There is sufficient fairness in the statement of Mr. Marshall, in rejecting the greater part of the stupid charges in the paper he quotes, to make it easy as well as pleasant to deal calmly with his objections on other heads of doctrine. Though on one head Mr. Marshall is roused, in general he quietly discusses the merits of the case before him. I cannot be surprised that a Wesleyan Methodist should hold Wesleyan doctrine, though I may not agree with him, and I can assure Mr. Marshall (that though he mistakes the “Brethren's” doctrine in some points, and I think, of course, there is ignorance of scripture truth on others, yet, seeing the spirit in which “Brethren” are generally assailed) I have to thank him for that in which he has spoken rather than to complain of it. The best return I can make, assuring him at the same time of my sincerity in thus recognizing the tone of his pamphlet, and my desire to reciprocate it, is to state what I, at least, hold on the questioned points, and to inquire whether the views he objects to, so far as they are justly stated, are supported by scripture. I shall only take up the really important questions. They are four: “The moral law is not the rule of Christian life:” secondly, “The doctrine of imputed righteousness;” thirdly, “Abraham has no place in the church, nor could any saint have till the Holy Ghost came after the ascension;” fourthly, “Sanctification,” which is treated by Mr. Marshall in his remarks on imputed righteousness. There are other collateral points, as ordination to ministry, praying for the Holy Ghost, the sabbath, which I may touch on: the latter will come naturally under the head of law, and our deliverance from it.
Our subjection to the law is a capital point. But the whole principle on which scripture places the question is unknown to the writer of the pamphlet; namely, that the law has power over a man as long as he lives, but that we have died in Christ, and are not looked at as being in the flesh at all—not in the first Adam, but in the last.
Let Mr. Marshall allow me first to quote what scripture says as to the law, and our relationship to it. And first in Romans, in which epistle, and in that to the Galatians, the apostle has chiefly discussed the subject. I cannot but think that what he says must give subject for thought to those who insist on law. Many passages are much stronger in the original through the omission of the definite article inserted in English. Thus, “But now the righteousness of God apart from law,” that is, on wholly another ground, so that the question of moral and ceremonial law cannot be raised. It is apart from law in every shape and form. So in many other cases. But I shall take the ordinary English translation; enough will be found there to make all clear. Further, I am quite aware that it is alleged that they do not look to be justified by law, but only to be under it as a rule of life. Let the reader only pay attention to what the word of God says, and all will be clear as to this too. I will speak of it, moreover, farther on. I desire that scripture may be before the mind of Christians: so I will quote it. I can add any comments afterward.
Verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
I shall consider verse 31 hereafter.
Chapter 4:18, 14. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Chapter 5:20. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.
Chapter 6:14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Chapter 7:4. Therefore, my brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, having died in that in which we were held.
Chapter 7:8. For without the law sin was dead; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Verse 18. Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
Chapter 10:4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Verse 9. The ministration of condemnation.
Gal. 2:1919For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:19). For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Chapter 3:2, 3. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Verse 12. The law is not of faith.
Verse 28. For before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should after be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Chapter 4:3-5. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law.
Verse 9. But now after ye have known God.... how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements to which ye desire to be in bondage?
Verse 30. Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Chapter 5:1-4. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law ye are fallen from grace.
Verse 18. But if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Eph. 2:14-1614For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: (Ephesians 2:14‑16). For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
Other passages might be referred to, as Phil. 3, Col. 2, but I pass them over as long general statements, though most important ones as to the doctrine as a whole. I quote only further 1 Tim. 1:7-97Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. 8But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (1 Timothy 1:7‑9). Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.
Heb. 7:1818For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. (Hebrews 7:18). For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, for the law made nothing perfect.
Chapter 10:1. The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.
Verse 9. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.
Heb. 13:1818Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. (Hebrews 13:18). In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old; now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Now I ask if all these texts do not present the law as a system, and a principle of dealing which, as to the Christian, has been set aside to introduce another; if they do not give ground for reflection to serious men, whether (when we find, not a scarce text, or a forced construction, but a careful, elaborate discussion of the law, sheaving that we are delivered from it), there is not something as to the setting aside of law, which they have not given its full just force to.
The apostle insists that we are delivered from the law—dead to it, that we may live to God. What does this mean? He insists that it made nothing perfect, that we were kept under it till faith came; that as many as are of the works of it (not bad works, mind) are under the curse; that if righteousness come by it, Christ is dead in vain. I might cite many such.
It is evident that there is a system called law, from which there is deliverance, and which the Christian has done with, by passing into another.
Now I am not ignorant, of course, that people say the ceremonial law of Moses is passed away, but not the moral law. But this is a fallacy. Not that there is no difference: for there is. But the statement is a fallacy. Scripture shows that the law system has passed away as a whole. A vast portion of the types and figures has no doubt been fulfilled, but all have not, and these last will be fulfilled. As a system, it is admitted by all, they have passed entirely away. This is insisted on in Galatians especially. In Hebrews, though there be more contrast than comparison, the corresponding antitypes are insisted on. The rites of the law were the shadow, not the image. A veil, which showed men could not go in, is not the very image of a veil, through which, as a new and living way, we enter with boldness into the holiest. A sacrifice which puts away one sin, or a year's sin, so far as present relation with the tabernacle went, is not the very image of one, by which Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. But remark, it is not as local, immaterial, things they were established. Christ has fulfilled them. They were all in the reality meant by them as important as the moral law, nay, more important to us. Still they were only figures and ceremonies, powerless in themselves.
But the moral law, holy, just, and good as it was, was powerless, save to curse. It could not give life. Had there been a law given which could have given life, righteousness should have been by the law. But neither life nor righteousness could be attained by it. What was given for life as soon as a man knew himself, was found to be unto death. It worked wrath. However, as a general idea, though some types may not yet be fulfilled, as the feast of tabernacles, and others, all admit that as a ceremonial system it is passed away for Christians.
But, further, although there be confusion of mind, and men really seek righteousness by the law, that is, by works, yet it is in terms generally admitted that the statements of the apostle set the law aside as a means of justification. His statements are too plain for a person who respects the word of God to contravene thorn. “If righteousness came by law, then Christ is dead in vain,” “That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident,” and many other such, are too plain to resist. We read, “Christ is become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” (Gal. 5:44Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:4).)
But they say, we take it as a rule of life: sanctification is as necessary as justification. Now that without holiness no man shall see the Lord is clearly written, and is assuredly true. I should have a great deal to say to this connected with a new life, Christ being our life; but at present I confine myself to our immediate subject. The question is, Is the law the means of living rightly? Will a man under the law be victorious over sin? It is not whether a man must be holy: no real Christian denies it. Now many of the statements of the apostle, and many of the strongest, which declare we are not under law, or that the law is not the means to live to God, apply, not to justification, but to freedom from the dominion of sin—that under the law we cannot be set free from it, but that deliverance from the law is the way of bringing forth fruit to God. I shall quote some passages. The true means of deliverance I shall speak of at the close.
Rom. 6 treats entirely of living to God, not of justification. “The law,” we read, “entered that the offense might abound.” (Chap. 5:20) Chapter 6:14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Chapter 7:4: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Verse 8: “For without the law sin was dead (ver. 9), but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” In 1 Cor. 15:5656The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56), “The strength of sin is the law.” Now here, especially in the passages cited from Romans, the question is not justification, but dominion of sin over us, or ours over sin. The apostle takes pains to say all he can for the law; it is not the cause of sin; the cause concupiscence, but while under law concupiscence has dominion over us, nay, the motions of sin are by the law. Such is the positive testimony of the apostle. Although it would be quite false to say the law is the cause of sin, yet sin has dominion wherever a man is under it. Being delivered from the law, is necessary to bringing forth fruit to God. Such deliverance is as needed for this as for justification. The strength of sin is the law. It is, even if grace be there, the ministration of death and condemnation.
There are two passages of Galatians which I have omitted, as long reasonings, not short statements, to which I will now briefly refer. In Gal. 2:14-1914But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 15We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16Knowing 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. 17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:14‑19) the apostle rebukes Peter for turning to legal obligations after giving them up. And note here how he takes the law as a whole, for Peter's conduct referred to ritual exactitude. Paul takes it up as a whole, for while I quite admit the difference of the “ton words,” or moral law; yet, as all given together by God's authority, it was all looked at as one whole, based on one principle, man's satisfying God by fulfilling the obligations he was under, as contrasted with grace saving him when he had not, and God's righteousness. Well, Peter had given up the law to be justified by Christ, and now returned to it, after having Christ. Why, then, did he leave it to get justification? In building again that which he had destroyed, he made himself a transgressor in putting it down. Who had made him do it? Christ. Then Christ was the minister of sin, for He had made Peter do what his present conduct, if it was right, showed to be a transgression. That is, taking up the law after coming to Christ is making Christ the minister of sin.
The apostle's reasoning in Gal. 3:16-2216Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 18For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. 21Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. 22But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. (Galatians 3:16‑22) is this. God gave the promise to Abraham, and confirmed it to his seed—which was really Christ—480 years before the law. Now a confirmed covenant, if it be only man's, cannot be disannulled, nor can it be added to, that is, you cannot add the law to the promise. That was complete in itself, and confirmed before the law existed. To bring in the law was to alter and add to the terms of it, and could not be. How could the law then come in? It was added for the sake of transgressions (τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν) to produce them—not to produce sin. God does nothing to produce sin. The sin was there; but till the law came it could not be a transgression; for, where no law is, there is none. It is the same sense as in Romans; the law entered (the Greek reads, παρειςῆλθεν,” came in by the bye,” that the offense might abound) till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.
I have added these passages for my reader's sake, as additionally clearing up the point; but the passages I have quoted prove that the law is not the means of living to God, any more than of justification. On the contrary, if we are under law, sin will have dominion over us, and that we must be delivered from it, in order to bring forth fruit to God. Scripture is distinct and positive as to this. The law is a distinct system and definite principle, under which Christians are not living. People have confounded law with various things and obligations enforced in the law. The truth is, the duties were all there before law was given. Law gives a divine measure of these obligations in contrast with evil, and enforces the obligations by an authority outside ourselves, involving, as it is given, a curse if they are not fulfilled. The law is the perfect rule for a child of Adam, but supposes sin and lust, and forbids them; but it does not take them away, nor give a new life. It takes up our relationship to God and our neighbor, and insists on consistency with them. It is a transcript, not of God's character, as is absurdly said, but of man's duties. I say “absurdly;” for could God love His neighbor as Himself? Or Himself with all His heart, as a duty? Away with such folly, Further, the ten commandments suppose sin, and, unless one, forbid it.
It is equally absurd (and I speak for others than Mr. Marshall now) to apply the commandments to Adam. How could he honor his father and mother? How could he steal, or know what it meant? He did not know what lust was till after he was tempted. Adam had a law; but it did not suppose sin in him, but forbad what would have been no sin at all, if it had not been forbidden, and was thus a simple test of obedience, and no more; and we can see the perfect wisdom of God in this. The law formally given on Mount Sinai (for the law was given by Moses) supposes sin (for sin was there) and forbids it, and maintains the relationship in which man stood to God and to man, and of course was all perfectly right in doing so. But did it deliver man from the power of sin and lust? This is at least one important part of the question, that is, where it is a rule; and we have seen the apostle stating that it did not, but left man under it, yea, was an occasion for lust to act. But more, man must be delivered from it to bring forth fruit to God, To have godliness man must be delivered from law. But I add, for what is it a rule? Is it a perfect, adequate rule? For a child of Adam it is: he is to love God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself, and not to lust. Only note, law forbids what is in man, without giving life or force, and, because it is a right rule, condemns and works wrath, and this is law, and this alone, and all that law is.
A law is obligation enforced by an authority outside us, requiring from us whatever the rule expresses, and in God's law, that there should not even be a lust, but is addressed to those who have lusts, who are alive in the flesh. Its requisition is right, but for that reason it condemns us to death, and, because man is not what it requires, it is found to be death. But in its contents it is a perfect measure or rule for man in the flesh. But it is not for those who are in Christ.
For him who is a son of God the rule is, “Be ye therefore followers [imitators] of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ has loved us, and gave himself for us, a sacrifice and all offering to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” “Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” It is not reciprocated kindness, of which love to self is the measure, but a giving up self, as Christ did, in love. It is good in the midst of evil, which is what Christ was, grace as displayed in Him, doing well, suffering for it, and taking it patiently, as He did. It is forgiving, laying down our lives in the prerogative of divine love, which is our rule, and walking (being light in the Lord) as He walked, apart from the world, an epistle of Christ to it; and love and light are the two essential names of God, and Christ was the perfect expression of it as man here.
Of all this the law knows nothing. It does know what a child of Adam ought to be for God, and that it requires evidently just what it should do. Of what God is for him it knows nothing, and of what a child of God ought to be, and a dear child as walking in the love he has learned, and which is shed abroad in his heart, it can tell him nothing. The law is God requiring from man what man ought to be, but which he is not; the gospel is God saving him in sovereign love, and, giving him eternal life in the Son, sending him to show forth this life and the character of Christ, that is, of God manifested in a man, in a world that knows him not. The law requires righteousness from a man alive in the flesh, and that flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God; and if it is said, “But Christianity takes him out of the flesh,” I answer, It does, but at the same time gives him a much higher rule; he is to walk in the Spirit as he lives in the Spirit. The Christian, having Christ for his life, is to manifest the life of Christ in his mortal flesh.
And now a word as to the manner of this. The law did not give life, and could not; it required righteousness from man such as he was. In Christ we have not only our sins wholly put away, which the law could not do, but only curse us for them if under it, but he becomes a new life, but a life as now risen from the dead, but Christ, who is our life, has been crucified, and God looks upon those who believe as crucified with Him, and so does faith. Ye are dead, says the word. (Col. 3:88But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (Colossians 3:8).) I am crucified with Christ, says faith; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. It reckons itself dead to sin, and alive to God, not in Adam, but in Jesus Christ our Lord. In a word, as Christ died to the whole scene into which He had come, died unto sin once, so the Christian, crucified with Him, belongs to the place Christ is entered into, the new creation, in Christ his life, and has died to the flesh, and sin, and the world. He is not before God in flesh at all, he knows this, that his old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Now the law has power over a man as long as he lives, but we have died in Christ and are not in the flesh.
Hence we read, when we were in the flesh the motions of sin, which were by the law. But when we know our death with Christ, and that sin in the flesh was condemned on the cross, the law having been unable to accomplish any such object, and have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then we read, “ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you: now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His, and if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness. That is, practical righteousness is attained, not by a law which was weak through the flesh, applied to that flesh, which was not subject to the law of God, neither indeed could be, and withal cursed the disobedient. But by the gift of a new life, that is, Christ risen, and the power of the Spirit of God, and by being dead to sin, as crucified with Christ, and dead to the law by the body of Christ. Sin in the flesh was condemned in the sacrifice of Christ, but we are dead therein to it, and alive in the power of a new life. The flesh, the law, and the world are gone together for faith through the cross of Christ. (See Rom. 6:6, 7:4; Gal. 2:19, 20, 3:13, 5:24)
If we walk in the Spirit, we produce fruits against which there is no law; if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we fulfill the law. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. They only fulfill the law who are not under it, and have nothing to say to it, but who walk after the Spirit, which they have received through Christ. The law deals with flesh, which is not, and cannot be, subject to it; and hence, righteousness never can be attained. The Christian is dead to sin, having died with Christ on the cross, and does not belong to the scene to which the law applied, is not in the flesh, and is dead to the law, and lives in the Spirit, Christ risen from the dead having become his life. The flesh is the life of the sinful Adam, and law belongs to it. We have died to both in the cross of Christ, and are married to another, that we may bring forth fruit unto God.
The great truth is this—we have died on the cross to our whole standing in Adam, and to the law that was the rule for it, and are risen with Christ into the new creation in Him, alive from the dead to give ourselves to God. We have the treasure in earthen vessels, but our place before God is that—in Christ, and Christ in us. We have died from under the law, but therein died to sin, and are alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. We are in a wholly new position, and though the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in one whose life Christ is, it is because he walks after the Spirit, and does not put himself under law. He cannot (Rom. 7) have two husbands at a time, Christ and the law. Remark here, I am speaking, as the passages I refer to are, of practical righteousness, a godly life; but if we are under the law for that, the law also curses us. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; and if the curse is not executed, the authority of the law is gone. If we are under law, we are under a curse, or its authority destroyed. If Christ has borne the curse, we have died with Him out of the position in which the law reached us. By the law we are dead to law, that we might live to God, crucified with Christ, yet living, but not we, but Christ living in us. He will not live wrongly. I do not enter here into failure, or Christ's blessed advocacy if we do fail, but only bring out the principles of the life in which we do live to God.
Let me take another view of the subject which is afforded us in scripture. From the fall to the flood, though individuals were blessed and testimony was there, there were no special dealings of God. The promise had been given to the Seed of the woman in the judgment of the serpent; for there is no promise to fallen man, though the object of faith is thus held up before him; but man went on in wickedness till God had to bring in the flood, to cleanse, as it were, the earth from the pollution. But after the flood, having instituted the restraint of government in Noah, the world having fallen into idolatry, and nations having been formed, God calls out Abraham to be a root of promise for Himself. Abraham is the head of a seed of blessing, as fallen Adam of a seed of sinful men. I leave aside Israel, the natural seed here, to speak of Christ and the nations. In Gen. 12 the promise of all nations being blessed in Abraham is given, and confirmed to the Seed in chapter 22. This was sovereign grace, and no condition was attached to it. The Seed was to come, the nations to be blessed in the Seed. This raised no question of righteousness, there was no “if,” no condition. But the question of righteousness was of all importance; it was raised at Sinai. If they obeyed His voice, they should be His peculiar treasure, and they undertook to do all Jehovah should say, and made the golden calf before Moses was down from the Mount with the two tables. The question was raised by requiring righteousness from man, and this was the law. Man has been tested on this ground, and found wholly wanting.
I add some details. The law simply by itself never even reached man as a covenant of works, the tables never entered into the camp; the golden calf was there. They were broken at the foot of the mount. Moses interceded, and the people were for the occasion, as to God's dealings, forgiven. But Moses could not make atonement, and with the revelation of goodness the people were put back under law. “The soul that sinneth I will blot out of my book.” But God makes all His goodness pass before Moses. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed the Lord— “the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting,” &c. Now here we have provisional grace. They are the terms of God's government of Israel; but in fact grace—which spares and forgives past sin, but no atonement effectual, final, and conclusive, perfecting forever them that are sanctified, was made, as indeed there was no one there to make it. They were consequently replaced under legal obligation, and the man that sinned was to be blotted out of God's book. It was grace and forgiveness, and law after.
It was when Moses went down after this interview (Ex. 34:29, 3029And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. (Exodus 34:29‑30)) that his face shone. It is this law after grace and provisional forgiveness that is declared to be the ministration of death and the ministration of condemnation (2 Corinthians in contrast with the gospel, which is the ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit. And now see how the apostle reasons on the whole matter. The promise, given to Abraham, and confirmed to the one Seed (Christ), could not be set aside nor added to by a transaction 480 years after. God had thus bound Himself; but the law came in by the bye till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, that is, Christ. Then its function ceased; and consequent on Christ's work, all being sinners, the law broken, and Christ rejected (the last means by which God could seek for fruit from man), the attempt only proving that man hated both Christ and His Father, that the mind of the flesh was enmity against God—then God's righteousness is revealed without law (the Greek reads “apart from law"), the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. Man's probation as to the history of it, on the ground of getting geed by any means from him, was over.
Now, says Christ, is the judgment of this world. Hence it was that Christ cursed the fig-tree never to bear fruit. Hence it is that it is said now once in the end of the world [the consummation of ages] He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. When I say the probation is over, it is not that man is not yet dealt with as to receiving the gospel. Of course he is; but what can be made of man in the flesh has been tried; and it is not now the question whether he can succeed in making out righteousness for the day of judgment, but, receiving the truth, find out that he is already lost, and righteousness and salvation and indeed glory his as believing in Christ. As a person under probation he knows he is a lost sinner, and finds a new life, a perfect salvation, and divine righteousness in Christ. Now all this clearly shows the place of the law between the promise and the coming of the Seed to whom the promise was made, and how we are created again in Christ Jesus unto good works. It is no longer the law requiring human righteousness from flesh to prove what it is, but a new creature, and the power of the Spirit, leading us it the path in which Christ walked. We are sons, and to walk as God's dear children, to put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies—the whole character and walk of Christ.