IF NOT THE LAW, WHAT OF THE PROPHECIES?
By C. E. Walker
THIS is an age of skepticism. Men are willing to let go truth and embrace error if truth is unpleasant to them. The Unitarian un-faith finds a response in many un-Unitarian minds, especially as pertaining to the Old Testament law. I believe in the "Bible, Old and New Testaments, as the word of God." I am called a fanatic on a good many questions and do not care if the learned world "smiles" for my firm belief in the Old Testament. If I must surrender the law, I cannot keep the promises. If there is no rule of life for man, how may he know how to live? (I speak of the moral law and not of the ceremonial law, which prefigured Christ.) Law is a rule of life. Then I believe that the law has its existence in the very relation between man and God, and man and man. When Moses received the tables from God with the "Thou shalt not's" to engrave upon the door-posts and upon the minds of men, it was not the first existence of those laws with their tremendous penalties attached. If the foregoing be correct, then it will not be necessary to spend time and space to prove that the moral law was not given to the Jews alone. Verily it must be that the law was, and is, for all who need the law. Take, as proof, Christ's statement concerning the Sabbath: "The Sabbath was made for MAN." No limit. And for the Jew to violate the seventh commandment could be no worse than for the Gentile. As further proof that the God of the Jew and Gentile alike (Rom. 3:29) made a law (in the nature of the creation of the human family, we take it) which was binding, whether written or unwritten, we will quote from Paul, Rom. 4:15, "Where no law is there is no transgression." Rom. 5:13, "Sin is not imputed when there is no law." The conclusion drawn from these quotations is that if there was at any time no law there could be no sin at such time. But read Rom. 3:23, "All have sinned." Death is the consequence of sin, and in Rom. 5:14 we read that "death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." These sinned, though not as Adam did. They broke other laws. Therefore we must agree that the law existed before and after the flashes of lightning around old Sinai. But it is argued that "Christ is the end of the law." Rom. 10:4. True, "for righteousness to everyone that believeth." When a soul sanctified (the "old man with his deeds" removed), filled with the Holy Ghost, and thus robed in the righteousness of Christ, "goeth about doing good," there is no law-breaking done by that soul. A man does not sin while filled with the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as God cannot lead into sin, and Christ has thereby become "the end of the law for righteousness" to him that "is righteous even as he [Christ] is righteous." 1 John 3:7. "The law was our school-master to bring us unto Christ." Gal. 3:24. The seeker to-day who finds Christ, finds him by reason of the fact that there is a law with a terrible penalty; he has violated the law and must meet the penalty unless a Saviour can interpose for him. He feels condemned and that justly, believing the law reasonable and righteous, and, repenting, implores the Father to give him Christ. I think, with Paul, "we establish the law." Rom. 3:31. I also think that if you wrest from me my Old Testament with it you may take the New. In the New Testament I read of the historic Christ; in the Old Testament I read of the Messiah of prophecy. As I look upon the historic Christ, I know him, because he is just like the Christ of the prophets, and I can see the truth of the one by the statements of the other. Christ Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and the prophets, but not to abolish the commands he himself had given, nor to make of none effect the prophecies concerning himself. I love the Bible for various reasons: It is the word of God, and reveals my origin, tells where I am, where I may go, and how I may get there. From Genesis to Revelation inclusive, it shows me "the way, the truth, and the life." Then, skeptics, remove your hands from that sacred Book; tear not from it a single leaf, nor allow a finger-print to soil it. Beware how you mouth it. It is God's word, and is not only precious to the thirsty soul but terrible to the unbeliever and to the ruthless hand.—Rev. C. E. Walker, in Christian Cynosure.