After blessing comes obligation--after beatitude, law. It is the same
order as of old. The old covenant was in its origin and essence a
covenant of promise, of blessing. Mercy, not duty, was its key-note.
When God called Abraham to the land of promise, His first word was: "I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing" (Gen. xii. 2). Later on came the obligation resulting, as in
Genesis xvii. 1: "Walk before me, and be thou perfect." So in the
history of the Nation, the promise came first and the law followed it
after an interval of four hundred years--a fact of which special use
is made by the Apostle Paul (Gal. iii. 17, 18). The Mosaic
dispensation itself began by an acknowledgment of the ancient promise
("I am the God of your fathers"--Ex. iii. 6), and a fresh declaration
of Divine mercy ("I know their sorrows, and am come to deliver
them"--Ex. iii. 7, 8). When Mount Sinai was reached, the entire
covenant was summarised in two sentences, the first reciting the
blessing, the second setting forth the resulting obligation: "Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on
eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now, therefore, if ye will
obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a
peculiar treasure unto Me above all people" (Ex. xix. 3-5). The very
Decalogue itself is constructed on the same principle; for before a
single commandment is given, attention is called to the great
salvation which has been wrought on their behalf: "I am the Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage." Thus closely does the proclamation of the new kingdom follow
the lines of the old; far above and beyond it in respect of
development, in essence it is the same.
It was therefore most appropriate that, in entering on the subject of
the law of His kingdom Christ should begin with the caution, "Think
not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." On this point
there would necessarily be the greatest sensitiveness on the part of
the people. The law was their glory--all their history had gathered
round it, the prophets had enforced and applied it; their sacred
Scriptures, known broadly as "The Law and the Prophets," had enshrined
it. Was it, then, to be set aside for new legislation? The feeling was
quite natural and proper. It was necessary, therefore, that the new
King should set Himself right on a matter so important. He has not
come to overturn everything. He accepts the old covenant more
cordially and thoroughly than they do, as will presently appear; He
will build on it as a sure foundation; and whatever in His legislation
may be new grows naturally out of the old. It is, moreover, worthy of
notice that while the Mosaic economy is specially in His mind, He does
not entirely leave out of consideration the elements of truth in other
religious systems; and therefore defines the attitude He assumes as a
Legislator and Prophet, in terms of the widest generality: "I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil."
While in the widest sense He came not to destroy but to fulfil, so
that He could with fullest liberality acknowledge what was good and
true in the work of all former teachers, whoever and wherever they had
been, thus accepting and incorporating their "broken lights" as part
of His "Light of the world" (compare John i. 9), He can speak of the
old covenant in a way in which it would have been impossible to speak
of the work of earth's greatest and best. He can accept it as a whole
without any reservation or deduction: "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." Observe, however, that this
statement is not at all inconsistent with what He teaches concerning
the temporary character of much of the Mosaic legislation; it simply
makes it clear that whatever passes away, does not pass by
destruction, but by fulfilment--_i.e._, the evolution of its hidden
life--as the bud passes into the rose. The bud is there no longer; but
it is not destroyed, it is fulfilled in the rose. So with the law as
infolded in the Old Testament, unfolded in the New. How well fitted to
inspire all thoughtful minds with confidence must have been the
discovery that the policy of the new kingdom was to be on the lines,
not of brand-new experimental legislation, but of Divine evolution!
Not only does He Himself do homage to the law, but takes order that
His followers shall do the same. It is no parting compliment that He
pays the old covenant. It is to be kept up both in the doing and in
the teaching, from generation to generation, even in its least
commandments. Not that there is to be such insistence on very small
matters as to exclude altogether from the kingdom of heaven those who
do not press every jot and tittle; but that these will be reckoned of
such importance, that those who are lax in doctrine and practice in
regard to them must be counted among the least in the kingdom; while
those who destroy nothing, but seek to fulfil everything, will be the
great ones. What a foundation is laid here for reverence of all that
is contained in the law and the prophets! And has it not been found
that even in the very smallest features of the old covenant, even in
the details of the tabernacle worship, for example, there is for the
devout and intelligent Christian a treasury of valuable suggestion?
Only we must beware of putting jots and tittles in the place that
belongs to the weightier matters of the law, of which we have warnings
sufficient in the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees. Their
righteousness had the appearance of extending to the minutest matters;
but, large as it seemed in popular eyes, it was not nearly large
enough; and accordingly, in closing this general definition of His
relation to the old covenant, our Lord had to interpose this solemn
warning: "I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter the kingdom of heaven." Theirs was a righteousness as it were of
the tips of the fingers, whereas He must have "the whole body full of
light"; theirs was a righteousness that tithed mint and anise and
cummin, and neglected judgment, mercy and faith; theirs was in the
narrow sphere of the letter, that which He demanded must be in the
large and lofty region of the Spirit.