those demands? We answer: first, the law of God demands perfect obedience.
The justice of this, none will deny. But when the law has been violated, it
demands the death of the transgressor. Sin is the transgression of the law."
1John3:4. "The wages of sin is death." Rom.6:23. "The soul that sinneth it shall
die. Eze.18:4. When Christ came to fulfill the law, he came to do this, not for
himself, but in behalf of our race. He came to fulfill the law as the Messiah: an
office or character which no other being ever possessed. He came to undertake
for fallen men, and in a certain sense placed himself in their situation. What then
was the relation which our race sustained to the law of God? We answer: all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The law of God stopped every
mouth, and showed all men sinners in the sight of God. Rom.3.
Then, when the Saviour took upon himself our nature, and came to fulfill the
law of his Father, that
6
law not only demanded perfect obedience; but it also justly demanded the death
of our race; for all were its transgressors. The work of the Saviour, therefore, in
fulfilling the law of his Father, was of a twofold character. He must first render
perfect obedience to all its precepts, and then offer up his own life as a ransom
for guilty man. To fulfill the law as the Messiah, Christ must perform all this. Did
he thus do? He kept his Father's commandments. John15:10. In him there was
no transgression of the law. 1John3:4,5. He was the Lamb of God without spot,
[1Pet.1:19.] in whom the Father was well pleased. Matt.3:17. And this was not all;
he took upon himself the sin of the world. Isa.3:6; John1:29. He bore our sin in
his own body upon the tree. 1Pet.2:24. He died the just for the unjust, giving his
own life a ransom for many. 1Pet.3:18; Matt.20:28. God can now be just, and yet
justify him that believeth in Jesus. Rom.3:25,26. Thus Christ lived our example
and died our sacrifice.
Did this work of the Messiah, in rendering perfect obedience to all the law of
God, and then offering up himself as a ransom for its transgressors, weaken that
law, or lessen our obligation to obey it? Never. It shows in the most striking light,
its perpetuity and immutability. The law of God condemned our race. Jehovah
would open the way for man's salvation. He could not destroy his own moral
7
law; but he could give his own beloved and only Son to die for its transgressors.
This evinces the estimate which the Father placed upon his own law. Isaiah
predicted that Christ should magnify the law, and make it honorable. Isa.42:21.
The record of Christ's life and death shows the fulfillment of this prediction.
But Christ adds a solemn affirmation. "For verily, I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. What is a jot and a tittle? A jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
alphabet. A tittle is a small point by which some of those letters are distinguished
from others. Our Lord therefore solemnly affirms that the minutest point shall not
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Then it is certain that a part will not be
destroyed and the remainder of the law be left in force. Consequently as long as
a part of the original precepts continue, all of them abide without one jot or tittle
