The W. W. Prescott Armadale Sermons - Fred Bischoff

What was abolished
It is said of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, that He "hath abolished death, and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10)
Death is the result of sin. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
James 1:15. But "sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4) Christ,
therefore, came to abolish that which is the result of being out of harmony
with the law, and He did it, not by abolishing the law, but by bringing us into
harmony with the law.
What was taken away
We read that Christ "was manifested to take away our sins." (1 John 3:5)
He is the sin-bearer, "who His own self carried up our sins in His body to the
tree, that we having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness." (1 Peter
2:24, R.V., margin) Sin is lawlessness, and Christ was manifested to take
away, not the law, but lawlessness.
What he came to destroy
The attitude of Christ toward the law is set forth in the prophecy which
says: "He will magnify the law and make it honourable." (Isa. 42:21) In His
sermon on the mount, which is itself but the interpretation of the principles
contained in the words spoken from Mount Sinai, Christ said: "Think not that
I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am, not come to destroy, but
to fulfil." (Matt. 5:17) He "came to explain the relation of the law of God to
man, and to illustrate its precepts by His own example of obedience." But we
are taught that "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He
might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8) The works of the devil
are those which are contrary to God’s law. "The devil sinneth from the
beginning," and in every case "sin is the transgression of the law."
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