Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XI.—The law abrogated; the New Testament promised and given by God. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XI.—The law abrogated; the
New Testament promised and given by God.
“There will be no other
God, O Trypho, nor was there from eternity any other existing” (I
thus addressed him), “but He who made and disposed all this
universe. Nor do we think that there is one God for us, another for you,
but that He alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with a
strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted in any other (for there
is no other), but in Him in whom you also have trusted, the God of
Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. But we
do not trust through Moses or through the law; for then we would do the
same as yourselves. But now1968
1968 Editors suppose that Justin inserts a long parenthesis
here, from “for” to “Egypt.” It is more natural
to take this as an anacoluthon. Justin was going to say, “But now
we trust through Christ,” but feels that such a statement requires
preliminary explanation. | —(for I have read that there
shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest
of all,
which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as many as are seeking
after the inheritance of God. For the law promulgated on Horeb is now
old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all
universally. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is
before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end
to the previous one; and an eternal and final law—namely, Christ
—has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after
which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance. Have you not
read this which Isaiah says: ‘Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me, my
people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me: for a law shall go forth from
Me, and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness
approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall
trust in Mine arm?’1969 And
by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks:
‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not
according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day
that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of
Egypt’1970 ). If, therefore, God
proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a
light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God,
leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of Him
who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and abide by their confession even unto
death, and maintain piety. Moreover, by the works and by the attendant
miracles, it is possible for all to understand that He is the new law,
and the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every
people wait for the good things of God. For the true spiritual Israel,
and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (who in
uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by God on account of his
faith, and called the father of many nations), are we who have been led
to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we
proceed.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|