THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL FOR JEWS ONLY.
By H. Wren
It is claimed that there was but one system of law in the old dispensation, and that it never was binding on anybody but the Jews. It is also claimed, that, at the death of Christ, that system was done away entirely, and that the new dispensation is a creation de novo. There are many ways of showing the erroneous character of this position; but perhaps there is no single idea that sets its fallacious character in a clearer and stronger light than the following:— If the law under which the Jews lived was binding on none but Jews, then there is no salvation for any but Jews. Is it asked, How does that appear? We answer, In this obvious manner:— Christ bore the curse of that law, and of no other. His death had sacrificial relation to, or connection with, no other law. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Gal. 3:13. Would any one assert that this law, of which Christ bore the curse, was not the law that was in force among the Jews? Antinomian daring would certainly pause here. But where is it stated in Holy Scripture that he bore the curse of any other law? There is no such statement in the Bible. Hence it is a simple fact that Christ’s death pertains to no law but that which was binding on the Jews. Gentiles, then, are not within the scope of the sacrificial offering of Christ; and they are not only outside of the law, but also outside of the provisions of the gospel, if that law was in force only over Jews. If it be said, that, while Christ’s death related only to the old law, his mediation under the new covenant is broader, then we refer to the Scripture again, which says, “And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Heb. 9:15. Here it is asserted that not only his death, but his new-testament mediation, has reference to the transgressions (and if to the transgressions then to the law) that were under the first testament. In the light of the above scripture, where is there any gospel or any hope for a Gentile, if the law was binding on none but Jews. Antinomianism not only nullifies the law, but the gospel also, except for Jews. And the very arguments used to prove that God has an entirely new order of things for the Gentiles, prove that there is nothing at all for them but to remain “without God and without hope in the world.” We lay down this proposition, as a corollary to the above: No man ever will be saved except by virtue of the death Christ has already died. “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. . . . So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Heb. 9:26–28. Will he ever die again, and bear the curse and penalty of another law for the Gentiles? No; for he says, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” Rev. 1:18. See also Heb. 9:25, 26. But if the new covenant has a new law, then Christ must yet die, or the new covenant is of no force. “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” Heb. 9:16, 17. But, as we have seen, “Christ dieth no more.” Rom. 6:9, 10. Hence, again, upon the antinomian principle, the new covenant is nullified. This proposition is also true: Every passage of Scripture which shows that Christ died for all, shows, also, that all were under the curse he died to remove; which, we have seen, was the curse of the law of the old dispensation, and no other. “That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. 2:9. “If one died for all, then were all dead.” 2 Cor. 5:14. “He is the propitiation for our sins;163and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2. If Christ’s death was sacrificial for all men, as the passages last quoted show, and if that death was sacrificial by reason of his bearing the curse of a certain law, then all men were under the condemnation of that law. But we have seen that the law whose curse he bore was the old-covenant law. Hence all men were, at the death of Christ, and still are, under that law. How broad, and deep, and harmonious, how rich and blessed, are all thy ways, thou King of saints! “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:18, 19. H. WREN.