“But,” says one, “the law says nothing of Christ.” No; but all creation
does speak of Christ, proclaiming the power of His salvation. We have
seen that the cross of Christ, “Christ and Him crucified,” is to be seen
in every leaf of the forest, and, indeed, in everything that exists. Not
only so, but every fiber of man’s being cries out for Christ. Men do not
realize it, but Christ is “the Desire of all nations.” It is He alone
that “satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Only in Him can
relief be found for the world’s unrest and longing. Now since Christ, in
whom is peace, “for He is our peace,” is seeking the weary and
heavy-laden, and calling them to Himself, and every man has longings
that nothing else in the world can satisfy, it is evident that if the
man is awakened by the law to keener consciousness of his condition, and
the law continues goading him, giving him no rest, and shutting up every
other way of escape, the man must at last find the Door of Safety, for
it always stands open. He is the City of Refuge, to which every one
pursued by the avenger of blood may flee, sure of finding a welcome. In
Christ alone will the sinner find release from the lash of the law, for
in Christ the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and by Him it is
fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4. The law is so far from requiring men to keep
it in order to be saved, as some suppose, that it will not allow anybody
to be saved unless he has “the righteousness which is of God by
faith,”—the faith of Jesus Christ.
[Sidenote: When Faith Is Come.]
Strangely enough, many have supposed that there was a definite time
fixed for faith to come. This passage has been “interpreted” to mean
that men were under the law until a certain time in the history of the
world, and that at that time faith came, and then they were henceforth
free from the law. The coming of faith they make synonymous with the
manifestation of Christ on earth. We can not say that anybody ever
thought so, for such an “interpretation” indicates utter absence of
thought about the matter. It would make men to be saved in bulk,
regardless of any concurrence on their part. It would have it that up to
a certain time all were in bondage under the law, and that from that
time henceforth all were free from sin. A man’s salvation would,
therefore, depend simply on the accident of birth, If he lived before a
certain time, he would be lost; if after, he would be saved. Such an
absurdity need not take more of our time than the statement of it. No
one can seriously think of the idea that the apostle is here speaking of
a fixed, definite point of time in the history of the world, dividing
between two so-called “dispensations,” without at once abandoning it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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