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Patriarchs and Prophets
There are many who try to blend these two systems, using the texts
that speak of the ceremonial law to prove that the moral law has been
abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction
between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system
was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to His sacrifice and His
priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was
to be performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death
of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
Then all the sacrificial offerings were to cease. It is this law that
Christ “took ... out of the way, nailing it to His cross.”
Colossians
2:14
. But concerning the law of Ten Commandments the psalmist
declares, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”
Psalm
119:89
. And Christ Himself says, “Think not that I am come to destroy
the law.... Verily I say unto you”—making the assertion as emphatic
as possible—“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Matthew 5:17, 18
. Here
He teaches, not merely what the claims of God’s law had been, and
were then, but that these claims should hold as long as the heavens
and the earth remain. The law of God is as immutable as His throne.
It will maintain its claims upon mankind in all ages.
Concerning the law proclaimed from Sinai, Nehemiah says, “Thou
camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from
heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes
and commandments.”
Nehemiah 9:13
. And Paul, “the apostle to the
Gentiles,” declares, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy,
and just, and good.”
Romans 7:12
. This can be no other than the
Decalogue; for it is the law that says, “Thou shalt not covet.”
Verse 7
.
While the Saviour’s death brought to an end the law of types and
shadows, it did not in the least detract from the obligation of the moral
law. On the contrary, the very fact that it was necessary for Christ to
die in order to atone for the transgression of that law, proves it to be
immutable.
Those who claim that Christ came to abrogate the law of God and
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to do away with the Old Testament, speak of the Jewish age as one
of darkness, and represent the religion of the Hebrews as consisting
of mere forms and ceremonies. But this is an error. All through the
pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen
people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM. Never