The Fulfilled Law
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: 1 Kings 8:5-11
At last the ark of the covenant had arrived at its
destination. Amid scenes of great rejoicing it had been
brought "to its place" and left there under the
wings of the cherubim and surrounded by clouds of divine
glory. "There was nothing in the ark save the two
tables". God's holy law had been perfectly
preserved, and there it reposed in the inmost oracle of
God. Originally, of course, there had also been the
golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod which budded. Their
absence at this later date does not imply that their
significance was any less, but rather indicates that the
tables of the law included them in its own divine
sufficiency. The wilderness journeys of God's people had
ended and the ark was now at rest in the house of God. In
that temple which symbolised the heavenly reality which
marks the end of earthly pilgrimage, there was no longer
any need to perpetuate reminders of the wilderness way:
the abiding truths which they typified were all included
in the tables of the law. These tablets set forth God's
mind, His will for man; they were an expression of how
life would be lived in accordance with His unchanging
desires.
There can be no question about the perfection and
finality of God's will. The letter to the Ephesians lays
great stress on this matter, making use of such phrases
as: "the good pleasure of his will", "the
mystery of his will" and "the counsel of his
will". It takes us backwards and forwards in
thought, pointing back to God's will as predetermined
before time was, speaking of that will as now operating
through the years of time, and looking forward to the
will of God overstepping time in eternal fulfilment. The
passage shows that God's will is centred in one glorious
intention of love: "he chose us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blemish before him in love...". God's will
from all eternity is to have a great family whom He can
love and who love Him in return.
Love is the fulfilling of the law, a fact symbolised in
the ark, which was the receptacle in which the unbroken
law was preserved. This ark was a chest made of acacia
wood overlaid with gold within and without. The gold
speaks of divine love, so that the fact that the tablets
were hidden in the ark typified the fact that the mind of
God dwells within a heart of love. Since Christ is the
true expression of God's love, He is the only one
qualified to be the fulfiller of His law. We know that
the Lord Jesus always made love the principle of
fulfilling the law. He made it clear that in His own case
love for the Father governed everything. As the ark was
at last placed before God in the holiest of all, so
Christ is now in the presence of God, and He is there as
a testimony that the will of the Father has been
perfectly fulfilled, and that this has been done not
through compulsion or legal obligation but by love alone.
Love is the fulfilment of the law or, in other words,
love consists in doing the full will of God.
As Christians we hear much about the will of God, and we
often find it to be one of our greatest problems. We can
only find the answer to these problems in the Lord Jesus
who has perfectly fulfilled that will for us. "There
was nothing in the ark save the two tables...".
Nothing more is needed, for Christ's fulfilment of God's
law includes everything else. It includes the manna, for
we find heavenly nourishment as we feed on His perfect
life of love. All hunger of the soul is met when we
realise how in love Christ has fully satisfied the
Father's every wish for us. To the last degree He has
fulfilled God's eternal desires for our lives; no more
needs to be done; no more can be done for love's fullness
is revealed in the perfection of the Son's obedience to
the Father's will. When we get this clear we can feed on
His faithfulness, and it will prove to be sweet heavenly
food. If, however, we admit any doubts or questions about
this, if we have any reservations or uncertainty as to
whether the unbroken law is preserved in love on our
behalf, then we become lean and starving believers,
hungering for rest and comfort and failing to find them.
This is quite unnecessary. We may feast continually on
the glorious perfection of God's Son. The manna has not
been lost or left behind; it is all included in those two
witnesses to love's fulfilment of the law. There, in the
holy presence of God, the living Ark has come to rest
and, as in Solomon's day the staves were removed to
signify the reaching of journey's end, so Christ has
perfected for ever those whom He has sanctified unto the
will of God. There is nothing more to be done. There is
not another inch to go, for the goal of God's will has
been gloriously attained. "Lo, I am come to do thy
will," Jesus affirmed as He entered this world for
us, and when He returned to the Father's presence He was
able to say: "I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do." To grasp this is to find the end
of all soul hunger, to enter on a spiritual banquet, to
feast on love - His love for the Father as proved by His
total obedience to the divine will.
And what shall we say of Aaron's rod which budded? Life
in its fullness, beautiful and fruitful life, is ours as
we rely entirely on the utter sufficiency of Christ.
"There was nothing in the ark save the two
tables...". Nothing more is needed; nothing more is
possible; this is enough for God, as the clouds of glory
testified, and so it is surely enough for us. In Aaron's
case the budding rod represented God's answer to men's
criticisms and Satan's accusations. So it is in our case,
for we can rightly claim that for us the law has been
fully satisfied. The will of God in perfection is just as
truly sustained in Christ Jesus our heavenly Ark as ever
the tables given to Moses were permanently deposited in
the gold-covered chest which came to rest in the holy of
holies. The ark of the testimony had been specially
constructed to hold the tablets: they belonged there and
no one could ever remove them. And all the good of
Aaron's rod was made available because of them. We pine
for life, we bewail our lack of beauty and fruitfulness
whenever we take our eyes away from Christ's perfection;
but conversely we enjoy life in its fullness as we
concentrate our faith and hope on His finished work on
our behalf.
The will of God has so many aspects that we get into all
sorts of difficulties about it, wondering what the will
of God is about this matter and that. There is only one
way to resolve our difficulties and that is by accepting
Christ as the fulfiller of the law in everything, and
yielding ourselves completely to His headship. The will
of God is not sectional or divided up into compartments;
we cannot submit to it in piecemeal ways. We must know
that will in all its comprehensiveness, for when Christ
is altogether given His place of absolute headship as the
perfecter of the will of God for us, then we find the key
to a life in which the many details of that will are all
included. It is no longer a matter of applying the law to
different aspects of our life, but a question of a
wholehearted subjection to Him as Lord. This reduces
every problem to the simple issue of what He wishes, with
the one question: 'Lord, what do You want me to do?'
In some way or other this inevitably means that we are
led back to the cross, for the tables of the law were
covered by the blood-stained mercy seat. The cross was
the answer to all sin. Surely the very essence of sin is
failure to love God. If Adam had truly loved God the
whole tragedy of man's fall would never have occurred,
for love is the fulfilment of the law. Man's sin made
Christ's sacrifice necessary; His cross was the only way
by which atonement could be made for our shortcomings.
But it was also the supreme expression of His love for
the Father. In the case of the Lord Jesus His love to the
Father was so complete that it enabled Him to face even
the death of the cross.
If we consider what were some of the practical factors in
Christ's crucifixion we realise that His sufferings were
caused by men's fickleness, bigotry, fearfulness,
jealousy and treachery. In love He bore all these for us.
And these may well be the factors which challenge the
reality of our love to God. The fickle crowds so soon
forgot the kindness and goodness of the Lord Jesus,
allowing themselves to be carried away by base and false
accusations, so that they cried out against the one whom
they had formerly extolled and praised. The Pharisees
were so dominated by a religious bigotry which was cruel
in its intolerance and harsh in its legalistic
denunciations that they took the lead in causing His
sufferings. The disciples, as well as Pilate, were
fearful; Judas was treacherous; and Satan was jealous
himself and inspired jealousy in the Sadducees and
others. But all this concentration of attacks upon love
did not turn the Lord away from remaining faithful to the
Father's will in every detail. God's love meant more to
Him than the bitterness of enemies, the failure of
friends, the strength of popular opinion or the matter of
His own rights. When He came to rest in the glory of the
Father's presence, love had conquered every temptation.
Just as the tables of the law had been preserved
inviolate - not only unbroken but not even scratched - so
the will of God was preserved in perfection by the Lord
Jesus, whose love for the Father was so great that it
enabled Him to drink even the bitter cup of Calvary.
We, too, are confronted by some of the foes which He had
to face, for we have been called to bear the cross after
Him. The fickleness of friends and fellow-workers, the
bigoted criticism of those who claim to be God's
servants, the fear-inspiring pressure of popular opinion,
the misunderstanding and jealousy which Satan himself
inspires - these are some of the tests put to our love.
We can never hope to overcome them unless we remember
that there is in the presence of God for us a Saviour who
suffered the full agony of these things, but accepted
them as part of the cup which the Father had given Him to
drink. It was love for the Father which enabled Him
always to choose the Father's will, and the outcome of
His triumph is that "we should be holy and without
blemish before him in love". There is a sense in
which God is seeking to undo in us all that failure of
love which we inherit from Adam. He exposes us to the
painfulness of the cross, not in some capricious or
unsympathetic way, but because He aims to reproduce in us
that love fulfilment of His will which Christ already
presents to Him on our behalf.
One day our wilderness journeys will be over. The staves
will be removed and we will find ourselves in the full
realisation of that eternal purpose that we should be
perfect before Him in love. The house, then, will indeed
be filled with the glory of God to the exclusion of all
else. In that day it will be seen that the only thing
which really mattered was love's fulfilment of the will
of God. In fact that is all which matters now. There is
nothing in the ark save the two tables! What is now true
in Him is to be made wonderfully true for us also. And
all the glory will be His.
From
"Toward The Mark" Mar-Apr 1975, Vol. 4-2.
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