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Perfect in Form and Substance

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 13, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 2.

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“Perfect in Form and Substance”

By F. M. W.

THE editor of the Christian Statesman, in its issue of January, 1910, in reviewing an article in the Homiletic Review regarding the decalogue, makes these excellent comments:—
To the lawyer who inquired, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said, “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” The lawyer repeated what has always been regarded as the sum of the whole decalogue: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus approved the answer, and said, “This do, and thou shalt live.”
The golden rule, given by our Lord in his sermon on the mount, referred to by the editor of the Review as proof that Jesus went beyond the decalogue in giving positive precepts, is proof to the contrary. His words are, “All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
The decalogue of the Old Testament, even though it is given mostly in the form of prohibitions, is found to be perfect both in form and substance. On this anvil every hammer will be broken.
This is a plain and candid statement of the position occupied by the ten commandments and of the relationship of our Lord to the decalogue, and as such, we commend it to the consideration of those who would evade the claims of the law of God. The law of the ten commandments is the great standard by which God will judge the world. James 2: 12. As our Christian Statesman writer says: “On this anvil every hammer will be broken.” The life of the Lord Jesus was a perfect expression of the divine law, and only in obedience to that law can the will of the Master be expressed in his disciples. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
F. M. W.