p. 263 | THAT STUMBLING-STONE by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 23, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 17.

“THAT STUMBLING-STONE.”

By G.

People make hard work of trying to serve God and to gain eternal life, because they will not work in the yoke of Christ. He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light;” but His yoke is a yoke of faith, and so many people insist on walking by sight. They can not trust anything that is not visible to the fleshly eye. This point is made very clear in the epistle to the Romans: “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.” Ch. 9:30, 31.

Here we have one class of people getting what they have not followed after, and another class following hard after the same thing but failing to acquire it. And why is it so? “Because they [the latter class] sought it not by faith.” Verse 32. They sought it by trying to work out the law themselves. They “followed after” the law; but like the faithless disciples who followed Jesus after His arrest on the night of His betrayal, they followed “afar off.” They followed the law of righteousness in their own wisdom, in their own strength, in the light of their own traditions; therefore their following was so far behind that they never could catch up to that which they followed after.

How, then, did the Gentiles succeed in attaining to that which they had not followed after?—They attained it by faith in Christ. When the Gospel was presented to them, they accepted it. Like Abraham, they believed God, and it was counted to them for righteousness. They were accredited with that which they had not attempted to do themselves. They knew that they had not walked in the law of God; therefore they just accepted Christ as “a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”

The faith of Christ was a stumbling-stone to Israel. Christ was the leader of Israel in the wilderness, but they did not follow Him by faith. They walked by sight; their action was governed by the appearance of things. When appearances were discouraging, they faltered, and that was why they failed before the giants and the walled cities which the faithless spies reported. “So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:19.

Some people try to make us believe that the law was “that stumbling-stone;” but that could not have been, for the law was the point they had in view. They did not stumble and falter at the object of their desire; they stumbled at that which they did not want. Therefore they failed to attain the desired righteousness, because they stumbled at the only means there was for them to attain it.

Note the language of Rom. 9:32 particularly, reading in parenthesis that which is clearly parenthetical: “They sought it [the law of righteousness] not by faith (but as it were by the works of the law). For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone.” That faith in Christ was the stumbling-stone is put beyond question by the next verse: “As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense; and whosoever believeth on Him [the stumbling-stone] shall not be ashamed.” This had been written by Isaiah (ch. 28:16) who also had given this testimony: “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, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Ch. 8:13, 14.

The natural man is condemned by the law of righteousness, and the only means he has of coming in harmony with it is by faith in Christ. G.