2527.—The End of the Law.
Will you please explain Gal. 3:19, as some quote this to show that is the end of the law, as the Seed spoken of has come. The verse reads in the American Revised Version: "What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained thru angels by the hand of a Mediator." The thought is, what then is the law in connection with the promise? with the covenant? What is its purpose? In our Common Version: "Wherefore then serveth the law?" What is its purpose? Rotherham renders "Why then the law?" In other words, What did God come down upon Mount Sinai for and write it on tables of stone if we are not to obtain salvation by it? And yet the apostle's argument is that salvation does not come in that way. We are justified by faith, and only by faith. "The just shall live by faith." The law here mentioned is the law which points out sin. It was added because of transgressions; or as expressed in Rom. 5:20: "Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound." In Rom. 7:13: "That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." But does it mean that the law was just then given?—Not at all. The term is used in the sense of being spoken, given to them in a written form. Man's heart had become so unresponsive to the law which God in the beginning wrote in the moral nature of man, so unresponsive to His Spirit and conscience, that it was necessary that the law should be engraved upon stone and spoken by God's voice from heaven in order that men might not question its immutable precepts; therefore, God gave it from Mount Sinai; and when the Ten Precepts were spoken, it is distinctly said, "And He added no more." Deut. 5:22. That this term "added" is used in the sense of "spoken," is shown in Heb. 12:19 where the same Greek word prostithemi is used, that "the word should not be spoken to them any more." That clearly has reference to the Ten Commandment Law. One of the definitions given in Berry's Lexicon is "spoke again." That law was given to point out sin, as before remarked. It was not to show the sinner that he was just; it was not to mock him by saying, If you will only keep this and be righteous you will be saved; it was to show him that he was such a fearful transgressor that there was no salvation in himself at all, and that the only means by which he could be saved was to come to God, who would justify. That justification is proved to be the true and only justification of the law's witnessing to-day. Thru that same faith God writes that same law upon the heart, so that the child of faith delights in obedience to God's law. Now how long shall the law fill that office? how long shall it point out transgression? The answer is, "Till the Seed should come, to whom the promises were made." Who is the Seed?—Christ. "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ." Gal. 3:16. That Seed has not yet come. The Seed came in a partial sense when the Lord Jesus gave Himself to die in behalf of humanity, but He did not come then to reap the promises, or inherit the promises. Promises to Abraham include the heritage of the earth (Rom. 4:13), but not until Christ comes the second time does he take possession of the inheritance promised, and therefore, until Christ the Lord shall come the second time, the law still serves its purpose of condemning all who transgress it, and of leading to Christ as the only justifier of that law those who have sinned against God. See Eze. 21:25. There is no stronger text in the New Testament which shows the perfection of the law of God. When the Lord shall come, it will no longer be used as a monitor to point out sin; because of God's children from that time forward it shall be said, "Thy people are all righteous," and that law is written in the heart of every one.