The Law Magnified by Christ
By A. C. Gilbert
He Is the Creator—Therefore He Is the Lawgiver—He Magnified the Law in His Life by Throwing Contempt on the Traditions of Men CHRIST, the Son of God, was the agent in the creation of all things “that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Col. 1: 16, 17. See also Heb. 1: 1-3; John 1: 1-3, 10. World-Maker and Statute-Maker
But the Lord is not only a world-maker, He is also a statute-maker. Isa. 33: 22, margin. He is not only a world-maker and a statute-maker, but He is a law- or statute-giver (Isa. 33: 22; James 4: 12) for the thrones, dominions, and principalities that He created. It is evident, from the Scriptures, that in all the created works of the Godhead, there is represented the fullness of grandeur, dignity, and perfection that fully accords with the character of the supreme Creator. See Ps. 145: 17; 104: 34; 139: 14. The magnificence and unsurpassed glory of the innumerable worlds (Heb. 1: 1-3; Gen. 2: 1; Ps. 33: 6; Isa. 40: 26) that course their way through unmeasured space, the laws that govern them, the various forms of life upon them, all have their original source in the “Fountain of life” (Ps. 36: 9), who is the “high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity” (Isa. 57: 15), the statute-maker and law-giver. “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Gen. 1: 31. Since God and His Son, Jesus Christ, created all things, it is natural to expect that They would uphold the works of Their hands, and also uphold the laws ordained to govern these works and the moral beings for which They became responsible by creation. A Perfect Standard for a Perfect Man
God made man a perfect being in the beginning (Gen. 1: 26, 27; Eccl. 7: 20), and ordained a perfect standard or law for his guidance, to define his relationships both to his Creator and to his fellow beings. As the Lord, who is perfect and unchangeable (Matt. 5: 48; Mal. 3: 6; Heb. 13: 6), will accept nothing less than perfect obedience from His moral creatures, it remains therefore that He has not changed and cannot change His perfect moral standard, even though sin has been permitted to obtrude itself into His plan, and marred the original nature of man. Since the Lord made man originally a moral being (Gen. 1: 26, 27; 2: 16, 17), and recognizes him still as a moral and responsible being, it truly follows that the Godhead must recognize the same laws that previously governed man’s moral nature; for divinely established moral relationships are unchangeable. We have briefly studied the attitude of Christ toward His laws by virtue of His being the Son of God and the Creator of all things. Now let us notice what His attitude is as a prophet toward the law that He ordained as the rule of conduct for the beings who were endowed with the power of choice. In inspiring the prophets, He foretold clearly what would be His feelings for His law when He should be manifested in the flesh to live a life that was to be a perfect example for man. We read: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42: 21. He Found Disrespect for Law
This prediction implies at least two things: first, that when Christ should be revealed as the Son of man, He would find His holy law belittled and dishonored by the professed Christian church at that time; second, that in His public ministry, He would elevate the law to its proper place, remove the reproach that had been cast upon it, and restore to it its befitting dignity. Were the expressed and implied facts of the above-mentioned prophecy found to be true in the days of Christ’s public ministry? Was the law found to be humbled and misrepresented? Did the Lord restore it to its rightful place while here on earth, as the prophecy said He would do? The psalmist said, “It is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law.” Ps. 119: 126. To make a law void is to pursue such a course of action toward it as to cause it to lose its power and effect. In Christ’s first public address, we find that He strikes directly at the prevailing evils of His time, which were greed, uncharitableness, pride, hypocrisy, injustice, impurity, tumultuousness, wavering, retaliation. Matt. 5: 1-16. As He laid the ax at the root of the tree by declaring the fundamentals of true religion, the scribes and the Pharisees perceived at once that He was a reformer, and that His message was no ordinary synagogue chant, but that it was decidedly reformatory. They saw that such teaching would undermine their elaborate forms of church service and the security of their traditions. They suggested that this man who spoke with5much authority would probably seek to subvert the law and the prophets, for which they affected great reverence. But He imperatively assured them of His high regard for the moral law and the prophets, in the following words: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Verse 17. Had Spoiled It by Traditions
However, in His future instruction, He pointed out how they had covered the law of God—the Ten Commandments—with their traditions until they had “made the commandment of God of none effect.” Matt. 15: 6. Their worship had so degenerated that it was naught but dry intellectualism and barren orthodoxy, and called forth from the Master the stern rebuke: “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Verses 8, 9. In Christ’s sweeping denunciation of Jewish tradition, in His unmasking of their hypocrisy, He proclaimed the unlimited scope of the law. He illustrated its application to the thoughts of the heart as well as to the overt act. He declared that if a person should teach that any one of the commandments, even the least, is done away, that person would be reckoned by the authorities in heaven as among the least, and, of course, unworthy a place at last in the kingdom with the redeemed. But those who would esteem the commandments as eternal principles to regulate the moral conduct of their lives, would be “called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5: 19. Denounced Tradition and Magnified Law
The Saviour exposed the weakness and unprofitableness of the traditions which the Jews had heaped over the law of the Ten Commandments. By doing so, and by denouncing these traditions, He magnified the law (Isa. 42: 21), so that all might see its original beauty and design, and be impressed to confess: “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” “My tongue shall speak of Thy word: for all Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119: 97, 172. And as if to reassure the Jews that He had not come to abolish the law, He said, “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: 18. The life of Christ on earth constitutes the most powerful argument in behalf of the immutability and binding obligation of the moral law—the Ten Commandments. Christ knew, all heaven knew, that the law could not be changed, “abolished,” “done away,” in order to meet man’s fallen condition. If this could have been done, there would have been no necessity for the death of Christ to rescue man from death, which is the required penalty of the broken law. Its Eternal Character Emphasized
In the blending of the condescension, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, was perfected the strongest “magnifying glass” (Isa. 42: 21) in all the plan of God by which the Christian church is to see distinctly the eternalness, the beauty, the perfection, the binding obligation, of the Ten Commandments. “The law of God is a divine law—holy, heavenly, perfect. . . . There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is proof of its divinity.” —Spurgeon’s “Sermons,” page 280. There is a growing tendency, in these days, to depreciate the force of the law of God. And it is this tendency that is largely responsible, as in the time of Christ, for the laxity of morals in the professed Christian church. Traditional teaching, church creeds, human opinions, have constructed a sort of “magnifying glass” which distorts the object to be investigated, and brings into the field of vision things which are wholly foreign. It Is Time for the Lord to Work
For illustration: When the law of God, the Ten Commandments, is to be examined by many to-day, it is represented as inferior, narrow, in need of substitution, too limited for this progressive age. It is bombarded with foreign expressions, such as “done away in Christ,” “fulfilled,” “Jewish,” “antiquated,” “in need of revision,” etc. Thus to-day, as in the time of the Saviour’s first advent, is the law of God made of “none effect” by the teachings of men. Surely again “it is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law.” Ps. 119: 126. May the love of God which was in His Son Jesus, and enabled Him to magnify His law in the sight of men,—that law of which He is Author and Exponent,—rule our lives, and enable us to magnify these precepts, and say with the beloved apostle John: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” I John 5: 2, 3. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14: 15. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13: 10.