2171.—"Wherefore Then the Law?"
33%Pacific Press Publishing Association
FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 31.
Read the full edition2171.—"Wherefore Then the Law?"
serveth'' in your quotation of Gal. 3:19, question 1984, a misprint? What about the added law? First you admit a limit to it and then say `it will and must exist.''
C. W. W.Wherefore then the law?'' Literally that is all that is in the original. Serveth'' does not convey particularly a wrong idea perhaps, but it is not in the original. The American Standard Revised Version has, What then is the law?'' Wherefore the law, what is the object of the law? That is, What was God's object in having a law or giving a law originally? There must be a law in God's government, has been to all eternity, and will be to all eternity. But why was the law given in that form at Sinai? See parallel text in Rom. 5:20: `The law entered that the offense might abound.'' It was added, spoken, given, in the form that it was at Sinai, because of transgression, so that man by the commandment might see how exceeding sinful sin is. So evidently the law will be limited by the time in which sin exists. When there are no more sinners there will be nothing in the law to condemn, and that will be when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come, to whom the promise was made. The law is filling that office still, but when men truly turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, they find justice in that law, and Christ by His Spirit writes that same law in the heart of the individual conscience. It will be in the heart of God's children throout all eternity.