Bible Training School
February 1, 1908
Christ and the Law
When man, beguiled by Satan, disobeyed the divine law, God could not, even to save the lost race, change that law. God is love; His law is an expression of His character. To change His law would be to deny Himself; it would overthrow those principles with which are bound up the well-being of the whole universe. But in order to save the sinner, the Creator sacrificed Himself. The Father suffered in His Son. The measure of God's love is Christ. The Saviour's sacrifice was not to create in God a love that had not before existed; but it was the expression of a love that had not been appreciated or understood. BTS February 1, 1908, par. 1
The Son of God in becoming man's substitute, and bearing the curse which should fall upon man, pledged Himself in behalf of the race, to maintain the honor of the law of God. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may save the sinner, and completely vindicate the claims of the law. His mission was to convince men of sin,—which is the transgression of the law, and through the merits of His blood, and by His mediation He was to bring them back to obedience. Through the sacrifice of Christ, the law could be maintained, and the sinner could be pardoned,—not only freed from the power of sin, but renewed “after the image of Him that created him.” Colossians 3:10. BTS February 1, 1908, par. 2
The love and justice of God, and also the immutability of His law, are made manifest by the Saviour's life, no less than by His death. He assumed human nature with its infirmities, its liabilities, its temptations. “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:17. “In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” Hebrews 2:17. He exercised in His own behalf no power which man can not exercise. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him of God. He gives us an example of perfect obedience. He has provided that we may become partakers of the divine nature and assures us that we may overcome as He overcame. His life testified that by the aid of the same divine power which Christ received it is possible for man to obey God's law. BTS February 1, 1908, par. 3
In Christ are united the divine and the human. The Creator and the creature, the nature of God, whose law had been transgressed, and nature of Adam, the transgressor, meet in Jesus,—the Son of God and the Son of man. And having with His own blood paid the price of redemption, having passed through man's experience having in man's behalf met and conquered temptation, having, though Himself sinless, borne the shame and guilt and burden of sin, He becomes man's advocate and intercessor. What an assurance there is to the tempted and struggling soul, what an assurance to the witnessing universe, that Christ will be “a merciful and faithful high priest”! Hebrews 2:17. BTS February 1, 1908, par. 4
What an assurance also that He will be a righteous, just, and compassionate judge. He who has measured the power of every subtle temptation of man's cruel foe, who has borne every weakness to which man is subject, He who is a Brother in our infirmities,—will He not deal justly and tenderly with the soul that His own blood has been poured out to save? And such is the teaching of His own words, when He said that the Father had “given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.” John 5:27. BTS February 1, 1908, par. 5