Chapter VIII: The Will of Christ

Christians are living under the reign of Christ. They are expected to obey the word that God hath spoken unto us by his Son (Heb. 1:2). This word is called the will, or testament, of Christ. As in the case of human wills, it became of force when he died on the cross. “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth” (Heb. 6:16, 17). The will of Christ teaches Christians to worship on the first day of the week, but it does not teach them to rest on the seventh day. The will of Christ forbids murder, stealing, lying, and such like (Rom. 13:9), but it does not forbid working on Saturday. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). This grace teaches righteous living (Titus 2:11, 12), but it does not teach that Saturday should be observed as a sabbath.

When the will of Christ was established by his death on the cross, the law which God had given to the Jews through Moses at Sinai came to an end. This the Bible abundantly teaches. “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9). “But we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6 ARV). In 2 Corinthians 3:6-18 we have a contrast between the law given at Sinai, including the sabbath commandments (see verse), and the will of Christ. The former was glorious; the latter much more glorious. The former was done away; the latter remaineth. “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.”

In Galatians, chapter 3, speaking of the law God gave to the Jews at Sinai, 430 years after his covenant with Abraham, Paul says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal. 3:24, 25). I ask you if words could be plainer. “The law was our schoolmaster ... we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Is that sufficient? Do I need to cite other texts, such as Colossians 2:14-16; Ephesians 2:10-22; Galatians 4:1-31, etc.? No wonder Paul said in Galatians 5:4, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are (he who would be—ARV) justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”