Hebrews 7:14-24 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.… "The law" — given by Moses — was a law as complete and "perfect" as was ever made. See how St. Paul speaks of it: "The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good." "If there had been a law given which could have given life," that is, if any law could have given us life, "verily righteousness should have been by the law." It was perfect. Then why that strange conclusion, "The law made nothing perfect." Was it for the badness which is in man a badness with which no law can cope, or was it from any necessary, inherent insufficiency in that law, and in all law? I believe that we should be right to say both, but that the truest answer lies in the second. But first, What is perfection? What constitutes anything morally perfect? I should say a right action with a right motive. The motive will not do without the action, and the action will not do without the motive. But "law" can never in itself make a perfect motive. "Law," by itself, strictly speaking, has little or nothing to do with motives. Now the Christian religion, on the other hand, meets man as a sinner, and immediately sets before him a field of "hope." It tells him, "The debt you have incurred to God has been all paid. The punishment you deserve another has borne it for you. Your past is all cut off and obliterated. You may make an entirely new start, unshackled by anything that lies behind. A new power will enter into you, which will enable you to make changes which of yourself you could not make. You will be able to give up your sin, and to conquer it. You will have new affections, and new happinesses, and new aims in life. God loves you. He loves you now. You will soon feel His love. And He will be unto you a Father, a Guide, a Friend; and you will lead a good, happy, honourable, useful life. You will find what you have never yet found in the world — satisfaction. You will have peace of mind. Your friends will be God's friends. And God will use you in His blessed service." Now, do not yon see that just such "a better hope" as that will immediately awake in that man's soul, if he receives it, very different feelings from any he ever had before? Will not that "better hope" soften him, purify him, assimilate him? Will it not begin to make love? So the true motive is being introduced into that man's mind — love. He can scarcely help but love. And "love makes perfect." (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. |
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