HARMONY OF LAW AND GOSPEL
By M. E. Cornell
Interesting Extracts. No. 13.
HARMONY OF LAW AND GOSPEL.
"Let us, for another thing, beware of despising the law of the ten commandments. Let us not suppose for a moment that it is set aside by the gospel, or that Christians have nothing to do with it. The coming of Christ did not alter the position of the ten commandments one hair's breadth. If anything, it exalted and raised their authority. Rom. iii, 31. The law of the ten commands is God's eternal measure of right and wrong. By it is the knowledge of sin. By it the Spirit shows men their need of Christ, and drives them to him. To it Christ refers his people as their rule and guide for holy living. In its right place it is just as important as \"the glorious gospel.\" It cannot save us. We cannot be justified by it. But never, never let us despise it. It is a symptom of an ignorant and unhealthy state of religion when the law is lightly esteemed. The true Christian delights in the law of God. Rom. vii, 22.—Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Matt. p. 38. "The plain truth is, that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath. He only freed it from incoherent interpretations, and purified it from man-made additions. He did not tear out of the decalogue the fourth commandment. He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had incrusted the day, and by which they had made it not a blessing but a burden. He left the fourth commandment where he found it, a part of the eternal law of God, of which no jot or title was ever to pass away. May we never forget this."—Id. p. 122. On Matt. xxiv, 20, Ryle says: "We live in times when the obligation of the Sabbath upon Christians is frequently denied by good men. They tell us that it is no more binding on us than the ceremonial law. It is difficult to see how such a view can be reconciled with our Lord's words on this solemn occasion. He seems intentionally to mention the Sabbath when he is foretelling the final destruction of the temple and the Mosaic ceremonies, as if to mark the day with honor. He seems to hint that, although his people would be absolved from the yoke of sacrifices and ordinances, there would yet remain the keeping of the Sabbath for them."—Id. p. 319. Dr. A. Barnes says: "There can be no permanent worship of God, and no permanent religion on earth, without a Sabbath; and hence it was, that while the observance of the feasts of tabernacles, and of the passover, and of the new moons, made a part of the ceremonial law, the law respecting the Sabbath was incorporated with the ten commandments as a moral and perpetual obligation."—Notes on Isaiah lxvi, 23. "Hooks or long knives for trimming vines. The word here, however, means anything employed in reaping or mowing, a sickle, or a scythe."—Barnes' Notes on Isa. ii. NOTE. "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." Joel iii, 10. I learn that in many places they have worked up the old fashioned steel plowshares into implements of war, and at Springfield, Mass., they have worked up several carloads of scythes, and several scythe establishments are now changed into manufactories of swords and sabers for war. Thus we have a fulfillment of this scripture.