Jesus Fulfils the Law

by Anonymous

Jesus was “the Light” but His precepts and example—all, in fact, that He did and taught—are so many lights derived from Him; as well as the light of the Holy Ghost or Comforter, who shines in our hearts to give “us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. iv. 6); and this bringing our deeds to the light includes trying them by His words and example;—the precepts taught by His Apostles, as well as by the Holy Spirit itself,—that by any or all of these accordant tests it may be made clear whether they are according to the mind of Christ. “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. . . . He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings” (John xiv. 21, 24).

We have a lively illustration of practical belief in the patriarchs of old, who, believing in God’s promises, and having seen them afar off, embraced them, and shaped their lives in conformity to them:—viz., “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. For they which say such things declare plainly that they seek . . . a better country—that is, a heavenly” (Heb. xi. 13, 14, 16).

Believing in Christ, therefore, implies a belief that He is the Son of God, the Messiah, and Saviour of the world, the centre and spring of all our spiritual existence;—a belief in His teaching expressed by shaping our lives and conversation in the world by it; accepting Him as our King, whose right it is to reign and rule in our hearts. He tells us that we must be “born again”—“born of the Spirit” (John iii. 3 and 6)—and the power to truly believe in Christ is coincident with this new birth, and indicative of it, when “the Holy Ghost or Comforter,” convincing us of sin, and of our alienation from God by it, enables us to look to Jesus as our Saviour and Redeemer. When, by the power of the same Spirit, we are enabled to lay aside our old works, thoughts, and propensities to evil, and walk by the rule of faith in the light of the Spirit of Christ. As we abide and walk therein, we shall “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;” bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit, which are set forth in Gal. v. 22, as “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.” Again (2 Pet. i. 5–7), as—“Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity.”

If we examine the nature of some of these fruits of the Spirit, we shall see that though they are produced in us individually by the working of the Spirit, they are not confined to ourselves, but will communicate to others around us. Thus we all know how communicative is the feeling of joy—it burns to tell others the good news, or glad tidings. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts makes us long that others should participate in this great blessing.—The peace of God yearns that all should be brought into its heavenly atmosphere: while the other qualities or rather graces described,—as longsuffering, meekness, charity, &c,—mark to others that we have been with Jesus: and the Apostle Peter winds up his catalogue with the descriptive words equally applicable to both, “If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. i. 8).

Thus the Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. i. 16), and as its fruits spring up and abound in any heart they will in some or other form overflow to those around, and make it a minister of righteousness, a testimony-bearer to the truth as it is in Jesus: it may be in word and doctrine, in the private circle of association, or even in the quiet testimony of a peaceful spirit, and a faithful discharge of duties, recommending by its example the Gospel of Christ.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. . . . That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Rom. viii. 2–5).

Allusion has been made at a former page ([40]) to the precepts of the law, having been superseded by the higher principles of the Gospel of Christ. The New Testament, instead of prescribing precise instructions for conduct between man and man, sums up our duties in the general principle, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; love worketh no ill to his neighbour; love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. xiii. 9, 10); at the same time illustrations are given, both of the fruits of the Spirit, and of the fruits of sin in the heart (See Eph. iv. 22 to end, and ch. v.; Rom. i. 28–32; Rev. xxi. 8).

The law written in the heart is the effect of the Holy Spirit’s work there. He works in us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure;—“to do those things which are well pleasing in His sight;”—which should “be known and read of all men,” by its effects on the conduct, &c. (2 Cor. iii. 2). It was the distinguishing feature of Christ’s coming—“Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. x. 9). And though we cannot attain to His perfection, the work of the Spirit is always to beget within us more of the love of God, and to incline our hearts to serve Him more faithfully. As we sit, as it were, at the feet of Jesus, looking unto Him, the Spirit or Comforter will take of the things of Christ, and show them to us, and there will be a growth in grace, and in conformity to the will and law of God;—a subordination of the flesh to the Spirit, which has no necessary, or perhaps no natural, limit, but in the summons to quit the militant, and join the triumphant, Church above.

It is sometimes said that Christianity is an educational system in which the mind is trained, by the restoring grace of the Holy Spirit, to abandon sin, and work righteousness; and that the offer of this restoring grace implies, as a necessary prelude, the pardon of past sin.

Enough has been already said to show that this is not consistent with the general tenor of Holy Scripture. We know that the minds of susceptible children, nurtured under Christian mothers, do sometimes drink in the truths of the Gospel from their lips, at a very early age, in a way that makes it difficult to mark the period of decided change in them. They seem to grow up with the Gospel infused into their characters and life.