Jesus Fulfils the Law

by Anonymous

In contemplating the mass of sacrifices thus noted, we may easily enter into the feeling expressed by Paul (more especially as regarded circumcision)—“which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear;” and we can the more fully appreciate the blessing of the Gospel, which has relieved us from all such burdens, and given us individually a free access (whether Jew or Gentile) to the Father of Mercies, through the one only High Priest, Jesus Christ our Lord.

But it was not so much to point out the burdens which our forefathers in the faith of Christ had to bear—burdens which, nevertheless, were light compared with the burden of unforgiven sin—that we have traced the requirements of the law; but to point to the testimony they bore to Christ and His Kingdom.

Under the law no Israelite could obtain pardon for his sin except through the Priest, who was the appointed mediator—to him he brought the prescribed offering, and slew it at the Tabernacle door; the priest received the blood, and some of the internal fat; the former he sprinkled, and the latter he burned, on the altar; and, in the words of the text, “The priest shall make an atonement for his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.”

We may not be able to define the extent to which the Holy Ghost was then enjoyed, but we cannot doubt that the testimony of a conscience free of offence towards God was sealed on the mind of the offerer when the atonement was made agreeably to the words, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments; which if a man do he shall live in them” (Lev. xviii. 5).

The Apostle Paul confirms this language, saying, “The man that doeth them” (the statutes of the Law) “shall live in them” (Gal. iii. 12); and when we consider the words of the same writer: “The children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished” (2 Cor. iii. 13), we need not suppose the offerers had, in general, any understanding that what they did had a special relation to the better Mediator to come. As in the case of the brazen serpent they looked to it and were healed; so here they made their offerings believing in their efficacy, and reaped the fruit of pardon and peace.

This divinely-instituted law was enjoined on the people under the most solemn assurances of blessings for obedience, and cursings for disobedience, viz.: “Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day: and a curse if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside after other gods” (Deut. xi. 26–28; xxvii. 15–26; and ch. xxviii.). “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for He is thy life and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deut. xxx. 19, 20).

They did what God had provided to enable them to walk with Him, and when they erred or failed to keep His holy law they brought the means of reconciliation He had appointed. In such way a man might do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with his God, which is the whole duty of man.

“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace” (Ps. xxxvii. 37), might be applied to such an one, and the model may perhaps be useful in enabling us to understand the higher perfection required by the Gospel. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John i. 7).

If we look for the essential principle of this elaborate system of priestly mediation for the forgiveness of sins, as well as for presenting to God the freewill offerings or devotions of the people, it will be found in the 11th verse of the 17th chapter of Leviticus, viz.: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

Such were the conditions under which the law given from Mount Sinai was presented to or enjoined on the people. They were to choose between life or death, blessing or cursing, obedience with the Divine favour, or refusal to obey, with the Divine displeasure. The eyes of the Lord would be over the righteous, and His ear open to their cry; but the face of the Lord would be against them that did evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth—Ps. xxxiv. 15, 16—conditions so different as to constitute the highest happiness man was capable of at that time, or the deepest degradation and misery which he could endure in this life, with no better prospect beyond.