1 Kings 6:2-20

Christianity built on the Foundations of Judaism.

The Jewish temple in its resemblance to the Gothic church is a not inapt illustration of the relations of Christianity to Judaism. The temple of Solomon was not only architecturally the exact reproduction on a larger scale, and in a more permanent form, of the tabernacle of witness, it was also the model and archetype of the sacred buildings of the Christian faith. In appearance, no doubt, it was somewhat different—the purposes for which the two edifices were designed were different, but the ground-plan and general arrangement were the same. The porch, "temple of house," oracle, side chambers of the one, correspond with the porch (or tower), nave, chancel, and side aisles of the ether. Nor was this resemblance accidental. The architects of earlier times—times when men had not come to think that they most honoured Christianity by going as far as possible away from Judaism, times when the first dispensation was regarded as full of significance and guidance for the children of the second—the architects of those days thought they would best serve the God of Jews and Christians by adhering as closely as possible to the Divine "pattern which was shewed in the mount," the pattern which had served for tabernacle and temple alike.

Now this fact, that the place of Divine worship has been, in nearly all ages, built after one model, may suggest the thought that the principles of Divine worship, and indeed of religion, have been in all ages the same. And for the good reason that God and man, the worshipped and the worshipper, are in all ages the same. If the successive generations of men who "went up to the temple to pray" went up to an edifice something like ours, they also carried with them hearts, sins, sorrows, needs, infirmities, altogether like ours. The Gothic church, then, was modelled after the Jewish temple. Even so the Christian religion has been cast in the mould of Judaism. It is not a brand new religion, utterly diverse from the dispensation which preceded it, but it is built on the old foundations. Its proportions are much statelier, its uses are much nobler, but still the Christian Church is the copy of the Jewish, and Christianity is the child of Judaism. There are some of our cathedrals—York Minster, e.g. —which occupy the site, and parts of which follow the outlines, of the old Saxon church of wood—another illustration of the relations of our holy religion to the religion which it has replaced. And that Christianity was never designed to be destructive of Judaism, but was meant to be a development, an outgrowth and expansion of it, our Lord's words ( Matthew 5:17 ) and His apostle's ( Romans 3:31 ; Colossians 2:17 ) clearly show. The law, i.e; was the outline of which Christianity is the filling up and completion. But observe: the filling up, if it be true to its name, must keep within the lines of the sketch.

It is one of the tendencies of the age to throw over Judaism and its teaching. Men say they want "Christianity without Judaism." They speak of the latter as a dead letter. But surely it is an unworthy conception of the Supreme Wisdom—the idea that a faith which was adapted to the men of one age has absolutely no lessons or no guiding principles for the men of a later age, but must be cast aside as wholly antiquated and effete. A principle of continuity can be distinctly traced operating in the kingdom of nature; are we forbidden to believe that there is any such law in the kingdom of grace? Let us now consider, then, in what ways Christianity is built on the foundations of Judaism, and how the religion of the New Testament follows the lines laid down in the Old.

I. The fundamental idea of Judaism was that of a VISIBLE CHURCH . It was that God had "taken a nation from the midst of another nation" ( Deuteronomy 4:32-34 ) to be a peculiar people to Himself, a "kingdom of priests, a holy nation" ( Exodus 19:5 , Exodus 19:6 ). His purposes of grace, i.e; were to be manifested to the world through a society. Here, then, was a κλῆσις and an ἐκκλησία . Precisely similar is the root idea of our religion. The Son of God came to found a Church ( Matthew 16:18 ; Ephesians 2:20 ), to regenerate humanity through a brotherhood. Behold the principle of continuity in this "great Church truth of God's word." The very words used of the Jewish people are transferred to the Christian Church ( 1 Peter 2:9 ; Revelation 1:6 ; Revelation 5:10 ). The composition of the two societies was different (one nation, all nations), the rites of admission were different (circumcision, baptism), but the principle—a visible Church—was the same. Every Jew was a priest. Every Christian is the same.

II. The OFFICERS of the Jewish Church correspond with the officers of the Christian Church. "It is an apostolical tradition that what Aaron and his sons and the Levites were in the temple, that our bishops, priests, and deacons claim to be in the Church" (Jerome). No society can exist without at least

The Jewish Church had as its officers, high priest, priests, and Levites. The Christian Church has a great High Priest in the heavens ( Hebrews 4:14 ), and its earthly officers are bishops, priests, and deacons. The analogy is not imperfect, for just as the high priest was of the order of the priests, so are bishops but superintending presbyters. The bishop is primus presbyter; the high priest was summus sacerdos. The Jewish Church had also its prophets (see Introduction, Sect. III ; note), corresponding with the preachers of the Christian economy. A prophet need not be a priest; a preacher need not be a presbyter. Of course, the nature and functions of these officers of the two dispensations differ, as do the dispensations themselves, but the same outlines are preserved.

III. The SERVICES of the Christian Church are derived from the service of the Jewish synagogue. "Widely divergent as the two words and the things they represented afterwards became, the Ecclesia had its starting point in the Synagogue" (Plumptre). The earliest assemblies of Christians were composed of men who had worshipped in the synagogue ( Acts 13:14 ; Acts 14:1 ; Acts 18:4 , Acts 18:26 ; Acts 22:19 . Cf. Luke 4:16 ; John 18:20 , etc.), and who, in default of directions to the contrary, naturally preserved under the new dispensation the form of worship to which they had been accustomed under the old. St. James, indeed ( 1 Kings 2:1 ). speaks of the Christian assembly as a "synagogue." The use of fixed forms of prayer, the reading of the two lessons ( Luke 4:18 ; Acts 13:15 , Acts 13:27 ; Acts 15:21 ), and the cycle of lessons; the sermon or exposition ( Acts 13:15 ; Luke 4:21 ); the chanting of the Psalms of David; the very prayers for the departed which "have found a place in every early liturgy in the world" (Ellicott), all these have come to us from the synagogues of the Jews. The Catholic Church has not disregarded the principle of continuity. She has not thought fit to devise a liturgy of her own heart, or to disregard liturgical forms altogether. She has simply perpetuated, or adapted to its new and more blessed conditions, the form of service delivered unto her by the Jew.

IV. The PRINCIPLES of Christian worship are the principles of Jewish worship. It has been said that the true idea of worship as a Divine service, as the self-forgetting adoration of the ever blessed God, was obscured, if not altogether lost, in the Church of England at least, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Men went to church—too often they go still—not for the service, but for the sermon; not for the glory of God, but for their own edification and instruction. It must not be supposed that it is here intended to depreciate edification. If men were perfect, the sermon might indeed be dispensed with. But so long as they are what they are, then those who have "any word of exhortation for the people" must "say on." But all the same, edification is not the primary reason for our assembling. The first Christians "came together to break bread" ( Acts 20:7 ), to "show the Lord's death" upon the Lord's day ( Revelation 1:10 ). And God surely should ever come before man. Praise must take precedence either of prayer or preaching. The true idea of worship is the glory of God, not the profit of men. And if this idea was lost, or was obscured, it was because men ignored or despised the lessons and principles of Judaism. The worship of the temple, its psalms and sacrifices, its holocausts and hecatombs, all were designed for the glory and honour and worship of Jehovah—all were primarily to exalt and magnify the Incommunicable Name. And such should be the aim of all Christian worship. Our holy religion was never meant to dethrone the Deity, nor can Christians owe Wire less, or less profound, adoration, than did Jews. Was their service solemn and stately? so should be ours. Did they never come before Him empty? neither should we. Was the altar, not the pulpit, the centre of their worship? the altar, not the pulpit, should be the centre of ours. The principles of Divine service know of no break. They are governed by the same law of continuity.

V. The SACRAMENTS of Christianity are founded upon the rites of Judaism. Baptism (practised among the Jews before our Lord's time) takes the place of circumcision; the Lord's Supper of the Paschal Supper. Just as the rite of circumcision brought the Jewish child into the bond of the covenant, into the visible Church, so does baptism the Christian child; otherwise our children would be worse off than the children of the Hebrews. And as for the Lord's Supper, it was instituted in the very midst of the Passover ( Luke 22:1 , Luke 22:7 , Luke 22:15-20 ), and was clearly designed to take its place. The rites of Judaism warrant our belief in a sacramental religion; they help to explain how it was that our Lord incorporated into His new and spiritual dispensation two outward and visible signs. The Law was full of these: the Gospel could hardly discard them altogether.

VI. The PRECEPTS and COMMANDMENTS of Judaism, again, "the law and the prophets," are not abolished, but fulfilled ( Matthew 5:17 ; Romans 3:1-31 :81) in Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount has given a new meaning to the covenant of Mount Sinai, even the ten commandments ( Deuteronomy 4:13 ). Out of the law of the two tables has been developed the Christian law of love ( Matthew 22:36-40 ; Luke 10:27 ; Romans 13:8-10 ). The "new commandment" of Christ ( John 13:34 ) is practically "the old commandment" which we had from the beginning ( 1 John 2:7 , etc.)

VII. And—to descend to minor matters—we might show how even the FESTIVALS of Christendom follow the lines of the Jewish feasts. True, Christianity has one blessed festival peculiar to itself—Christmastide, the feast of the Holy Incarnation—but the rest—Easter, Whitsuntide, Harvest Festival—correspond severally with the Jewish Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The times themselves are, perhaps, of no great moment—though the synchronism is remarkable—but the principles on which they are based, the principle, e.g; of setting apart certain seasons for the commemoration of certain facts, or the acknowledgment of certain gifts, these are common to both dispensations. It is this principle which gave the Jew his sabbath: it is the same principle justifies, and indeed requires, the observance of the Lord's day. Christianity has not discarded the day of rest, though it observes the sabbath no longer. It has changed the day of rest into a day of worship, the seventh day into the first, the memorial of the creation into a memorial of the resurrection and redemption.

VIII. But it will be said, Surely Christianity is utterly unilike Judaism in one cardinal point, viz; it has no SACRIFICE . But is it so? Truly, we offer no longer either bullocks or goats. The Christian priest neither pours the blood nor burns the fat, but all the same he offers sacrifice ( 1 Peter 2:5 ), the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ( Hebrews 13:15 ), the sacrifice of alms and oblations ( Philippians 4:18 ), the sacrifice of soul and body ( Romans 12:1 ). Nor is that all. For observe: The Holy Supper in the Christian scheme, both as an offering, as a feast, and as a memorial, corresponds with the sacrifices of the law. For what, let us ask, was the meaning of all those sacrifices which the Jews "offered year by year continually"? They could not take away sin. They could not make the comers thereunto perfect. Why then were they offered? One reason was,that they might serve as memorials before God of the death of Christ. They were silent, but eloquent, reminders of Him who should put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Perhaps the Jew knew it not. Perhaps the high priest himself did not realize it, but we know that all those countless thousands of victims, offered year after year and century after century, were so many mute pleadings of the one priceless death. And as they spoke to the eternal Father of the Lamb who should die, precisely so do the bread and the wine of Christ's sacrament of love speak of the Lamb who has died. The fat and the blood were, the bread and the wine are, all ἀναμνήσεις ( Numbers 10:10 ; cf. Le Numbers 24:7 ; Luke 22:19 ; 1 Corinthians 11:25 ; cf. Hebrews 10:8 ). Our Lord Himself calls the wine "my blood of the new covenant" ( τὸ αῖμὰ μου τῆς καινῆς διαθήκης ), and we are surely justified, with many divines—Jn Wesley among them—in calling the Holy Eucharist "the Christian sacrifice ."

But sacrifice and sacrament have another point of contact. For some at least of the Jewish sacrifices, the peace offerings (see on 1 Kings 8:63-65 ) afforded a feast to the worshippers. In like manner, the sacramental species serve not only as a memorial of Christ's death ( 1 Corinthians 11:26 ), but they are also food to the faithful soul ( 1 Corinthians 10:16 , 1 Corinthians 10:17 ; Hebrews 13:10 ; Matthew 26:26 ; John 6:54 , John 6:55 ). If, therefore, the Holy Communion is not a sacrifice, properly so called (inasmuch as there is no death), it has these marks of a sacrifice, that it is an oblation, a memorial, and feast. And when we consider these remarkable analogies, we can hardly doubt that even the sacrifices of Judaism have their counterpart in the institutions of Christianity.

It was said by one of the Reformers that the man who can rightly distinguish between the Law and the Gospel should thank God and be assured that he is a true theologian. But theologians too often treat them as if they were antagonistic or irreconcilable, and one of the dangers to which the Reformed Churches are specially obnoxious is to forget the continuity of gospel and law: to forget that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets ( Ephesians 2:20 ). If it is true that "Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet," it is also true "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet."