Divine Teacher
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veiled mystery of godliness; Christ Jesus remained veiled to them. The
truth, the life, the heart of all their service, was discarded. They held,
and still hold, the mere husks, the shadows, the figures symbolizing
the true. A figure for the time appointed, that they might discern the
true, became so perverted by their own inventions, that their eyes were
blinded. They did not realize that type met antitype in the death of
Jesus Christ. The greater their perversion of figures and symbols, the
more confused their minds became, so that they could not see the
perfect fulfillment of the Jewish economy, instituted and established
by Christ, and pointing to Him as the substance. Meats and drinks and
divers ordinances were multiplied until ceremonial religion constituted
their only worship.
In His teaching, Christ sought to educate and train the Jews to
see the object of that which was to be abolished by the true offering
of Himself, the living Sacrifice. “Go ye,” said He, “and learn what
that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” He presented a
pure character as of supreme importance. He dispensed with all pomp,
demanding that faith that works by love and purifies the soul, as the
only qualification required for the kingdom of heaven. He taught that
true religion does not consist in forms or ceremonies, outward attrac-
tions or outward display. Christ would have taken these to Himself if
they had been essential in the formation of a character after the divine
similitude. But His citizenship, His divine authority, rested upon His
own intrinsic merits. He, the Majesty of heaven, walked the earth,
shrouded in the robe of humanity. All His attractions and triumphs
were to be revealed in behalf of man, and were to testify to His living
connection with God.
[399]
Christ’s prediction regarding the destruction of the temple was a
lesson on the purification of religion, by making of none effect forms
and ceremonies. He announced Himself greater than the temple, and
stood forth proclaiming, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He was
the one in whom all the Jewish ceremony and typical service was to
find its fulfillment. He stood forth in the place of the temple; all the
offices of the church centered in Himself alone.
In the past, Christ had been approached through forms and cer-
emonies, but now He was upon the earth, calling attention directly
to Himself, presenting a spiritual priesthood, and placing the sinful
human agent at the footstool of mercy. “Ask, and it shall be given you,”