Chapter 32—The Grace of Christ and the New
Covenant
Adam and Eve at their creation had a knowledge of the law of God;
they were acquainted with its claims; its precepts were written upon
their hearts. When man fell by transgression, the law was not changed,
but the promise of a Saviour was given. Sacrificial offerings pointed
to the death of Christ as the great sin offering.
The law of God was handed down from father to son through suc-
cessive generations. But few rendered obedience. The world became
so vile that it was necessary to cleanse it by the Flood from its cor-
ruption. Noah taught his descendants the Ten Commandments. As
men again departed from God, the Lord chose Abraham, of whom
He declared, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Genesis 26:5
. To him was
given the rite of circumcision, a pledge to remain separate from idola-
try and obey the law of God. The failure of Abraham’s descendants
to keep their pledge was the cause of their bondage in Egypt. In their
intercourse with idolaters and forced submission to the Egyptians, the
divine precepts became still further corrupted with the vile teachings
of heathenism. Therefore the Lord came down upon Sinai and in awful
majesty spoke His law in the hearing of all the people.
He did not even then trust His precepts to the memory of a people
prone to forget, but wrote them upon tables of stone. And He did not
stop with giving them the Decalogue. Moses was commanded to write
judgments and laws giving minute instruction as to what was required.
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These directions were only the principles of the Ten Commandments
amplified in a specific manner, designed to guard their sacredness.
If the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which
circumcision was a sign, there would have been no necessity for God’s
law to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon tables of stone.
The sacrificial system was also perverted. Through long inter-
course with idolaters, Israel had mingled many heathen customs with
their worship; therefore the Lord gave them definite instructions con-
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