LESSON XIV

Questions to Lesson 14^{*On what expression is an objection founded? What says the objector of the law? How much must be fulfilled before the law can pass away? Had Christ fulfilled the prophets when he was slain? What must take place before they are all fulfilled? Had he fulfilled the types? Where could he not be a priest? What types were to be fulfilled after the crucifixion? Did Jesus fulfill all the ten commandments? How do you know that he did not abolish them? What did he confirm to his disciples as a rule of righteousness? What does James say to Christians? What does he quote as a part of the royal law? According to Christ and James what must we do in regard to the law?}

But an objection is raised, founded on the expression, Till all be fulfilled. The objector says, “Christ fulfilled it all and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and we have nothing to do with it, unless it is re-enacted.”BIC 33.1

We will weigh that objection in the scales of truth. Do not forget that all, all, must be fulfilled before one letter of the law can pass away. What had Christ fulfilled when he hung upon the cross? Had he fulfilled the prophets? He had in part; but if all the prophets were fulfilled at that time, the judgment was past, and the time come that the saints possessed the kingdom.BIC 33.2

Was it the types of the law of Moses that he had fulfilled? Only a part of them. The type of the slain victim was then fulfilled, but the type of the priest, who served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, could not be fulfilled till, at least, forty days after, when Jesus ascended; “for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest.” Hebrews 8:4, 5. The blood was then shed, but no priest had offered it in the Sanctuary. Christ had fulfilled the passover, but the pentecost, the atonement and the feast of tabernacles were all to be fulfilled afterwards. The typical law will not all be fulfilled till the saints have done tabernacling in this wilderness, and are settled in the antitypical land of promise. If the typical law was the all to be fulfilled, you are not yet at liberty to break God’s commandments and teach men so.BIC 34.1

What was the all then that Jesus fulfilled? Do you say the law of ten commandments? He did fulfill all of them, certainly, and not only so, but he required his disciples and every body else to fulfill them. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,” etc. “Whosoever” includes every body. “Shall break” refers to future time, and has no limitation this side of the “kingdom of heaven.” Thus a written code of commandments, with all its jots and tittles, is confirmed by Jesus and given to his disciples, as a rule of righteousness, (verse 20,) for all future time.BIC 34.2

But, you say, his fulfilling the law abolished it. Then we are required to abolish it in the same way. For James said to his brethren, some thirty years after the crucifixion, “If ye fulfill the royal law, ye do well;” and, before he got through with the subject, he quoted two of the ten commandments as a part of that law. James 2:8-12. In your language it would read, If ye abolish the royal law ye do well. And this you seem desirous of doing. To do it as Jesus and James would have you, you must keep every one of its precepts.BIC 35.1