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WHAT LAW?

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 20, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 13.

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WHAT LAW?

By R. F. Cottrell

“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” What law did our Lord mean? It was a written law, for a law not written has no jots or tittles. All Christians are agreed and know that circumcision and the sacrifices and ceremonial ordinances of the former ages have entirely passed away, being abolished, blotted out, nailed to the cross. The law of which Jesus spoke can be no other than the moral or primary law, briefly comprehended in the ten commandments, written by the finger of God and also in the books of Moses. Does he mean some new law which was to take the place of the old, the “law of Christ,” or the New Testament law? Not a word of the New Testament was written for years after the Lord made the emphatic annunciation, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.” A fool would know without being told that he did not come to destroy that which did not exist. He spoke of the law and the prophets then existing, and in the possession of the people. This law was not to be destroyed, nor even a jot or a tittle, a letter or a mark, pass from it, till heaven and earth pass, or, till all the prophecies, promises, and purposes of God should be fulfilled.
The law of which the Lord spoke was law before he came, and was still to be law; for from the fact that he did not come to destroy the law, or to change it so much as a jot or a tittle, he draws this conclusion: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.” This language applied to all future time, unlimited duration. Who then can be so hardened as to teach the people in this enlightened age and land of Bibles, that the primary law of God, the moral law, has passed away, wholly or in part? Who dares to do so? Certainly not R. F. COTTRELL.