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God’s Law Is Immutable, August 25
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth
shall go before thy face.
Psalm 89:14
.
It is no wonder that transgressors of God’s law at the present time will get
as far from it as possible; for it condemns them. But those who hold that the
ten commandments were abolished at the crucifixion of Christ are in a similar
deception to that of the Jews. The position that the law of God is rigorous and
unbearable casts contempt upon Him who governs the universe in accordance
with its holy precepts. A veil is over the hearts of those who hold this view
in reading both the Old and the New Testament. The penalty for the least
transgression of that law is death, and but for Christ, the sinner’s Advocate, it
would be summarily visited on every offender. Justice and mercy are blended.
Christ and the law stand side by side. The law convicts the transgressor, and
Christ pleads in the sinner’s behalf.
With the first advent of Christ there was ushered in an era of greater light
and glory; but it would indeed be sinful ingratitude to despise and ridicule
the lesser light because a fuller and more glorious light had dawned. Those
who despise the blessings and glory of the Jewish age are not prepared to be
benefited by the preaching of the gospel. The brightness of the Father’s glory,
and the excellence and perfection of His sacred law, are only understood
through the atonement made upon Calvary by His dear Son; but even the
atonement loses its significance when the law of God is rejected.
The life of Christ was a most perfect and thorough vindication of His
Father’s law, and His death attested its immutability. Christ did not, by bearing
the sinner’s guilt, release man from his obligation to obey the law; for if the
law could have been changed or abolished, He need not have come to this
world to suffer and die. The very fact that Christ died for its transgressions
attests the unchanging character of the Father’s law.
The Jews had departed from God, and in their teaching had substituted
their own traditions for the divine law. The life and teachings of Christ
made plain and distinct the principles of this violated law. The heavenly host
understood that the object of His mission was to exalt the Father’s law and
make it honorable, and to justify its claims.—
The Signs of the Times, August
25, 1887
.
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