The Stumbling-Stone

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 1, 1907

The Stumbling-Stone

MORE than seven centuries before the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, the Spirit of Christ declared through the prophet Isaiah, “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.” After Christ had been manifested in the flesh and had been put to death and had been raised from the dead, the apostle Paul wrote thus of his preaching: “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block.” It is thus made clear that Christ crucified is the stone of stumbling mentioned by the prophet Isaiah. But in what way and in what sense did Christ crucified become a stumbling-stone to the Jews? And is it possible for him to be such to any who are not of the house of Israel according to the flesh?

Let us read another scripture: “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone: as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Rom. 9: 30 to 10: 4. Here that stumbling-stone is again mentioned, and it appears that to seek after righteousness by the works of the law rather than by faith is to stumble at that stumbling-stone. And in further explanation of the experience of the Jews, it is stated that in their ignorance of God’s righteousness and their effort to establish their own righteousness they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God; and the real relation between such an experience and the declaration of the prophet concerning the stumbling-stone is then set forth in the words which follow: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Let us look into the matter further: the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” and the reason for this is in the fact that in it “is the righteousness of God revealed.” But the gospel is “the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” These passages of Scripture taken together show that the righteousness of God was revealed by the revelation of his Son in the flesh. And so the prophet Jeremiah said: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, . . . and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.” It was a necessary part of this revelation of righteousness for our salvation that the Son of God should be crucified and raised from the dead, as is stated in these words: “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” That this revelation of Christ in the flesh is the only way in which righteousness could be revealed in our sinful flesh is thus declared: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Now that we have read these scriptures, we are prepared to draw some conclusions: Christ is God’s righteousness manifested in the flesh; this righteousness is manifested in us through our faith in Christ; Christ in the flesh, who was crucified for our sins, is the stumbling-stone which was laid in Zion, concerning which it was said, “Whosoever

believeth on him shall not be ashamed;” because the righteousness of the law could not be fulfilled in us through the works of the law which man had lost the power to obey, God sent his own Son in sinful flesh to be “the power of God” for righteousness to every one who believeth on him, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” and “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us;” to believe on Christ crucified as “the Lord our righteousness,” and to submit to him as our Lord and our God, is to submit to the righteousness of God, and this we are compelled to do by our own helpless condition, when we make the right use of the law, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” But this is just what Israel failed to do. They did not see that Christ crucified was “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” and therefore instead of submitting themselves to the righteousness of God in him, as the law was urging them to do by putting them under condemnation, they perverted the use of the law and attempted to get righteousness through it apart from Christ, when it could only make known sin, and thus emphasize the need of Christ. This was “a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” and simply showed that “they stumbled at that stumbling-stone,” not perceiving that the Christ whom they had rejected and crucified was the end of the law for which they were so zealous, and that righteousness could come only through faith in him. Thus did the Jews show that they were ignorant of God’s righteousness, and thus did they go about to establish their own righteousness.

But there is another way in which Christ and his work are just as completely misinterpreted, and ignorance of God’s righteousness is just as clearly shown. Those who wrest from its connection and its plain meaning in its connection the statement that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,” and pervert it into the teaching that the law was abolished by Christ, may have “a zeal for God,” but it certainly is “not according to knowledge.” So long as the gospel is proclaimed, the law has a twofold use: it gives knowledge of sin, and thus shows the need of a Saviour, and it also witnesses to the genuineness of the righteousness which is attained by faith in that Saviour. Rom. 3: 20, 21. The righteousness of God is manifested without the law; but when it has thus been manifested, it is obedience to the law. This is the obedience of faith, and the scripture is fulfilled which says, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

There was rebellion in heaven because Lucifer was not willing to submit himself to the righteousness of God in obedience to the divine law. By his deceptive arts he induced our first parents to follow in the same path of disobedience, and thus involved the whole world in sin. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” It is thus a perversion of the whole gospel to affirm that Christ abolished the law, for he “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” His mission was to save his people from their sins, and “sin is the transgression of the law.” Therefore the purpose in the gift of Christ was that he might make an end of sin by bringing believers into harmony with the law of God, rather than to make an end of the law. Those who assert to the contrary are as ignorant of God’s righteousness as were the Jews, and having set aside God’s standard of righteousness, they can easily be led to accept a merely human standard, and so to follow tradition and the authority of the church rather than the plain instruction of God’s Word. The result will be a failure to attain to the righteousness of God.

So it appears that there are two ways in which men may stumble at that stumbling-stone: one by failing to see that Christ is “the end of the law for righteousness,” and by attempting the impossible task of making one’s self righteous by the works of the law, and the other by declaring that Christ abolished the law, and by thus setting aside the true standard of righteousness and making Christ an excuse for sin instead of the Saviour from sin. Through the light of this third angel’s message we ought to be saved from both of these errors and attain unto “the righteousness which is of faith.”