“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. But I say unto you, love your
enemies. If thou mayest be made free use it rather. Be ye not the servants
of men. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. Whosoever
looketh upon a woman and lusteth after her hath committed adultery already
in his heart.”
I have presented a sufficient amount of each law to show you a part of the
great contrast which exists on account of the ancient law being given to a
people set apart from all the surrounding nations by a legal wall
interfering with them in their social walks in life. That law was
sufficient for all practical purposes among the Jews. But, since that
“Middle wall of partition” has been taken down, it is utterly useless to
talk about a law limited to your neighbor being any longer worthy of God,
or a perfect rule for man’s conduct in his associations with all men.
Indeed, it never was a law regulating a man’s conduct with all men. The
middle wall was taken out of the way, and Jews and Gentiles have shook
hands in Christian fellowship under the new institution. Let us see how
this was brought about. When the law brings about a separation, nothing
short of law can undo it, and bring about the union of the parties
separated. But, as authority, that controls law, is alone competent to
remove legal results, we must look for this, as a matter of necessity,
lying at the foundation of the new institution. It is just there that we
find it in these words: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” The result of
obedience to this law of Christ is expressed in these words: “But now, in
Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the
enmity; even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make
in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” Eph. ii, 13-15. The God
of Abraham said unto Rebecca, “Two nations are in thy womb.” Gen. xxv, 23.
This language had its fulfillment in the decendants of Jacob and Esau. The
political history of the children of Jacob begins at Sinai with their
beginning as a nation among the surrounding nations. The law given at
Sinai was a political law, for it was addressed to a community, pertained
to a community, and was accepted by a community.
Such is a political law in the strictest sense of the term. This law was
given to the Jews, the decendants of Jacob. Moses said, “The Lord our God
made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our
fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”
Horeb is a synonymous with Sinai, and means, properly, ground left dry by
water draining off. So, Horeb and Sinai occur in the narrative of the same
event. The children of Jacob are known as a commonwealth, from the giving
of the law onward until their overthrow by the Romans. Paul, speaking of
the Gentiles, in past times, says “They were aliens to the commonwealth of
Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise.” The Jews called them
“dogs.” This great enmity had its origin in the two-fold consideration of
the Jew being favored in a temporal and political point of view, and the
pride of his heart, which exalted him in his own imagination above even
his moral superiors. This corruption of the heart, with the liability of
its return, being removed by the abrogation of all that was peculiar to
the Jews and their conversion to Christ, Paul says, “That all are one in
Christ.” Christ was the bond of union, all were joined to him. But the
same authority that separated them by legislation must legislate with
reference to this grand change that was to take place between these
decendants of Jacob and Esau. The law of commandments separating the Jews
limited them in moral duties to their neighbors. It was unlawful for them
to go in unto one of another nation. It limited them in trade and traffic
to their own countrymen; also limited them to their own people in
matrimonial relations. So God must be heard again, I say, _heard!_ for He
was heard at the giving of the law, which is now to be taken out of the
way. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up in a high mountain and was
transfigured before them, Moses and Elias, the great representatives of
the Patriarchial and Jewish dispensations, appeared unto them and “a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud, which
said, This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, HEAR YE HIM.”
Math. xvii, 5. Here is the authority that gave the institution peculiar to
the Jews legislating with reference to Him whose doings were to end that
system of things, and lead all into “a new and living way.” Paul says:
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son.” So Christ took away the first will and established the second. See
Heb. x, 9. Paul says: “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in Him.” This relation of duty to the reception of Christ has direct
reference to the character in which we receive him. He was given to
_rule_, to exercise _Lordship_. He is Lord of all. The term Lord signifies
“ruler by right of possession.” If He is not Lord of all there is an
abundance of false testimony upon this one subject, and Christianity is
diseased in the head. And if he is Lord of all, then we should leave that
old mountain that shook and burned with fire, and all the political
paraphernalia of Sinai, and consider ourselves complete in Christ, who is
“_Emanuel_, God with us.” If any man does this he is not troubled with the
old “bond woman.” Jehovah said of Christ: “I have given Him for a covenant
of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” Isaiah xlii, 2. New duties
appear before us in the New Testament, with new obligations lying at their
foundation. Jesus said: “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had
not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sins.” Again: “If I had
not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had
sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and my Father.” John
xv, 22-24.
Justification turns no longer upon the ancient law, and the sacrificial
and typical system of blood is no longer the means of pardon. The law
contained a shadow of good things to come, but the body was of Christ. He
that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. Everything turns in this dispensation upon Christ and his Law. Jesus
told his disciples to teach their converts to observe all things which He
had commanded them to teach, and they filled their mission. Paul said, He
“shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God,” “kept back nothing.”
With reference to law, he said, “If any man think himself to be a prophet,
or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write are the
commandments of the Lord.” For the glory of Christ, as his just meed of
praise, it was written, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus.” “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness
to every one that believeth.” In this major proposition the minor, of the
seventh-day Sabbath, is involved. The Lord said of Israel, “I will also
cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her
Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.” Hosea, ii, 11. No man is threatened,
by Christ or any of his apostles, on account of Sabbath-breaking, or any
of those things which are peculiar to the Jews. But men are threatened for
disobedience to the Gospel of Christ. The New Testament is of Christ. Its
religion is not “the Jews’ religion,” but Christ’s. There was much in the
Old Testament that is in the New, but it is there by the authority of
Christ. Hence, we are “complete in Him who is the head of all principality
and power.” Much in the laws of the United States was first in the laws of
England, but we do nothing with reference to English authority. So it is
with us, as respects all who went before Christ, we do nothing in
reference to them, but do all in reference to Christ, and for His name.
The Old Kingdom of Israel, with its political law, statutes and judgments,
has passed away, and Christ reigns “_all in all_.” To Him “be glory and
majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.” Jude, xxv.