Chapter 30—The Law and the Gospel
[
This article appeared in
The Signs of the Times, March 14, 1878
.]
When the Jews rejected Christ they rejected the foundation of
their faith. And, on the other hand, the Christian world of today who
claim faith in Christ, but reject the law of God are making a mistake
similar to that of the deceived Jews. Those who profess to cling to
Christ, centering their hopes on Him, while they pour contempt upon
the moral law, and the prophecies, are in no safer position than were
the unbelieving Jews. They cannot understandingly call sinners to
repentance, for they are unable to properly explain what they are to
repent of. The sinner, upon being exhorted to forsake his sins, has
a right to ask, What is sin? Those who respect the law of God can
answer, Sin is the transgression of the law. In confirmation of this the
apostle Paul says, I had not known sin but by the law.
Those only who acknowledge the binding claim of the moral law
can explain the nature of the atonement. Christ came to mediate
between God and man, to make man one with God by bringing him
into allegiance to His law. There was no power in the law to pardon
its transgressor. Jesus alone could pay the sinner’s debt. But the fact
[230]
that Jesus has paid the indebtedness of the repentant sinner does not
give him license to continue in transgression of the law of God; but he
must henceforth live in obedience to that law.
The law of God existed before the creation of man or else Adam
could not have sinned. After the transgression of Adam the princi-
ples of the law were not changed, but were definitely arranged and
expressed to meet man in his fallen condition. Christ, in counsel with
His Father, instituted the system of sacrificial offerings; that death,
instead of being immediately visited upon the transgressor, should be
transferred to a victim which should prefigure the great and perfect
offering of the Son of God.
The sins of the people were transferred in figure to the officiating
priest, who was a mediator for the people. The priest could not himself
205