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"THE LAW" IS
ABOLISHED, ENDING AT THE CROSS
Adventists are continually crying,
"God's law [meaning the Sinaitic code] is
unchangeable." But Paul contradicts them, boldly
stating "that there is made of necessity a change
also of the law" (Heb 7:12). "The law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"
(John 1:17). "He taketh away the first, that he may
establish the second" (Heb. 10:9). Two laws could not
stand in the same dispensation. Therefore to establish the
gospel—grace and truth, which came by Christ—the law
was "taken away." The manner in which it was
taken away is thus explained in Christ's own words:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17, 18). This text clearly
states that when the law reaches its fulfillment it will
pass away. It will not pass till fulfilled. So it is not
eternal, but when fulfilled it was to reach an end. Then,
the Lord points to himself as the fulfillment of the law
and prophets—"For Christ Is the end of the
law" (Rom. 10:4). "The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ" (Gal. 3:24). Since Christ is
come "we are no longer under a schoolmaster"
(vs. 25) "not under the law, but under grace"
(Rom. 6:14). This nails the matter fast, and utterly
refutes the Adventist plea for the perpetuity of the law.
Sabbatarians argue that as long as
heaven and earth last the law will continue. Their own
argument proves that the law is not eternal; for Jesus
said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away" (Luke
21:33). But Jesus did not say that the law would continue
till heaven and earth had passed away. The idea is that
heaven and earth would sooner pass away than one letter of
the law fail in being fulfilled. "It is easier for
heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to
fail" (Luke 16:17). That is the idea. Not the length
of time the law was to continue, but the certainty that it
would not fail to be fulfilled. Christ said it would
continue till fulfilled. This proves that it would be
fulfilled and pass away some time. But when is the time?
Christ plainly says, 'I am come to fulfill it.' Hence Paul
rightly concludes that "Christ is the end of the
law." "Fulfill: To complete; to fill
up."—Webster. "To bring to a close, end,
finish, complete."—Greenfield. Then, the law ended
with Christ. "Heaven and earth shall sooner perish
than one jot or one tittle of the law shall perish without
attaining to its end."—Macknight, Campbell,
Doddridge. Exactly. Christ says he came to fulfill the
law. Did he? Hear him after his resurrection: "These
are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
Psalms, concerning me" ( Luke 24:44) . "And when
they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took
him down from the tree" (Acts 13:29). The law was
fulfilled and ended at the cross Was "nailed to the
cross" (Col. 2: 14-16).
Adventists make a tremendous
blunder when they confine "the law" in Matt.
5:17, 18 to the Decalog. "The law" includes all
the law of Moses. The "law and the prophets" is
a term that applies to the entire Old Testament. All
commentaries agree on this. But the Scriptural proof is
abundant. "Witnessed by the law and the
prophets" (Rom. 3:21). "The reading of the law
and the prophets" (Acts 13:15). "This is the law
and the prophets" (Matt 7:12). "All the prophets
and the law" (Matt. 11:13). "All the law and the
prophets" (Matt. 22:40). "They have Moses and
the prophets.... If they hear not Moses and the
prophets" (Luke 16:29,31). "Written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets . . . concerning me"
(Luke 24:44). "Written in the law and in the
prophets" (Acts 24:14). "Him, of whom Moses in
the law, and the prophets, did write" (John 1:45).
"Moses and the prophets" and "the law and
the prophets" are the same thing. "The law"
is defined as "Moses," "the law of
Moses." And "the law and the prophets"
reach their fulfillment in Christ. This is the whole Old
Testament. The Adventist argument on Matt. 5: 17, 18 will
make circumcision and all Moses' law binding to all time
and eternity.
This law was a "shadow"
of Christ's atonement and redemptive blessings (Heb.
10:1-3). Its sacrifices, blood, Passover, sin-offerings,
altars, etc., all pointed to him. Its sanctuary pointed
forward to his greater house; the church; its Sabbath to
the sweet soul rest he gives. When Christ the
substance came to earth, the shadow—law—vanished away.
"The law and the prophets were
until John" (Luke 16:16). His ministry was "the
beginning of the gospel" (Mark 1 :1-3). When the law
reached its fulfillment in Christ, it was not necessary to
destroy it. Therefore he says, "I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfill." To illustrate this point.
Suppose that the legislature of Pennsylvania had passed a
law forbidding the killing of any game in the State for a
period of ten years, and that this law had come into force
January 1, 1919. On January 1, 1929, that law would die of
itself, and sportsmen would not wait for the legislature
to pass an act to abolish or destroy that law. Its v e r y
construction and wording would teach all intelligent men
that it could not continue in force longer than January 1,
1929. Just so it was with the law. "It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come"
(Gal. 3:19). "To thy seed, which is Christ" (vs.
16). This so clearly teaches that the law was but a
temporary institution, to continue in force only until the
promised seed—Christ—should come, that there is no
appeal from it. The coming of Christ—his death—is the
date, then, when the law expired. There was no necessity
to destroy it in order to make it null and void; for its
limit ended when it was fulfilled in Christ, and of
necessity it became dead. This shows the utter fallacy of
the Seventh day Adventists' position. Christ fulfilled the
law, and it passed away after having served its purpose.
"Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances" (Eph. 2 :15). The law was a partition
wall between the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ broke down
this wall, by abolishing "the law of
commandments," around which clustered all the
ordinances and ceremonies of the Old Testament. This was
done "that he might reconcile both unto God in one
body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby"
(vs. 16). The date of the abolition of the law is placed
at the cross. "Blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew
of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man
therefore judge you in meat, or of the new moon, or of the
sabbath days" (Col. 2:14-16). That which was nailed
to the cross included the Sabbath. The whole system ended
at the cross. Since that, "if ye be led of the
Spirit, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18).
"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of
you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from
grace" (vs. 4). This applies forcibly to all
Saturday keepers.
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I
speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman
which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband
so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is
loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall
be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress,
though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body
of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should brine
forth fruit unto God But now we are delivered
from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:1-4, 6). Here is a
plain lesson. Who can misunderstand it? Paul uses the law
of matrimony to teach the abolition of the Mosaic system.
That first husband was "the law"; the wife was
the church—Israel. But the first husband died; viz., the
law was abolished. It was "nailed to the cross,"
then buried. In recent years the Sabbatarians hunted its
grave, and dug it up. All they found was the skeleton.
This they stood up, but it fell down. So they have
invented many props by which they expect to keep it
standing. But by the eternal truth their props must fall
and their idolized, decayed system of abolished
"shadows"— the law—be buried in the same
grave in which Jesus laid it nineteen hundred years ago.
Ye are become "dead to the
law," and are now married to Christ. He is the second
husband. Sabbatarians are married to the law, while ours
is alive forevermore. They cling to a ghostly shadow,
while we enjoy the substance. They are under the
"ministration of death," while we cling to the
"law of life." They wear the "yoke of
bondage," while we rejoice in the "law of
liberty." Their glory is "done away," while
ours "remains." While Moses is read "the
vail is on their hearts," but with us this vail is
"done away in Christ." They cling to the law,
while we cleave to the gospel. They grope in the smoke of
Sinai, while we stand in the light of Zion. O Adventist
friend, forsake your system, and accept the truth, which
will make you free.
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