The law! The gospel! The Jewish age! The gospel era! The Mosaic economy! The reign of grace! What is meant by these terms? What are we to gather from such expressions? Is there any relation between the law and the gospel? If so, what? How did they affect the people in former days? How have they affected people in later times? What was the will of God concerning these matters in days gone by? What does His word declare for the present time? These and many other questions naturally suggest themselves to our minds as we dwell upon the law and the gospel.
In general, it is understood that the time from the Egyptian exodus of the descendants of Jacob until the crucifixion of the Saviour, is the period known as the Mosaic economy: from that time till the present, or till the blessed Lord shall return, is recognized as the reign of grace. From the call of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, from the time that the covenant of circumcision was made between the Lord and this servant of His, till the work of Christ and of His apostles, is regarded as the Jewish age; since that time is known as the Christian era. From the time when the Israelites came to Horeb, where the law of God was declared by the voice of Jehovah directly to the people,—at which place were given by Moses statutes, laws, judgments, feasts, fasts, festivals, offerings, ceremonies, and other observances and institutions,—till the descent of the Holy Spirit, has been regarded as the age of law; from that time until Jesus shall appear in glory to complete His redemptive work, has been known as the age of grace. These definitions are such as are usually expressed by Jewish as well as by Gentile Christian workers, and have obtained recognition by a large majority of Christian believers.
From the preceding statements we can better understand why so many speakers and writers have made such strong discrimination between the two ages,—the one devoted to the Jew; the other to the salvation of the Gentile. During the former, the Israelites had institutions which, if obeyed, would have secured their salvation; while in the latter, all such observances are abolished, simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ being the only necessity to salvation. In other words, the Jewish nation has been regarded as a people of law; while the Gentiles, or Christians, have been regarded as a people of grace. And this middle wall of partition has been erected so high, so broad, so solid, so deep, that the cry has long gone forth that certain things are distinctively Jewish; others, solely Christian. That was under the law; this under grace. That was the old Jewish law; this the new Christian faith. That was salvation by works; this salvation by faith.
While some of these ideas and opinions are partially correct, the true application of them is not clearly understood. Therefore, words and terms are used which convey practically little meaning, and much speaking on these subjects is like the sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal. There is a zeal, but not according to knowledge; a certain form of words, but not soundness of doctrine and faith. It should be borne in mind that the prayer of the psalmist was, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Ps. 51: 10–13.
To the prophet Isaiah the Lord said: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa. 57: 15. To Ezekiel was promised the renewed spiritual heart, the removal of the stony one, and the gift of the heart of flesh. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze. 36: 26, 27. To the prophet Habakkuk it was said that the man whose soul was not uplifted should be just, and the just would live by his faith. Hab. 2: 4. The Saviour expressed great surprise that Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, that great master in Israel, was so ignorant of the new birth, the converted life, the spiritual regeneration. This was not of the law; surely, such experiences were of true faith and genuine salvation, the blessed work of the Spirit.
One great reason why there has been erected this great barrier between these two so-called ages, and why so much opprobrium has been placed upon the Jewish age as one of hardship, salvation by works, under the curse, etc., is because of wrong conception of God’s plan and purpose for both the Jew and the Gentile. The distinction of laws and of codes is not recognized as it should be. Paul says: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, . . . Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom. 3: 9, 19.
The great barrier, erected by the scribes and Pharisees, of traditions, explanations and false ideas of the Scriptures, which the Saviour came to abolish and to destroy, and in their stead reveal the true plan and purpose of God for the salvation of the soul by giving a clear exposition of the word of God,—that barrier was again built up by the perversion of truth in the early Christian Church, and by its apostasy from Christ. It becomes necessary again to present the true purpose of God for the salvation of man; and by the grace, power, and Spirit of the living God demolish this wall of tradition, superstition, misinterpretation, and perversion of the word of God, the Holy Spirit instructing, guiding, and interpreting His own word.
Since it is the purpose of this paper to present that phase of truth bearing upon the relation of the law to the gospel, it is the prayer of the author that the divine Spirit which gave life to the Son of God, taught in Him the truth free from all human errors, shall take of the things of God, direct from the fountain-head of truth, and cause them to flow into all our hearts, that we all may be free in Him who is the truth.
The Scriptures plainly teach that God gave to the Jewish nation two separate and distinct codes of law: the one moral, contained in the Ten Commandments; the other ceremonial, or ecclesiastical, contained in the forms, ceremonies, and services in offerings. The law which Jehovah spoke with His own voice on Mount Sinai is separate from all other laws and statutes, and in no wise dependent upon them. This law of Sinai is plainly spoken of as God’s law. This was not its first introduction to the human race: it existed when the father of the race was439created, and the earth became the home of the human family.
The ceremonial law was a code given to the Jews, as a peculiar nation, by the hand of Moses; was designed for a certain purpose, was to continue a certain length of time; would naturally fulfill its usefulness and finish its mission when its limited time expired. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under [or subject to] the law.”
In the following scriptures the Lord makes very plain that there were two distinct codes of law: In Ex. 20: 1–17 is contained the words which Jehovah himself spoke audibly to the people. In verses 18, 19, we find the following: “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Beginning at verse 22, and continuing to verse 26, we have the record of what God told Moses to tell the people concerning the building of an altar, and the making of graven images. Then at the opening of chapter 21 the Lord tells Moses that he should set certain judgments and statutes before the people. These instructions are continued till the close of chapter 23. Then in chapter 24 we are told that Moses wrote in a book all these instructions which had been given him by the Lord for the people, a covenant having been made and ratified relative to these or any other matters that might follow.
Nearly forty years later, just prior to the death of Moses, while he was reviewing God’s dealings with the people, he mentions these two laws in this way: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.” Deut. 4: 12–14.
After the covenant had been ratified with the blood, as previously mentioned, and as recorded in Exodus 24, Moses received this command of the Lord: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” Ex. 24: 12. We have the record that God had a law and commandments which He himself had written upon tables of stone. In Ex. 31: 18 we read: “And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” From this record we learn that the writings which God himself inscribed were contained on two tables.
“And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Ex. 32: 15, 16. Here the record states that the two tables of stone were written on both their sides, engraved by the hand of God, the tablets themselves being the work of God. In Ex. 34: 28 it is written: “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” And that the he referred to in this text is the Lord, is evident from the first verse of this same chapter: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” The words, therefore, which were written on the two tables of stone—upon the first ones, which God himself had engraved, and on the second, which Moses had prepared—were the Ten Commandments.
“And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.” “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” Deut. 4: 12, 13; 5: 22.
From these scriptures we learn that what God spoke to the people was the Ten Commandments; what God wrote on the two tables of stone was the same as what He spoke; and it is emphatically declared that He added no more, neither in writing nor by audible voice. Thus it is conclusive that the law which God told Moses He would personally write on the tables of stone, and which He styled as His law and His commandments, is the ten precepts of the decalogue, no more, no less,—a code separate and distinct from all other laws and statutes,—directly, specifically, essentially, primarily, in the fullest sense of the term, God’s law. This law is a statement of principles as well as of precepts; moral, eternal, immutable, unchangeable; affected by neither climes, races, nor conditions; everywhere obligatory, because always the same.
This law is Jehovah’s great detective; for wherever sin may exist, these principles will detect the violation. The great apostle to the Gentiles says: “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” “For where no law is, there is no transgression.” “Sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Rom. 7: 7; 3: 20; 4: 15; 5: 13. The apostle John informs us: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4.
So the law which points out to men what sin is, is that law which Paul says contains the command, “Thou shalt not covet.” James gives still more light: “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he [“that law,” margin] that said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.” James 2: 9–11.
Many other scriptures might be noticed which plainly show that this law of God, the decalogue, is God’s great sin detector and informer, dealing with principles which affect men’s lives. Hence this law must have been in existence prior to Adam, the first of the race, for he sinned. Isa. 43: 27. It must have been known to Lucifer, the covering cherub, the bearer of light, who now is Satan, the prince of darkness, for he it was who introduced sin; or, as the scripture says: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” 1 John 3: 8. The Saviour could well say, when He came to earth: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5: 17, 18. This was not the law of ordinances or of sacrifices, for they were about to pass away in a few brief months or years; it was that eternal law which never could pass away, the moral law of God.440
However, the query might arise: “Why, then, was the decalogue proclaimed to the Israelites from Mount Sinai if it had been in existence prior to this time?” The answer is: They had become so corrupted by Egyptian idolatry and false worship that they had almost entirely lost the knowledge of the true God, of His righteous requirements, of the true character of sin. By their deliverance from Egyptian servitude they had come to regard their Deliverer as a God who could conquer their enemies in battle, and give them help in time of physical and temporal bondage; but they were ignorant of the fact that this same Helper was their Saviour from sin. Had they realized this truth, there never would have been so much murmuring among the people; not so much departing from the law of God; not so much craving for a return to the land of bondage and slavery. They did not know nor realize their great need of salvation from sin, and of power to keep them from sinning, because they had lost sight of the knowledge of God’s law. While they may have been convicted that their course of murmuring was not right, still they did not realize the depths of the sin, and so did not understand their need of deliverance.
Nehemiah says: “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses, thy servant. . . . But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. . . . nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.” Neh. 9: 13–26.
When they committed the great sin, soon after the law was declared from Horeb, then the Lord gave them His remedy for sin, which they could find by faith in their Deliverer; the offerings, sacrifices, and various institutions being the means to the desired end.
God chose the nation of Israel to reveal His truth to the world. The center of this great truth was a Saviour from sin, a Deliverer from spiritual bondage, not only for the Jewish people, but for the world. This was ever to be before them as they confessed their sins on the head of the offerings. As the blood constantly flowed before their eyes, they were to see in that the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the true, the great sacrifice. As they brought the goat or the lamb to be offered for their sins, they were thereby reminded of Him who would be led as a lamb to the slaughter. It was to teach them that as the offering slain before their eyes revealed to them the nature and awful consequences of sin, the Lord would lay, in truth, the iniquity of them all upon Him, the Lamb of God, who was to bear away the sin of the world. It was to have them see something of the great droppings of blood, the intense suffering to be endured by Him who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. They were to learn that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin; that the soul of God’s dear Son was to be made the offering for the sin of the world, through whose blood only, there would be forgiveness.441
All the offerings which Israel offered to God were simple methods to teach them these truths; they were God’s kindergarten instructions by which they might learn the spiritual meaning of the literal objects. In themselves those objects, animals, statutes, contained no virtue nor help nor efficiency; if separated from the true lesson they were to teach, they were vain, senseless. A few scriptures will make this plain: “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.” “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears thou hast opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.” “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.” “To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.” Ps. 51: 16; 50: 7–10; 40: 6; Amos 5: 21, 22; Jer. 6: 20. See also Isa. 1: 2–16; Hosea 2: 11–13; 1 Sam. 15: 22; Prov. 15: 8; Micah 6: 6, 7.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, the great paschal Lamb, the great Sacrifice, the true Temple, the Body of all the shadows which had gone before. All the services and offerings of the sanctuary were fulfilled in Him. By His coming, the type met the Antitype; when the Light appeared, the shadows vanished. When the true Object came, the illustrations were unnecessary. When the light of Christ appeared, the borrowed light of the shadows paled into nothingness. That which was designed to teach them of the great Offering was now of no more service. So when Messiah on the cross cried, “It is finished,” the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, by which He declared openly to the world that there was no further use for the work of the temple service, nor of the offering of animals. Its significance was gone, and forever.
Israel did not know this; she had not learned this; she was slaying the lamb, and shedding the blood, but was ignorant that right then its purpose was being carried out. She was chanting the psalm of deliverance, and knew not she was really in bondage. She was singing her passover song, but knew not that it was in reality her funeral dirge; she was performing the ceremony, and could not see the Substance. She knew not the time of her visitation. While she was busy here and there, He was gone. From henceforth her fasts, her feasts, her sacrifices, were meaningless. But what was she to do? Was there no more hope? Were there no more sacrifices? No more feasts?—Yes, there was hope; there was great hope; for the true Hope had been manifest. Now Israel needed to know what the feasts were. Now she was to learn what they all meant; what she did not know nor see now, if she would only believe, she would understand.
“In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.’ He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7: 37, 38. She could have her feast; she could have her simchath torah, the rejoicing of the law. Not, however, in a day, but in Him. Must she lose her fasts, and never more celebrate any? “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” Isa. 58: 5–7. And a practical demonstration of this fast was given by the Saviour when on earth; and in Him we can keep the fast, and perform it right,—not in the keeping of the day without bread or water, but in love, rejoicing in His ways.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2: 1–4.
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Cor. 5: 7, 8.
All the feasts, fasts, festivals, are in Him, the Messiah, the risen Saviour, the Deliverer from all sin. All things met in Him; in Him were all things gathered. Henceforth they were to have a new meaning. The feasts were not hours nor days, they were blessed experiences in Jesus Christ, the true Passover, the Lamb of God. Old things had passed away; all things had become new. New meaning, new light, had been brought to view from these things.
While these local institutions had passed away, while these national rites and ceremonies had ceased, had lost their value by virtue of the coming of the Christ, the Antitype, the law of God was still the same; it was as binding as ever, being magnified and exalted by the advent of Jesus to earth. For Isaiah had said, centuries before: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42: 21. This was made plain by the Saviour himself when He spoke the words in the sermon on the mount, as found in Matt. 5: 17, 18. The Jews had thought, and had taught, that to kill was to slay a person with intention; the Saviour said that to hate, to be angry, to have malice or a harsh spirit, was to violate the law which said, “Thou shalt not kill.” Not merely the deeds, but the thoughts were intended by it. Just so with other commandments.
The Sabbath was not merely the outward rigid observance of the seventh day, with hundreds of ordinances appended thereto. It was a day to be kept according to the commandment, as practiced by the Saviour. It was to be kept holy. Not that we should perform our own labor therein; not to earn our own livelihood, but to call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, by honoring Him. Not to find our own pleasure, not to speak our own words, not to do our own ways; but to delight in the Lord; to do well; to save life, to heal the sick; to worship in His holy house. Holiness, holy living, blessing, delight,—this was what now the seventh-day Sabbath meant. Not that it was to be abolished, or superseded by another day. Not that it was to contain rigor or hardship; but pleasure and joy in the service of God.
Jesus truly did not abolish, or abrogate, the law, but He most assuredly magnified it.442
While the ceremonial law was done away by the death of Christ, the law of God was exalted thereby. In fact, the only way that the law of Jehovah can be understood is in Jesus Christ, by the gospel of His dear Son. Christ died for sin; sin is the transgression of the law; Jesus Christ came to take away sin, and thus to take away the transgression of that law which had been violated by the human race. Between Christ and the law exist close and blessed relations. The last Adam was a spiritual man; the law is a spiritual code. Christ is the way. “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Jesus Christ is the truth. “Thy righteousness,” says the psalmist, “is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Speaking of Jesus, David says: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40: 8. And out of the heart, says the wise man, “are the issues of life.”
The one great issue of the life of Christ was to reveal to men the truth of the character of God and of His righteous and holy law. In other words, Jesus, the Son of God, was the law of God in action. “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 [not by us], who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” He is the living law. What man could not do in obeying the law because of sin, Jesus Christ did by His sinless life. Man transgressed and lost his estate; by so doing death and ruin came into the world. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He lived the righteousness of that law, then paid the penalty of its transgression by dying on the cross.
To give men power to see the true nature of the immutable law, against which all have sinned and come short; to live its righteous principles; to pay the penalty of its violation; to bring man back to his original position,—this was the work of the Saviour. So the gospel and the law are practically inseparable. The law is the gospel enfolded; the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the gospel inclosed; the gospel is the law disclosed. The law is the gospel concealed; the gospel is the law revealed. The law is the gospel-fullness delayed; the gospel is the law-fullness portrayed. The law is the gospel in minimum; the gospel is the law in maximum. The law is the gospel contained; the gospel is the law maintained. The law is the gospel sighted; the gospel is the law lighted. The law is Christ designed; the gospel is Christ enshrined.
May the fullness of that gospel of Christ, the power of God to save men from sin, cleanse our hearts from all sin, from every taint, from all disobedience of that just, holy, true, righteous, spiritual law; and may we, with the angelic hosts who observe all His commands to do them, with the entire family of the redeemed who through the blood of the Son of God have been made white and clean, swell that grand and glorious anthem of praise, honor, glory, and blessing to Him who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and forever.