CHRIST IN THE LAW
LIBERTY AND LOVE #112
When the apostle stated that the law of God is holy, just, good (Rom. 7:12), he was establishing the fact that the Law of God points to one person: Christ. The only one who ever lived who can be truthfully called good is Jesus. This was the point of Christ’s response to the rich young ruler who called Him “Good Teacher.” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him, “for there is none good but God.” Did the young ruler understand the significance of his words? Jesus is God because he is good; and he is good because he is God.
The matter should have been long settled that the purpose of the Levitical system, and even the calling of Abraham which preceded it, was Christ. Everything finds its fulfillment in Christ. Jesus said, “I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” He fulfilled them because they pointed to him. Christ is the embodiment of God’s law.
Though many Bible teachers do not accept it, the fact of Christ’s perfect death in fulfillment of the law’s demands was predicted by the Old Testament prophets. “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” (1 Pet. 1:10-12).
Notice that the sufferings of Christ were predicted by the prophets. When we look at our Savior, we must seek to ascertain the mind of God in regard to his mission. The will and purpose of God is revealed through his inspired spokesmen, and we learn the mind of God by the revelation they produced.
Did the prophets expect Israel to accept Jesus as their Messiah and allow him to set up an earthly throne? Or did they predict that Christ would be rejected by the world and by his people? The prophets foretold the “sufferings of Christ” according to Peter. We read in several places in the Old Testament concerning the suffering of Christ. It is hard to imagine anyone, for example, reading Isaiah 53 and failing to discern the fact that the Old Testament prophets predicted the suffering of Christ. In a sense, it would be appropriate to speak of the Old Testament as being as much about Christ’s death as the New Testament.
Furthermore, the New Testament speaks of the Old Testament system as a shadow of what we find revealed in the New Testament. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Heb. 10:1). The good things to come of which the law was a shadow was the death of Christ, as the context shows. “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” (Heb. 10:1-9).
One cannot read these statements in Hebrews 10 without being made to realize that every animal sacrifice of the Old Testament was a sermon about Jesus. The law pointed to Christ in several ways. Paul reveals that the Old Testament law was a tutor to lead men to Christ (Gal. 3:24). The word “tutor” described one in a family or household who was the guardian responsible for the welfare of the children. The law, in other words, was given the responsibility to lead us to Christ.
The only thing a perfect law can do for imperfect people is to show them how badly they have transgressed it and how much they need a Savior. And in this way, the law pointed to Christ. As the Holy Spirit has revealed it, “For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things..” (Heb. 10:1), and that the contents of the Old Covenant “...are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ” (Col. 2:17).
When we think of God’s law, we should not think primarily of our inability to keep it; we should think of Christ. He has fulfilled the law by keeping it to perfection and by laying his life down as a sacrifice for those of us who did not. The law was a tutor until the fullness of time came; it is no longer a tutor, but a testimony to the merits of Christ.
Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God, signifying the completion of all that the law was intended to do. The substance is of Christ. And we are not thinking spiritually unless we realize that in Christ, “law” is no longer the operative word, but “life.” In Christ we have life, not law.
This does not speak of a lawless life of carnal indulgence. It speaks, rather, of the fact that God has set himself up within us. In the ascended life of Christ, in which we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, we are finished in our struggle with sin.
He who has died has been freed from sin, Paul wrote in Romans 6:7, and it was in this context that he said we are dead with Christ. Since we have been crucified, raised and ascended with our Lord and Savior, sin no longer has dominion over us, and we are no longer under law, but under grace. The Gospel of Christ is not based on do, but on done. And it is all because of him.
