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The Oneness of the Old and New Dispensations

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 25, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 43.

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The Oneness of the Old and New Dispensations

A CORRESPONDENT of the Sunday School Times submitted for the consideration of the editor of that paper the following question:—
Will you, in your paper, please state at what time after the birth of Christ did the practical observance of the old dispensation in order that a person could be saved, cease, and the new plan of life and salvation begin?
This question was answered under the heading, “The Oneness of the Old and New Dispensations,” and we quote a portion of the reply:—
On one truth let us be clear: Christ saved from the beginning. “Before Abraham was born, I am.” “In the beginning was the Word, . . . in him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Therefore the spirit of the law and the love—which are the same—of the old dispensation never ceased, and never will cease. But the particular way in which men were to give evidence of the control of that law of love in their lives did change with the life and death of Jesus Christ. Even under the old dispensation, there is no reason to suppose that the offering of sacrifices was necessarily essential to salvation. Rather it was what they stood for that was evidence of salvation. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Eventually the symbolic sacrificing of animals was replaced by the actual sacrifice of the life of Jesus Christ. Christ’s sacrifice was greater than all other sacrifices, and was the actual and the fulfilment, of which all others were only the type and the forecast. Therefore it would seem that the hour, if it is necessary to determine that, of the passing of the old form of sacrifices, was the hour of the passing of Jesus’ life on the cross. It was then that the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.
This teaching is so plain and so perfectly in harmony with the Scriptures that we wonder that all do not see it, and follow these principles to their legitimate conclusions. Righteousness by faith has always been the one way of salvation, and the evidence of this righteousness has always been obedience to the commandments of God. The death of Christ abolished the law of ceremonies, but not the law of the ten commandments.