OUR SCHOOLMASTER by T. H. Starbuck

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 13.

OUR SCHOOLMASTER.

By T. H. Starbuck

(Concluded from last week.)*

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Gal. 3:23-25.

That Paul in this text under consideration reasons concerning the moral law, is scriptural; for the law of which he speaks is established by faith. It holds the sinner in prison on account of his transgressions, which could be done by no law except that which had been transgressed. It reveals Christ to the sinner, and by faith in Him he is justified. Justification means that sins are forgiven; and as no sin stands against the sinner, the law ceases to condemn him; and that he may not again fall under condemnation, he is made a doer of the law. This process establishes the claims of the law. “Do we then make void the law thru faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31. Tho the law can not justify, Paul gives it its legitimate office in turning men from sin to God.

The schoolmaster of verse 24 and the added law of verse 19 are the same. The original word rendered added means put forth. The added law defines sin; for, logically, a law put forth because of transgressions could be no other than that which reveals sin in its true light. Compare with verse 19 John 15:22; Rom. 5:20; 7:7. Christ spoke from Sinai as well as in His incarnation. In verse 19 and Rom. 5:20 we have parallel expressions. “The law entered that the offense might abound.” “It was added because of transgressions.” It is the moral law that makes sin appear in all its hideous deformity, just as a light brought into a dark room would reveal the objects which before were invisible for want of light. The transgression of the law is sin, and the entering, or adding, of the law made sin to abound, or appear what it really is. The promulgation of the added law is temporal, limited by the coming of the “Seed,” which embraces all the comings necessary to the inheritance of the promise. Christ became the “Seed” at His first advent, and can never cease to be such. If He does, He can not inherit the promise; for it was made to the “Seed.” At His first advent He was the Seed incarnate; at His second coming He will be the same Seed glorified.

There is no way by which the coming of verse 19 can be confined to the first advent. Of necessity it includes both comings. To exclude the second advent would be to stop short of the full fruition of the promise and the complete confirmation of the fact that He is the Seed. In God’s plan for the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, two comings of the Seed are necessary. The law also is of such a nature that one part of it relates to His first coming; and its promulgation was then to cease, for its specifications were met in Christ, and to worship any longer according to its forms would be a rejection of Him. But the other part of the law was not affected by the first advent, or did not relate to it, and is to be promulgated till the second coming, or the end of probation. This thought of the law is advanced in Matt. 5:17-19. Not a jot or a tittle of it could pass till all be fulfilled. Christ fulfilled every particular of the whole law in His incarnation. In fulfilling the ceremonial, its efficiency, so far as our obedience to it is concerned, ceased by limitation. In fulfilling the moral in the life which He lived, the law itself was not affected, but an example of a perfect life was set before the world, which men could safely follow. If the law was added because of transgressions, logically it cannot cease to be added until transgressions cease; but that reaches to the second advent. In the world to come, where no sin will exist, it will not be taught. In the complete fulfilment of the terms of the new covenant there is to come a time when the teaching of the law will cease,—a perfect state in which the principles of the law will be fixed in every heart, and in which the law can not exist in a form adapted to beings in an imperfect state, as we now have it.

The Word tells us that the law is perfect. God uses it as an instrument in conversion. It is to be the final standard in the Judgment. James 2:12. It must be, then, that the principles of the law, carried out practically, lead to all perfection. Satan, in his rebellion, had despised the law, and questioned its justice and mercy. But in the plan of salvation Christ undoes the work of Satan. He magnifies the law and makes it honorable. In reconciling sinners to God, He has magnified it both in His teachings and in His life. In Him the law is seen drawn out in living characters. The gospel is the perfection of the law exemplified to the world. All the law in the plan of salvation, except the moral, shines with a borrowed light; consequently whatever is predicated of the law in general must be predicated of the moral in particular. The light of the moon comes really from the sun; and so it was with the ceremonial system; it shone with a light borrowed from the moral law.

It has been said that the moral law points to no remedy for sin, gives no information in regard to Christ, or any means of escaping its condemnation. But this statement needs modifying. If we adhere to the plain statement of the Word, we shall learn that it can not justify, or impart to the sinner what he needs, but it does lead to One who can; which shows that the mercy of God’s character is inherent in His law. That there is anything inherent in it that leads to Christ is questioned by some critical minds; but all will admit that Satan has endeavored to darken the minds of God’s creatures concerning the law, and Christ’s work has been to remove that reproach, and show that the law is perfect. A part of His mission to earth was to magnify the law and make it honorable. If He had not done this, the law could not have been made to shine out in all its perfection as it now does. When the dark shadows of sin are removed from the heart, men will see infinite beauties in the law of God. Sin makes it impossible for us to see all its perfection now. The world is indebted to the divine principles of the law for salvation. Its love, exercised toward the erring, led Christ to the cross of Calvary to save the lost. If the law has no mercy in it, and does not lead to the salvation of repentant sinners, then there is a phase of God’s character which is not shown in the law, and it is imperfect, because it does not reveal the whole character of its Author. But the Bible refutes this idea; for it says that the law brings us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Salvation is not in the law, but it is in the principles of the law as carried out by its Author. As magnified thru the plan of salvation, the fact is revealed that it is a perfect law for the government of sinless beings in heaven, and that it has inherent within it principles which cause it to triumph over rebellion and bear the strain of any emergency.

But hear what the Scripture says: “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. “God so loved [fulfilled the law toward] the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. God fulfilled His own law in the gift of His Son to the world. We are required to forgive our fellow-men when they repent; and if this is not done freely, we are not doers of the law. Then the principles of the law require forgiveness when the transgressor repents of his sin. God forgives, and we call this attribute of His character mercy. If the law is a transcript of God’s character, then mercy must be inherent in the law. But this very thought is found in the second commandment: “Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.” This language is addressed to obedient men on earth, and not to angels in heaven; for the law is in a form adapted to our condition in this imperfect state. God is merciful in strict harmony with His law. See Ex. 34:5-7.

But the question may be asked, How does the law bring to Christ? 1. It reveals to men the perfect life of its Author, and thus places before them a perfect standard to be attained. 2. It names its own Author, and shows the extent of His jurisdiction. 3. It reveals Him to be merciful to those who are inclined to obedience. 4. Hence it shows Him to be the Author of the law, and the only source of authority to which to appeal for mercy; and so it does not leave the

repentant sinner wholly in despair. But who is the Author of the law? From Col. 1:16 and Heb. 1:3 we learn that Christ created all things, and upholds them by the word of His power. From Exodus 20 we learn that the same Being who created all things spoke the law from Sinai. If Christ made all things, then He created man, and is the Author of man’s moral nature; and that makes Him Author of the law which governs that nature. This does not prove that it is not the Father’s law; for if He created all things by Jesus Christ, the law is His also. The oneness of the Father and Son could not exist if this is not true. These reasons are sufficient to show that the law brings to Christ in every essential sense; and that it constrains its Author to make provision to save the penitent transgressor.

As sin originated in an attempt to overthrow the moral government of heaven, in dealing with it that course would have to be taken which would cause the principles of the law to appear in their true light to the minds of all intelligent beings. The final results of the plan of redemption will reveal to the universe that the law is not only right in its principles, but that it manifests every phase of God’s character. It can not be shown that the offer of mercy thru Jesus Christ sprang from principles not contained in the law; for if it could, it would appear that there are elements in the character of God which are not manifested in His law, and that would prove the law to be imperfect and the Bible unreliable. The law itself attests the Lawgiver to be merciful. That He would in some way send help to the penitent could not reasonably be doubted. But the form in which that help would be rendered, the moral law does not reveal. That would have to be left to the wisdom of the Lawgiver. As the law is holy, and its Author is holy, the principles of whatever plan of salvation He devised would necessarily have to be consonant with the principles of the law.

In the plan which infinite wisdom devised, a Saviour was promised, to appear at a future time. Forms of worship were introduced of a nature to show the worshiper’s faith in this promise. This constituted what is known as the ceremonial law. From the very first this was promulgated in connection with the moral law; not so much to show that a Saviour would come, as to show the manner of His coming and the nature of His work.

When the law was systematized under Moses, Christ was the leader of His people. He, being Creator of all things, and the One in whom God was reconciling the world unto Himself, was the properly constituted Lawgiver. In giving the law thru Moses, He formulated it in such a way as to point to Himself as the only source of justification from sin. He was building in the light of infinite wisdom, not for an age and a single nation, but for the ages and all nations. Consequently Paul could tell the Galatians that the law was their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. But people from all nations are to be brought to Christ, and it can be done only by the means which God has provided for that purpose. The law is the appointed means; hence we can say at the present time that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It would not be teaching the whole counsel of God to say that Paul meant the ceremonial law only. It will be absolutely safe for us to leave it just as Paul does, and say “the law,” without any qualifying terms either in the text or context; for it—both moral and ceremonial—brings to Christ, and that was the original design in its promulgation.

In this age men are not to worship God by the forms of the ceremonial law; but there was light in it for those who were to worship by its precepts, and there is light in it for us. It spoke to them with all the force of an unfulfilled prophecy, and it speaks to us with the greater force of a fulfilled prophecy. Tho it shines with a light borrowed from the moral, it is as beneficent for us as it was for them; and we should accept it as a part of the system which God has devised to bring sinners to Christ for justification from sin. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” The Word of God is living and powerful; for the Spirit gives it life and power. The law could not have less of this life and power than other portions of the Word. If there is life and power in it, then it can do what Paul predicates of it; and if sinners now will let it have free course in their hearts, they will find by experience that it will bring them to Christ to be justified by faith.

Walla Walla, Wash. T. H. STARBUCK.