Has the Moral Law Been Abolished?
THERE are many who hold that all law existing in the former dispensation has been abolished and superseded by the gospel. They go to the writings of the apostle Paul for something to justify their bold and blasphemous position, of whose writings Peter has affirmed that some wrest them, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Paul himself was aware, it seems, that the same class who say in their hearts, "There is no God," Ps. xiv, would try to prove from his teachings, concerning justification through faith, that, under the gospel there is no law. Therefore he raises the question in order to give it a decided answer, and put the matter forever at rest, with all that will acknowledge his word as authority. Said he, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii, 31. The Greek word which is here rendered "make void" is the same which is rendered "abolish" in 2 Cor. iii, that passage which is resorted to to prove that that which was written and engraved on stones was abolished. The question then is simply this: Does the faith of the gospel abolish the law? If opponents would heed his decided negative to this question, they would cease to contend for the affirmative, and no longer try to make Paul contradict himself. R. F. C.