In these two scriptures we have a remarkable contrast. The one, the ribbon of blue, is a symbol or sign of man fully tested under the most favorable circumstances: what man is to God. In the other, the lace of blue: what Christ is to man.
Let us remember both were of God. Man has been tested. Christ is our great High Priest.
In turning, then, first, to the ribbon of blue, let us remark that the institution of the ribbon of blue was of God. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them.....That ye may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
Thus the institution of the ribbon of blue was of God, and is very beautiful. It was not worn in Egypt whilst they were slaves to Pharaoh, but after God had brought them out by redemption. A ribbon of blue, worn by a slave of Pharaoh, or a slave of Satan, would be a contradiction, as blue is the heavenly color, that which is of God.
Who, then, were to wear the ribbon of blue? The nation of Israel, and the stranger that came to dwell with them, to sojourn in the land. It was the outward visible sign of that one nation whom God had brought from Egypt, and to whom lie had made known His laws and commandments. As circumcision was a mark before the eye of God, so the ribbon of blue was to be a constant sign of remembrance before their own eyes. “That ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them.” “And be holy unto your God.” It certainly was very striking: the blue on the fringe of their garments, almost touching the earth as they walked, with its heavenly color, ever proclaiming the holy claims of God, He requiring men to walk in heavenly purity and holiness before Him.
The context of the institution of the ribbon of blue will show that it was not a sign that Israel did thus walk in heavenly purity, but rather what a holy God must require. He must have a perfect obedience to all His commandments, if man is to stand on that ground before Him.
The context is indeed remarkable. In chapter 24 we find Israel murmuring, in rebellion so fearfully, that had God dealt with them in judgment, they would have been destroyed. Then we have the intercession of Moses. The Lord hears and pardons. Still there is continued rebellion and sin. Then grace shines out in chapter 25, and also government. They had pledged themselves to do all the commandments of the Lord, in Exod. 19. Thus the ribbon of blue was a badge of the pledge they had taken to do all the commandments of Jehovah.
The immediate context of this deeply interesting institution is still more remarkable. A man was found gathering sticks on the sabbath-day. If he had kept the law in every other point, yet he was guilty. “And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death.” The sabbath-day being a type of the rest of soul God gives through redemption, nothing could possibly be allowed on man’s part to pollute that rest. God said to Israel, “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath-day.” (Deut. 5:1515And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15).)
Does not God still speak in this shadow? Peace with God and rest of soul is only to be found through the redemption we have in Christ Jesus. Hence, nothing can be allowed of our works to touch or pollute the perfect sabbath of rest we have in Christ.
This will be seen in another scripture. Never was the observance of the sabbath more strictly enforced than when Moses was just about to receive the people’s contributions for the tabernacle. “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein, shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath-day.” (Exod. 35:2, 32Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. 3Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day. (Exodus 35:2‑3).)
Does not God say to us in this, The first thing I desire is, that you may have perfect repose in my presence: then I am ready to receive your smallest works and offerings? And does not this explain why God could have no pleasure in those sacrifices which did not purge the conscience, or bring man into the holy presence of God? (See Heb. 10:1-101For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:1‑10).) Nay, was not this God’s eternal purpose to bring the sinner, perfectly purged from sins, into His holy presence in the perfect and eternal sabbath of rest? We can well see, then, why no work of man could be allowed to mar this rest.
The man had not kindled the fire, but he had presumptuously gathered the sticks. And mark, that if a man is on the principle of law, of which the ribbon of blue was the outward sign, he is under the curse; for the least infraction of that law brings a curse. The gatherer of sticks, though he had not kindled the fire, must die. We shall find this fully confirmed in the New Testament.
We will now inquire what was the first thing that took place after the touching and beautiful institution of the ribbon of blue. The very first thing we find in the host of the ribbon of blue, is the sin and rebellion of Korah and his company.
How sad this is: instead of looking at the ribbon of blue, and keeping all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, to be holy unto the Lord, the very leaders, the ministers of the sanctuary, are chief in this fearful rebellion. This was the first act of the army of the ribbon of blue. Surely it demands our attention, and especially as we know this is one of the great sins of Christendom—the way of Core, or Korah. (Jude 1111Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (Jude 11).)
The sin was this: it was the ministers of God seeking also to usurp the priesthood. There was only one high priest in Israel, type of our only one great High Priest, passed into the heavens. Rebellion against Aaron was sin against the Lord. And what was the righteous judgment of the Lord on these wicked men? The earth was made to open its mouth, and swallow them up. They went down alive into the pit. Fire also came out from the Lord, and destroyed the two hundred and fifty princes, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And if it was so fearful to sin against Aaron, is it a light matter, Ο ye so-called priests, famous in the congregation, to sin now against Christ, by usurping the functions of priesthood? We earnestly entreat you to repent before the terrible judgment, now so near at hand, overtakes you.
There is but one great High Priest, who has passed into the heavens; what, then, will be the judgment on those who usurp His place as priests on earth?
Thus, at the institution of the ribbon of blue, man was placed on the principle he had accepted, to remember and do all the commandments of the Lord; but the gathering of sticks on the sabbath, and the sin of Korah and his company, prove that the least presumptuous breach of that law must be punished with death.
Then, further, what was the history of those marked out from the rest of the world by this badge of blue? Can we find one person, from Moses to Christ, that kept his pledge—that kept the holy principles of the ribbon of blue? No, not one; for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” What a happy people would Israel have been, had they kept the holy walk of the ribbon of blue! But, alas! judges, priests, kings, people, all are proved, in God’s word, guilty before Him! Not one kept the pledge of the ribbon of blue!
It was to this very nation, who wore the ribbon of blue on the fringe of their garments, that God sent His Son. Did He find the ribbon of blue a true sign, that they remembered and did all the commandments of the Lord? Did He find them a holy people to Jehovah?
Hear what Jesus says: “All their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.” Yes, the eye of the Son of God saw that ribbon of blue on the fringe of their garments, as a mark of hypocrisy and self-righteousness.
The two great commandments are—Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou. shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now the Eternal God was made flesh, and dwelt among the company of the ribbon of blue. Did they love Him? He who created the universe was revealed; in love, He had become their neighbor. Did the wearers of that heavenly-colored ribbon love Him? They hated Him without a cause. They spat in His face. They demand that He should be crucified. And as He was offered up in divine love a sacrifice for sins, as He breathed those most tender words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” they gnashed their teeth with rage and hatred of Him, though every one of them may have worn the ribbon of blue. They were pledged by that ribbon to remember all the commands of that very Jehovah-Jesus, whom, with wicked hands, they crucified, and hanged on a tree.
We do solemnly ask the reader, Has not man been fully tested on the principle of law, of which the ribbon of blue was the outward sign? Man thus pledged himself to keep the law, but only to break it. Could the wearers of the blue have possibly been more guilty than they were in murdering the holy One of God?
No doubt, as we shall see, God’s purpose of infinite grace shone out in all this. The effect of the blue ribbon principle and institution was simply this: sin abounded. Sin, man’s nature, abounded in open transgression. “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20).) There can be no doubt, then, of the utter break-down of the principle of the ribbon of blue. Man was pledged to keep the law, but all were guilty.
The question, then, now is this—Would there be good or harm in combining the principle of the ribbon of blue with Christ? Would it be pleasing to God for a Christian to wear the ribbon of blue, and pledge himself to keep all the commandments of the Lord? As a principle, is it still in force, or is it abolished? What does the Spirit say as to all this in the inspired word?
We will look for a moment at the fairest specimen of man under law that ever wore the ribbon of blue. Saul of Tarsus, surely, was that man. He says, speaking of the righteousness of the law, of, which the blue ribbon was the sign, “touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.” He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a chief wearer of the ribbon of blue. If any man could have been justified on that principle, certainly Saul was the man. Now hear him speak, after Christ in glory had appeared to him. He says, “ But what things”—yes, blue ribbon, and all it represented—“were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law.” He had sought to stand before God wearing the blue ribbon, so to speak; that is, in the righteousness of law, of which it was the outward sign; but now he counted all this as dung, compared with being found in Christ. Yes, Christ was everything to him now, and the blue ribbon nothing.
If you had seen him once, how different!—not wearing a little bit of ribbon, but with his broad fringe, and on it the ribbon of blue. Thus he went along the road to Damascus, with all good conscience, a blameless man, doing the will of God, as he thought. But what did that light from heaven reveal to him? A few words from Jesus, the Son of God, and the proud Pharisee was the convicted enemy of Christ. Yes, the wearer of the ribbon of blue was the greatest enemy of Christ on earth. The very first commandment of the Lord that ribbon reminded him he should keep, was to love the Lord with all his heart. But he found, to his horror, that he was a hater and persecutor of that very Lord. Ah, well might he from that day count all that the ribbon represented loss and dung, for the excellency of Christ.
Beloved reader, have you ever, like Saul, discovered the deep hatred of the heart against Christ? And yet in that Man in the glory what grace and love! The blue ribbon persecutor was chosen to be the messenger of Christ, the apostle of the Gentiles. Ever after, to Paul the apostle, the difference between the gospel and that of which the blue ribbon was the outward sign, was as wide as the poles are apart. Do we hear some reader saying, How can this be? Was not the blue ribbon instituted by God? Was it not to remind the people under law that they were to do all the commandments of the Lord? And is not the law just, and holy, and good? Would it not be a great blessing to keep all the commandments of the Lord, to be sober, righteous, and holy? Most assuredly this would be the case, if such a person could be found. But not only did this, the most blameless wearer of the ribbon of blue, find himself to be the chief of sinners, the greatest enemy of Christ, but let us now hear what the Spirit of God says, by him, as to the whole human race.
First, he shows that those nations, the Gentiles, who, of course, were not under the law, as he shows, and therefore did not wear its sign, the ribbon of blue—all these were utterly sunk in the deepest lawlessness and depravity. (Rom. 1) Then he speaks of the one nation of the blue ribbon—Israel—who had received the law, but had not kept it, and proves from their own scriptures that they were as guilty as the Gentiles. Read his words, nay, the words of God. (Rom. 3) Thus, after fifteen hundred years’ trial of the ribbon of blue, all are proved guilty. This closed the trial of man in the flesh, and proved that, on that principle, “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Apply all this to your own case. Suppose you say, I am a Jew, and I will wear the blue ribbon, the sign of it, that I may remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them. Now, if you are a guilty sinner—and can you say you are not?—what good in this case would there be in wearing the ribbon of blue?
No, must we not look for righteousness and justification on a totally new and different principle, “even the righteousness of God, which is by Jesus Christ?” It is thus Christ, or the blue ribbon. The accomplished righteousness of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, or man working out a righteousness of his own by remembering all the commandments of the Lord, to do them.
It may now be asked, ‘But what harm would there be in adopting both Christ and the principles signified in the institution of the ribbon of blue?’ believe in Christ, and then wear the ribbon, as a pledge to keep all the commandments of the Lord—of course, praying to Him to help us to keep that pledge? Well, to the natural man, this looks very fair. But have we not an inspired epistle on this very subject? Did the Spirit of God not know that this would be the greatest danger that ever could assail the church of God? And on no subject is the apostle Paul so earnest and vehement.
If the reader would understand the danger of the Christian going back, or combining the principle of the ribbon of blue, though once instituted by God, with the gospel, let him most carefully study the Epistle to the Galatians. He will find that the very thing symbolized by the ribbon of blue, that is, righteousness by works of law, is the very leaven, that the Judaizing teachers wished to introduce, in order to neutralize the grace of Christ.
Now mark, deliverance from sins, according to the will of God, is through our Lord Jesus Christ, “who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father.” (Gal. 1:44Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:4).) This is all of grace, free favor. Well might the apostle marvel that they were so soon, and so easily, turned from the grace of Christ unto another gospel, “which was not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” If any man or angel did this, he was to be accursed.
He had not received his gospel from man, or by man, but from the Lord. False brethren had come in, seeking to bring them again into bondage. Nay, in this very matter he had had to withstand Peter to his face, because he was to be blamed. The gospel was endangered. Then the argument of the apostle is very striking; he says, “We who are Jews by nature”—the very people who wore the blue ribbon—“and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Thus the very wearers of the ribbon of blue had given up works of law for justification, that they might be justified by faith of Christ. Surely this exposed the folly of those who would persuade those justified by Christ to mix with Christ the principles of the ribbon of blue. Nay, the apostle says, If I do so, I make myself a transgressor. He says, “I am crucified with Christ.” Now a crucified person needs no blue ribbon as a sign that he is keeping the law. The old man who wore the blue ribbon no longer lives. It is now Christ: “but Christ liveth in me.” The life he now lives is not on the old principle at all, but entirely new. “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This is not on the principle of the old man, the old I keeping the law. How can it be, if a I am crucified? A dead man needs no ribbon of blue. To wear it again would be to frustrate the grace of God. I do not do that, Paul says.
But if I am saved by Christ, may I not adopt the blue, and so seek righteousness before God by keeping the commandments? “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” The foolish Galatians were forgetting that the law (or ribbon of blue) had not been set before them, but “Jesus Christ evidently set forth crucified among you.” Yes, it was by what He had done that they had received the Spirit of God. Think of their bodies being the temples of the Holy Ghost, and then so foolish as to seek perfection by works of law for that old man of the ribbon which had been crucified with Christ. We can only point out a few facts now, but hope to take up the epistle in a future article.
Abraham lived long before the law, and the institution of the ribbon of blue. He believed God, and it was counted to him for justification, or righteousness.
As many as are of the works of the law, the sign of which was the ribbon of blue, are under the curse (see Gal. 3:1010For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Galatians 3:10)), “for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Christ redeemed those who had been under the law. (Ver. 13.)
The promise to Abraham was confirmed in the Seed, which is Christ, four hundred and thirty years before the law, or the blue ribbon. The scripture hath concluded all under sin. (Ver. 22.) We are now saved, not by the law, but by redemption. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Chap. 4:5, 6.)
To return back to the beggarly elements was enough to make the apostle doubt whether they had ever been truly converted. (Chap. 4:9-11.)
Circumcision was one of the commandments under the institution of the ribbon of blue. “Behold I, Paul, say unto you, That if ye [the Galatians] be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing...... Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Thus man has been tried, and found guilty, and, according to the institution of the ribbon of blue, he cannot be saved. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (Jas. 2:1010For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10).) The whole Epistle to the Galatians is on this subject, as it was there especially that the false teachers sought to introduce the institution of the ribbon of blue, that is, righteousness by the law, and man in legal bondage to keep it.
In our next, we hope to examine the blessed contrast of the priesthood of Christ and the lace of blue. “Walk in the Spirit, and fulfill not the lust of the flesh.” C. S.