“We must keep in
mind the object which Christ had in view. While he invites and exhorts the Jews
to receive the Gospel, he still retains them in obedience to the Law…
“I am not come
to destroy. God had,
indeed, promised a new covenant at the coming of Christ; but had, at the
same time, showed, that it would not be different from the first, but
that, on the contrary, its design was, to give a perpetual sanction to the
covenant, which he had made from the beginning, with his own people.
“I will write my law, (says he,) in their hearts,
and I will remember their iniquities no more,” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34).
and I will remember their iniquities no more,” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34).
“By these words he is so far from
departing from the former covenant, that, on the contrary, he declares, that it
will be confirmed and ratified, when it shall be succeeded by the new.
This is also the meaning of Christ’s words, when he says, that he came to
fulfill the law: for he actually fulfilled it, by quickening, with his
Spirit, the dead letter, and then exhibiting, in reality, what had hitherto
appeared only in figure.
“With
respect to doctrine, we must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us
from the authority of the law: for it is the eternal rule of a devout
and holy life, and must, therefore, be as unchangeable, as the justice of God,
which it embraced, is constant and uniform…
“Let us
therefore learn to maintain inviolable this sacred tie between the law and the
Gospel, which many improperly attempt to break. For it contributes not
a little to confirm the authority of the Gospel, when we learn, that it is
nothing else than a fulfillment of the law; so that both, with one
consent, declare God to be their Author.
“Whoever
then shall break Christ here speaks expressly of the commandments of life, or
the ten words, which all the children of God ought to take as the rule of their
life. He therefore declares, that they are false and deceitful teachers, who do
not restrain their disciples within obedience to the law, and that they are
unworthy to occupy a place in the Church, who weaken, in the slightest degree,
the authority of the law; and, on the other hand, that they are honest and
faithful ministers of God, who recommend, both by word and by example, the
keeping of the law…Those who shall pour contempt on the doctrine of the law, or
on a single syllable of it, will be rejected as the lowest of men…
“The kingdom
of heaven means the
renovation of the Church, or the prosperous condition of the Church, such as
was then beginning to appear by the preaching of the Gospel…The meaning of that
phrase is, that God, restoring the world by the hand of his Son, has completely
established his kingdom. Christ declares that, when his Church shall have
been renewed, no teachers must be admitted to it, but those who are faithful
expounders of the law, and who labor to maintain its doctrine entire…Again, we
must observe the description he gives of good and holy teachers: that not only
by words, but chiefly by the example of life, they exhort men to keep the law…
“The principal
charge brought by Christ against their doctrine may be easily learned from what
follows in the discourse, where he removes from the law their false and wicked
interpretations, and restores it to its purity…
“It has been a
prevailing opinion, that the beginning of righteousness was laid down in the
ancient law, but that the perfection of it is pointed out in the Gospel. But
nothing was farther from the design of Christ, than to alter or innovate any
thing in the commandments of the law. There God has once fixed the rule of life
which he will never retract. But as the law had been corrupted by false
expositions, and turned to a profane meaning, Christ vindicates it against such
corruptions, and points out its true meaning, from which the Jews had departed.
“That the
doctrine of the law not only commences, but brings to perfection, a holy life,
may be inferred from a single fact, that it requires a perfect love of God and
of our neighbor, (Deuteronomy
6:5; Leviticus
19:18.) He who possesses such a love wants nothing of the highest
perfection. So far as respects the rules of a holy life, the law conducts men
to the goal, or farthest point, of righteousness…
“That Christ, on
the other hand, intended to make no correction in the precepts of the law, is
very clear from other passages: for to those who desire to enter into life by
their good works, he gives no other injunction, than to, keep the
commandments of the law, (Matthew 19:17.)
From no other source do the Apostles, as well as Christ himself, draw the rules
for a devout and holy life. It is doing a grievous injury to God, the
author of the Law, to imagine that the eyes, and hands, and feet alone, are
trained by it to a hypocritical appearance of good works, and that it is only
in the Gospel that we are taught to love God with the heart. Away, then, with
that error, ‘The deficiencies of the law are here supplied by Christ.’
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