Answer to a Correspondent.

Mark 2
LACEBY. “Whilst reading the second chapter of Mark we noticed that the Lord preached the word in the synagogue. Would you please enlighten us as to what the word would be? We thought it would be the gospel of the grace of God, but had always understood that this was not preach-until after the Lord’s death and resurrection. Also, with reference to Romans 3:31,31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31) — in what way do we establish the law?
THE Word “is a term which signifies the message or testimony of God at any given time. When the Lord Jesus spoke in the synagogue, as recorded in Mark 2:2,2And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. (Mark 2:2) He did not, of course, proclaim the gospel as we preach it today, but He brought before the people that which was God’s message for that moment. At the beginning of His ministry, He picked up the threads of John the Baptist’s testimony (see Matthew 3:2, 4:17). But in the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5-7. He went far beyond anything that John had said. Later, as in Matthew 13, He began to announce very definitely “things new and old,” and the new things began to be more prominent than the old. Later still, in the upper chamber, as recorded in John 14-16, He dwelt exclusively on the new things that were before His disciples, preparing them for the advent of the Spirit, consequent upon His accomplishment of redemption. Then it was that “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:2424But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)) began to be preached.
There was thus a definite progression of teaching all through the time of the Gospels and well into the Acts. But it was all “the Word” in its season.
As to the expression in Romans 3:31,31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31) it must be taken strictly in its context. The Jewish opponent of the Gospel would argue that it could not be of God because it antagonized and overthrew the law given through Moses. He would say, “We know that God spake unto Moses, and if this Gospel overthrows Moses it cannot be of God.” But the coming in of the faith of the gospel confirms and establishes the law, inasmuch as it confirms and enforces its righteous sentence of condemnation upon the guilty, as verse 19 of the chapter had shown. The death of Jesus under the law’s curse was the most impressive establishment imaginable of the law’s righteousness and majesty, and the death of Jesus is one of the main themes of the Gospel.
The believer is, of course, not under law but under grace, as Romans 6:1414For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14) declares. That is another matter, and does not in the least clash with what is stated in Romans 3:3131Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31).