Conclusion of the entire treatise, showing the use of these laws, § 44.
CONCLUSION OF THE ENTIRE TREATISE,
SHOWING THE USE OF THESE LAWS
What use is there for the ceremonial and forensic laws in the New Testament?
§ 44. Next, even though the ceremonial and forensic laws have been abrogated in the New Testament, there is still some use for them. For just as the prophecies of the prophets about the coming of Christ are still read very fruitfully in the church despite their fulfillment, so also it is still useful to explore the Levitical ceremonies and learn them, despite their abrogation, to discover how Christ and all His benefits were prefigured in them. In John 5:46 the Savior says, “If you believed Moses, you would also believe Me, for he wrote about Me.” Understand that this happened not only in the verbal statements of the prophecies but also in the hidden types in the ceremonies. (This subject is treated in detail by Origen, Cyril, and Radulphus in their commentaries on Leviticus; Berthorius in Allegor.; Ludovicus Carbo in his treatise De Christo abscondito; Pelargus on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; Backmeister, De typis V. T.; and several others.)
The judicial laws have been abrogated in such a way that the Christian ruler is free to consider whatever laws fit the state of the government which he controls, to observe them and to propose them for observance.
Additionally, the character or moral principle of both the ceremonial and the forensic laws—church decorum in the former, political justice in the latter, which should both be commended to us no less in the New Testament than in the Old—is eternal.
This concludes our discussion about the moral, ceremonial, and forensic laws. To Christ Jesus, who is “the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes” [Rom. 10:4], be praise, honor, and glory forever. Amen.