This "giving of the Law" is enumerated by the apostle among those indefeasible privileges of Israel which the faithfulness of God has secured to them. They, indeed, had failed in maintaining this, as well as every other privilege, because God would show in them that the flesh could keep nothing. But their failure has by no means invalidated the faithfulness of God; and when the vail is taken from off their hearts, and they are brought under the blessed ministry of the New Covenant, then God himself, of his own abounding grace, will make good to them every privilege which they, undertaking to maintain in their own strength, have lost.
A single glance at the passage must at once convince us that "the giving of the Law cannot possibly mean the ministry of death and condemnation under which they were brought at Mount Sinai. That was, properly speaking, their receiving the Law; as it is said, "who have received the Law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." It is true, that when the heart of Israel turns to the Lord, and they know forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus, then the Lord will write his Law on their hearts and put it in their minds. But this, again, is not "the giving of the Law"; -belonging to them in the same sense as the Adoption and the Promises belong to them. It is clear, therefore, that a privilege given of God's grace to Israel, and to be enjoyed by them, is here intended. The word only occurs in this place in the New Testament, and can only properly be translated "Legislation," or "Law-giving"; as it is in the Rhemish version, which follows the Vulgate, Legislatio. We find the kindred word in James 4:12, Nomothetes, -There is one Law-giver. It is then among Israel's prerogative blessings, to stand in relation to other nations as the only nation which ever had its Legislation directly from God himself; and thereby becomes the great pattern of Legislation to other nations. This is what the apostle asserts.
It pleased God once to own a Nation separated from all other nations as his own. Nationalism, as to Israel, was divine. The highest encomium which an Israelite could pass on a Gentile was "he loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue. " Religion and politics were so intimately blended, that the chiefest patriots were the most godly persons; -as Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. This was necessarily the case, since it had pleased God to become the Lawgiver of a nation. The civil, judicial, municipal, and social laws of Israel, were directly from God. "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads," -"Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head," had the same sanction as "Thou shalt not swear by my name falsely." "I AM THE LORD," was the sanction of the one as well as of the other (see Lev. 19). The most minute directions were given for the sale of land and of houses (Lev. 25). God stood in the relation of the Landlord to Israel -"The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine" There were no freeholders in Israel; all the land, as we should say, was leasehold; so that it became impossible for the land long to accumulate in few hands (Lev. 25).
One great principle pervaded God's Legislation for Israel, and that was, that everything should he immediately linked with himself. God is the only wise God; and this is shown now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church, as it will be hereafter to the world by Israel as a nation. This was Israel's responsibility, -to show that the nation ordered of God was the only wise and blessed nation. "Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who have God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him fur? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?" (Deut. 4:6-8). But Israel failed to exhibit this; and lost their distinguishing privilege by desiring to be governed as the nations round about them. They soon found the difference between the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and the arbitrary enactments of the king they had chosen (1 Sam. 8:10-17). None said of them, "Remember me, O Lord, with the favor of thy people: O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation" (Psa. 106:4, 5). Even in the days of Solomon it was the splendor of the court and wisdom of the sovereign, rather than the happiness of the nation, which drew forth the words "Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand before thee continually, and that hear thy wisdom." For Solomon grievously pressed the people for his own personal splendor (1 Kings 12:4). Israel has again rejected God as its king in rejecting Jesus, and saying, "we have no king but Caesar." The kingdom of God is taken from that generation to be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And never, until God's King is set on his holy hill of Zion, and God's nation established under Him, will the blessed fruits of the kingdom of God, in righteous Government in the earth, be made manifest. The Government shall be on his shoulder manifestly, as we know it by faith already to be. In him will he found the greater than Solomon; and yet the true Solomon, -the Prince of Peace; "of the increase of his government and peace there shall he no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever." The blessedness of the nation will flow immediately from the person of its King. He will not need any oppression to add to his royal state, for "He shall bear the glory." He brings the riches to the nation and receives them not from it: "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness." "A king shall reign in righteousness";" and "God shall give the King his judgments, and righteousness to the King's Son; and he shall judge the people with righteousness and the poor with judgment. In his days shall the righteous nourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth."
Israel will then be manifested as Jeshurun -the righteous nation; as it has been manifested as "the sinful nation." Its metropolis will be the city of Righteousness, the faithful city. And then Israel shall say to the nations round about them, "the glorious Lord is unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King:; he will save us" (Isa. 33:21, 22).
Israel, thus ordered under their once rejected but now acknowledged King, will be the pattern nation to all the nations round about it. It will not only stand as a kingdom of Priests, from whence alone the true knowledge of God is to be learned (for it is an irreversible principle that "Salvation is of the Jews"); but its present blessed order shall be so manifest, that it must be said, "happy are the people that are in such a case, yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God." And when the mountain of the Lord's house shall he established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, all nations shall flow into it, and many people shall go and say, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more"(Isa. 2:1, 2, 3).The laws by which the nations will be governed for their blessing will be the laws of God. "The Lord shall be King over all the earth; there shall be one Lord and his name one."
Jerusalem will be the city of the great King. And he will say, "Judah is my Law-giver." Law-giving and Salvation are alike of the Jews. The history of Joseph may show how Israel may furnish Legislation to the nations. "The king (Pharaoh) loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let hire go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his senators wisdom" (Psa. 115:2022; Gen. 47:13-26). While Israel continued to be the one nation of which God was the Law-giver and King, power and truth were united; but at the era of the Babylonish captivity the religious and civil elements were separated: power passed into the hands of the Gentiles, and truth remained with Israel. In the Lord Jesus Christ we sec these again united; "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"; He is the Truth; and Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. But as he was not owned, things remained as they had previously been. The Jews said, "it is not lawful for us to put any man to death," plainly showing that their political power was gone. And the Lord said, "salvation is of the Jews"; as plainly declaring, though they knew it not, that truth remained with them.
When power was separated from truth, by passing into the hands of the Gentiles, the Legislation of God did not pass with it. God gave power to Nebuchadnezzar, but made no Laws for him, or for his kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was his own Law-giver; even as it is said of the Gentiles, "their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves" (Hab. 1:7). Very varied have been the forms of their government, and multiplied their laws. There has never been a fixed principle of legislation. At one time the caprice of the monarch, at another the interests of a class, or again popular feeling, have given the tone to legislation. Human interests and human passions have worked together, or thwarted each other in attempting to meet evil or advance good by legislation. It is in the ceaseless course of Gentile legislation that we find the word of the Prophet realized; -"Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts, that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:13, 14). his will not be effected by the wisdom of the Gentile, but by the wisdom and power of God, after the former have had the freest scope to try what human wisdom could effect. What a simple principle, and yet how comprehensive, was that of Israel's legislation. "I Am THE LORD." "There is one Law-giver"; and His wisdom is the guarantee for the goodness of the laws. Israel will yet say, with respect to the Gentiles, we are thine; thou never barest rule over them, they "we are thine; thou never barest rule over them, they were not called by thy name" (Isa. 63:19). And as we know that "Salvation is of the Jews," so is it yet to be made manifest that Legislation for the well being, even of nations on the earth, is of them also. Of Jerusalem, the city of the great King, it is said, "the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish" (Isa. 60:12). Then shall the nations seek unto them for statutes and judgments, such as alone can secure national happiness.
As things actually are, the church has no legislative power. Its laws are already ordered and settled, either immediately by its Head, on whose shoulders its government rests, or by those to whom he gave the power of legislation, -the Apostles."That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior" (2 Peter 3:2). The church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. To legislate now would be to undermine the foundation.
The church has large executive power, -"Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). It may, indeed, deliberate as to the application of Christ's laws to a given case; but it cannot make a law to meet a particular case. The presence of the Holy Ghost in the church, acting through living persons, is the provision of the Lord for a right application of His own laws.
The church has judicial power, "Why do ye not judge them that are within?" {1 Cor. 5}. But it only is put in the place of a tribunal of appeal in the ease of private wrong between two individuals; and this after two antecedent steps, 1st, private remonstrance, 2nd, remonstrance in the presence of one or two witnesses; if the individual refuses to bow to them, then the church is to be appealed to. It may lay the matter before the Lord, and pray for the delinquent; but if this fails, the person must be treated as a heathen man and a publican.
Israel is not now governed by God as a nation. It does not now politically exist, and is therefore incapable of being judged by its own laws; or of answering the end of skewing forth that God's own laws for a nation are the only wise and good laws.
The Gentiles are actively engaged in legislating for themselves; and it is to be remarked, that of late years they have legislated for the so-called Church.
The question, therefore, is one of very solemn importance, as one of truth, -can a saint be in a right position as a Legislator?
All are agreed, the world as well as the church, that it is impossible to apply Christ's code (Matt. 5-7) to the ordering of the world. It will hardly be questioned that the fountain of legislation in Christendom is not the holiness of God, and that God's civil code to Israel would not apply to the institutions of the nations of Christendom. Grace does not, cannot, and was not intended to order the world; yet that is the blessed reign under which the saints are brought; "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." And the saint is responsible for manifesting grace before men. But what is the result? "Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord" (Isa. 26:10).This it is which perplexes the mind of the saint. He sees men despising the riches of God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, and iniquity abounding in consequence. He sees much, very much wrong, which he thinks might be remedied by better legislation. He is made to stand much in the place of Habakkuk the arguing prophet: "Why dust thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievances? Therefore the law is slacked, judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked sloth compass the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth" (Hab. 1:3, 4). All that the prophet was made to see was the progress of iniquity, and that there was no remedy till the vision came. And in the midst of everything, to remedy which we might be tempted to use our political influence, the word is "the just shall live by faith." "Ye have need of patience; for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry." Our place is still to suffer on, to endure unto the end; not to try to remedy the evil, in our own way, but to hold fast our confession until the appearing of Jesus. God's remedy for the evil is, "a King shall reign in righteousness." Everything is now settling into its own principles. May the Saint have grace to assert his "Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," in the midst of trial and suffering here; but glory in the prospect -"If so be we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." "I we suffer, we shall also reign with him."
Is not a Christian, therefore, out of his place, when acting as a Legislator? Out of his place of confession unto Christ, -as well as to the hope of glory at the appearing of Christ?