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Section LXXXV. —Why the Gentiles were Exempt from the Law

The exemption of the Gentile Christian church from the authority of the ceremonial law must be accounted for upon some principle which will harmonize with all the facts. The common theory assumes it to be of the very nature of a type to perish and be abrogated by its realization in the antitype. Thus, it is supposed, that the sacrificial system of necessity expired with its fulfillment by Christ’s one offering of himself. But, as we have seen, the law was not in fact abrogated, but continues in unimpaired authority over Israel. Why, then, are the Gentiles exempt from its obligations?

The reason was briefly intimated by Peter. “Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear;” – literally, “neither (ischusamen) were strong to bear.” – Acts xv, 10. This verb means, to be strong, and is sometimes used with a negative particle, as here, to indicate a labor of great difficulty, not amounting to an impracticability. Thus, in John xxi, 6, it is said of the net of fishes, – “They were not able” (were not strong) “to draw it, for the multitude of fishes.” And yet, immediately after, when their force had been reduced by Peter casting himself into the sea and swimming to land, they came “dragging the net with fishes,” and Peter himself drew it to land. (vs. 8, 11.) The ritual law was a burdensome, although not impossible institution, for Israel, when dwelling in their own land. But, as a system of worship for a world-religion, it was unsuitable. Essential to it was the one temple, altar and priest, at Jerusalem, typical of the one sanctuary and service in heaven. Hither must all males repair statedly, three times a year, and both men and women upon many special occasions beside, of a personal nature. To a population of four or five millions, dwelling in the narrow limits of Palestine, – a territory the extreme dimensions of which were about 100 miles by 150, – this was possible, although burdensome. But, to the distant millions of the world’s inhabitants, manifestly it would have been utterly impracticable.

Moreover, to the race at large, the ceremonial law had already fulfilled its most important and essential offices. Undoubtedly, it could still have been used by the grace of God, as it had been for ages before, as a mode for the effectual transmission and dissemination of the gospel testimony, kept in unimpaired purity by the agency of unchanging forms. Nor is the fact to be everlooked, or lightly regarded, that representations to the eye and the physical senses have a peculiar power over the affections and the heart, a power often greater and more influential than any appeal to the intellect through the organs of hearing. Had such been the will of God, the ritual system was certainly susceptible of being made a powerful auxiliary to the dissemination of the gospel, by its relation to these principles of man’s nature.

But, when the gospel was given to the Gentiles, the system of elementary ideas which were embodied and exhibited in the Mosaic ceremonial possessed a world-wide diffusion. The art of writing had been developed and disseminated. The Old Testament Scriptures were already written and widely distributed, and the gospels and epistles were soon to follow. Thus the cardinal importance of the ritual ordinances as a mode for the recording and perpetuation of the gospel was obsolete, – replaced by means more appropriate to a religion now destined for the world. And the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” which now accompanies the preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles, is abundant compensation for the ritual system, as an appeal to the affections, through the senses.

It is thus apparent that the discrimination, in the beginning made between Jew and Gentile respecting the ceremonial law, – its obligation on the one, and the exemption of the other, – was neither arbitrary nor unmeaning, but alike reasonable and susceptible of full and beautiful realization in practice. It implied the continuance of Israel as a priest-kingdom among the nations, maintaining at Jerusalem, as a standard of faith to the world, that system of rites which so beautifully, so clearly and impressively set forth the gospel to the eyes and senses of men; whilst, the world over, the same gospel should have been published, by the written and printed word, by the living voice, and by the simple ritual of Gentile Christianity, practicable everywhere. But such was not the purpose of God. At the beginning, our first parents by sin forfeited the Eden which might have been theirs. So, Israel forfeited her offered privilege. Jerusalem was destroyed, and the gospel and the church were given to the Gentiles, – “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved.” – Rom. xi, 25, 26.

Section LXXXVI. —The Christian Passover

To the church among the Gentiles, two simple ordinances remain, an inheritance from the ancient church, – a memorial and link of connection and identity between the two; and a continuous sealing of the same covenant, transmitted from the one to the other. That the Supper is thus derived from the paschal feast, can not be denied. As early as Jacob’s prophecy of Shiloh, “the blood of the grape” was appropriated as a type of Christ’s sufferings. (Gen. xlix, 9-12.) Afterward, in the Levitical system, a meat or bread offering made of fine flour mixed with oil, and a drink offering of wine, were made essential parts of all sacrificial offerings. (See Num. xv, and xviii.) Of the festival offerings, to which the passover belonged, a part only was offered upon the altar; the rest being appropriated to the worshippers. They thus enjoyed communion with God, at his table; and hence the proverbial description of “wine which cheereth God and man.” – Judg. ix, 13. Thus, in the passover and all the Levitical sacrifices, two distinct elements were typical of Christ’s sufferings; but in wholly different aspects. The blood signified the satisfaction demanded by justice; and it was, therefore, utterly prohibited that men should eat of it. (Lev. xvii, 10-14.) It was poured upon the altar. But the wine expressed the virtue of that satisfaction, imparted to believers and received by them, to their spiritual nourishment. Thus, the wine of the supper is not a substitute for the blood of sacrifice, but is a distinct and co-ordinate type, transmitted from the passover, and other sacrificial rites, and unchanged in its meaning. The unleavened bread always symbolized the Bread of life that came down from heaven; and the cup always represented the blood of the new covenant.

That the passover was from the beginning a type of the atonement of the Lord Jesus, is certain. (1.) The ordinance was a feast upon a sacrifice. From the foundation of the world, sacrifice signified one thing, – the satisfaction to be made to justice by the Lord Jesus. Such being the case, the feast of Israel upon the pascal lamb could have but one meaning. That meaning was set forth by Jesus, who having been announced by John as the Lamb of God, himself says, “If any man eat of this bread (artou, “of this food”), he shall live forever, and the food that I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” – John vi, 51. (2.) The deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, was an exercise of the same redeeming function, which is displayed in the salvation of men; and was a type of that salvation. Hence the preface to the ten commandments. – “I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex. xx, 2); which the Westminster catechism explains that “because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer, therefore, we are bound to keep all his commandments.” (3.) Jesus himself at the very time when he eliminated the Lord’s supper out of the passover, declared the latter to be a type of his sufferings and death. “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” – Luke xxii, 15, 16.

How plainly the Lord’s supper was an epitome and perpetuation of the passover, will be understood, by reference to the manner of observance of the latter in the time of Christ. It was required of those who partook of the feast, that they should not sit, but recline at the table, as expressing liberty and rest. When they were thus disposed, wine was distributed, and after thanks given by the presiding person, each one drank a cup. The master then explained the nature and occasion of the feast, and distributed a second cap. He then brake the unleavened bread, gave thanks, and gave it to the company, with the bitter herbs and other provisions that were on the table, and afterward the flesh of the lamb. When all had eaten and the supper was ended, he that presided took another cup of wine, and, after blessing God, all drank of it. This was called “the cup of blessing,” because of the blessing on it, which ended the feast. Thus the order of the feast was, (1) Thanksgiving; (2) A cup of wine; (3) The commemorative discourse; (4) A second cup; (5) A second thanksgiving; (6) The broken bread; (7) The flesh of the lamb; (8) The closing blessing; (9) The cup of blessing. So, at the beginning of the supper, Jesus took the cup, and gave thanks and said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.” After discourse, and washing the disciples’ feet, “he took bread, and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also, the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” – Luke xxii, 17-20.

The Lord’s supper was not, therefore, a distinct ordinance, instituted after the passover was ended, by the use of remaining elements. But it was a perpetuation of the passover, itself, by appropriating and interpreting portions of the elements, from time to time, during the progress of the feast; the bread being that which was broken and eaten before the paschal flesh, and the wine that which closed the feast; which was known to the Jews and described in the Talmud, as the cup of blessing, and which is designated by that name by the apostle Paul, in speaking of the Lord’s supper. (1 Cor. x, 16.) The particular number and order of the cups of wine and of the thanksgivings were regulations of the scribes, promotive of order and propriety in the observance; but not included in the divine requirements of the institution, and therefore not essential to it. This fact being taken into account, it will appear that the paschal feast remains to us entire, except only the sacrificial flesh of the lamb. Of it Paul says, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” – 1 Cor. v, 7, 8.

Section LXXXVII. —The Hebrew Christian Church

We proceed to trace the order and process of the development of the Christian church, as it took place under the Sinai constitution, with the ordinances modified as we have seen. The synagogue system had grown up long before the time of Christ. In it provision was made for fulfilling those injunctions of the law which insisted so much on instruction and study in the word of God, and which set apart the Sabbaths as days of holy convocation. (Lev. xxiii, 3, etc.) In the organization of these societies, respect was undoubtedly had, at first, to the ties of consanguinity; so that the members of a given cluster of families, living in the same vicinity and originally descended from one head, were constituted a synagogue, under the direction and government of those who by the right of primogeniture were the family elders. But, in the time of Christ, the whole system of the distribution and inheritance of the land, and of the family organization, as appointed by the law of Moses, had been broken up by the repeated captivities, the dispersion of the ten tribes, and the vicissitudes of war and peace. The synagogue system was therefore more artificial in its structure, and more characterized by the voluntary principle. Indications of voluntary association and elective affinity are plainly seen in the names of the synagogues members of which were active in the persecution of Stephen. – “The synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians.” – Acts vi, 9. It is indeed evident that in the general circumstances of the Jews at that time, in Judea and elsewhere, the worshiping assemblies must usually have been the products of voluntary association, more or less influenced by congeniality of sentiments among the members. Pharisees and Sadducees severally would seek the worshiping assemblies in which their respective views were favored. Those of the same foreign nationality would naturally gravitate toward each other. And, in general, congeniality, from whatever cause, would be potential in these associations.

The existence, at this time, in the bosom of the Jewish church of the two sects, or parties, of the Sadducees and the Pharisees, was a very important fact in preparing the way for the gospel. These parties are, in the original Greek, designated by the generic word, hairesis, which is commonly translated, “sect,” as “the sect of the Sadducees” (Acts v, 17), “the sect of the Pharisees” (Ib. xv, 5), “the sect of the Nazarenes,” (Ib. xxiv, 5). In one place, it is, “the way which they call heresy.” – Ib. xxiv, 14. Neither of these words, however, is a happy rendering of the original; which has nothing of the idea of doctrinal error, now attached to the word, heresy; and nothing of the odium involved in the designation of “sects;” nor, of the denominational separations which are expressed by it. The word, as used in Luke’s history signifies, a party, or rather, a society having a distinctive organization more or less complete, for certain special purposes; but continuing in the enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the Jewish church and the temple worship. Such was the position at once assumed, by the apostles and the converts of their ministry. They were organized in separate synagogues. They observed the first day of the week, as a day of assembling for worship and the breaking of bread. They received their converts by the familiar rite of baptism. But they were all zealous of the law, and faithful, therefore, even above others in the observance of its requirements. Thus, despite all the odium which Pharisees and Sadducees might seek to cast upon them, it was impossible to impeach them of apostasy from Judaism, or unfaithfulness to Moses. Hence, the result recorded by Luke. “They, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart; praising God, and having favor with all the people.” – Acts ii, 46, 47.

Such was the aspect of things in Jerusalem and Judea for a quarter of a century; from the first dissemination of the gospel to the times of anarchy which preceded the desolation of the land. In the bosom of the Jewish church, beside the great body of the people, were the three societies just mentioned. The Sadducees were comparatively few in number, but influential, by reason of their social position and wealth, the party being composed almost exclusively of the priests and aristocracy. The Pharisees were more numerous, and in greater favor with the people; for, while the Sadducees were chargeable with lax opinions, the Pharisees were “the straitest sect of the Jews’ religion,” including all those who hoped to secure the favor of God through the righteousness of the law. Beside these was “the sect of the Nazarenes,” far greater in numbers than either of the others; and, at first, more in favor with the mass of the people, – a favor which they seem to have retained till the growing corruption and disorder which heralded the catastrophe of the nation, rendered them odious, alike by the contrast of their lives with the prevailing licentiousness, and by the rebukes and warnings which they could not fail to utter.

Whilst the number of the Christians, as compared with the whole nation was, no doubt, small, the mistake is to be avoided of regarding it as insignificant. A comparison of the various statements on the subject will lead to the conclusion that the company of the believers must have been so large as to constitute one of the most conspicuous features in the aspect of the nation. On the day of Pentecost “there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” – Acts ii, 41. A few days afterward, “many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand.” – Ib. iv, 4. Soon after, it is again recorded that “the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” – Ib. v, 13, 14. Again, it is stated that the high-priest demanded of the apostles, – “Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching (didachēs), and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” – Ib. v, 28. Such was the progress of the gospel that these rulers were alarmed lest they should be called by the people to account for the death of Jesus. Soon, again, we read that “the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” – Ib. vi, 7. Immediately after this Stephen was martyred, and “there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” – Ib. viii, 1. By the dispersed believers, the gospel was carried through the land and to the Gentiles. (Ib. xi, 19.) And in Jerusalem itself the word of the Lord was not bound. The persecution, in its active form, soon ceased, and when the converted Saul retired from Jerusalem to Tarsus, we read that “then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied.” – Ib. ix, 31. Such was the new growth of the church in Jerusalem that when Paul made his last visit to that city, James could say to him, – “Thou seest, brother, how many (muriades) ten thousands of Jews there are which believe.” – Ib. xxi, 20. To the inference which naturally follows from these representations, the objection has been raised, that there is no accounting for such numbers, in the after history. Alexander suggests, that many were false professors, who “afterward apostatized or separated from the church, as Ebionites, or Judaizing heretics.”¹¹³ So dark a view, however, is not required by the facts. Doubtless there were some defections. But there is no reason to suppose them to have been of the extent here implied. The circumstances in which they united with the persecuted followers of the man of Nazareth, were not such as to present attractions to false professors. The patristic tradition that none of the Christians perished in the siege of Jerusalem, they having all retired to Pella, whilst it may possibly be true, concerning those who lived in Jerusalem, is by no means probable. And so far from Jesus having taught the disciples to expect such a result, the reverse is the case. That the churches of believers which had been flourishing for a quarter of a century in Judea, Galilee and Samaria must have suffered greatly, from the disorders and anarchy which preceded the final catastrophe, is certain, and of it Jesus expressly forewarned them. – “Ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish” (even though ye be put to death). “In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” – Luke xxi, 16-20. See, also, Matt. xxiv, 9-13; Mark xiii, 9-13. As to what afterward became of the Christians of Judea, – in view of the scanty remaining records of the time, and of the manner in which they were identified with their brethren of Israel as being none the less Jews because they were Christians, – it is not surprising that we can not distinctly trace their subsequent history. One fact, however, is patent on the face of the scanty record, and is sufficient to satisfy all the demands of the occasion. It is, that as the Christian churches, at a later period, emerge into the light of history they everywhere bear the broad and indelible impress of Hebrew Christian influences.

The subsequent history of the Hebrew church in Jerusalem itself very signally confirms the view here presented. As soon as the city began to be repeopled, a church was re-established, under the presidency, as Eusebius reports, of Simeon the son of Cleopas. Of his successors, that historian says, – “We have not ascertained, in any way, that the times of the bishops of Jerusalem have been regularly preserved on record. For tradition says that they all lived but a very short time. So much, however, have I learned from writers, that down to the invasion of the Jews under Adrian there were fifteen successions of bishops in that church, all which, they declare to have been Hebrews from the first, and received the knowledge of Christ pure and unadulterated, so that in the estimation of those who were able to judge, they were well approved and worthy of the episcopal office. For, at that time, the whole church under them consisted of believing Hebrews who continued from the time of the apostles until the siege that then took place.” The historian gives a list of the succession of fifteen bishops. “These are all the bishops of Jerusalem that filled up the time from the apostles until the above mentioned date, – all being of the circumcision.”¹¹⁴ The list ends with the name of Judah, who perished by the sword of the impostor, Simon, surnamed Bar Kokeba, “the Son of the Star.” This adventurer, originally a robber chieftain, had announced himself as the expected Messiah of Israel. The Jews, groaning under the oppressions of the Romans, rushed to arms and rallied to his standard, to the number of more than 200,000 men. He would brook no neutrality. The Gentiles of Palestine had to choose between his service and the sword. His demands, repelled by the Hebrew Christians, brought on them his exterminating vengeance, and Judah, the last of the Hebrew succession of the bishops of Jerusalem, perished, with a multitude of his church, under the swords of the Jews.¹¹⁵ Thus closed in blood the history of the Hebrew church in Jerusalem, in the year 132. As for Simon, – after successfully defying for two years, the whole power of Rome, he and his forces were finally cooped up in the town of Bethar, which was taken by storm. The impostor perished, with a multitude of his followers, and the remnant glutted the slave markets of the world. “The numbers of persons who perished by sword, flame, and hunger, have been stated as high as 700,000, by others, 580,000. As to Judaism and the Jewish people, the land might be said, for some time, to be a solitude. The native inhabitants who had escaped the butchery of the war were expatriated either by banishment or flight, or sold into bondage. No Jew was now permitted to come within sight of Jerusalem, and Gentile colonists were sent to take possession of the soil. Jerusalem in fact became a Gentile city.”¹¹⁶

Says Mosheim, – “When the emperor (Adrian) had wholly destroyed Jerusalem, a second time, and had enacted severe laws against the Jews, the greater part of the Christians living in Palestine, that they might not be confounded with Jews as they had been, laid aside the Mosaic ceremonies, and chose one Mark who was a foreigner and not a Jew, for their bishop. This procedure was very offensive to those among them whose attachment to the Mosaic rites was too strong to be eradicated. They therefore separated from their brethren, and formed a distinct society, in Perea, a part of Palestine, and in the neighboring regions; and among them the Mosaic law retained all its dignity unimpaired.”¹¹⁷ These Jewish Christians, known as Nazarenes, are traceable for several centuries, orthodox in their faith and embraced in the fellowship of the Catholic church, but strict in the observance of circumcision and the law of Moses, as far as practicable in the circumstances of the Jews.