WHAT IS CHRIST'S MISSION?
A CORRESPONDENT, T. F. N., in College City, Mass., who represents many others in the aggregate, writes us why he keeps Sunday. He tells us (1) that he found that Christ did not keep the seventh day as they [the Jews, we suppose] did, and that that brought Him into more trouble than anything else; (2) that Matt. 22: 37–40; Rom. 13: 9 cover the commandments; (3) that the references, Matt. 28: 1, 2, 9; Acts 20: 7; John 21: 1 are enough to prove that Christ honored the first day of the week; that He rose from the dead on that day and established His spiritual kingdom on earth; and that by repentance and faith we may know we are saved. He wants to know how the men of this age know more of the first day than those who were taught by Christ. It looks to him like going back and denying Christ's mission of a spiritual kingdom, to keep the seventh day. Now these are frank declarations, and we will answer them briefly from the Bible. 1. Christ did not keep the seventh day as the Jews did, it is true; but He kept it as one of God's commandments, spiritual, just, and good. They kept it after a form, boasting in their own righteousness. Rom. 10: 3. The law did not lead them to Christ, because they sought their own honor, not God's. John 5: 44. It was necessary that men's righteousness in respect to all the commands of God should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, or they could not enter the kingdom. Matt. 5: 17–20. But they could not abate one jot or tittle of the law. Christ observed the day according to the law, doing that which was "lawful" (Matt. 12: 1–12), and hence committed no sin; for "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3: 4; 1 Peter 2: 21, 22; John 15: 10). 2. The great principles of love to God and love to man (Matt. 22: 37–40) do indeed cover all the law, and always have. Jesus was not teaching something new, but a truth recognized by the Jews themselves. Luke 10: 25–28; Mark 12: 28–34. He simply quoted Deut. 6: 5 and Lev. 19: 18. But those principles of love to God and man have ever and will ever demand willing obedience to all the commands of God. 1 John 5: 3. Where is Rom. 13: 9, referred to above? 3. The other texts referred to simply show that Jesus rose or was risen on the first day of the week. But the day is never called a sacred day; never is referred to as a worship day; never are we told that it displaced the Sabbath of the Lord. On the contrary, the context of each of these texts clearly reveal that the day was a common working day, and that no meeting held upon it was held to observe or honor the day. Jesus met with His disciples at the earliest opportunity, and manifested Himself as the Risen One. Paul merely closed a meeting on the first of that day, and worked the rest of the day. 4. Christ's spiritual kingdom on earth is in the hearts of His people, entering into hearts open by faith, and held by faith. Repentance is sorrow for sin. "Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3: 4. 5. Christ's mission was to save His people from their sins. Matt. 1: 21; Titus 2: 13. But our correspondent's logic would make Christ "the minister of sin;" he would make Christ save His people to break the Sabbath, steal, commit adultery, kill, profane God's name, worship idols, etc. If he repudiates this, we simply say that all commands are parts of the same law given by the Father and Son from Sinai, honored and glorified by the Son in His life and death and teachings. Christ's mission is to bring men back to obedience to that law. Why should we discriminate when He has not? Why erect another standard? Why pervert the great Example? Why make His mission void in us?