The Law by J. Clarke

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1858

The Law.

By J. Clarke

A CONVERSATION.

A. I am sorry to see you going back to the old Jewish law, long since outlawed.

B. We deny such a slur wholly. We hold that all that was ceremonial was done away in Christ, and all Jewish rites are now abolished.

A. But you keep the Jewish Sabbath, I understand.

B. You have been misinformed in this matter: we keep the Sabbath of the Lord, which was established in Eden before any nation existed.

A. But don't you understand Paul to say that all these types and shadows have passed away?

B. Paul truly says in effect, that the ceremonial law has passed away, but the Sabbath has no connection with the ceremonial law. The Sabbath was instituted before man had sinned, while as yet there was no necessity of a ceremonial law.

A. But Christ is said to be the end of the law; of course the law is at an end.

B. James says, [chap. v, 11.] Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. Has the Lord come to an end? End of, often signifies, object of. Christ is the object of the law for righteousness. In the other quotation, Ye have seen the object of the Lord in afflicting Job, &c.

A. How is Christ the object of the law?

B. Christ is called "the Lord our Righteousness." Christ alone is our Righteousness. He alone of all mankind has kept the law perfectly. We have all broken this law, and God cannot stain his spotless purity by passing lightly over sin; and to make it possible to save the sinner, he gave his Son Jesus who has kept the moral law, and made it honorable, and now the sinner hides under his Saviour's righteousness, and depends wholly upon this for salvation, but still strives to be holy by conformity to Christ and his law.

J. CLARKE.