(Excerpt)
What Is
the Use of the Law?
This is
the question that the apostle Paul asks in verse 19,
Gal
3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? …
both for
the purpose of anticipating the objections of the Antinomians,
((Definition-
Antinomian- a Christian who believes that faith and divine grace bring about
salvation and that it is therefore not necessary to accept established moral
laws))
and also
that he may the more emphatically show the place of the law in the Gospel. The
question is a very natural one. Since the inheritance is wholly by promise, and
a covenant confirmed can not be changed,--nothing can be taken from it, and
nothing added to it,--why did the law come in four hundred and thirty years
afterward? "Wherefore then serveth the law?" More literally, Why then
the law? What business has it here? What part does it act? Of what use is
it?
The
Question Answered
"It
was added because of transgressions."
Gal
3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of
transgressions, …
Let it be understood that "the entering
of the law" at Sinai was not
the beginning of its existence. The law of God existed in the days of Abraham,
and was kept by him. Gen.26:5.
Gen
26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
God proved
the children of Israel, as to whether they would keep His law or not, more than
a month before the law was spoken upon Sinai. Ex.16:1-4,27,28.
Exo
16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of
the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim
and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out
of the land of Egypt.
Exo
16:2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
Exo
16:3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died
by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots,
and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this
wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Exo
16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that
I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
Exo
16:27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the
seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo
16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws?
"It
Was Added."
The word
here rendered "added" is the same as that rendered "spoken"
in Heb.12:19: "They that heard entreated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more."
From G4314
and G5087; to place additionally, that is, lay beside, annex, repeat: - add,
again, give more, increase, lay unto, proceed further, speak to any more.
Heb
12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice
they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more
It is the same word that occurs in the
Septuagint rendering of Deut.5:22, where we read that God spoke the ten
commandments with a great voice; "and He added no more." So we may
read the answer to the question, "Wherefore then the law?" thus:
"It was spoken because of transgressions." It is the reprover of
sin.
Deu
5:22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out
of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great
voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and
delivered them unto me.
Gal
3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of
transgressions, …
Because of
Transgressions
"Moreover
the law entered, that the offense might abound." Rom.5:20.
In other
words, "that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful."
Rom.7:13.
It was
given under circumstances of the most awful majesty, as a warning to the
children of Israel that by their unbelief they were in danger of losing the
promised inheritance.
They did
not, like Abraham, believe the Lord; and "whatsoever is not of faith is
sin."
Rom_14:23
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
But the inheritance was promised "through
the righteousness of faith," and, therefore, the unbelieving Jews could
not receive it. So the law was spoken to them, to convince them that they had
not the righteousness that was necessary for the possession of the inheritance;
for, although righteousness does not
come by the law, it must be witnessed by the law. Rom.3:21.
Rom
3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets
In short, the law was given to show them that
they had not faith, and so were not true children of Abraham, and were
therefore in a fair way to lose the inheritance. God would have put His law
into their hearts, even as He put it into Abraham's heart, if they had
believed; but when they disbelieved, yet still professed to be heirs of the
promise, it was necessary to show them in the most marked manner that their unbelief was sin. The law was
spoken because of transgression, or, what is the same thing, because of the unbelief of the people.
Self-Confidence
Is Sin
"Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by
his faith." Hab.2:4. The people of Israel were full of self-confidence and
of unbelief in God, as is shown by their murmuring against God's leading, and
by their assumption of ability to do anything that God required, or to fulfil
His promises. They had the same spirit as their descendants, who asked,
"What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" John 6:28.
Joh
6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the
works of God?
Joh
6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent.
They were
so ignorant of God's righteousness that they thought that they could establish
their own righteousness as an equivalent. Rom.10:3.
Rom
10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God.
Unless they saw their sin, they could not
avail themselves of the promise. Hence, the necessity of the speaking of the
law.
The Glad
Tidings
By E. J.
WAGGONER
(Excerpt- To be continued)
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