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Christ’s Object Lessons
There are those who profess to believe and to teach the truths
of the Old Testament, while they reject the New. But in refusing to
receive the teachings of Christ, they show that they do not believe that
which patriarchs and prophets have spoken. “Had ye believed Moses,”
Christ said, “ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me.”
John
5:46
. Hence there is no real power in their teaching of even the Old
Testament.
Many who claim to believe and to teach the gospel are in a similar
error. They set aside the Old Testament Scriptures, of which Christ
declared, “They are they which testify of Me.”
John 5:39
. In rejecting
the Old, they virtually reject the New; for both are parts of an insepa-
rable whole. No man can rightly present the law of God without the
gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied,
and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is
the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears.
The Old Testament sheds light upon the New, and the New upon
the Old. Each is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Both
present truths that will continually reveal new depths of meaning to
the earnest seeker.
Truth in Christ and through Christ is measureless. The student of
Scripture looks, as it were, into a fountain that deepens and broadens
as he gazes into its depths. Not in this life shall we comprehend the
mystery of God’s love in giving His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. The work of our Redeemer on this earth is and ever will be a
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subject that will put to the stretch our highest imagination. Man may
tax every mental power in the endeavor to fathom this mystery, but his
mind will become faint and weary. The most diligent searcher will see
before him a boundless, shoreless sea.
The truth as it is in Jesus can be experienced, but never explained.
Its height and breadth and depth pass our knowledge. We may task
our imagination to the utmost, and then we shall see only dimly the
outlines of a love that is unexplainable, that is as high as heaven, but
that stooped to the earth to stamp the image of God on all mankind.
Yet it is possible for us to see all that we can bear of the divine
compassion. This is unfolded to the humble, contrite soul. We shall
understand God’s compassion just in proportion as we appreciate His
sacrifice for us. As we search the word of God in humility of heart, the
grand theme of redemption will open to our research. It will increase