,
as the Sabbath, were to be observed, but not made the plea for setting aside
the moral duties, justice, love, truth, obedience, which are eternally
obligatory. Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 22; Ps. 1. 8, 9, li. 16, 17; Isa.i.11-12; Mic. vi.
6-8; Matt. xxiii. 23, ix. 13, xii. 7.
Torah, "law," means strictly a directory.
Authoritative enactment is implied. The elements of the law already existed,
but scattered and much obscured amidst incongruous usages which men's passions
had created. The law "was added because of the
transgressions" of it, i.e., not to remove all
transgressions, for the law rather stimulates the corrupt heart to disobedience
(Rom. vii. 13), but to bring them out into clearer view (Gal. iii. 19; Rom.
iii. 20 end, iv. 15, v. 13, vii. 7-9), to make men more conscious of their sins
as being transgressions of the law, so to make them feel need and longing for
the promised Saviour (Gal. iii. 17-24), "the law was our schoolmaster
(paidagogos, rather guardian servant leading us to school), to
bring us to Christ." The law is closely connected with the
promise to Abraham, "in thy seed shah all families of the earth
be blessed" (Gen. xii. 3). It witnessed to the evil in all
men, from which the promised Seed should deliver men, amid its provisions on
the other hand were the chief fence by which
The giving of the law
marked the transition of
In some eases, as divorce,
it corrected rather than sanctioned objectionable existing usages, suffering their
existence at all only because of the hardness of their hearts (Matt. xix. 7,
8). So in the case of a disobedient son Deut. xxi. 18-21), severe as is the
penalty, it is an improvement upon existing custom, substituting a judicial
appeal to the community for arbitrary parental power of life and death. The
Levirate law limited rather than approved of existing custom. The law of the
avenger of involuntarily-shed blood (Deut. xix. 1-13, Num. xxxv.) mercifully
restrained the usage which was too universally recognised to admit of any but
gradual abolition. It withdrew the involuntary homicide from before
the eyes of the incensed relatives of time deceased. No satisfaction was
allowed for murder; the murderer had no asylum, but could be dragged
from the altar (Exod. xxi. 14, 1 Kings ii. 28-31). The comparative smallness of
that portion of the Sinaitic law which concerns the political constitution
harmonizes with the alleged time of its promulgation, when as yet the form of
government was not permanently settled. The existing patriarchal authorities in
the family and tribe are recognised, whilst the priests and Levites are
appointed to take wholly the sacred functions and in part also the judicial
ones.
The contingency of a kingly
government is provided for in general directions (Deut. xvii. 14-20).
The outline of the law is given Exod. xx.-xxiii.; the outline of the ceremonial
xxv.-xxxi.
The Decalogue (a term first
found in Clemens Alexandr. Pedag. iii. 12) is the heart of the whole, and
therefore was laid up in time ark of the covenant beneath the mercy seat or propitiatory
(hilasterion), intimating that it is only as covered over by
Divine atoning mercy that the law could be the centre of the (Rom. iii.
25, 26) covenant of God with us. The law is the reflection of the holy
character of the God of the covenant, the embodiment of the inner spirit of the
Mosaic code. "The ten commandments" (Heb. words, Exod.
xxxiv. 28) are frequently called "the testimony," viz. of Jehovah
against all who should transgress (Deut. xxxi. 26, 27). By the law came
"the knowledge of sin" (Rom. iii. 20, vii. 7). Conscience, without
the law, caused only a vague discomfort to the sinner. But the law of the
Decalogue, when expressed dcfinitely, convicted of sin, and was therefore
"a ministration of condemnation" and "of death, written and
engraven on stones" (2 Cor. iii. 7, 9). Its pre-eminence is marked by its
being the first part revealed ; not like the rest of the code through Moses,
but by Jehovah himself, with attendant angels (Deut.. xxxiii. 2, Acts vii. 53,
Gal. iii. 19, Heb. ii. 2); written by God's finger, and on stone tables to mark
its permanence. The number ten expresses completeness, perfection (Ps.
xix. 7, Exod. xxvii. 12, 1 Kings vii. 27. Matt. xxv. 1).They were "the
tables of the covenant," and the ark, because containing them, was called
"the ark of the covenant" (Deut. iv. 13, Josh. iii. 11).
The record in Deut. v. 6-21
is a slight variation of Exod. xx. 2-17. The fourth commandment begins with
"keep" instead of "remember," the reason for its observance
in Deuteronomy is Israel's deliverance from Egypt instead of God's
resting from creation. Deuteronomy is an inspired free repetition of
the original in Exodus, suited to Moses' purpose of exhortation;
hence he refers to the original, in the fifth commandment adding "as
the Lord thy God commanded thee." "And" is inserted
as suited to the narrative style which Deuteronomy combines with the legislative.
"Desire" is substituted for "covet" in the tenth.
None but Moses himself
would have ventured to alter an iota of what Moses had ascribcd to God in
Exodus. The special reason for the fourth, applying to the Israelites,
does not interfere with the earlier and more universal reason in Exodus, but is
an additional motive for their observing the ordinance already resting on the
worldwide basis. Coveting the house in Exodus precedes, hut in
Deuteronomy succeeds, coveting the wife; evidently all kinds of
coveting are comprised in the one tenth commandment. As the seventh
and eighth forbid acts of adultery and theft, so the tenth forbids the desire
and so seals the inner spirituality of all the commandments of the second
table. The claims of God stand first. The love of God is the true spring of the
love of our fellow men. Josephus (c. Apion ii. 17) says: "Moses
did not (as other legislators) make religion part of virtue, but all other
virtues parts of religion." The order of the ten indicates the
Divine hand; God's being, unity, exclusive deity, "have no
other gods before My face" (Heb. iv. 13); His worship as a
Spirit without idol symbol; His name; His day; His earthly representatives, parents,
to be honoured; then regard for one neighbour's life; for his second
self, his wife; his property; character; bridling the desires, the fence of
duty to one's neighbour and one's self.
As deed is fenced
by the sixth, seventh, and eighth, so speech, by the ninth, and the heart
by the tenth. It begins with God, ends with the heart. The fourth and
fifth have a positive form, the rest negative. It is a
witness against man's sin rather than a. giver of holiness. Philo and
Josephus (
But the command to have
only one God is quite distinct from the prohibition to worship Him
by an image, and coveting the wife and the other objects falls under one
category of unlawful desire. Love to God is expressly taught
in the second commandment, "mercy to thousands in them that
love Me and keep` My commandments." The five and five
division is the best. Five implies imperfection.; our duty to
God being imperfect if divorced from duty to our neighbour. Five and ten
predominate in the proportions of the tabernacle. Piety towards the earthly
father is closely joined to piety towards the heavenly (Heb. xii. 9, 1 Tim. v, 4,
Mark vii. 11). Special sanctions are attached to the second, third, fourth, and
fifth commandments. Paul (Rom. xiii. 8, 9) makes the second table, or duty to
our neighbour comprise the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, but not
tho fifth commandment.
Spiritual Jews penetrated
beneath the surface, and so found in the law peace and purity viewed in
connection with the promised Redeemer (Ps. i.2, xix., cxix., xv., xxiv.; Isa.
1. 10-18; Rom. ii. 28, 29). As (1) the Decalogue gave the moral tone to all the
rest of the law, so (2) the ceremonial part taught symbolically purity, as
required by all true subjects of the
Two particulars are
noticeable: (1) Moses does not inculcate as sanctions of his laws the
rewards and punishments of a future life; (2) he does use as a sanction
God's declaration that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, and
shows mercy unto thousands (to the thousandth generation)
of them that love Him and keep his commandments"
(Exod. xx. 5, 6). The only way we can account for the omission of a future
sanction, which all other ancient lawgivers deemed indispensable (Warburton,
Div. Legation), is the fact established on independent proofs, viz, that
Israel's government was administered by an extraordinary providence,
distributing reward and punishment according to obedience or disobedience
severally. But whilst not sanctioning his law by future rewards or punishments,
Moses shows both that he believed in them himself, and sets forth such proofs
of them as would suggest themselves to every thoughtful and devout Israelite,
though less clearly than they were revealed subsequently under David, Solomon,
and the prophets, when they became matter of general belief. Christ shows that
in the very title, "the God of Abraham," etc,
in the Pentateuch the promise of the resurrection is by implication contained
(Matt. xxii. 31, 82).
Scripture (Heb. iv. 2, Gal.
iii. 8) affirms the gospel was preached unto Abraham and to
It is not immateriality
which distinguishes man's life from the brutes' life, for the vital principle
is immaterial in the brute as in man; it can only be the continuance of
life after death of the body, conscience, spirit, and sense of moral
responsibility, as well as power of abstract reasoning. Acts xxiv. 14, 15, 25
shows the prevalent belief in
The barrenness of Judæa has
been made an objection by Voltaire against Scripture truth, which represents it
as "flowing with milk an& honey." But the very barrenness is the accomplishment
of Scripture prophecies, and powerfully confirms the 0. T. The structure
of the Mosaic history confirms the reality of the miracles on which the truth
of the extraordinary providence rests. Common events are joined with the
miraculous so closely that the acknowledged history of this singular people would
become unaccountable, unless the MIRACLES with which it is inseparably joined
be admitted. The miracles could not have been credited by the contemporary
generation, nor introduced subsequently into the national records and the
national religion, if they had not been real and Divine. The Jewish ritual and
the singular constitution of the tribe of Levi commemorated them perpetua1ly,
and rested on their truth. The political constitution and civil laws presuppose
an extraordinary providence limiting the legislative and executive authorities.
So also the distribution and tenure of land, the sabbatic and jubilee years,
the three great feasts requiring all males to meet at the central sanctuary
thrice each year.
Present, rather than
invisible and future, sanctions were best fitted at that time to establish the
superiority of the true God before
The distinction of clean
and unclean animals relates to sacrifices. Some animals by filthy, wild, and
noxious natures suggest the presence of evil in nature, and therefore give the
feeling of unfitness for being offered as symbols of atonement or thanks.
giving before the holy God. Others, tame, docile, useful to man, of the flock
and herd, seem suitable for offering, as sheep, goats, cows, doves, and the
like. Those that both chew the cud and divide the hoof men generally have taken
for food by a common instinct. So fishes with fins and scales, but not
shellfish as less digestible; insects leaping upon the earth, raised above the
crawling slimy brood. Other animals, etc., as swine, dogs, etc., offered by
idolaters, are called "abominations." The aim of the distinction was
ethical, to symbolise separation from moral defilement, and to teach to the
true
So the impurity contracted
by childbirth (Lev. xii., xv.), requiring the mother's purification, points to
the taint of birth sin (Ps. Ii. 5). The uncleanness alter a female birth lasted
66 days, after a male 33, to mark the fall as coming through the woman first (1
Tim. ii. 14, 15). In the penal code idolatry is the capital crime, treason
against the Head of the state and its fundamental constitution. One was bound
not to spare the dearest relative, if guilty of tempting to it; any city
apostatising to it was to be destroyed with its spoil and inhabitants (Deut.
xiii. 6). Human sacrifices burnt to Moloch were especially marked for judgment
on all who took part in them (Lev. xx. 1-5). The wizard, witch, and their
consulters violated the allegiance due to Jehovah, who alone reveals His will
to His people (Num. ix. 7, 8, xxvii. 21; Josh. ix. 14; Jud. i. 1; 2 Sam. v. 23)
and controls future events, and were therefore to die (1 Chron. x. 13, Lev. xx.
27). So the blasphemer, presumptuous sabbath breaker, and false prophet (Lev.
xxiv. 11-16; Num. xv. 30-. 86; Deut. xvii. 12, xviii. 20). So the violator of
the command to rest from work on the day of atonement (Lev. xxiv. 29, 30), of
the Passover (Exod. xii. 15, 19); the wilful defiler of the sanctuary (Num.
xix. 13, Lev. Xxii. 3); the perpetrator of unnatural crimes (xviii., xx.).
The prohibitions of
rounding the hair and beard, of wearing a garment of wool and linen mixed, of
sowing a field with divers seeds, of women using men's garments (besides
tending to preserve feminine modesty and purity), were directed against
existing idolatrous usages in the worship of Baal and Ashteroth (xix. 19, 27;
Deut. xxii. 5). The ordeal by the water of jealousy depended on an
extraordinary providence (Num. v. 11). It could injure the guilty only by
miracle, the innocent not at all; whereas in the ordeals of the Middle Ages the
innocent could scarcely escape but by miracle. Prohibitions such as human
tribunals could hardly take cognisance of were sanctioned by penalties which God
undertook to execute. He as Sovereign reserved exclusively to Himself the right
of legislation.
Sins of impurity, next to
idolatry, were punished with peculiar severity (Lev. xviii.; the adulterer and
adulteress, xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22-30, xxvii. 20-26). Mildness and exact equity
pervaded the code so far as was compatible with the state of the people and the
age. Interest or "usury" was not to be taken from an Israelite, and
only in strict equity from the foreigner. The poor should be relieved liberally
(Deut. xv. 7-11). The hired labourer's wages were to be paid at once (xxiv. 14,
15). Intrusion into a neighbour's house to recover a loan was forbidden, not to
hurt his feelings. The pledged raiment was to be restored, so as not to leave
him without a coverlet at night (ver. 10- 13). Other characteristic precepts of
the law are: reverence to the old; tenderness toward those having bodily
infirmity (ver. 19-21); gleanings to be left for the stranger, the fatherless,
and the widow (Lev. xix. 14-32); faithfulness in rebuking a neighbour's sin;
the dispersion of the Levites, the ministers of religion, forming a sacred tie
among all the tribes; studied opposition to all the usages of idolaters, as the
heathen historian Tacitus notices : "all we hold sacred are with
them profane: they offer the ram in contempt of Ammon - . . and an ox, which
the Egyptians worship as Apis (Hist. v. 4); the Jews deem those profane who
form any images of the gods - the Divinity they conceive as one, and only to be
understood by the mind; with images they would not honour Caesars or flatter
kings."
Personal violence was
punished retributively in kind, "life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." The false
witness had to suffer what he thought to inflict on another (Deut. xix. 16-21;
Exod. xxi. 24; Lev. xxiv. 18-21). This did not sanction individual
retaliation, but it was to regulate the magistrate's award of damages,
viz. the worth in money of the bodily power lost by the injured person. It was
to protect the community, not to regulate the believer, who when he
penetrated beneath the letter into the spirit of the law, which the gospel
afterward brought to light, felt constrained to love his enemy and not
do to him the injury the latter had done or intended to do. Our Lord quoted the
form of the law (Matt. v. 38) in order to contrast the pharisaic view,
which looked only to the letter, with the true view which looks to the spirit.
A striking feature of the
penal code, in which it was superior to most codes, was that no crime against
mere property incurred death. Bond service till the sabbatic year was the
extreme penalty; restitution and fine were the ordinary penalty. The slave's
life was guarded as carefully as the master's. If the master caused even the
loss of a tooth the servant was to be set free. The chastity of female slaves
was strictly protected. No Jew could be kept in bondage more than seven years,
and then was to be seat away with. liberal gifts (Exod. xxi. 7-26, Deut.. xv.
13-15). In fact Israelite bond service was only a going into service for a term
of years, that the creditor might reap the benefit. The creditor could not
imprison nor scourge so as to injure the bond debtor, but in
Trials were public, in the
city gates. The judges, the elders, and Levitical ministers and officers, as
our jurors, were taken from the people. No torture before conviction, no
cruelty after it, was permitted. Forty stripes were the extreme limit of bodily
punishment (Deut. xxv. 3). Capital convictions could only be by the agreeing
testimony of two witnesses (xvii. 6).
The even distribution of
lands, the non-alienation of them from the family and tribe (Num. xxvii.,
xxxvi.), admirably guarded against those agrarian disturbances and intestine
discords which in other states and in all ages have flowed from an uneven
distribution and an uncertain tenure of property.
Love to God, love to one's
neighbour and even to enemies, benevolence to strangers, the poor, the
fatherless and widows, repentance and restitution for injuries, sincere worship
of the heart and obedience of the life required to accompany outward ceremonial
worship, all these are characteristics of the law, such as never originated
from the nation itself, long enslaved, and not remarkable for high intellectual
and moral capacity, and such as did not then exist in the code of any other
nation. The Originator can have only been, as Scripture says, God Himself.
Besides, whatever doubts may be raised respecting the inspiration or
authorship, the fact remains and is indisputable, that it was given and was in
force ages before Lycurgus or Minos or other noted legislators lived, and that
it has retained its influence upon legislation from the time of its
promulgation until now, the British and all other codes of civilized nations
being based upon it. This is one of those facts which neither evolution, nor
revolution, can overthrow.
The letter and outward
ordinances were the casket, the spirit as brought out by the gospel was the
jewel. The sacrifices gave present relief to awakened consciences by the hope
of forgiveness through God's mercy, resting on the promise of the Redeemer. The
law could not give life, that was reserved for the gospel (Gal. iii. 21, 22;
iv. 6). Spiritual Jews, as David, when convicted by the law of failure in
obedience, fell back on the earlier covenant of promise, the covenant of grace,
as distinguished from the law the covenant of works (which required perfect
obedience as the condition of life, and cursed all who disobeyed in the least
point: iii. 6-18; Lev. xviii. 5), and by the Spirit cried for a clean heart
(Ps. li. 10, 11). So they could love the law, not as an outward yoke, but as
the law of God's will cherished in the heart (xxxvii. 31), such as it was in
Him who should come (xl. 8). In most Jews, because of the nonconformity between
their inward state and the law's requirements as a rule from without, its
tendency was "to gender to bondage" (Gal. ii.
4; iv. 3, 9, 24, 25; v. 1).
Inclination rebelled
against it. They either burst its bond for open heathenism; or, as in post
captivity times, scrupulously held the letter, but had none of its spirit,
"love, the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. xiii. 8-10; Lev.
xix. 18; 1 Tim. i. 5; Gal. v. 14; Matt. vii. 12, xxii. 37-40; Jas. ii. 8).
Hence the prophets looked on to gospel times when God would write the law by
His Spirit in the heart (Jer. xxxi. 31-433, 39; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, xi. 19,
20).
In one respect the law
continues, in another it is superseded (Matt. v. 17, 18). In its antitypical
realization in Jesus, it is all being fulfilled or has been so. In its spirit, "holy,
just and good," it is of everlasting obligation as it
reflects the mind of God. In its 0. T. form it gives place to its
fully developed perfection in the N. T. The temporary and successional
Aaronic priesthood gives place to the abiding and intransmissible Melchizedek
priesthood of Jesus, the sacrificial types to the one antitypical sacrifice,
never to be repeated (Heb. v., vii., viii., ix., x.). So believers, in so far
as they are under the gospel law of Christ (Gal. vi. 2), which is the law of
love in the heart, are no longer under the law, as an outward letter ordinance.
Through Christ's death they are dead to the law, as a law of condemnation, and
have the Spirit enabling them to "serve in newness of spirit,
and not in the oldness of the letter " (Rom. ii. 29, vii.
1-6; 2 Cor. iii. 6). "Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness (both justification and sanctification) to every one that
believeth" (
As a covenant of works, and
a provisional mode of discipline, and a typical representation of atonement,
the law is no more. As the revelation of God's righteousness it is everlasting.
Free from the letter, the believer fulfils the spirit and end of the law,
conformity to God's will. Moses, in foretelling the rise of the
"Prophet like unto himself" and God's rejection of all
who should reject Him (Deut. xviii. 15, etc.), by the Spirit intimates that the
law was to give place to the gospel of Jesus. Moses anticipates also by the
Spirit the evils which actually befell them, their being besieged, their
captivity, dispersion, and restoration (Lev. xxvi., D eut. xxxii.). The words
in xxxiv. 10-12 (comp. Num. xii. 1-8) prove that no other prophet or succession
of prophets can exhaustively fulfil the prophecy. Both Peter and Stephen
authoritatively decide that Messiah is "the Prophet"
(Acts iii. 22, vii. 37). The gospel attracted and detached from the Jewish
nation almost every pure and pious soul, sifting the chaff from the wheat. The
destruction of the temple with which Judaism and the ceremonial law were
inseparably connected was God's explicit setting of them aside. The danger to
the church from judaizing Christians, which was among its first trials (Acts
xi., xv., Gal. iii. 5), was thereby diminished, and "the fall
of the Jews is the riches of the world" in this as in other
respects (Rom. xi. 12).