DID CHRIST ABOLISH THE LAW?
By J. E. Fulton
“THINK not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.” Matt. 5:17, 18, R. V. We live in a time of almost universal apostasy. Men and women eagerly seize upon every excuse to satisfy a troubled conscience. “They have made void God’s law,” and fain would charge all this to Christ, who came to set aside not one precept of that law. “He spake as never man spake,” and his words, his teachings, and his actions, were in exact harmony with those living words, delivered amid the awful scenes of Sinai. Concerning him, Isaiah prophesied, “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21. He exemplified this while among men, for “in his life the law appears, drawn out in living characters.” God’s law was in his heart,—he loved it, he taught it to men, and thus he fulfilled it. He came not to destroy, and not one jot or tittle of the law will pass away till all things be accomplished. All things are not yet accomplished; the heavens and earth are yet unmoved in their orbits. And Luke tells us that “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Chapter 16:17. Thousands who desire to evade a plain command, will charge Christ with abolishing the law, and hide behind the word “fulfill.” Matt. 5:17. Could not an argument equally forcible be made against the gospel? “And when he had opened the book [of Isaiah], he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. . . . And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:17-21. What a sad thing it is for humanity if “fulfill” means abolish. “This day is this scripture fulfilled,” i. e., that message of hope Jesus read to them. Are the poor, the broken-hearted, the captive, and the blind without a ray of hope?—Yes, if “fulfilled” means abolished, for “that day” was the gospel message “fulfilled.” Thank God it is not so. Jesus came to preach the glad tidings to those in the bondage of sin, and to present it more fully than it had ever been known. See Col. 1:25, margin. And “that day” “they wondered at the gracious words” he spoke. Luke 4:22. No more is the law abolished because fulfilled. And it is a blessed thought to know that Christ still fulfills the law in us. He showed us how to keep the law, but that is not all. By faith “he is come in the flesh” “to dwell.” 1 John 4:2, 3; Eph. 3:17. He becomes our obedience, “for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4. Then in us the law is yet fulfilled by Christ, and if we are not carnal, we will be subject to that law. Verse 7. Having the mind of Christ we will delight in the commandments and will “do and teach them.”