Sermon on the Mount
255
of the Pharisees. His mission to the world is to vindicate the sacred
claims of that law which they charge Him with breaking. If the law of
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God could have been changed or abrogated, then Christ need not have
suffered the consequences of our transgression. He came to explain
the relation of the law to man, and to illustrate its precepts by His own
life of obedience.
God has given us His holy precepts, because He loves mankind. To
shield us from the results of transgression, He reveals the principles of
righteousness. The law is an expression of the thought of God; when
received in Christ, it becomes our thought. It lifts us above the power
of natural desires and tendencies, above temptations that lead to sin.
God desires us to be happy, and He gave us the precepts of the law that
in obeying them we might have joy. When at Jesus’ birth the angels
sang,—
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good will toward men” (
Luke 2:14
),
they were declaring the principles of the law which He had come to
magnify and make honorable.
When the law was proclaimed from Sinai, God made known to
men the holiness of His character, that by contrast they might see the
sinfulness of their own. The law was given to convict them of sin, and
reveal their need of a Saviour. It would do this as its principles were
applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. This work it is still to do. In the
life of Christ the principles of the law are made plain; and as the Holy
Spirit of God touches the heart, as the light of Christ reveals to men
their need of His cleansing blood and His justifying righteousness, the
law is still an agent in bringing us to Christ, that we may be justified
by faith. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
Psalm
19:7
.
“Till heaven and earth pass,” said Jesus, “one jot or one tittle shall
in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” The sun shining in the
heavens, the solid earth upon which you dwell, are God’s witnesses
that His law is changeless and eternal. Though they may pass away,
the divine precepts shall endure. “It is easier for heaven and earth to
pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
Luke 16:17
. The system of
types that pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God was to be abolished at