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come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil, and also that heaven and earth
should pass away, but not one jot or one tittle of the law should pass unfulfilled. No
interpretation therefore of the subsequent verses is valid that sets aside the law.
Let us now turn to the book of Leviticus and see the passage quoted by the Lord in
Matt. 5: 38:
"He that killeth a man shall surely be put to death, and he that killeth a beast shall
make it good; beast for beast. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath
done, so shall it be done to him. Breach for breach; eye for ye, tooth for tooth; as he
hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a
beast shall restore it; and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death"
(Lev. 24: 17-21).
This is `even handed justice' which the Poet so clearly perceives `commends the
ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips'. Nothing but a mawkish
sentimentalism could ask of justice less, even as clear impartial justice could not exact
more. There is no occasion to raise an outcry against the severity of the sentence "an eye
for an eye". What may we ask of the loser of the eye, shall he not have protection;
should the spoiler not suffer an equivalent loss? No such sentimental outbursts are heard
at the grocers and the bakers, when the customer is expected to pay the recognized price
of the commodity, and what is sixteen ounces to the pound but the principle of "an eye of
an eye"? And conversely, do we charge with meanness and lack of charity, when he
demands that sixteen ounces to the pound? and what is this but the application of the
principle "a tooth for a tooth"?
When we come to the N.T. and consider what the Saviour did when He "died the just
for the unjust" we shall see that sixteen ounces to the pound have been rendered. The
balance registers exact weight, whether the actual debtor placed the amount due in the
scale, or whether a Surety provides the amount. The question of the provision of a
substitute lies in the realm of Grace, the only place that it has in the realm of Justice is to
see that the claim is met. We are inclined to put far too much emphasis upon the
justification of the sinner who believes the Gospel, than the justification of the God Who
forgives and accepts him in the Beloved. The epistle to the Romans stresses that the
power of the Gospel consists in the fact that "Therein is revealed the righteousness of
God" (Rom. 1: 17), and that in the redemption and justification of the believer, God has
been careful that from first to last the Gospel plan shall "Declare His righteousness, that
He might be JUST and the JUSTIFIER of him which believeth in Jesus"
(Rom. 3: 23-26).
The symbol of righteousness in the O.T. is either a balance or a plumb-line
(Isa. 28: 17; Amos 7: 7-8). The same force, that of gravity, acts on both. The
plumb-line hangs true, whatever the surroundings may be. The balance swings true, and
is undisturbed by any claims of mercy or pity. Salvation must never be conceived as a
scheme whereby Justice is circumvented. The full weight has been rendered, by whom is
not the question. The wondrous plan of salvation, whereby a Substitute should willingly
take the sinner's place, where the claim of impartial justice should be fully met, where
the basis of salvation should be righteousness, and that a "righteousness of God", this