Two Viewpoints

By REV. W. H. WETZEL
Pastor, Lemington Methodist Church

I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Matt. 5:17.

Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill, and it is this attitude which Christians assume towards the moral law of righteousness as it is set forth in the Old Testament Scripture. Christians have no interest in discrediting the Old Testament. It has a place beside the New Testament on the pulpit of the Christian church. Our libraries are filled with books in defense of the revelation of the Old Testament.

The Christian viewpoint is that God's revelation of Himself has been progressive and that it comes to perfection in Jesus. Writing to the Jews of his day, one of the New Testament writers says "God having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son."

The Christian has no controversy with Judaism. Judaism is the bud; Christianity is the flower. Judaism is the root; Christianity is the fruit. Judaism is the prophecy; Christianity is the fulfillment. "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ." From this point of view let us follow through several steps of this completed revelation brought about by the Christian Gospel.

In the first place, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament revelation of God. There is in the Old Testament clear and certain light concerning the character of God, and from the Old Testament revelation we get a marvelous conception of his unity, his holiness, his power. The fact is that our modern world gets its conception of God from the New Testament. Gradually the Old Testament prophets approach the truth, that pureness of heart and not the observance of law or ritual found favor with God. Isaiah turned away from the sacrifices with disgust, and Micah said "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to have mercy and to walk humbly with thy God."

In the second place, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament conception of a righteous social order.

There are transcendent views of a new social order in Judaism, but they float on the horizon of prophecy.

They are prefaced with the words "In that day."

The new order that was to be is a vision and a glorious vision of hope. Constantly the Jews of Jesus' day ask Him "Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" Jesus came proclaiming not the kingdom of Israel but the kingdom of God.

If a false zeal led to the Crusades and to race prejudice, a true zeal and a true understanding of the spirit of Christ leads to a social order where there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, and to the recognition of personality as the ultimate value in society, transcending race and language and color. Sin and suffering have always pressed heavily upon our race. The Old Testament struggles for a solution and before the close there is dawn upon the horizon, but that is all. The Book of Job, marvelous in its insight, leaves the problem in a measure unsolved. The book of Ecclesiastes touches life with cynicism and dyes it deep in pessimism. Jeremiah comes nearer to an understanding, but his life goes out in obscurity and silence.

What does it mean? If God is good, why should men suffer? It is the age-long problem of all who have thought deeply about life and the only solution that meets life's enigma is the solution that is found in Christ and His cross, where we stand face to face with the conquering power of suffering love.

No one can read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and then turn to the story of the Gospel and the cross without feeling that they belong in the same stream of history.

--Unknown date and source.