CHRISTIANS SUBJECT TO THE FATHER’S LAW.
By R. F. C.
“Also I will make him, my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” Ps. lxxxix, 27–32. No doubt can exist in the mind of the Bible student, that the first-born spoken of in this text is Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. Col. i, 15. The promise, that he should be made higher than the kings of the earth, perfectly agrees with Paul’s declaration concerning Jesus, in Phil. ii, 9. “Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” In order to ascertain the period of the fulfillment of the conditional prophecy which follows, beginning with the words, “If his children forsake my law,” it is necessary to know the time when Jesus was thus highly exalted; for his exaltation is first introduced, and after this the consequence of his children’s forsaking his Father’s law is pointed out. His exaltation is posterior to his crucifixion—it is a consequence of his becoming obedient to the death of the cross. Phil. ii, 8, 9. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore (for which reason) God also hath highly exalted him.” Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, &c.” Acts ii, 32, 33. These texts fix the time of his exaltation, showing that it was after his crucifixion and resurrection. Consequently, “his children,” who are in danger of forsaking his Father’s law, of breaking his statutes, and not keeping his commandments, were to be believers in the now exalted Saviour; in other words, the prophecy applies to the Christian dispensation. And though this forsaking of the law of God is spoken of only as a thing that might be, yet it was afterwards revealed to Daniel that it would positively be so. Dan. vii, 25. “He shall speak great words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws.” This abomination of desolation was in the future when our Saviour gave to his disciples the signs of his second coming; (Matt. xxiv, 15;) and Paul positively declares that that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. 2 Thess. ii, 3. So that the falling away from, and opposing God’s law, by thinking to change it, was to be an act of the professed children of the Father’s first-born and exalted Son. Now mark the language of the text, If his children forsake his law. No! it does not read so. It reads, “If his children forsake my law.” This shows that Christ’s children are still subject to his Father’s law; consequently that Christ was not to enact a law to take the place of the one previously existing. That his children are bound to obey him no Christian will dispute; but what we claim is, that he has made no law that conflicts with, or releases us from, that law which the Father in the days of David denominated my law. R. F. C.