THE SAVIOUR AND THE LAW.
By R. M. Kilgore
TEXT: “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21. The prophet, in this chapter, is speaking about the mission of the Son of God, when he should come to accomplish the work which his Father gave him to do. In Matt. 12:17–20, Christ refers to this prophecy as being fulfilled in the work he was then doing. He was, therefore, the servant in whom the soul of the Lord delighted. The Father was well pleased because of the righteousness of his Son; for in him was no iniquity, neither was there guile found in his mouth. He came to do his Father’s will, He says: “Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40:7, 8. The prophet declares that he will make the law honorable. It is not said that he will enact a new law, and make it honorable. No, not at all. It evidently refers to a law which he finds here when he comes—a law which men have disregarded, trampled upon, and broken. He came to do the will of God, and honor his law by obeying it. He said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” John 15:10. He could not have made the law honorable by changing or abolishing it. This would have shown the law to be a dishonorable document, and also an imperfect one; but the Psalmist says, “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. 19:7. He made the law honorable by taking his position in its favor, and declaring, in his first discourse, that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. He says, “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.” Matt. 5:17. To fulfill a law, is to keep, to ratify, to establish, to make firm, to act out its requirements, to obey it. This will fulfill a law, founded on moral principles, and nothing else will; and since it is a duty for God’s intelligent creatures in all ages, every day and hour, to be moral, the law developing such principles can only be fulfilled by a perfect obedience to such a law. James strengthens this when he says, “If ye fulfill the royal law . . . ye do well;” “and whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of a transgression of the law.” Chap. 2:8, 10. Christ solemnly affirms its perpetuity and immortality. Hear him: “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.” Verse 17. By the first “till” he carries the mind forward about two thousand years from his time, when the heavens and earth pass away. 2 Peter 3:10. And by the second “till” we are carried still beyond, to that time when the people shall be all righteous, and inherit the land forever. Isa. 60:21, and 66:22, 23. And when all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest. Then, in the kingdom of God, will all the people be fulfilling perfectly the law of God. With this view there is some force to these words of Christ. But if as some affirm, the law was all fulfilled, and therefore ceased, at the cross, it would be a very queer kind of a climax for Christ to say, Verily, I say unto you, “till” about two thousand years, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till about three years from this time. And to make it more absurd, he should have added to this, I came not to destroy, but I came to abolish. But Christ did not so understand the meaning of the word fulfill. He came to John to be baptized, that he might “fulfill all righteousness.” Matt. 3:15; but he subsequently enjoins righteousness upon his disciples. “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:20. He requires his disciples to fulfill the rule of righteousness—of right doing—more perfectly than the Scribes and Pharisees had done. It certainly was not a new rule which he should give them, but the same one which the Scribes and Pharisees had, but failed to fulfill. He will magnify the law. How? By changing it? By striking from it any of its requirements? This would be doing just the opposite. Instead of magnifying it, this would make it less. To magnify is to make any object look larger, to expand its proportions so that we can see that which we had not seen before. A drop of water, placed under a magnifying glass, is seen to contain numbers of animalculæ invisible to the naked eye.—The most distant objects are discovered under the powerful lenses of the telescope; and yet, these objects are actually the same. The telescope does not add a particle of matter to the distant planet,—nor does the magnifying glass increase the number of living things in the drop of water. They simply reveal what is already there, and no more. What, then will Christ do when he magnifies the law? Will he, like some of his professed disciples, place the law under the small end of the telescope, and thus throw it so far in the distance that no one can see it? No. Neither will he act the part of the tyrant, in history, who posted his law so high that his subjects could not read it, and then punished them because they would not obey him. But we shall expect to see him bring out points in the law which were invisible before. Every jot and tittle will look larger, and thus reveal to our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things contained in the law. Ps. 119:18. Christ here takes up the smallest commandment in the law. “Thou shalt not kill,” as an example of his magnifying power. “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” The Jews had always supposed that to break this commandment, life had to be taken. They did not understand they were condemned by simply harboring anger and hatred in their hearts against another. They had failed to comprehend that “God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:14. They would not take up stones themselves and kill the Son of God, but they could stir up the Roman authorities by accusing him, saying, “We found this fellow perverting the nation: he maketh himself a king, we have no king but Cæsar.” “Crucify him; crucify him.” Then Pilate delivered him to the soldiers to be crucified. Who were the murderers of the Son of God? Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” Was he not guilty? And although the Jews did not drive the nails through his hands and feet, or thrust the spear into his side, were they not guilty of murder? Peter says to them, “Ye have killed the Prince of life;” and Stephen adds, “Ye have been now the betrayers and murderers of the Just One.” That malice and hatred which led them to clamor for the blood of Christ and to look, with such complacency upon their dark deed, was murder. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” 1 John 3:15. He takes another: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” When magnified it is seen to reach even to the thoughts of the heart. The Jews brought a woman to Christ, who had broken the commandment openly, and said, “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might accuse him.” But he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground: “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” He arose and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” In view of this extension of this commandment, they discovered that they themselves were guilty of its violation; and, one by one, they went out condemned, leaving the woman alone with Christ, who said, “Go and sin no more.” He knew the hearts of those wicked Jews, and called them a “wicked and adulterous generation.” That law which is “spiritual,” when magnified is “exceedingly broad.” It condemns every evil work, and approves every good deed. Gal. 5:19–23. The thoughts and intents of the heart, the dark and hidden acts of men, will be revealed “when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” Rom. 2:12–16; Eccl. 12:13, 14. In this same discourse, Christ plainly expresses his views concerning another law—one that is not moral in its character, or in its nature universal. Instead of magnifying and enforcing it, he sets it aside, reverses its requirements, and gives other precepts in their place, thus showing a clear distinction between these two very different codes. He says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Here is another example: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Now, strange as it may appear, this very law which Christ did abolish, is, to-day, very generally obeyed; for many seem to think it is all right to hate their enemy, and would fain try to magnify that law which says, an eye for an eye, by taking two eyes for one, and in their zeal extracting two teeth instead of one; while the other law, which Christ did establish and magnify, they disobey. New we are told that the Sabbath is merely a Jewish institution. Why, then, did not the Son of God, while commenting upon these two different codes, settle forever this troublesome question, thus: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. But I say unto you, that, after my resurrection, the first day shall be the Sabbath; for on that day I shall rise from the dead; wherefore, on it ye shall celebrate my resurrection”? This would have put a quietus upon this subject. Then indeed would the old “Jewish Sabbath” have been buried with Christ, and it never would have had a resurrection. This he could easily have done. Why was it not done? The answer is, “The Sabbath was made for man.” It belonged to that law of universal obligation, of which Christ said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.